Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2015

My cold handout I give to my patients. Sinus infections need the same treatment plus antibiotics.

This is the handout I give to my patients.  I would love to hear your stories and your tips.  We haven't found the cure to the common cold but there are many things we can do to support us while we have one. What Is A Cold? A cold is a viral sinus infection- “too much snot”, coughing, facial pain, sore throat, headache, ear popping or pain, pain in the sides of neck- glands feel “swollen”, coughing all night (like in the Nyquil commercials). A chest cold is when the drainage gets into the chest.  It can feel like you have a fist in front of your chest or you can’t take in a deep breath (but it should not feel as though you are short of breath).   Studies show we treat colds too quickly as sinus infections and we are not allowing your body to heal itself.  Even mild bacterial sinusitis does NOT typically need antibiotics.  The more antibiotics that you use now, the less effective your immune system will be and the less effective the antibiotics will be as well.