Hi all,
I have chronic sinusitis and I have been sick with viruses and infections for the whole month of September! I saw my herbalist on Tuesday and he gave me some Chinese herbs that he thought would bang out my multiple infections (inner ear and sinus) but they did not. On Friday, I finally gave in and went to an urgent care and they prescribed antibiotics.

I took them for two days and didn't feel better but didn't feel worse. On Sunday, I bought 2 homeopathic (specific) formulas and I started to feel better by Sunday evening.

I don't know if:
a) I'm just getting better
b) the antibiotics are working
c) the homeopathic formulas are working

I don't think it's the placebo affect bc I find homeopathy to be hit or miss. Some formulas rock my world and others seem to be just sugar pills.

Anyway, my real question is - should I continue with the antibiotics? I am for sure using the homepathy but Im supposed to take the antibiotics for 7 more days (yuck!)

thanks - Maria B

I have had the same delima before and with the same kind of disease. I have taken countless antibiotics for sinus infection. Finally after much experimentation I did find homeoapthic remedies that worked for me that I had to administer in non conventional homeopathic application.

The first time I was doing an antibiotic also and was on day 2 or 3. With my sinus infections I usually had to take them twice as long as a regular dose, 14 or 21 days.

One thing I had learned with homeoapthy in regards to me is that when the remedy works, it works right away. its like I wake up and Im cured. Seems I frequently notice after taking a remedy then taking a nap. No long drawn out a little better by the day. Its just done. Thats how I knew that it was the remedy and not the antibiotic. I was like instantly well in just a couple of hours.

So they say that you must complete the course of antibiotics no matter what.. that you could develop resistant infections and all that... well. I decided not to believe that, at least in the case of feeling cured by homeoapthy. I stopped the antibiotic medicine and didn't look back. If it is the homeopathic medicine working and you are cured there will be no pathogenic bacteria or virus for any other medicine to work on because your body has been elevated to the task of cure and your immune system has destroyed it.

I had just about the identical issue with a urinary tract infection. I stopped the antibiotic after 2 doses because the remedy worked in minutes.

Now how to tell what is working for you you will have to decide. All I know is that with me, when homeopathy works it is almost instantaneous and you feel that he infection is gone, as well as a great sense of well being.

If you do stay on the antibiotic take lots of probiotics during and after treatment.

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Thanks for confirming what I already thought "knew" - Ive been sick for 29 days and within a few hours, I felt better. i still have post nasal drip and congestion but things are loosening up and my head feels clearer - like, I can think again

I agree that when homeopathy works, it's very obvious. I love how specific the descriptions are - it was very easy to pick out exactly what I was experiencing.

Now, I just need to work on prevention! I'll save that for another thread

It does take a while for antibiotics to work on the sinuses. I sometimes feel that they don't get the blood flow as well as other parts of the body. The antibiotics must saturate the body, before you will notice any difference in sinus infections. For some, that can be 4 days. You have already noticed a change for the better, so you know what I mean by antibiotics taking their own sweet time. Be sure to complete the bottle.

Antibiotics kill the good bacteria as well, allowing aggressive fungi to take over. Some antibiotics will even warn about this. Oral thrush or yeast infections can be a side effect. So be sure to take a lot of probiotics after you finish the bottle.

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- Jim
"A lie travels round the world while Truth is putting on her boots." - C. H. Spurgeon

The Mayo Clinic proved in 1999 that 96% of all sinusitis is caused by fungus, not bacteria.

Antibiotics don't kill fungi.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0910080344.htm

ROCHESTER, MINN. -- Mayo Clinic researchers say they have found the cause of most chronic sinus infections -- an immune system response to fungus. They say this discovery opens the door to the first effective treatment for this problem, the most common chronic disease in the United States.

An estimated 37 million people in the United States suffer from chronic sinusitis, an inflammation of the membranes of the nose and sinus cavity. Its incidence has been increasing steadily over the last decade. Common symptoms are runny nose, nasal congestion, loss of smell and headaches. Frequently the chronic inflammation leads to polyps, small growths in the nasal passages which hinder breathing.

"Up to now, the cause of chronic sinusitis has not been known," say the Mayo researchers: Drs. David Sherris, Eugene Kern and Jens Ponikau , Mayo Clinic ear, nose and throat specialists. Their report appears in the September issue of the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
"Fungus allergy was thought to be involved in less than ten percent of cases," says Dr. Sherris. "Our studies indicate that, in fact, fungus is likely the cause of nearly all of these problems. And it is not an allergic reaction, but an immune reaction."

The researchers studied 210 patients with chronic sinusitis. Using new methods of collecting and testing mucus from the nose, they discovered fungus in 96 percent of the patients' mucus. They identified a total of 40 different kinds of fungi in these patients, with an average of 2.7 kinds per patient.

In a subset of 101 patients who had surgery to remove nasal polyps, the researchers found eosinophils (a type of white blood cell activated by the body's immune system) in the nasal tissue and mucus of 96 percent of the patients.

The results, the researchers say, clearly portray a disease process in which, in sensitive individuals, the body's immune system sends eosinophils to attack fungi and the eosinophils irritate the membranes in the nose. As long as fungi remain, so will the irritation.

"This a potential breakthrough that offers great hope for the millions of people who suffer from this problem," says Dr. Kern. "We can now begin to treat the cause of the problem instead of the symptoms."

More research is underway at Mayo Clinic to confirm that the immune response to the fungus is the cause of the sinus inflammation. The researchers are also working with pharmaceutical companies to set up trials to test medications to control the fungus. They estimate that it will be at least two years before a treatment will be widely available.

The researchers distinguish chronic sinusitis -- sinusitis that lasts three months or longer -- from acute sinusitis, which lasts a month or less. They say that the cause of the acute condition is usually a bacterial infection.
Antibiotics and over-the-counter decongestants are widely used to treat chronic sinusitis. In most cases, antibiotics are not effective for chronic sinusitis because they target bacteria, not fungi. The over-the-counter drugs may offer some relief of symptoms, but they have no effect on the inflammation.

"Medications haven't worked for chronic sinusitis because we didn't know what the cause of the problem was," says Dr. Ponikau. "Finally we are on the trail of a treatment that may actually work."
Thousands of kinds of single-cell fungi (molds and yeasts) are found everywhere in the world. Fungal spores (the reproductive part of the organism) become airborne like pollen. Some people develop allergies to fungi. The new evidence from the Mayo study suggests that many people also develop a different kind of immune system response.

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Let Food Be Your Medicine And Medicine Be Your Food.(Hippocrates)

I found most of my sinus infection to have an pollen allergy cause. When the inflammation increased from allergy and congestion and drainage blocked it becomes fertile soil for bacteria and or fugus, as well as virus. Hard to say which one settles in but with homeoapathy is matters not. But since I did so much homeoapthy for it in the past I just don't get infections anymore even though I do get allergy symptoms at certain times of the year. Although these specific remedies I took addressed the immune system for causation of infection, it didn't help the allergy much.

for allergy I have found the herb pycogenol to be excellent and when I take 150mg once or twice a day allergy symtpoms go away in most cases.

Is primarily the use of antibiotics for my sinuses that really excellerated candida issues for me, although they were there previously from antibiotics used in highschool as well as birth control pills for 1.5 years. ... so I found it a blessing that I didn't have to finish the course of antibiotics. Saved on two fronts.

PBD, it is true that sinusitis is commonly fungal, especially if it has lasted for years. Sinusitis produces copious amounts of mucus. It there is any inflammation in the nasal passage for whatever reason, the mucus can become stagnant and bad bacteria can inhabit that part of the sinus. Doctors seem to want to try antibacterials first.