Chris Kresser on Raw Dairy vs. Pasteurized Dairy

Chris Kresser asks in a three part series: Is Raw Milk Worth the Risk?

While this is certainly not rigorous evidence, it matches my own anecdotal experience and that of many of my patients, blog readers and radio show listeners.  I do not feel well when eat pasteurized dairy.  It gives me sinus congestion, headaches and intestinal discomfort.  Yet I thrive on raw dairy, and fermented raw dairy in particular played a substantial role in my own healing journey.

When Sinusitis isn't Sinusitis

The "problems with my nose", which I thought of as sinusitis, might not be sinusitis after all. First of all, what is Sinusitis?

Sinusitis is inflammation of the paranasal sinuses, which may be due to infection, allergy, or autoimmune issues.

So the definition is inflammation. While I don't want to rule out that inflammation is involved, I think whether I can breath freely through my nose or not has actually something to do with vasoconstriction (and blood pressure). Especially since I have been taking Equilibrant I tend to have a free nose while I lie down and start to get a blocked nose when I stand up.

Sinusitis associated with fatigue and pain

I found some older studies (warning: they try to push endoscopic sinus surgery), but they are interesting nevertheless:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 14, 2003) — Washington, D.C. – A new study published in the August 11 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine demonstrates a possible link between unexplained chronic fatigue and sinusitis, two conditions previously not associated with each other. Also newly noted was a relationship between sinusitis and unexplained body pain.
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Through his private internal medicine practice, Chester questioned 297 patients, noting unexplained chronic fatigue in 22%, unexplained chronic pain in 11%, and both in 9%. While these numbers are consistent with previous studies, Chester observed an unusual connection between patients with chronic pain or fatigue: prevalent sinus symptoms. Sinus symptoms were nine times more common on average in patients with unexplained chronic fatigue than the control group, and six times more common in patients with unexplained chronic pain. In addition, sinus symptoms were more common in patients with unexplained fatigue than in patients with fatigue explained by a mental or physical illness, suggesting the syndrome of unexplained fatigue is more closely associated with sinusitis than are other types of fatigue.
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15 out of the 65 patients in Chester's study met criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a severe form of unexplained chronic fatigue associated with body pains and other symptoms. Most CFS patients had sinus symptoms and many noted a sudden onset of their illness, similar to people with sinusitis. "We clearly need to do more research to see if sinus treatments alleviate fatigue and pain. This study does, however, offer hope for possible help in the future." said Chester.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2008) — A new analysis led by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center suggests many patients with sinusitis have aches and pains similar in severity to people in their 80s and those with arthritis or depression. …  "We found that the daily experience of bodily pain was much more common in patients with sinusitis than in the overall population," explains Chester. "Confirmation that aches and pains occur with sinus disease is a relief to many patients who thought they had two separate illnesses."

So what did the meta analysis find?

A subgroup analysis of 11 studies measuring outcomes using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) demonstrated a moderate-sized combined effect of 0.47 (95% confidence interval, 0.38-0.56; I = 0%), corresponding to a mean +/- standard deviation improvement of 9.7 +/- 3.4 units on the SF-36 vitality domain scores.

A improvement of 10 points on the SF-36 score isn't bad, but it is not a cure to ME/CFS...