Jason Earle

Not sure where this is going?

Did you know that mold is the primary cause of nearly all cases of chronic sinusitis, the most prevalent long-term illness in America, affecting over 37 million Americans, according to the Mayo Clinic? If you do the math that means it affects 12% of the population, or one of every eight people you know! I have to admit, I had no idea this was such a massive problem until I began going into homes to help people get control of their indoor environments.

So now we’re going up your nose…

What exactly is chronic sinusitis? In the simplest terms, sinusitis is a condition in which the tissue lining the sinus cavities becomes inflamed and swells up. Bacteria and mold spores, amongst other things, can get trapped in the folds of the sinus tissue, causing painful sinus infections and further complications, including further swelling, trapping more bacteria, fungi, etc., compounding the problem. Breathing problems, awful headaches and difficulty sleeping are just a few of the myriad problems that sinusitis sufferers have to deal with, not to mention the treatments; drugs, sinus irrigation and, worst case scenario: surgery. The “chronic” part is how long it lasts. A general rule of thumb is that episodes of chronic sinusitis last a month or more. Much less than that and they are referred to as “acute.”

Chronic sinusitis is caused and/or aggravated by a variety of different things including food allergies, environmental irritants such as cigarette smoke, VOCs (airborne chemicals) and airborne allergens such as pollen, mold and the other byproducts of dampness, including the MVOCs (musty smell) molds produce, dust mites, etc. The list is long…

Antibiotics certainly have their place in medicine but are wildly over-prescribed in general, with no exception in the case of sinusitis, even though they have been proven in several studies to be ineffective in many cases. Since antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections and the infections are really caused by the inflammation, the antibiotics are treating a symptom rather than the cause. In fact, antibiotics seem to often complicate things, making some people susceptible to yeast overgrowth and other lovely things which we need not elaborate upon here.

The big question is how to prevent the inflammation in the first place or otherwise get it under control. So that’s where this thing is really going, in case you’re wondering…

Read the rest of this entry »