Jens Panikau, sinus researcher at Mayo Clinic, has published a new finding that explains why sinus disease persists despite so many new drugs. Dr Panikau found that the main cause of sinus symptoms was that the eosinophiles – your special cells that defend your body against infection, - get into the mucus and produce a toxic product called MBP that is made in order to kill bacteria. Unfortuantely, among sinus sufferers, there is an excess of this MBP in the mucus that also damages the cells of the nose and impairs its ability to sweep bacteria out of the nose. Dr Panikau shows that it is the MBP that makes the patient sick, with fever, pain, fatigue, and secondary infections. This is welcome news for the 30 million sinus sufferers who have resisted therapy. This research opens a better way to diagnose and treat chronic sinusitis, and reduce the annual 300,000 sinus surgeries that are needed.

Actually Dr Panikau is not the first to recognize that toxic products in the nasal mucus are a significant factor in sinus disease. The authors he quotes, Meltzer and Kaliner have previously written on the value of using pulsatile irrigation to clear the mucus that impairs nasal cilia function.

The Hydro Pulse® Nasal Sinus Irrigation System, from Health Solutions Medical Products Corp., provides a simple means of cleansing the nose and sinuses of stale and toxic mucus and restoring the normal defense of nasal cilia movement. When the cilia move, they move the toxic products out of the nose and sinuses. This Mayo research shows proof of the value of these methods, and gives a system of actually measuring the toxic product. Instead of guessing a diagnosis of sinus disease, now the physician can measure the actual MBP level in the nose. This will reduce the need for sinus x rays as well.

What should the current sinus patient do? As pointed out by Meltzer and others, adequate hydration is important. The more hot tea you drink, the thinner and more dilute the mucus and the easier it is for the nose to move these products away. Because the mucus is often thick and sticky, pulsatile irrigation is recommended by these authors because it is shown to be 100x more effective in removing these products, as well as being effective in restoring nasal cilia function.

This Mayo research will now direct specialists to faster and better treatment for the scourge of sinusitis.

The Jens Panikau article, Striking deposition of toxic eosinophil major basic protein in mucus: Implications for chronic rhinosinusitis appeared in the August 05 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Immunology.