segunda-feira, fevereiro 05, 2007

A resistência do samba - Coluna de Artur Dapieve - :Fri Feb 24 02:30:07 2006

Coluna de Artur Dapieve

A resistência do samba

Não é de hoje que o samba vem discutindo sua relação com o carnaval. A
reportagem de Cesar Tartaglia e Marcia Cezimbra publicada na última
revista do GLOBO expõe a mais recente rusga: a puxada de tapete que a
Unidos de Vila Isabel aplicou logo em Martinho da Vila e Luiz Carlos da
Vila. Convidada pela diretoria a concorrer ao samba-enredo da escola, a
dupla de bambas serviu apenas para valorizar a vitória de outrem.

Talvez seja oportuno, também, discutir algo que, a meu ver, tem feito
tanto mal ao gênero musical quanto a clonagem anual de sambas-enredos
indigentes, o pagode-mauricinho ou o aluguel das escolas a políticos,
celebridades e turistas: o clichê “a resistência do samba”. Fora do
carnaval, época em que bem ou mal os tamborins soam ainda mais alto, a
expressão surge quase sempre que se fala ou escreve sobre o assunto.

No entanto, é bem difícil entender contra quem o samba resiste. Parece o
discurso paranóico do Lula. O sambista Zeca Pagodinho talvez seja, hoje,
o cantor mais popular do Brasil. A dúvida fica por conta, claro, do
longevo reinado de Roberto Carlos. Pagodinho talvez seja, também, o
maior cantor de samba vivo. Aqui, a minha dúvida fica por conta de outro
grande Roberto, o Silva, de 85 anos, intérprete, entre outros, dos
quatro formidáveis álbuns intitulados “Descendo o morro”, do fim da
década de 50 e do começo da de 60.

A popularidade e a excelência de Pagodinho fazem com que ele receba, o
ano inteiro, o tipo de cobertura jornalística dedicada apenas
eventualmente a um Mick Jagger: o que disse, onde esteve, o que fez, o
que comeu (ou bebeu). O canal por assinatura Sportv, por exemplo, estava
na casa do alvinegro Pagodinho quando ele recebeu os amigos americanos
Monarco e Mauro Diniz para assistirem à decisão da Taça Guanabara. E o
anfitrião — a quem assisti pela primeira vez em 1986, no velho campo do
América, num showmício do PDT com a falecida Jovelina Pérola Negra e
Almir Guineto — já foi até garoto-propaganda disputado por duas das
principais marcas de cervejas do país.

Cabe, então, perguntar: a que resiste o samba, se a sua face mais
visível goza deste merecido prestígio na grande mídia? A que resiste o
samba, se ele é, há décadas, o ramo mais robusto da nossa música,
transmutando-se na bossa nova, influenciando o pessoal dos festivais e
da Tropicália, fundindo-se ao pop-rock nativo? (Isso num dos três países
do mundo que mais escutam a própria música; os outros, a propósito, são
EUA e Japão.) A que resiste o samba, se o culto a ele movimenta as casas
noturnas da Lapa?

E, no entanto, ouvimos e lemos que o bairro sedia “a resistência do
samba”...

Todo clichê, ao imobilizar a fala, imobiliza também o pensamento. O que
se quer dizer quando se diz que uma coisa resiste a outra? Que ela está
na defensiva, sob ataque, está em posição inferior, de vítima. A
intenção dos retransmissores de clichê pode até ser boa, calcada na
lembrança da antiga perseguição referida em “Agoniza mas não morre”, de
Nelson Sargento. Contudo, na prática, eles diminuem o gênero que
pretendem engrandecer.

O samba não é escravo, o samba é senhor. Dizer menos que isso de um
gênero musical que vive em, além dos já mencionados, Paulinho da Viola,
Elton Medeiros, Nei Lopes, Jamelão, D. Ivone Lara, Aldir Blanc, Moacyr
Luz, Beth Carvalho, Walter Alfaiate, Jorge Aragão, Arlindo Cruz, soa-me
até ofensivo. Invocados pela “resistência do samba”, estes nomes acabam
é servindo de álibi para a abolição de todo espírito crítico.

