You breathe a sigh of relief.  Several hard-killing frosts have cleared the air of the fall pollen which has relieved your itchy eyes, itchy nose and sneezing.  But you still have symptoms of congestion, sinus pressure and sinus drainage.  You are off to see your family physician or perhaps an ENT for a sinus infection.  You may or may not be treated with antibiotics or steroids and while you may get brief relief, the symptoms gradually return.

 

Most likely these symptoms are not due to an infection but rather to your winter allergies.  What are winter allergies?  These are allergies caused by common indoor allergens such as house dust mites, pet dander or mold spores.  These winter allergies are often confused with a sinus infection.  The actual cause is your winter, or indoor allergies, causing sinus inflammation with symptoms of sinus drainage with pressure and headaches.

 

Treatment begins with suspicion that your sinus infection is an allergy. Testing will in most cases identify the indoor allergy causing your misery.  Once established that you do have a winter allergy, then a treatment plan can be started.  Typically this involves eliminating or reducing your exposure to the indoor allergen and selecting the correct medication to control your symptoms.

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Identifying the cause of your winter sinus with treatment will improve your quality of life by reducing those nagging winter allergy symptoms.