Your always meaningful sinuses can be a harbinger of more problems along the way, new research indicates on Friday. The small study found evidence of a link between chronic sinusitis and altered, potentially harmful brain activity. The findings do not necessarily prove that the two things are directly related, but it does highlight the need for more study.
The sinuses are the hollow spaces around our nasal cavity and are presumably mainly moistened and protected by the nose by keeping mucus. They can sometimes be inflamed by infections for a short time, but some people are unlucky enough to develop chronic sinusitis or chronic rhinosinusitis.
Of course no one feels at their best with a blocked nose, and there in recent years tips have been given of a link between chronic sinusitis and reduced cognition. For example, studies have found that patients achieve worse on tests of their cognitionfunction as corresponding corresponding control persons and that their performance improve after they started receiving treatment for their condition. And patients themselves described that they had a feeling of ‘brain misIn addition to their other physical symptoms, which may include nasal congestionion, reduced taste and smell, and facial pain or discomfort.
This new study, published It seems that on Friday in JAMA Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery he was one of the first to try to find the physical underpinnings of this link. The researchers investigated data from the Human Connectome Project, a US government-sponsored study of the human brain. The project is an attempt to map and understand the brain circuits and how these connections help the body to function. It is largely based on neuroimaging data collected from more than 1,000 healthy and young adult volunteers, who also underwent a battery gearnitive tests.
From this project, the researchers looked at a group of 22 people who apparently have chronic sinusitis and compared them to a similar group of people without inflammation. Compared to the control group, it appears that people with sinusitis have declined in functional connectivity in parts of the brain key to cognition: the frontoparietal network, which helps us stay focused and problem-solving, and the importance network, which helps us to distinguishes stimuli and plays a role in our ability to communicate and other social behaviors. They also found increased connectivity in the standard mode network, which is most active when we are at rest and not focused on a specific task, such as during daydreaming.
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What is important is that people with chronic sinusitis did not, on average, perform worse on their cognitive tests than the control group did. But the findings suggest that there may be something going on in their brains that is markedly different from those without inflammation, and in ways that may explain the symptoms of brain fog that patients may experience. Because the people in this study were young, it is also possible that noticeable changes in their cognition related to inflammation have simply not yet appeared – changes that can occur if their inflammation is not treated.
Yet the authors are careful to set up their research as a proof-of-concept, an attempt to show that this link needs to be studied more closely. This further investigation can not only confirm that sinusitis can harm our brain, but also provide opportunities for more treatments for the general condition. Chronic sinusitis is suspected to be so prevalent as one in ten Americans. TAlthough there are treatments such as antibiotics or surgery, they occur frequently and can take years before patients find lasting relief.
‘The next step is to study people who have been clinically diagnosed with chronic sinusitis. This may involve scanning patients’ brains, then providing typical treatment for sinus disease with medication or surgery, and then scanning again to see if their brain activity has changed. Or we can look for inflammatory molecules or markers in the bloodstream of patients, ”said lead author Arie Jafari, a surgeon and assistant professor of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine, in a statement of the university.
For now, the team hopes their findings will at least make doctors more aware that this chronic condition could affect their patients more deeply. manners.
“Our care should not only be limited to relieving the most physical symptoms, but the entire burden of patients’ illness,” Jafari said.