Sinusitis
You`re coughing and sneezing and tired and achy. You think that you might be getting a cold. Later, when the medicines you`ve been taking to relieve the symptoms of the common cold are not working and you`ve now got a terrible headache, you finally drag yourself to the doctor. After listening to your history of symptoms, examining your face and forehead, and perhaps doing a sinus X-ray, the doctor says you have sinusitis.
Sinusitis simply means your sinuses are infected or inflamed, but this gives little indication of the misery and pain this condition can cause. Health care experts usually divide sinusitis cases into
- Acute, which lasts for 3 weeks or less
- Chronic, which usually lasts for 3 to 8 weeks but can continue for months or even years
- Recurrent, which is several acute attacks within a year
Health care experts estimate that 37 million Americans are affected by sinusitis every year. Health care workers report 33 million cases of chronic sinusitis to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention annually. Americans spend millions of dollars each year for medications that promise relief from their sinus symptoms.