Tis the Season of Sinus Pressure - Premier Health Chiropractors

Hello, you guys. Welcome to this week’s Wellness Wednesday. This week I wanted to talk to you about sinuses and allergies, and what you can kind of do to help manage allergies and sinus pressure, and the symptoms that develop as a result of that, on your own.

I’ve been seeing a lot more come through the clinic in the last week and a half or so, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that we’ve had the cold, then the warm, then the cold, then warm, and then a lot of the rain coming through as well. And so, we’ve seen a lot of sinus pressure headaches coming in, ear pain, dizziness, that kind of stuff. And there’s actually a lot of things that you can do to help with that. Obviously, taking over the counter medications can be helpful with that, but things like acupressure work on your own can be really helpful, as well as doing some muscle work behind the ears can be really helpful. So, I think I’ve done a video on this a couple of years ago, but I thought that this would be a really good time to do a refresher, just because it’s been so prominent.

So, just to kind of start, one of the things that I actually do with people when they’re in the office, that is the same thing that I recommend that you do when you’re at home, and that’s to find your sinuses to start. The main ones that we work on are going to be the frontal sinuses right here, which are just about above the eyebrows. And then the maxillary sinuses, which are… if you kind of go to right where your cheekbones and then just following your cheekbone out. Easiest thing to do is, you just do a little light vibration right over each of these points.

You’ll notice if your sinuses are kind of full, because it’ll be a little bit tender, as if you were doing trigger point work on a muscle that’s tight. And what it means when a sinus is full, is it means that, as pleasant as it is to sound, it’s got some mucus built up into it that’s kind of become more solidified or stuck. And so, when you do the little light vibration, it helps to break it up so it can drain easier. A great way to assist in maximizing it, is after you do this little light vibration a few times going all the way through on both areas, is to do like a steam shower. And then, if you want to kind of take it even to the next level, use an essential oil in a steam shower, something like peppermint oil, eucalyptus, stuff like that. It really helps to open that up even more, just to kind of help everything drain.

A lot of times people will notice the draining down the back of the throat, because down the back of your throat because that’s where your sinuses drain, which again, not super pleasant to think about, but it’s really effective and it’s totally worth it when you have these pressure headaches building. And an easy indicator to know if your headaches, or your symptoms, are coming from your sinuses, is if you lean forward and the symptoms get worse, or that pressure gets worse, then you know it’s most likely coming from your sinuses. So that’s a really, really easy way to do kind of this work at home. I prefer to do light vibration, when I go along these areas here. You can also kind of just massage the area too, just kind of working the sinuses that way. And so, that’s another option.

Another area that’s really effective to work, is if you go right behind the ear and you just kind of work the muscle down this way too. It’s a little muscle called salpingopharyngeus, which is just a big fancy name for a muscle that connects from the back of the eustachian tube… the tube in your ear, down to the back of the throat. When that muscle gets tight, it can close the eustachian tube, which is going to keep fluid built up in there, if there is fluid in there. So if you open it, it can help things to drain easier. So if you ever feel dizziness, or you feel like you have that kind of pressure built up, this, in working through those muscles, can help to drain it more effectively. So, this is actually something that I’ll do if I’m on an airplane and I kind of feel that pressure buildup, I can work on this muscle and it’ll help to keep things open.

So, those are a couple of quick, easy tips just to help keep yourself feeling more comfortable as we’re getting through this allergy season… and you can hear me sniffling, just because I’ve been working on my own sinuses… just to make yourself feel more pleasant. If it’s becoming too problematic, obviously get yourself in to your chiropractor, to your clinic and get some more active work on yourself, too, and we can definitely take a look at it. But I hope this helps and I will check in with you guys next week. Catch you later. Bye.