East Panhandle News

• Sinusitis has been shown to cause erectile dysfunction.

• There are other unexpected side effects of sinusitis as well.

• Sinusitis treatment can be relatively quick, and recovery times are minimal.

Gulf Coast Breathe Free Sinus & Allergy Centers is dedicated to helping sinusitis sufferers in Pensacola and the Florida Gulf Coast Panhandle area improve their quality of life, from sleeping to their intimate relationships.

While the National Center for Biotechnology Information states that 60 to 75% of chronic sinusitis patients experience poor sleep, Yahoo! Sports reports that men suffering from the condition are as much as 50% more likely to be impotent, compared to men who don’t have sinusitis.

“If you have a poor outlook on life because you're always suffering from allergies or sinusitis, it's going to affect the rest of your general health,” Dr. Matthew Blair of Gulf Coast Breathe Free Sinus & Allergy Centers told East Panhandle News. “So if you can get your breathing, you can get your nose in tiptop shape, you're going to feel better and you'll want to do more things and you're going to overall improve your quality of health.”

Erectile dysfunction, which the National Institutes of Health defines as "the inability to attain and maintain an erection of sufficient quality to permit satisfactory sexual intercourse,” affects approximately 5% of men in the U.S., according to the NCBI. A study using data from more than 1 million people from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database found that chronic sinusitis is associated with increased risk of erectile dysfunction. The occurrence of erectile dysfunction in patients significantly decreased upon the condition being treated with functional endoscopic sinus surgery.

In addition to an endoscopy, which entails removing blockages such as polyps and scar tissue from the sinuses, sinusitis patients can opt for a newer treatment known as balloon sinuplasty. The latter is for those who don’t need anything removed from the sinuses, and it involves the dilation of the sinus passageway to restore drainage and increase air flow.

Besides having issues with sleep and sex, Physicians Weekly reported that those suffering from chronic sinsuitis are 41% more likely to suffer from depression.

If you're interested in learning more about sinusitis or balloon sinuplasty, please take this Sinus Self-Assessment Quiz.