Como tal retórica tem caráter patriótico, um mero senão equivale a alta
traição. Os bambas são usados, dentro desta lógica, exatamente como
Martinho e Luiz Carlos foram usados no concurso da Vila: para referendar
gente sem o seu talento. Porque é uma impossibilidade
estatística-estética que não haja disco ruim de samba, que toda jovem
cantora seja maravilhosa ou que todo velho sambista obscuro seja uma
preciosidade.

Admitir isso, todavia, seria crime de lesa-pátria. Então, tome elogio à
“resistência do samba”. Este discurso paternalista e mediocrizante já
teve conseqüências nefastas na cultura brasileira. Enquanto
considerou-se (e foi) merecedor de “uma força” do Estado e da crítica,
por exemplo, o nosso cinema patinou. Hoje, mesmo ao largo da retórica
nacionalista, a falta de senso crítico alimenta a nostalgia
esterilizante do rock dos anos 80.

O conservadorismo é, por sinal, outra faceta da “resistência do samba”.
Dois anos atrás, no site “NoMínimo”, o jornalista Paulo Roberto Pires,
ao defender Marcelo D2 numa discussão com os xiitas do gênero, criou um
termo feliz: talibambas . Foram eles que pediram para Mart’nália tocar
mais baixo seu pandeiro numa roda de samba na Lapa, como ela se queixou
aqui no Segundo Caderno, também há dois anos, ao repórter João Pimentel.

Recentemente, outro renovador do samba, Leandro Sapucahy, teve até
dificuldades de se apresentar no bairro. Só conseguiu graças ao aval de
Zeca Pagodinho, que participa de seu ainda inédito CD, bem como Marcelo
D2. Aos ouvidos do pessoal entrincheirado no passado, Sapucahy comete a
heresia de lançar uma ponte do samba ao rap, falando de tráfico,
mineira, bala perdida, Nextel. De tanto proteger o gênero, os talibambas
perigam sufocá-lo. Afinal, como diz o samba de Aluizio Machado, “água
demais mata a planta”.

segunda-feira, setembro 19, 2005

configuração de duas placas de som usando alsa (two soundcards)

# Alsa 0.9.X kernel modules' configuration file.
# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/media-sound/alsa-utils/files/alsa-modules.conf-rc,v 1.4 2004/11/16 01:31:22 eradicator Exp $

# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore

##
## IMPORTANT:
## You need to customise this section for your specific sound card(s)
## and then run `update-modules' command.
## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.
##
## ALSA portion
## alias snd-card-0 snd-interwave
## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371
## OSS/Free portion
## alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
##

# OSS/Free portion - card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
## OSS/Free portion - card #2
## alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss
## alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss
## alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

# Set this to the correct number of cards.

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF version 1.0.9a ---
options snd device_mode=0666 cards_limit=3
alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371
alias sound-slot-1 snd-ens1371
# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

#Paulo
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
alias snd-slot-0 snd-card-0

#options snd-ens1371 enable snd_index=1 snd_id=CARD_1
#options snd-via82xx enable snd_index=0 snd_id=CARD_0

quinta-feira, agosto 04, 2005

Salon.com News | Payola is dead! Now what will we listen to?

Salon.com News | Payola is dead! Now what will we listen to?: "
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/05/payola/print.html



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News


Payola is dead! Now what will we listen to?
The bizarre, sleazy system of independent radio promotion may finally have bitten the dust. But believe it or not, pop radio may get even worse.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Eric Boehlert

printe-mail

Jan. 5, 2005 | The new year brings some good news for artists, record companies and music fans. Independent promotion, the entrenched system by which record companies pay middlemen to get songs played on FM stations, has finally been reined in. It's the practice that's sucked hundreds of millions of dollars from the pockets of labels and artists, been tagged by critics as nothing more than legalized bribery, while helping dumb down radio playlists.

'Ding-dong the witch is dead,' crows one record company executive, who, like most people contacted for this article, agreed to talk only on the condition of anonymity. (The indie system may be going down but the topic remains sensitive inside record companies, where neither executives nor artists want to jeopardize potential radio airplay because of public statements.)

