Nasal Saline Spray and Asthma by Stanley Lang, M.D.
At first glance it may not be apparent why there would be a connection between a nasal saline solution and asthma. Here is the connection: asthma is aggravated by chronic sinus infections. Sometimes asthma is actually caused by a chronic sinus infection. How does this happen? Well actually we don’t know why this connection exists. But it does. What we do know is that in somebody who has a tendency toward asthma they will have an aggravation of the symptoms of asthma with any type of sinus infection, acute or chronic.
First it might be helpful to talk about sinus infections. They come in 3 flavors: 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 kind of sinus infection is “subacute”. This is what happens if an acute infection doesn’t resolve fairly quickly. The infection becomes a little more entrenched and more low grade. It may have a lot of dry coughing. It likely has a lot of post nasal drainage but the secretions are abnormal.
A chronic sinus infection is one that has been going on for quite a while. In fact the person with it will often have forgotten their acute infection and assumed they had gotten better. But they have this nagging cough and they have nasal congestion that is not too bad– in fact these folks often think they are dealing with chronic allergies.
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.
How does this happen? If you can get the sinuses to open up and “drain”, there is a lot better chance for the infection to clear. That’s exactly what a nasal saline solution can do. When used correctly the saline solution helps the sinuses to open up and stay open and decrease the chance of becoming a chronic infection. It is the chronic sinus infection that tends to cause asthma. So in this fashion the use of a good saline nasal spray or solution can help decrease the development of asthma. (Especially if you use a saline solution without preservatives!) This is a good thing!
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