Sinus Infection: Viral or Bacterial? How Doctors Decide and When Antibiotics Help

Every autumn the same message shows up in group chats: a photo of a tissue, a confident caption reading “green means bacterial, right?” and a request for someone’s leftover antibiotics. As of November 2025, that conversation is louder than usual. US Antibiotic Awareness Week, which the CDC runs each year in mid-November, has landed in the middle of cold season, and short videos promising to “kill a sinus infection in 24 hours” with garlic, colloidal silver, or a stranger’s pills are being watched millions of times.

The medical reality is quieter and, frankly, more useful. A sinus infection is almost always the tail end of a common cold, and the human body handles the large majority of them without any prescription. The trick is knowing which small minority are different, because that is the group antibiotics were designed for.

This piece walks through how clinicians actually make that call, what the trials show about antibiotics, which home measures have real data behind them, and the handful of warning signs that should send you to a doctor without waiting.

How do you tell if you have a sinus infection?

Your sinuses are four pairs of air-filled pockets in the bones around your nose and eyes, lined with the same moist tissue that lines the nose itself. Sinusitis simply means that lining is inflamed and swollen. Because the nose and sinuses swell together, doctors increasingly use the term rhinosinusitis, which is one condition described from both ends.

The pattern is familiar. A cold settles in, and after a few days the congestion stops feeling like a head cold and starts feeling like a face cold. The classic sinus infection symptoms, according to Mayo Clinic and the NHS, are thick nasal discharge, a blocked nose, and pressure or aching around the cheeks, eyes, or forehead that gets worse when you bend forward. Many people also notice reduced smell, a cough that is worse at night from mucus draining down the throat, ear fullness, and a dull upper toothache, because the roots of the upper molars sit right under the largest sinus.

What is often missing early on is anything dramatic. Fever, if present, is usually low. You may feel tired and foggy rather than sick. That ordinariness is a clue: at day three or four of a cold, congestion and facial pressure are expected, not alarming.

One honest caveat. Facial pain alone is not a reliable sign of sinusitis. Tension headaches, migraine, and dental problems all produce pressure in the same places, and imaging studies of people with “sinus headache” frequently show clear sinuses. Clinicians weigh the whole picture, especially nasal discharge and blockage, before they use the label.

What changed recently in sinus infection care

The science of acute sinusitis has not been overturned, but several updates in the past two years have shifted what patients hear in the exam room.

The CDC refreshed its public guidance on sinus infections in 2024 as part of its broader antibiotic-use materials. The message is direct: most sinus infections are viral, antibiotics will not help those, and clinicians should offer watchful waiting when symptoms are mild. Watchful waiting means agreeing to hold off on antibiotics for a set number of days while treating symptoms, with a plan to start them if things do not improve.

Decongestant shelves also changed. In September 2023, an FDA advisory committee reviewed the evidence on oral phenylephrine, the ingredient in many “non-drowsy” cold tablets, and concluded it does not relieve congestion better than placebo at the amounts used in over-the-counter products. In November 2024 the agency formally proposed removing it from the list of approved oral decongestant ingredients. Nasal sprays containing phenylephrine were not part of that finding.

Nasal rinsing safety got a fresh warning. The CDC continues to report rare, serious infections from free-living amoebae in people who rinsed their noses with untreated tap water, and its current advice is to use distilled, sterile, or previously boiled and cooled water for any saline rinse.

None of this is a reversal. The 2012 Infectious Diseases Society of America guideline and the 2015 otolaryngology guideline already emphasized the ten-day rule and watchful waiting. What has changed is the volume of the message and the evidence behind it, described in more detail in the sections that follow.

Viral vs bacterial sinus infection: the three clues doctors use

There is no quick office test that separates a viral from a bacterial sinus infection. Swabbing the nose picks up harmless bacteria that live there anyway, and an X-ray or CT scan cannot tell which germ is responsible, only that the lining is swollen. So clinicians rely on the timeline, which turns out to be surprisingly informative.

The guidance that most US and UK clinicians follow describes three patterns that raise suspicion of bacterial infection:

• Persistence. Symptoms have lasted ten days or more and are not improving. A cold virus rarely keeps a sinus infection going that long.
• Severity from the start. A fever of 102°F (39°C) or higher together with thick, discolored nasal discharge and facial pain for at least three or four consecutive days at the beginning of the illness.
• Double worsening. A cold that was clearly getting better suddenly gets worse again, with new fever, more pain, or more discharge. This second dip is the pattern doctors take most seriously, because it suggests bacteria have moved into a sinus that the virus already inflamed.

