Minimally-Invasive Sinus Surgery

Posted on07. Jul, 2011 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

.When Surgery to Treat Sinusitis is Needed. Part 2 When considering surgery for a child with chronic sinusitis … When all else fails … Last week I reviewed the first step in surgery to treat your child’s chronic sinusitis – adenoidectomy. We also talked about sinus centesis and new methods for identifying the bacteria that [...]

Continue Reading

When Your Child Absolutely MUST Have Sinus Surgery

Posted on30. Jun, 2011 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

.When Surgery to Treat Sinusitis is Needed. Part 1 When considering surgery for a child with chronic sinusitis … Before even considering sinus surgery for a child, I insist that a strong, integrative holistic medical approach has been tried, and failed. All other options must have been exhausted.  This includes doing daily sinus rinses. Really [...]

Continue Reading

Poll Results: What is Your Method for Nasal Saline Rinses?

Posted on31. Mar, 2011 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

Well, the poll results are in. I usually  try to take a poll down once a couple hundred results are recorded. This poll has reached over 290 results, and the results were not what I had expected: What Methods Do We Use for Nasal Saline Rinses? 51% still use the Neti pot, as you can [...]

Continue Reading

Honey – Nature’s Antibiotic

Posted on24. Jun, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

You may have noticed that your honey never seems to develop mold or bacterial contamination, even when it isn’t refrigerated after opening.  We now know why this is: honey has innate anti-microbial activity. Honey is a natural antibiotic !!  Who knew? Well, it seems that ancient humans knew:  For over 2 thousand years humans have [...]

Continue Reading

Saline Sinus Rinses: What Good Are They? 4/4

Posted on13. May, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

If you insist on making your own saline solution …

Before I switched over to the store-bought, Nasopure saline rinse system, this is the recipe I used for years:

Continue Reading

Saline Sinus Rinses: What Good Are They? 3/4

Posted on06. May, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

It’s one thing to have someone suggest that you should do saline sinus rinses. They usually won’t tell you how to do them, like it’s something too indelicate to discuss. Well, let’s discuss it now …

Continue Reading

Saline Sinus Rinses: What Good Are They? 2/4

Posted on29. Apr, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

Medical Evidence to Support Sinus Irrigations: A study from the University of Michigan (well-designed, and executed as a randomized, controlled trial of over 100 people with chronic rhinosinusitis) found that symptom severity and symptom frequency were significantly reduced in those who used sinus rinses on a daily basis compared to those who did not. Similar [...]

Continue Reading

Saline Sinus Rinses: What Good Are They? 1/4

Posted on22. Apr, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

I have been personally coping with allergic rhinitis from the age of 6 or so, and with recurrent and chronic sinusitis for at least 20 years now. Although I was fortunate that allergy desensitization (allergy shots), gave me great relief, somewhere around age 8, I am not completely symptom free. Antihistamines, the standard conventional treatment, were not much benefit. And I hate the side effects. So, about 10 years ago I began using the home remedy of nasal-sinus irrigation using a weak salt water (saline) concoction. This is a method of cleansing the nasal and sinus cavities.

Continue Reading

8 Dangerous Complications of Sinusitis, But 3 That Can Kill

Posted on19. Apr, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

Complications of sinusitis are fortunately rare. Some of these complications can kill you. Some of them can leave you blind. What are the signs and symptoms? Which symptoms warrant medical attention RIGHT NOW?

Continue Reading

Sinus Anatomy: The Cliff Notes

Posted on16. Apr, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

You may have fallen asleep while reading my post on Nasal and Sinus Anatomy yesterday.  Or more likely, you just clicked away somewhere else.  That’s understandable – that was a little too wordy (nearly 1,000 words), and a little too technical.  Lot’s of new vocabulary.  I was kinda hoping the pretty pictures might keep you [...]

Continue Reading

3 Year Old Boy Hospitalized For Severe Sinusitis: Simple Cure

Posted on08. Apr, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

There are good scientific studies that have evaluated the efficacy of saline sinus rinses. But seeing is believing. At a time when I was only sporadically doing my own sinus rinses (have I mentioned how I detest doing them?), a distant children’s hospital asked me to help them treat a seriously ill little boy, who was hospitalized with sinusitis. Here is what I recommended. Here is how it turned out …

Continue Reading

Can Your Child’s Allergies be Cured with Drops Under the Tongue?

Posted on05. Apr, 2010 by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD.

Allergic Rhinitis will affect nearly half of our children. Treatment options include: medications that risk changing brain development and sleep or behavioral problems; “allergy shots,” but nobody likes needles, especially kids. So, are “drops under the tongue” an option? Here’s the scoop …

Continue Reading