Grand Canyon Times

• Research has found that inflammation, which comes with chronic sinusitis, can alter brain activity.
• This can cause symptoms such as difficulty concentrating and depression.
• In older patients, chronic sinusitis has been linked to dementia.

Dr. Brian Lee of Scottsdale Sinus and Allergy Center says that many chronic sinusitis patients also experience cognitive symptoms, such as trouble focusing or remembering things, but after treating their sinusitis, their cognitive function improves.

"I see a lot of patients that come in and complain a brain fog or just not feeling as sharp," Lee told the Grand Canyon Times. "They're perfectly functional. They're going to work. They go into school and they're doing fine, but they're really just running at 80%, 85% and just don't feel their full self, and that's because they have these chronic sinus issues. The analogy I always give these patients is, it makes absolute sense that you're feeling kind of rundown and a little foggy, because your body is working overtime in the background to fight off chronic infection in your sinuses. It's like when your computer is running slowly and you notice that you've got 20 windows open in the background, and that's why your computer's running slowly. Once you close all those windows, everything's back up to speed."

A study conducted by University of Washington School of Medicine found that chronic sinusitis, which affects approximately 11% of adults across the U.S., also causes inflammation, which can be linked to changes in brain activity. These changes can cause patients to experience depression and have difficulty concentrating.

Dr. Kristina Simonyan, a coauthor of the study, said examining brain scans of patients revealed that "subjective feelings of attention decline, difficulties (in focusing) or sleep disturbances that a person with sinus inflammation experiences might be associated with subtle changes in how brain regions controlling these functions communicate with one another. It is also possible that we might have detected the early markers of a cognitive decline where sinus inflammation acts as a predisposing trigger or predictive factor."

In addition to physical symptoms -- such as congestion, facial pain and headaches -- some studies have found a link between sinusitis and neurodegeneration in older patients, according to a report by the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Research also showed that cognitive impairment caused by sinusitis could perpetuate the onset of Alzheimer's disease, the leading cause of dementia, which can also cause progressive memory loss and personality changes.

One surgical treatment option for chronic sinusitis sufferers is balloon sinuplasty, a minimally invasive procedure that takes only 10 to 15 minutes, and patients typically recover within one to two days. According to Eisemann Plastic Surgery Center, most patients can resume their normal activities during that time, although they may experience some swelling for up to a week.

For more information on the symptoms of sinusitis and allergies, take this Sinus Self-Assessment Quiz.