Healthy living may clear sinuses
June 28, 2002

By KAWANZA L. GRIFFIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE — The best way to treat or prevent pesky colds and sinus infections is to throw out your antibiotics and over-the-counter medications and change what you eat, think and breathe, physician and author Robert S. Ivker advises.

That’s because treating sinusitis, like any type of illness, requires restoring your body’s natural balance, meaning you must gradually heal your body, mind and spirit to attain optimal health, he said.

“Although it’s not a quick fix, like taking a pill and it’s gone, most people have been sick so long that changing their lifestyle, changing their diet and changing their thoughts becomes quite a motivating factor,” he said.

Ivkerspoke earlier this month to a group of almost 300 sinus sufferers and health care professionals at “Sinus Survival: Holistic Medical Treatment for Sinusitis, Allergies and Asthma.” Ivker is an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine and a clinical instructor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

The event was sponsored by Aurora Health Care and focused on ways to incorporate a holistic — or whole body — treatment approach to help heal the mucous membrane that lines the nose, sinuses and the lungs.

“Conventional medicine hasn’t been able to treat them; it only offers them drugs and surgeries,” he said. “And in cases of chronic sinusitis — having three or more infections within a six-month period — it’s not working at all.”

To begin the healing process, Ivker, who also is past president of the American Holistic Medical Association, recommended these areas of change: improving the quality of the air you breathe by doing things such as using saline nasal sprays, air cleaners and humidifiers; drinking more water; changing your diet to include more fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains and fiber, and less sugar, dairy and caffeine; getting more exercise, including yoga and tai chi; finding work that you enjoy; and recognizing life’s positive aspects rather than focusing on setbacks.

Changes can be seen as soon as eight weeks, Ivker said.

The program also includes the use of vitamins and herbal supplements such as echinacea, garlic and grape-seed extract.

“Unconditional love is life’s greatest gift,” he said. “This program is about ultimately learning to love yourself — in mind, body and spirit, and specifically about learning to love your nose.”

Steve Cohen, a Milwaukee allergist, said the trick to treating a sinus infection is to get secretions within them to liquefy and move out, and that anything that does that is considered beneficial.

However, he cautioned that while “leading a healthy lifestyle is good for everyone, it doesn’t prevent diseases.”

In addition, it’s important that people be sure that they have a sinus infection and not just a cold, before beginning any kind of intensive medical treatment.

Typical symptoms associated with sinusitis include one-sided pain in the upper teeth, discolored nasal drainage, headache and head congestion, he said.