Meet none of these and the odds strongly favor a virus. Meet one and a clinician will usually examine you, ask about dental problems, allergies, and recent flights or swimming, and look for tenderness or pus draining behind the nose.

Even with a bacterial pattern, the decision is not automatic. Guidelines explicitly allow watchful waiting for people who are otherwise healthy and not severely ill, because a meaningful share of bacterial sinus infections also resolve without treatment. That nuance is the heart of this topic, and it is where the trial evidence matters most.

Why mucus color cannot tell you what kind of infection you have

The single most repeated claim in every viral post is that yellow or green mucus proves bacteria. It is also the claim with the least support.

Here is the mechanism. When any infection or irritation hits the nasal lining, the immune system sends in neutrophils, a type of white blood cell. Neutrophils carry an enzyme called myeloperoxidase that happens to be green. As they die and pile up in mucus, the mucus turns yellow, then green. That process happens whether the trigger is a rhinovirus, an influenza virus, a bacterium, or even a heavy pollen day. Color reports how many white cells are present, not what they are fighting.

Thickness works the same way. Mucus thickens as the water in it evaporates and as cell debris accumulates. A dry bedroom in winter can produce thick, dark morning mucus with no infection at all.

Studies that tried to correlate discharge color with bacterial cultures in adults with sinus symptoms found it performs barely better than chance as a stand-alone sign. This is why the CDC, Mayo Clinic, and the NHS all list discolored discharge as a symptom of sinusitis in general, not as a marker of bacterial sinusitis specifically.

Where color does earn a small place is inside the combined “severe onset” pattern: discolored discharge plus high fever plus facial pain for several days from the beginning. Alone, it tells you that your immune system is working. That is reassuring, not a prescription.

How long does a sinus infection last?

Duration is the axis everything else turns on, so it helps to know what normal looks like.

A viral sinus infection typically peaks around day three to five and improves steadily afterward, with most people feeling largely well by day seven to ten. Lingering congestion and a post-nasal cough can drag into a second or third week even when the infection itself is over, because swollen lining takes time to settle. The NHS advises that sinusitis often clears within two to three weeks and that most people do not need to see a GP in that window.

Bacterial acute sinusitis tends to last longer and hurt more, but it also has a natural end point. Cochrane reviewers, pooling placebo arms from randomized trials in adults with clinically diagnosed acute sinusitis, found that most participants improved or recovered within one to two weeks without antibiotics.

Clinicians divide sinusitis by the calendar:

• Acute: symptoms lasting up to four weeks.
• Subacute: four to twelve weeks.
• Chronic: twelve weeks or longer, with objective signs of inflammation on examination or imaging.
• Recurrent acute: four or more separate episodes in a year with clear gaps between them.

These categories are not academic. Chronic sinusitis has different causes, from nasal polyps to persistent allergy to structural blockage, and antibiotics play a much smaller role. A cold that “never really left” for three months deserves a different conversation than a bad week in February, and the calendar is how a clinician knows which one you are having.

Does a sinus infection go away by itself?

Usually, yes. This is the answer people find hardest to trust when their face aches, so it is worth being specific about the numbers.

Roughly nine in ten cases of acute sinusitis in adults are viral, and viral infections cannot be shortened by antibiotics under any circumstances. Of the minority that are bacterial, a large share still resolve without treatment: in the placebo groups of randomized trials, around 80 percent of people with clinically diagnosed acute sinusitis had improved by two weeks.

The body manages this through the same machinery it uses for every cold. Swelling narrows the small openings that drain each sinus into the nose. As the viral infection burns out, swelling recedes, the openings reopen, and the tiny hair-like cilia lining the sinus resume sweeping mucus toward the drain. Restoring that drainage, rather than killing germs, is what ends most sinus infections, which is why steam, saline, and time are not trivial suggestions.

“Goes away by itself” does not mean “ignore it.” Comfort measures matter for sleep and function, and a small number of infections do not follow the script. The ones that do not are exactly the ones the ten-day rule, the severe-onset rule, and the double-worsening rule are built to catch.

