Repopulating the Sinuses
March 16, 2025•370 words
I had a pretty bad sinus infection that required 4 rounds of antibiotics to eliminate. But after coming off the final round, I was left dizzy, brainfoggy, and with post-nasal drip (The dizziness was likely a kind of withdrawal from the doxycycline.). I decided to go ahead and do what I'd been thinking of planning to do, which is repopulate my sinuses with healthy bacteria. For, when you are on antibiotics, you nuke the good along with the bad; and my recently-sterilized sinuses are now being continuously recolonized by wild bacteria, and this is likely causing continuous inflammation (as my immune system moves to fight these guys off) and mucous production imbalances.
Lactobacilus Sakei is apparently the best thing you can introduce to your sinuses, so I decided to get it. But a microbiome is an ecosystem, and an ecosystem is always composed of more than just one species, so I also got a spray with Lactobacilus Acidophilus, Bifidobacterium Lactis, Lactobacilus Rhamnosus, and Lactobacilus Casei. Also, I have some Streptococcus Salivarius tablets lying around that I could easily crush up for nasal application (I got them earlier to help my oral microbiome, but they're also often part of a healthy sinus microbiome.) if I wanted (though I'm still on the fence about this one).
Before I apply any of these for the first time, I'll start with an aggressive sinus rinse.
My plan is to apply the spray first, and then gently snort a tiny amount of the L. Sakei and S. Salivarius, my idea being that the moistening effect of the spray will perfectly prime my sinuses for the dry powders. Doing things in the reverse would likely be more-irritating to the sinuses.
Another method I'm considering is dissolving the ingredients into some water and neti-potting them up there.
I'm going to store the L. Sakei in the freezer and the spray in the fridge. They're living beings, after-all, and leaving them unrefridgerated would result in them dying faster. The S. Salivarius is apparently fine at room temperature in tablet form, so either the tablet functions as adequate food for them, or they're in some kind of stasis there in await of water.
I'll update this with the results!