Sinus Problems Or Migraine – Which Are You Suffering With?
The differences between suffering a migraine and suffering from sinus problems may seem to be minute, to the point that its very difficult to tell which is which and what you are actually suffering from. In actuality there are a number of clear pointers which make it fairly obvious on the whole if its a migraine or if its sinuses. Lets have a look now at which is which.
Migraines will often pound on and off in your head where sinus problems are constant – the pressure is a constant pressure. With sinus issues nausea does not often appear but with a migraine its relatively common. Migraines also can be down to a genetic disposition whereas sinus is not.
They can be pounding in nature and cause a distortion of vision, even some are not able to speak with the onset of a really bad migraine. Interestingly, the author of Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll, during a really bad migraine saw the characters of the story.
Many or even most sinus pains are down to a failure of cilia in the nasal cavities. These cilia are very small hairs that line the walls of the nose and remove toxins and bacteria. Re-occuring sinus headaches are due to the sinal cavities remaining inflamed. It may well be that the sufferer has taken the correct antibiotics and these have worked well but the toxins and bacteria in the nasal cavities are still there and thus cause further infection. If pulsatile irrigation is undertaken then this problem no longer persists. In which case there is no requirement for continuous antibiotics.
With sinus pain the headache or pain is more localized to the sinus areas. For example – the maxillary sinus will cause pain in the cheeks and the teeth can ache too. If on both sides of the nose between the eyes it is the ethmoid sinuses. Headaches caused by sinus problems are associated with nasal congestion and it can make a person feel sick. Pain in the roof of the orbit of the eys is a frontal sinus headache. The floor of the frontal sinus presses on the roof of the eye thus causing pressure and discomfort. On the other hand, the sphenoid sinus is at the back of the nose behind the throat and pain can be referred in any direction.
Some other points to note here are:
– if your sinus pain comes on due to drinking red wine its a migraine
– if you are woken in the night with a throbbing headache its a migraine
– if you are suffering from local tenderness, yellow discharge, a stuffy nose then this is sinus trouble
– if the pain lasts for a few days then this would tend to mean sinus issues as a migraine would be shorter in duration
Headaches and migraines are a definte factor with regards womens menstruation difficulties
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