A practical way to hold this: give a sinus infection the same patience you would give a cold, roughly ten days, while treating symptoms. If it breaks those rules, or if any of the red flags described near the end of this article appear, the wait is over and a clinician should look.

What the evidence actually says about antibiotics for sinus infection

Grading the evidence honestly means saying what kind of studies exist, what they found, and how confident anyone can be.

Randomized trials (strongest evidence). A Cochrane systematic review updated in 2018 pooled more than a dozen placebo-controlled trials in adults diagnosed with acute sinusitis in primary care. Antibiotics increased the proportion of people who were better at 7 to 14 days by a modest margin: for roughly every 18 people treated, one additional person improved who would not have on placebo. The same trials showed antibiotics roughly doubled the rate of side effects, mostly nausea, diarrhea, and rash. Serious complications were rare in both groups and the trials were too small to show whether antibiotics prevent them.

Observational data (moderate evidence). Large records-based studies from the US and UK show antibiotic prescribing rates for sinusitis far above the estimated bacterial share, and link repeated courses to resistant bacteria and to Clostridioides difficile infection, a severe antibiotic-associated diarrhea. These studies cannot prove cause, but the direction is consistent.

Expert consensus (weakest, but informed). The ten-day, severe-onset, and double-worsening criteria come from specialist panels interpreting trial and cohort data, not from a single decisive study. They are best understood as the profession’s best judgment, refined over a decade.

Put together, the picture is clear enough to act on. Antibiotics offer a small, real benefit to a small, identifiable group, at a cost in side effects that most people with viral sinusitis pay for nothing. That trade-off, not fear of antibiotics or reflexive prescribing, is what a good clinician is weighing when they suggest waiting.

When antibiotics help, and what a clinician chooses

When the pattern points to bacteria and the person is unwell enough that waiting is not sensible, antibiotics are appropriate. Deciding which one, and for how long, belongs entirely to the prescribing clinician, but knowing the logic makes the conversation easier.

The usual bacterial culprits in acute sinusitis are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis, the same organisms behind many ear infections. Guidelines in the US name amoxicillin, or amoxicillin combined with clavulanate, as first-line choices for most adults and children without a penicillin allergy, because they reliably cover those bacteria. Alternatives such as doxycycline or certain respiratory fluoroquinolones exist for people who cannot take penicillins, with the caveat that fluoroquinolones carry their own warnings and are not preferred when other options work.

Course length has trended shorter. Trials comparing five to seven days with ten to fourteen days in adults found similar outcomes with fewer side effects in the shorter groups, and current guidance reflects that. The exact plan depends on age, allergy history, recent antibiotic use, and local resistance patterns your clinician knows and you do not.

A few things antibiotics do not do. They do not relieve congestion or pain in the first day or two, so symptom treatment continues alongside them. They do not help chronic sinusitis in most cases, where inflammation rather than infection drives symptoms. And a leftover half-course from a previous illness is never a substitute: the wrong drug, the wrong duration, and the wrong diagnosis all at once.

If antibiotics are prescribed and you feel no better after three days, or worse at any point, that is a reason to call back, not to double up or switch on your own.

Viral vs bacterial sinus infection at a glance

Timelines are easier to see side by side. The table below summarizes the features clinicians weigh, drawn from CDC, Mayo Clinic, and NHS guidance. No single row is decisive on its own; it is the combination that matters.

Feature	More typical of viral sinusitis	Raises suspicion of bacterial sinusitis
Share of acute cases	About 90% or more	Roughly 2% to 10%
Duration	Peaks by day 3 to 5, improving by day 7 to 10	Persists 10 days or more without improvement
Course	Steady improvement after the peak	Improves, then clearly worsens again (“double worsening”)
Fever	Absent or low-grade, early	102°F (39°C) or higher, lasting 3 to 4 days from onset
Facial pain	Pressure, usually both sides	Severe, often one-sided, sometimes with upper tooth pain
Discharge color	Any color, including green	Any color, including green
Antibiotics	No benefit	Modest benefit; watchful waiting still an option if not severe
Expected outcome	Resolves on its own	Most resolve on their own; a minority need treatment

Notice that the discharge row is identical on both sides. It is placed there deliberately, because it is the one feature most people rely on and the one that carries the least weight.

