051 - SInuses and Biofilms - ENT Issues and How I Healed Mine

The Autoimmune Doc Podcast w/ Dr. Taylor Krick

Sinus problems are rampant. Americans spend over $1 Billion annually to treat sinus problems with over-the-counter medications, which is crazy. It's not just common in the chronic illness world and in the autoimmune world, and ESPECIALLY in the mold world, it's common in everyone.
Sinus inflammation is interesting. I have had really great success healing my own sinuses. I'm not recommending that everyone (or anyone) do what I did, but what I REALLY DID was I spent several years intensely studying deep immunology and the Ear, Nose, and Throat and Allergy literature, read 100s of studies, and used things like high dose supplements and essential oils to have really good success with nasal polyps and chronic sinusitis. I haven't had sinus issues for over 3 years. Here is a video of what I did to get rid of nasal polyps, it's crazy.
When I talk about sinuses, I'm also talking about ENT areas - ear infections, tonsils, sore throats, pharyngitis, which includes things like Strep and PANDAS, but most of my success was with the nose. The whole ENT region is a hotbed of infections and pathogens, and is right across the wall from the brain, and things like antibodies, histamine, chemical toxins, inflammatory cytokines, and mycotoxins from mold can ride the "olfactory elevator" (as Dr. Jill Crista calls it) right up to the brain - right to deep, midline areas like the frontal cortex (brain fog, etc), pituitary (hormones), amygdala (anxiety, fear, etc), hypothalamus (temp, dysautonomia, etc), neurological dysfunctions and more.
Sinus inflammation drives many immune mechanisms, including Th2 and eosinophilic inflammation, mast cell activation and histamine, and Th17 inflammation, which is tissue-damaging autoimmune inflammation and will drive autoimmune progression. THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF THE PUZZLE! One thing that can drive this immune activation are chronic biofilms including Strep, Staph (MARCoNS), and Mold/Yeast that are incredibly persistent and antibiotic resistant. Biofilm colonies, like in the gut, grow on sinuses, adenoids, tonsils (that's why they remove them!) and ENT surfaces - and when they adhere to a surface they are over 1000x harder to kill, and they are highly persistent and antibiotic resistant. THIS IS THE OTHER MOST IMPORTANT PIECE!
In this episode I talk about 4 levels of supporting sinus inflammation naturally:
1 - Breathe Clean Air!!!! Allergies are obviously an issue....You can't be living in mold....I talk about air purifiers, mold candles, HVAC filters, and more.
2 - Fix your Gut and Balance your Immune System - I talk about using things like probiotics, herbal killers, SCFA, vitamins D and A, glutathione, perilla, quercetin, luteolin, etc to support barrier integrity, mast cell activation, Th2 dominance.
3 - Break Biofilms and Kill Infections - Nasal Spray, Neti Pot, Nebulizer, Gargle - I talk about using essential oils, iodine, hydrogen peroxide, silver, propolis, aqualaurin, biocidin, etc to break up biofilms and help kill pathogens.
4 - Maintain - I talk about the importance of breathing clean air, doing regular nasal rinses, and more to maintain.
This is not medical advice, but many people have seen their ENT with very little answer besides antihistamines, antibiotics, or steroids, so these are just some of the things that people are doing out there, and hopefully it can help you solve YOUR puzzle!
I also mention this, my favorite newsletter and started by an amazing ENT surgeon:
www.sinusitiswellness.com