Dr. Lee's Sinus School: Mouth-Breathing's Harmful Effects:
Recalling of my childhood memories, I used to wake up with a sore throat and had to swallow saliva to ease the pain. The pain was caused by mouth breathing during sleeping. I often started my days rubbing off drool marks around my mouth. I also sparsely did hums and ha’s during my speech. However no one was aware those were critical indications to calling for treating the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses.
I suffered frequent bouts of cold during my primary school years. I once observed my sore throat on a mirror, which caused by the common cold. Even swallowing saliva was painful. I saw a pair of walnut-sized tonsils on both sides of the throat. I touched the inflamed tonsils with my fingers. Those were tender in texture. I thought to myself, 'So these must generate all the pain.' From there on, I practiced to open the mouth as wide as I could by suppressing my tongue and saying “ahh,” to view the tonsils. My father, who operated an herbal medicine shop, treated my tonsillitis with pricking therapy (bloodletting therapy). Since then, tonsillitis never recurred and the tonsils are hardly visible now. I learned the pricking therapy to treat tonsillitis from my father.
I came to acknowledge that sleeping with the mouth open, drooling while sleeping and recurrent tonsillitis are all interrelated symptoms and should never be regarded insignificant. These must be treated appropriately in order to establish clear breathing.
Inner nose remained almost a terra incognita; it is inter-connected with various body structures and carries out functions relatively unknown. Reluctantly, most patients' complaints were limited to their nasal symptoms. Medical literatures pertain to sinusitis only list the symptoms confined to the nose. Through gaining clinical experience, I learn to perceive the symptoms caused by nasal conditions and how those can directly affect the suffering patients. I also became able to interpret the nasal conditions to diagnose other bodily symptoms. Subsequently, I could confirm treating the nose can more effectively deal with the other related symptoms. In other words, as some doctors can make diagnoses through observing the eyes, or treating the spine to cure other body conditions, I can diagnose and care for the whole body by observing and treating the nose.
As a clinical doctor of oriental medicine, I have counseled and treated numerous patients who complained of their nasal disorders.
The list of complaints include, but may not be limited to, the following: congested nose; one side of the nose is congested, then, it switches; stuffiness in the nose while breathing through the nose; obstructed feeling inside the nasal cavity, post nasal drip; unable give the nose a good blow; ear pain after blowing the nose; having a runny nose during eating; nasal congestion during the bedtime; scratching itchy throat with a weird noise; frequent swallowing of nasal discharge and etc.
Clinical experience provided accumulated know-hows in discerning precise regions to apply treatments, varying on patients’ symptoms.
One of my most critical clinical feats is the discovery of the cooling fan function of the nose; it provides more than an air passage. That is, it facilitates the ideal operation condition for the brain, one of the vital organs in the body, to perform at the optimal level. In a way, it acts as a computer cooling fan. Therefore, rhinitis, sinusitis, nasal and paranasal sinuses disorders, should be reconsidered as critical ailments that can undermine overall functions of the body.
Until now, conventional curative therapy approaches have been centered around relieving nasal congestion and surgical removal of inflamed nasal mucosa to prevent relapses. Those were prescribed based on a limited perspective on the functions of the nose as a mere part of air passage. But those are destructive procedures that can permanently disrupt the nose's delicate and critical heat dissipating function for the brain.
My first book, “Say No to Sinus Surgery,” devoted most of its contents on explaining the functions and the importance of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses. It barely touched on the treatment aspect of the disorders. Hence, this is the first revised and enlarged edition with supplement on the subject of treatments in detail.
www.amazon.com (search for the sinus school) Here the book contains 25 years of
experience as an OMD specialized in nose related problems.
Waiting for merry christmas,
Woojeong Lee