The share estimates deserve a comment. The two-to-ten percent range is wide because studies define bacterial infection differently, some by sinus puncture and culture and others by clinical criteria. Whatever the exact figure, every study agrees the bacterial group is small, and the practical takeaway does not change.

How to get rid of sinusitis at home: what actually has evidence

Most people want relief, not a lecture on stewardship. Fortunately, several sinus infection without antibiotics approaches are supported by trials, and they work whether the cause is viral or bacterial because they target swelling and drainage rather than germs.

Saline irrigation. Rinsing the nose with salt water, using a squeeze bottle or neti pot, has randomized trial support for reducing congestion and improving comfort, with stronger evidence in chronic than acute sinusitis. Use distilled, sterile, or boiled-and-cooled water, per CDC advice, and clean the device after each use.

Intranasal corticosteroid sprays. These are anti-inflammatory nasal sprays such as fluticasone, available over the counter in the US. Pooled trials in acute sinusitis show a small but consistent improvement in symptoms at two to three weeks, and guidelines list them as a reasonable option. They take several days to build effect, so early patience helps.

Pain relief. Acetaminophen or ibuprofen manage facial pain and fever. Follow the package and check with a pharmacist if you take other medicines or have kidney, liver, or stomach conditions.

Steam and humidity. Warm showers and a bedroom humidifier thin mucus and ease pressure. The evidence here is mostly observational and from small studies, but the risk is low.

Decongestants, carefully. Nasal decongestant sprays such as oxymetazoline open the nose quickly, but using them beyond about three days causes rebound congestion that is worse than the original blockage. Oral pseudoephedrine works for some people but raises blood pressure and heart rate; anyone with hypertension or heart disease should ask a clinician first.

Hydration, rest, and sleeping with your head slightly raised round out the list. None of these shorten the underlying infection dramatically, but together they make the ten-day wait far more tolerable.

What kills a sinus infection naturally? An honest answer

The straight answer is that nothing you swallow, inhale, or insert kills a sinus infection faster than your immune system already does. The natural remedy that works is the one every trial’s placebo group relied on: time, drainage, and the body’s own white cells. That is not a dismissal. It is why most home measures with real evidence aim at comfort and drainage rather than at germs.

Some popular suggestions do have a plausible role in comfort:

• Warm compresses over the cheeks and forehead ease pain for some people; the evidence is anecdotal but the harm is nil.
• Warm fluids and broth keep mucus thinner and are pleasant when eating is unappealing.
• Honey has small randomized trials showing modest relief of nighttime cough in children over one year, which is relevant when post-nasal drip keeps a child awake. It is never given to infants under twelve months because of botulism risk.

Others fall short or cause harm. Garlic cloves pushed into the nostrils, a recurring viral trend, do not reach the sinuses, irritate the lining, and have sent people to emergency departments with lodged foreign bodies. Colloidal silver has no evidence for any infection and can permanently discolor skin. Apple cider vinegar, oregano oil, and “immune-boosting” megadose vitamin regimens have not been shown in controlled trials to shorten sinusitis, and concentrated essential oils near the nose can chemically burn mucous membranes.

Zinc lozenges have mixed trial results for shortening common colds when started within a day of symptoms; the effect on sinusitis specifically has not been studied, and high-dose intranasal zinc products were withdrawn after reports of permanent smell loss.

If a remedy is comforting, cheap, and harmless, there is little reason to argue with it. The problem starts when a remedy replaces the ten-day check-in that catches the infections that genuinely need care.

Common myths about sinus infections, corrected

Several claims circulating this season deserve a direct correction, each paired with what the evidence shows.

Myth: Green mucus means you need antibiotics. Mucus color reflects white blood cells, not the type of germ. Viral and bacterial infections both produce green discharge, which is why no major guideline uses color alone to decide on antibiotics.

Myth: If you had a sinus infection last year, you should keep antibiotics on hand for the next one. Leftover antibiotics are almost always the wrong drug, the wrong amount, and taken for a viral illness. Repeated exposure also selects for resistant bacteria in your own nose and gut, which raises the stakes for a future infection that truly needs treatment.

Myth: A sinus infection that lasts more than a week is automatically bacterial. Viral congestion routinely lasts ten days, and lingering cough and stuffiness can outlast the virus by another week or two. The threshold clinicians use is ten days without improvement, not seven days total.

