How Do Fungal Infections Cause Sinusitis?
These infections cause a stuffy nose, eventually causing the nasal passages to swell shut. In the body, any time something gets blocked (e.g., an appendix, gallbladder, etc.), it results in a secondary bacterial infection—and the sinuses are no exception. When this happens, your nasal mucus turns yellow-green, and you go to the doctor in pain. She or he then gives you an antibiotic, which knocks out the bacterial infection and sometimes leaves you feeling better. Unfortunately, the antibiotic worsens the underlying yeast infection in your nose, causing more swelling and blockages and therefore more attacks of bacterial infections. This is why sinusitis in the U.S. usually becomes chronic. An interesting study reported in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings supports this thought.1 The report in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings noted that previously “fungus allergy was thought to be involved in less than 10 percent of cases… our studies indicate, in fact, fungus is likely the cause of nearly all of
