sinus problems

[spider]

Hi ..anybody ever have any sinus problems from rolling ?

Forget their nose plugs and have a problem ?

I've done my fair share of rolls but am wondering if some people get an occasional problem ?...Kind of like people getting "swimmer's ear" problems ...?

[JohnHuth]

Funny you should mention this. I'd always heard that a snoot-full of salt water was a good cure-all for sinus problems. Once I was on vacation in the Caribbean and had a sinus infection. I went into the water and deliberately sucked in a big nose-ful of water - maybe two times a day. In about three days, it was all cleared up.

In August, I got some sinus problems, so I deliberately went out, rolling, without nose plugs for a couple of days, and made sure I sucked that water waay back. It seemed to clear up my sinus problems in no-time. An odd way to go about this, for sure, but it seemed to do the trick.

Never had swimmer's ear, but every so often, I'll have to shake my head to unclog one ear or the other.

Now, cold water's another story.

[alcoons]

Hi ..anybody ever have any sinus problems from rolling ?

Forget their nose plugs and have a problem ?

I've done my fair share of rolls but am wondering if some people get an occasional problem ?...Kind of like people getting "swimmer's ear" problems ...?

No question it is big problem for me in fresh water.

Al

[Suz]

Hi ..anybody ever have any sinus problems from rolling ?

Forget their nose plugs and have a problem ?

I've done my fair share of rolls but am wondering if some people get an occasional problem ?...Kind of like people getting "swimmer's ear" problems ...?

Fresh water = always a problem - both sinus and ear infections

Salt water= never a problem. I even thing regular rolling in salt water helps my allergies. I can be really bad on land and then once on the water a roll or two will take care of allergies. Granted you are away from land and maybe less pollen in the air but I really do think it is because I am rinsing the sinus's with that nice salt water.

Suz

[rcohn]

No nose plugs in fresh water = sinus infection.

Takes about 3 weeks to cure. I may not notice I have one until I try to go diving, then you have a "sinus block" which means no diving until it clears.

Ralph

[Deb Millar]

If I roll in fresh water (yuck) or in a heavily chlorinated pool, my sinuses immediately feel like someone's shoved cotton up them permanently. I had a heavy sinus infection this July, complete with high fever, tooth pain, and a headache that felt like someone was drilling for oil in my right temple. I'd been in pool sessions all winter and I think what I had was an infection that just never really went away -- and had never bothered me that much except for having to take a lot of Advil sinus in winter -- but came to a nasty head, no pun intended, this past summer.

Salt water, on the other hand, has never given me a problem. I don't roll with plugs while paddling in the ocean as I don't want to get dependent on using them in case of capsize. True, my nose runs like a faucet after a roll and continues to run for about a hour afterwards, too -- which makes me wonder if there's just a big void in my head somewhere -- but it's better than feeling like there's a vice clamped on my cranium.

As for ears -- I have swimmer's ear, probably again from the pool, but it clears up in salt water. I flush my ears out periodically with a solution of vinegar and water and it works.

Deb M

[Gcosloy]

Ditto for me: Fresh water eventually leads to sinus problems, sometimes ear infection as well. Salt water never. You can get a saline solution from the drug store and spray up into your sinuses as a prophylactic. I use nose and ear plugs at Walden and swim goggles. When I practice in salt water just the nose plugs and only to protect against the surge up my nose. Some say to blow slow bubbles out of you're nose to change the pressure, but that has the disadvantage of running out of air too soon, especially if you're learning and want to take you're time underwater.

[jonsprag1]

yes I get sinus problems in fresh water---but I don't in salt---also get swimmers ear on my right side but not my left---ear and nose plugs help me with both these problems

[beckt]

Saline nasal rinse - works like a charm whether rolling or with irrigation.... just one is a little more fun than the other - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7108546

[FrankR]

Also check these out

http://allergies.about.com/od/noseandsinus...alsalineirr.htm

and

http://www.herbsforhealth.com/index.php?pa...=springcleaning

[spider]

Thanks for the different responses

It wasn't till I was at the doctors office for an undiagnosed problem did I start to wonder if the two issues might be related. Asked for a symptom I said it "feels like you when you get a bunch of water up your nose" and for how long "oh about a month".

After I left the office I started thinking...you know about a month ago I was doing some rolls and..

I'll follow it through with a trip to an ear, nose, throat specialist, but it's good to know that others have had various issues over the years.