Myth: A CT scan will settle whether it’s viral or bacterial. Imaging shows swelling and fluid, both of which appear in viral colds. Scans are reserved for suspected complications, chronic sinusitis, or surgical planning, not for routine acute infections.

Myth: Antibiotics will make you feel better tomorrow. Even when bacteria are the cause, trials show antibiotics shorten illness by a day or two on average, and the benefit appears over the first week, not overnight.

Myth: Flying or swimming with a sinus infection is dangerous. Pressure changes are uncomfortable and can cause real ear and sinus pain, but they are not dangerous for most people. Anyone with severe pain, a recent ear surgery, or a suspected complication should ask a clinician before traveling.

Each of these myths shares a root: the wish for certainty faster than biology allows. The ten-day rule is slower, but it is honest.

Chronic sinusitis and when "sinus infection" is something else

Some readers will recognize none of the tidy timelines above, because their congestion never fully leaves. Chronic sinusitis is defined as twelve weeks or more of symptoms such as blockage, discharge, facial pressure, or reduced smell, confirmed by signs of inflammation on nasal examination or imaging. It affects roughly one in ten adults in some estimates and is a fundamentally different condition.

The drivers are usually inflammatory rather than infectious. Nasal polyps, which are soft, painless growths of swollen lining, block drainage in a subset of people. Persistent allergic rhinitis keeps the lining swollen year-round. A deviated septum, meaning the wall between the nostrils is off-center, or narrow sinus openings can impair drainage. Asthma, aspirin sensitivity, and certain immune conditions raise the risk. Cigarette smoke and other irritants keep the cilia from sweeping mucus properly.

Treatment reflects those causes. Daily saline irrigation and intranasal corticosteroids have the strongest trial support for chronic sinusitis. Allergy management, treatment of reflux when present, and in some cases surgery to open drainage pathways or remove polyps are options a specialist may discuss. Long antibiotic courses are used selectively and remain debated; the randomized evidence is thin. Newer injectable biologic medicines are approved for severe chronic sinusitis with polyps, again a decision for a specialist.

A few conditions masquerade as sinusitis and are worth naming so they are not missed. Migraine and tension headache produce facial pressure without discharge. A dental abscess in an upper tooth can inflame the sinus above it. Rarely, persistent one-sided blockage with bleeding warrants evaluation for a growth. None of these are reasons for alarm on their own, but they are reasons a clinician, rather than a search engine, should sort out a face that hurts for months.

When to see a doctor about a sinus infection

The ten-day rule covers the ordinary case. The situations below are different, and the right response is prompt medical care, not another round of steam.

Seek urgent care or emergency care the same day for:

• Swelling, redness, or pain around one eye, a bulging eye, double vision, or reduced vision. Infection can spread from the sinuses into the tissues around the eye, a condition called orbital cellulitis, which can threaten sight.
• Severe headache unlike your usual headaches, especially with a stiff neck, vomiting, confusion, drowsiness, or sensitivity to light. These can signal spread toward the brain, which is rare but serious.
• High fever with a swollen, tender, reddened area on the forehead or cheek.
• Difficulty breathing or swallowing, or a rapidly worsening feeling of being very unwell.

Make a routine appointment for:

• Symptoms lasting ten days or more without any improvement.
• A cold that was improving and then clearly worsened again.
• Fever of 102°F (39°C) or higher lasting three or more days alongside facial pain and discharge.
• Four or more sinus infections in a year, or congestion that has persisted for twelve weeks.
• Symptoms in a person with a weakened immune system from illness or treatment, in whom infections behave less predictably.
• Any sinus symptoms in an infant, or fever with facial pain in a young child, since children cannot describe pressure and complications appear faster.

If you are already taking a prescribed antibiotic and feel worse after two to three days, or develop a rash, severe diarrhea, or swelling of the lips or face, contact the prescriber promptly. Do not stop, extend, or swap the medicine on your own; those adjustments belong to the clinician who knows your history.

Seasoned clinicians will tell you they would rather see ten people at day ten who turn out to be fine than miss the one with a swollen eye. That is the right instinct for patients, too.

Frequently asked questions

How do you tell if you have a sinus infection rather than a cold?

