Can sinus make your head feel funny

Can sinus make your head feel funny? Have you had an experience like this? What do you think can make your head feel funny? What can be the possible reasons for this symptom? There are a number of benign and serious causes. A number of symptoms have been seen to be associated. All of the issues are discussed in the article below.

Sinuses are the cavities in the skull are four pairs in number, these are:

All of these sinuses are complex structures cilia and glands to facilitate production and movement of secretions and help in clearance and removing germs from the system.

Sinusitis is an inflammation of the tissues that lines the sinuses (inner cavities of the nasal bones). Inflammation can occur with or without infection and can affect the lining of the sinuses of the nose, behind the eyes, and forehead.

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Causes

Sinusitis is an inflammation of the tissues that lines the sinuses (inner cavities of the nasal bones). Inflammation can occur with or without infection and can affect the lining of the sinuses of the nose, behind the eyes, and forehead.

Sinusitis can be caused by common cold, flu and sinus infection, bacterial sinusitis, recurrent acute sinusitis, nasal polyps, deviated septum, medications or weak immune system.

Chronic sinusitis usually lasts for more than 3 months and can be attributed to the causes like allergies or hypersensitivity to the environment with dust and pollen. Chronic sinusitis can also be caused by physical obstruction of the nasal cavity as a result of septum deviation or tumor. Nasal polyps can also develop and result in congestion and sinusitis.

Common cold can cause head congestion and has a causative factor of virus resulting in sneezing, coughing, headaches. Mucus generated helps the viruses to get drained but its build-up can cause the congestion in turn lead to forehead pain, behind eyes and jaws.

Flu: Influenza virus can cause flu and results into symptoms like common cold with an addition of severe body pains, chills etc.

Sinus infection: Sinus infection can lead to defective drainage of mucus and leads to mucus build-up and head congestion.

Bacterial sinusitis: The symptoms start suddenly and last for more than 10 days and get better but return to worse than initial symptoms. The symptoms include runny nose, stuffy nose, facial pain, and is referred to as double sickening. This kind of illness responds to antibiotics and decongestants.

Recurrent acute sinusitis: The term recurrent refers to the infections more than four times a year, and lasts for less than two weeks.

 

Symptoms

Sinusitis presents with a number of symptoms and some are mentioned as below:

 

Head feeling funny can be attributed to a number of experiencing symptoms like brain fog, head pressure, headaches, tightness in head, etc. All of these complaints should be addressed if increased severity or progression is seen.

Brain fog can be defined as a decreased function of brain in terms of memory, concentration, multi-tasking, lack of cognition etc.

All this can severely impair your daily life and bring your self-confidence down. Brain fog can impair the thinking abilities and academic performance.

There are a number of causes for the above-mentioned symptoms and can due to the following mentioned causes actually due to nasal congestion and sinusitis:

Lack of oxygen, medication, inflammation, brain infection, lack of enough sleep, allergic conditions etc.

Lack of oxygen:

Since at the time of nasal congestion a person cannot breathe well through the nose and thus breathes through the mouth which compromises on the quantity and quality of the air, leading to lack of proper oxygen supply to the brain and in turn leading to brain fog and lack of concentration and decreased daily life activities.

Medications:

Medication is a common way of counteracting sinus symptoms, but some ingredients can impair our mental clarity.

Some common over-the-counter medications contain antihistamines such as chlorpheniramine, which might cause drowsiness as a side-effect.

Other ingredients present like pseudoephedrine, may cause restlessness and keep the person awake at night, which can affect concentration the next day due to lack of enough sleep.

Take the alternatives if you encounter any of the symptoms due to medication.

Inflammation:

Inflammation of the sinus can cause your body into extra work of fighting against infection and works harder to eliminate the infection compromising the mental output and work.

Inflammation can be caused by infections, allergy which results in swelling and erythema contributing to the congestion further adding into brain fog.

Brain infection:

brain infection is rarely caused by the chronic sinusitis but is a possibility if left untreated and unattended.

This can be possibly due to super infection by bacteria and if the symptoms of brain fog like lack of concentration and memory issues persist, you should visit a nearby doctor to rule out brain infection.

Lack of enough sleep: If the symptoms keep you up at night and away from a decent sleep can lead to decreased function in daily life.

The sleep patterns are affected and in turn leading to change in daily life activities. Medications should be avoided near noon especially pseudoephedrine containing medications.

Allergic conditions:

Allergy which is histamine related has been seen to impart an impact on brain resulting in brain fog and loss of concentration, loss of cognition etc.

Mast cells and histamine release has been seen to result in decreased brain clarity and foggy feeling.

 

Head pressure or tightness in head an be felt due to sinusitis.

Tightness in the head can be felt due to a number of reasons and can vary from mild to moderate, and includes the location of headache as well.

Head pressure due to sinusitis is felt behind the forehead, nose, cheekbones, jaws and ears along with the stuffy nose.

This kind of pressurizing pain is dull but constant. There are a number of other causes of head congestion and includes common cold, flu and sinus infection itself.

Sinus headache: It is a kind of headache which has a number of differential diagnoses.

These headaches are caused by obstruction of nasal sinuses. These sinus headaches are caused by infection or any allergy resulting in obstruction in sinus and leading to sinus headache.

Sinus headaches can also be associated with a number of symptoms like sneezing, itching, nasal congestion etc. Sinus headache has some typical characteristics which include:

pain in forehead, behind the eyes, pain while bending forward, pain is worse in the morning and gets better later in the day.

Sinus headache has a differential diagnosis with migraine. Migraines are misdiagnosed with sinus headache; a proper history and physical examination can help in differentiation.

Symptoms like nausea, dizziness, photophobia (sensitivity to light), then the diagnosis in such case is migraine and not sinus headache.

 

Diagnosis

Diagnosis can be based on history and physical examination.

History can form the basis of diagnosis. A detailed history of infections, flu and any recent infection can help in diagnosis.

Detailed history of types of headaches can help in the differential diagnosis of the cause of headache. Physical examination involves brief examination of sinuses, facial bones by pressing on forehead and maxillary bones can help in the diagnosis of sinusitis.

Imaging can help in some cases where the cause of headache and fogy condition remains unknown. Imaging involves Ct scan, nasal endoscopy, MRI can help in determining the extent and cause of congestion.

 

Treatment

There are a number of ways to treat the symptoms based on the causes. treatment can be conservative and medicine based.

Rest: Rest can be of good outcome because your body needs good amount of rest while you are sick and your body has to fight, more than normal capacity. So, taking naps in-between you work or take off from work.

Hydration: Lots of water and fluids can help our immune system work well. Lemon water, vitamin c and fruit juices can help with the congestion and to stay hydrated. Caffeinated and alcohol drinks should be avoided since they cause dehydration.

Antibiotics should be avoided since sinusitis is usually caused by viruses unless some bacterial causative agents are suspected.

Decongestants, mucolytics, and some anti-histamines can be used as well. Corticosteroid shots can be of use in some cases. Decongestants should not be used for longer durations since it can cause rhinitis medicamentosa.

 

Prevention

Prevention can be done by keeping away from allergens in the particular season if the cause is sinusitis due to seasonal allergy, and some lifestyle modifications can help with decongestion like aerobic exercise, and can help in frequency of headaches.

In some cases, nasal surgery can be of help like balloon sinuplasty to decrease the frequency of sinus headaches.

 

Takeaway

Sinus can make your head feel funny, can be because of sinusitis. Sinusitis is usually benign and is usually due to viral flu etc. unless bacterial infection overrides, and lead to a number of other complications. If the symptoms persist or get worsened you need to set a nearby doctor.