[djlewis]

Some say to blow slow bubbles out of you're nose to change the pressure, but that has the disadvantage of running out of air too soon, especially if you're learning and want to take you're time underwater.

If you do an extreme pucker and drive your upper lip against your nostrils, it will partly block the nostrils, so that a slow stream of bubbles blown out your nose will not consume much of your precious air supply.

Of course, not everybody's facial anatomy may support this trick.

--David.

[Bill Gwynn]

Another "trick" for those that can't seem to master the art of slowly exhaling through their nose, is to hum. If you hum a tune with your mouth closed, the air will slowly come out your nose.

[JohnHuth]

NSPN to the rescue!!!

I was out on the Charles yesterday - I nominally regard the Charles as an open sewer with bridges. I was playing with a move I learned at the Bar Harbor Symposium - the "cross-bow draw". It's actually a pretty nifty turning stroke, if done properly.

I was marveling at how tightly I could turn with it, when *WHOOPS*....upside down in the Charles. Before I was even up, I was thinking about this here thread.....

So, my forward stroke was never as powerful as before, as I zipped back to my car, thinking about my sinuses smelling like a sewer the whole time. I was into CVS as fast as I could get, and began dosing myself with saline spray.

So far, so good. But, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[rcohn]

So, my forward stroke was never as powerful as before, as I zipped back to my car, thinking about my sinuses smelling like a sewer the whole time. I was into CVS as fast as I could get, and began dosing myself with saline spray.

So far, so good. But, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Not sure I would be that worried. As a diver, sinus infections are a bigger problem for me. I often don't realize I have a sinus infection until I try to dive down and find I have a sinus block, that ruins the day particularly if I'm freediving, which requires many fast descents. But a single accidental roll in fresh water usually does not result in a sinus infection.

Raph

[subaruguru]

Well, well, that's timely. After getting pretty wet in high gusts 8 days ago I developed pain in one ear, ignoring it until Sunday, when a diagnosis of significant otitis media confirmed my fear.

I managed to paddle with an ear plug today, and my hearing is slowly coming back, but I wonder if

I should stay above the surface for the Cold Water Workshop next week?

First time in 4 years on the Mystic Lake I've had any sinus issues. Maybe I've been lucky.

[shewhorn]

First time in 4 years on the Mystic Lake I've had any sinus issues. Maybe I've been lucky.

Maybe you've built up an immunity to it over the years.

I gotta say... for me that lake is nasty news. A few hours after being in the Mystic I'm often blowing industrial grade snot rockets!

No probs with the salty stuff... at least not with the sinuses. Water below about 55 degrees those makes me go pseudo loopy so I usually wear earplugs if I'm planning on going in. During the winter I wear a hoodie to keep my head warm which tends to keep the water out long enough for me to roll up (and my cold water roll seems to be rocket propelled).

Cheers, Joe

[Pintail]

Whilst I understand how irritating a sinus infection can be, why do people show such apparent surprise at how ocean water does <not> cause irritation? <Of course> salt water cannot cause long-term effects: we COME from the ocean, after all!

Your body cavity requires washing out? Pass the saline...

Your electrolytes need replenishment? Pass the saline...

Your doctor suggests you irrigate your sinuses? Dissolve that Morton's table-salt in tapwater...

Excuse the semi-scorn: I'm simply surprised that you all make such a mountain out of a mole-hill. I <live> to be upside-down in the ocean! (I didn't say "the winter ocean", mind...)

Written with a smile on me gob,

Your friend, CDWG

[Gcosloy]

Whilst I understand how irritating a sinus infection can be, why do people show such apparent surprise at how ocean water does <not> cause irritation? <Of course> salt water cannot cause long-term effects: we COME from the ocean, after all!

Call me cautious, but while the open ocean my pose little threat of infection, salt water coves, harbors, and brackish estuaries may prove more daunting to the immunity challenged among us. Decaying vegetation and sewage dumped from those friendly moorings both provide a habitat for pathogens in salt water. Recent Google-ling came up with this:

"Pathogenic amoebas from brackish and ocean sediments, with a description of Acanthamoeba hatchetti, n. sp

TK Sawyer, GS Visvesvara, and BA Harke

Acanthamoeba culbertsoni was isolated from a sewage-spoil dump site near Ambrose Light, New York Bight. A second species, Acanthamoeba hatchetti, n. sp., was isolated from Brewerton Channel, Baltimore Harbor, Maryland. Both species killed laboratory mice after infection by the intranasal route."