A sinus infection is usually a cold that has shifted from the head to the face, with thick nasal discharge, blockage, and pressure around the cheeks, eyes, or forehead that worsens when bending forward. Reduced smell, upper tooth ache, and a night cough from post-nasal drip are common. There is no sharp dividing line, because a cold inflames the sinuses too; the label matters most when symptoms outlast the usual ten-day course.

Does a sinus infection go away by itself?

Most do. Viral sinus infections, which make up about 90 percent of cases, resolve within seven to ten days as the cold fades and drainage recovers. Even among bacterial infections, trials show roughly 80 percent of people improve within two weeks without antibiotics. Comfort measures help you through that window. See a clinician if symptoms pass ten days without improving, worsen after getting better, or include the red-flag signs described above.

What is the difference between a viral vs bacterial sinus infection?

The germ differs, but the symptoms overlap almost completely, which is why doctors rely on the timeline instead of appearance. Viral sinusitis peaks by day three to five and improves steadily. Bacterial sinusitis is suspected when symptoms last ten or more days without improvement, begin severely with high fever and facial pain, or worsen again after a period of recovery. No office test or scan reliably separates the two in routine cases.

How long does a sinus infection last without treatment?

Typically seven to ten days for the infection itself, with congestion and cough sometimes lingering another week or two while the swollen lining settles. The NHS notes sinusitis often clears within two to three weeks and most people do not need a doctor in that time. Sinusitis lasting beyond four weeks is called subacute, and beyond twelve weeks chronic, which has different causes and a different management approach.

What kills a sinus infection naturally?

Nothing you can take kills a sinus infection faster than your own immune system, which is what clears the large majority of cases. Natural measures with evidence, such as saline rinses, steam, warm fluids, rest, and honey for nighttime cough in children over one year, work by easing swelling and drainage rather than killing germs. Garlic in the nostrils, colloidal silver, and essential oils near the nose have no supporting trials and can cause injury.

How to get rid of sinusitis quickly?

There is no proven way to shorten a viral sinus infection dramatically, but you can make it more bearable. Saline irrigation, an intranasal corticosteroid spray, acetaminophen or ibuprofen for pain, humidified air, and sleeping with your head raised all have some evidence for comfort. Nasal decongestant sprays help briefly but cause rebound congestion beyond about three days. If a bacterial pattern develops, a clinician may add antibiotics, which typically shorten illness by a day or two.

Can I treat a sinus infection without antibiotics?

Yes, and for most people that is the recommended approach. Guidelines from the CDC and specialist societies support watchful waiting, meaning symptom treatment for several days with a plan to start antibiotics only if symptoms fail to improve or worsen. Saline rinses, intranasal steroid sprays, and pain relievers form the backbone. The exception is severe illness or any red-flag sign, where a clinician should assess you promptly rather than waiting.

What are the main sinus infection symptoms in children?

Children show the same pattern as adults, with thick nasal discharge, blockage, cough that is often worse at night, and sometimes irritability or poor sleep, but they rarely describe facial pressure. The ten-day rule applies to children too, and pediatric guidelines add that a daytime cough lasting beyond ten days is a common clue. Any fever with facial swelling, eye redness, or unusual drowsiness in a child needs same-day evaluation.

Is it safe to use a neti pot or saline rinse for a sinus infection?

Saline rinsing is generally safe and has randomized trial support for easing congestion, particularly in chronic sinusitis. The important precaution is the water. The CDC advises using distilled, sterile, or water that has been boiled for one minute and cooled, because untreated tap water has been linked to rare but severe infections from free-living amoebae. Rinse and air-dry the device after each use, and stop if it causes pain or bleeding.

Why did my doctor not prescribe antibiotics for my sinus infection?

Most likely because your symptoms fit a viral pattern, which antibiotics cannot change. Randomized trials show antibiotics help only a small fraction of people with acute sinusitis and roughly double side effects such as nausea and diarrhea. Clinicians also weigh antibiotic resistance and the risk of C. difficile infection. If your symptoms pass ten days without improvement or worsen after improving, return, because that changes the calculation.

References

• CDC – About Sinus Infection (Sinusitis)
• NHS – Sinusitis (sinus infection)
• Cleveland Clinic – Sinus Infection (Sinusitis)
• MedlinePlus – Sinusitis

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.