Jason Earle

People with chronic sinusitis – a near-constant congestion and inflammation of the sinuses – may actually be suffering from exposure to mold. So says one of our favorite doctors, Dr. Wellington S. Tichenor, a New York City allergist and a member of our 1-800-GOT-MOLD? board of advisors.

Dr. Tichenor’s experience-based opinion is backed up by a 1999 Mayo Clinic study, which concluded that 96 percent of chronic sinusitis is caused by mold. We’re talking about 15 percent of the population here, a group of people who are plagued by this misery and spend countless hours and dollars trying to get it resolved.

The good doctor recently authored an article in our seasonal magazine, Habitat Quarterly, which you can read here, and we recently reposted it here on 1800gotmold.com. Here’s a snippet.

We are not sure why some people are more sensitive to mold than others and consequently develop these mold-related episodes of sinusitis.  One of the theories is that these people have more exposure to mold in their environments, while other theories hold that they are due to the use or abuse of antibiotics.

In a situation in which patients have had mold exposure in the environment for an extending period of time, this extended exposure can cause patients to have this immunological overreaction. This reaction may or may not be due to a true allergy, but in some patients who have more severe problems with fungal sinusitis, we know that they will improve if they are treated the same way patients with more severe allergies are treated: with allergy immunotherapy, which will desensitize them to the molds that they have problems with.  We also know that the fungi we may find in the sinuses are the same ones that are found in the environment.

One of the treatments Dr. Tichenor also mentions is “irrigation,” which we talked about in a previous post here. Of course, for someone with longstanding chronic sinusitis, the do-it-yourself approach may not be adequate. On the other hand, it can do no harm, and we have seen it work for friends and family.

Of course, it you try the nasal irrigation route on your own and it doesn’t work, you’ll want to see Dr. Tichenor, or a doctor a lot like him.

Either way, as we’re fond of saying, mold is nothing to sneeze at.