(BlackDoctor.org) -- Since nose issues can often mirror the symptoms of sinus problems, sinuses are often charged with the misdeed when other issues are at fault. Patients often complain of headaches, discomfort and stuffiness and they assume it's sinusitis, but they are mistaken. Most often, the nasal passages are the culprits.
The nasal passages are the pathways for airflow to the sinuses. Think of the nasal passages as the hallways and sinuses as the attached rooms. If the hallway is blocked, there is no access into the rooms.
Sinus symptoms imply that something is wrong with the nose. The nose has problems before the sinuses do. Rarely are the sinuses independently diseased.
If the Nose is the Problem, What's Wrong with It?
• Bad architecture. Most commonly, a deviated (crooked) nasal septum from an accident or from a quirk of nature. The septum, the internal vertical partition that separates the two nasal passages, when bent or crooked, can significantly block air flow, deprive the sinuses of their aeration and produce the above symptoms. It's commonly damaged by sports injuries; often an injury in the young goes unrecognized. So, the youngster grows up with no point of reference for normal breathing.
• Allergy. Turbinates are shelves of bone covered with standard issue lining that protrude into the nasal passages from the sides and top of the nasal cavities. They provide a...... corrugated nasal passage configuration to increase the passage lining's surface area to enhance the three core nasal functions: to warm, humidify and filter the incoming air, en route to the lungs. There are three on each side, but the inferior turbinates tend to be the usual bad boys. A target for allergy, the turbinates can swell significantly. That plus swelling of all the nasal lining defines nasal stuffiness and blockage.
• Environmental factors. A category of nasal inhalant allergy. Mold, lurking in older homes can trigger the same changes as seasonal hay fever: the lining and turbinates swell and pressure changes in the sinuses are triggered by poor inflow of air. This is the so-called "vacuum headache". Dusty environments, combined with dryness can be the nose's worst enemy, particularly in a superhot climate. So, while Midwesterners may want to ship their sinuses to Arizona for the winter when colds and flu reign supreme, those same sinuses would opt for leaving during the oven-like Arizona summers.
• Smoking. Cigarette smoke is no friend of the nose. By heating and drying the passages, the normally thin and free-flowing mucus becomes sticky, stagnant and even malodorous. Another contribution to nasal blockage.
