Sinus Drainage = Good Health

This year’s wintery weather is typical of Tennessee. Warm, almost balmy days change abruptly to wet and chilly to downright cold. This kind of weather can cause some serious discomfort as nasal passages expand and contract, and sinus drainage ensues. Sometimes sinus drainage is intrinsically linked to neck pain and headaches. Remember that all bodily systems are interconnected. Blood circulation is linked to lymph circulation. Both of these systems interweave throughout muscles like plumbing through the walls of a house, and everything is controlled through signals from the nervous system. 

When your head feels stuffed up, whether you are draining mucous or dry, you can bet your lymph system is working overtime. Lymph is like the gray water system in your body. In your house, gray water pipes drain away used bath water, dirty dish water, and used water from the washing machine.  Among other functions, lymph circulation carts away dead immune cells and vanquished invaders, like bacteria. When the mucous membranes inside your head work overtime to protect your body from viruses and bacteria during these damp winter months, the obvious results are usually found in your Kleenex. Your lymph system is also working overtime, doing its thing to clear away old cells and make way for new, healthy tissue. This can cause extra pressure in the base of your skull, and even in your neck, where there is a heavy concentration of lymph nodes. You may feel these swollen lymph nodes as little tender lumps under the shelf of your skull, or in the muscles of your neck.

This added pressure from lymph can irritate the muscles and nerves in your neck. If you have an existing subluxation, or misalignment in the spine, added lymph pressure can cause head and muscle aches. Getting your spine adjusted can have a double effect:  1) Removing subluxations can jump-start the nervous system, which is responsible for getting the message to your circulatory system to move the junk on out, and 2) Removing pressure on the cervical nerves can relax your neck muscles and relieve the pain signals being beamed to your brain. 

Drainage is a good thing. Drying up your mucous-producing membranes will allow foreign critters like bacteria and viruses to set up shop inside your body. It may not be pretty, but health is often not pretty. Instead of stopping the symptom of sinus drainage, get it jump-started with a chiropractic adjustment. You’ll get over the sinus invasion much faster, and actually help the cause of your problem instead of masking it.