Over the last 25 years I’ve stumbled on a fascinating link that I’ve seen between the gut and the sinuses, and over and over again I see patient’s sinus problems go away when I’ve treated their gut. So, I thought that it was time to finally share some of these stories so that more people will hopefully find healing for this challenging problem.

I focus on helping people with their digestive problems. But helping people get healthy is about treating the whole body. Health doesn’t limit itself to one system or anatomical area of the body.

What I mean by that is that over the years as I’ve worked with patients to help them discover the underlying cause of their digestive problems, we’ve consistently seen lots of other health problems also get better.  One of the improvements that stands out is that in patients with chronic sinus problems, they almost always report that they have far fewer sinus problems.

That improvement starts right away, and then continues. Even years later patients report that they no longer have sinus problems, even if they previously had them for many years prior to that.

Why Antibiotics Often Don’t Solve the Problem for Very Long!

Let’s start by reviewing what normally happens when you get a sinus infection. You get a sinus headache and/or mucous and discharge and it’s incredibly uncomfortable, and for many people it’s debilitating and lays them out for a day or two or more.

Then you go to the doctor, you get an antibiotic, and hopefully it gets better. But the question is, why did you get it in the first place?  

And I know what you were told. You were probably told that it was your deviated septum.  It’s probably not. I’ve seen tons of patients who were told that, never corrected it, and got better anyway. But even more convincing to me was that patient after patient would tell me that they went in for sinus surgery, had the surgery, and they still have the same sinus problems that they had before. It didn’t cure anything for them.

And maybe you’ve discovered neti pots (which are great by the way) and you do sinus rinses on a regular basis, or at least when you get an infection. But you have to use it all the time or you still keep getting infections.

So, something else is making your sinuses very susceptible to developing an infection. The infection is a symptom of that something else, and the something else is the cause.

You end up treating the infection, the symptom, but it just keeps coming back. Because you haven’t yet found the cause. And until you do find the cause, your sinus problems will continue.

How The Sinuses Are Linked to the Gut

Over the course of my career, I’ve seen a ton of seemingly unrelated health issues improve when people find and treat the underlying cause of their digestive problems. So, I’m a big believer in the gut being the foundation of our health. And I can explain a lot of reasons why that is true.

But recently I realized something that I think is even more important – the sinuses are literally part of the digestive system. They are anatomically connected to the gut.

Think about it. The sinuses are accessed through the nose or the mouth. If you go to the back of your throat, and then up, you find the sinuses.

Your mouth and your throat is also the gateway to your digestive system. There is no barrier between your sinuses and your digestive tract. They are part of the same cave system. And that may be why sinus problems are so closely connected to the health of the digestive system.

What Causes Chronic Sinus Problems?

I first want to point out that you don’t have to have digestive problems in order for these issues to help your sinuses. Half of all celiacs do not have digestive problems. So, keep that in mind when you are coming up with excuses for not taking this seriously.

The most common cause that I see are food allergies or intolerances. These are the kinds of food reactions that you are going to have to see a doctor like me in order to figure out, because most doctors are clueless about most food reactions.

But when you have a food reaction, meaning the kind of reaction that is measured with antibodies, then you are triggering inflammation. And when you are triggering inflammation, you are susceptible to that inflammation impacting literally any part of your body.

Because everything in the body is connected, and like I pointed out, that is especially true for the sinuses and the digestive tract. But food reactions aren’t the only digestive issue that can trigger a sinus problem.

Because the sinuses and the digestive tract are part of the same cave system, that means that they share they same microbiome. They are literally a part of the same ecosystem within you. And if the microbiome in your mouth and esophagus and stomach isn’t as healthy as it should be, then that impacts the microbiome in the sinuses.

That’s a pandoras box that we don’t have time to get into now, but I hope that it’s at least introduced you to this important concept about the gut-sinus connection.

I’d love to hear if you’ve seen a connection between your food or your digestive health and your sinus health, so please share those in the comments section below.

And if you need help sorting out the connection between your sinuses and your digestive system, give us a call at the IBS Treatment Center. We’d love to work with you, even if you don’t have IBS!

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