When you think about asthma and you think about spraying saline nasal spray up your nose it may not be apparent how they are connected so to get you thinking about this, here is the connection: in some mysterious way sinus infections cause asthma. And it really doesn’t seem to matter what type of sinus infection it is as far as a cause for asthma.
First it might be helpful to talk about sinus infections. They come in 3 types: acute, sub-acute and chronic. Usually it is not too difficult to figure out when somebody has an acute sinus infection. They tend to be fairly sick and they have a lot of head symptoms. They often have facial pain. If they have a tendency towards asthma they will be coughing quite a bit and the cough will tend to be a dry cough without having a lot of secretions that are being moved by the cough.
The next category is a “sub-acute” infection. This tends to happen if an acute infection does not heal. This person is starting to get tired of symptoms that are “hanging on”. There is often a lot of coughing both day and night.
If this subacute infection is not healed by the body, with or without antibiotics, it becomes a chronic infection. This infection becomes entrenched and usually very low grade. All of these infections are able to trigger either a worsening of asthma or may actually be the trigger for the first episode of asthma.
So how does a nasal saline solution have anything to do with these various sinus infections? Well first of all the use of a good nasal saline solution will help decrease the symptoms in all three of these types of sinus infections. This is no small thing: being able to decrease symptoms that are bothering a person day and night is a fantastic blessing. The big thing though is that if used correctly and aggressively the nasal saline solution or spray can help keep the acute sinus infection from progressing to a chronic sinus infection.
The common element of the nasal saline is that it is helping to irrigate out secretions that are blocking the sinus openings. It’s also helping to decrease swelling which gives a chance for the sinuses to open up and drain. This all increases the odds that the subacute infection won’t progress to a chronic infection. That means that it is much less likely that asthma will develop. So aggressive use of a good nasal saline solution, particularly without preservatives, can help prevent asthma from developing from a sinus infection.
Want to find out more about nasal saline, be sure to visit Stanley Lang’s site on how to choose the best saline nasal spray for your needs.