Under pressure from New York's nosy attorney general, who has already posted an "

terça-feira, junho 28, 2005

Know Your Numbers and Improve Your Odds

Published: June 28, 2005

Over the last 40 years, heart specialists have learned a lot about the way cholesterol behaves in the body, much to the benefit of Americans destined to suffer heart attacks or strokes - at least half of the population.

As knowledge has grown, the goals of treatment have changed, with lifesaving effects. And now they are changing again.

At first, pioneers bent on preventing cardiovascular disease focused only on a person's total blood cholesterol level. A level of 240 milligrams per deciliter of blood serum was considered "normal" just a few decades ago. Then research, like the Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts, showed that at least half of heart attack victims had cholesterol levels of 240 or below.

Today, the goal for total cholesterol is 200 or less, preferably 180 if you want to remain heart-healthy. Cholesterol is not soluble in water and thus requires substances called lipoproteins to carry it in blood.

As the chemistry and physiology of cholesterol became better understood through the work of scientists like Dr. Michael S. Brown and Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein, who shared a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1985, attention shifted to low density lipoprotein cholesterol, or L.D.L., the so-called bad cholesterol. When L.D.L. is oxidized, it becomes glued to the lining of arteries that feed the heart, brain and tissues throughout the body, setting the stage for a heart attack, stroke or peripheral vascular disease.

A Sliding Scale of Safety

Based on current recommendations, people otherwise at low risk for heart disease should have an L.D.L. level of less than 130. For someone known to be at high risk or who already has heart disease, the desirable level of L.D.L. is much lower, well below 100.

The statin drugs have revolutionized the treatment of elevated L.D.L. These drugs are especially effective combined with a heart-healthy diet and regular exercise.

But the statins don't do much for the newest, and perhaps more important, focus of concern about cholesterol. It is the level of high-density lipoproteins, or H.D.L., a reverse carrier of cholesterol. H.D.L., often referred to as the good cholesterol, acts like an arterial Roto-Rooter, clearing cholesterol from blood vessels and routing it to the liver for elimination from the body.

Unlike L.D.L., which should be a low as possible, the higher the blood level of H.D.L., the better, even if it means raising your total cholesterol level above 200. Low levels of H.D.L. - below about 40 milligrams for men and 50 for women - are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. People with "longevity syndrome," who live into their 90's without evidence of heart disease, typically have very high levels of H.D.L.

There is considerable evidence linking an increased risk of heart disease and stroke more strongly to low H.D.L. levels than to high L.D.L. levels. For every one-milligram rise in H.D.L., the risk for developing cardiovascular disease falls by 2 to 3 percent. An H.D.L. level of 60 milligrams or higher helps to protect against this major killer.

In addition to enabling the body to get rid of unwanted cholesterol, H.D.L. acts in several other protective ways: as an antioxidant deterring the harmful oxidation of L.D.L., and as an anti-inflammatory agent, helping to repair what is now considered a major player in blood vessel disease. And it has anticlotting properties, which can help keep blood clots from blocking arteries.

Dr. Mark E. McGovern, chief medical officer at Kos Pharmaceuticals, regards H.D.L. as the most important new lipid treatment target. "The need for drugs to increase H.D.L. is compelling and urgent," Dr. McGovern wrote in the April issue of Postgraduate Medicine.

Raising Good Cholesterol

Statins do raise H.D.L. levels a little, perhaps 5 to 10 percent, but rarely enough to protect someone with low H.D.L. Other drugs now in use do a better job.

Most effective are the niacin-based medications (but not niacin sold as a vitamin). These high-dose prescriptions come in immediate-release form to be taken two to four times a day and in extended-release form taken once a day. Niacin can raise H.D.L. levels by 15 to 30 percent, and it is especially effective at increasing the larger H.D.L. particles that do the best job of cleansing arteries.

The other prescription drugs that can raise H.D.L.'s are fibrates, most often used to lower blood levels of artery-damaging fats called triglycerides. The fibrates, including gemfibrozil (Lopid) and fenofibrate (Tricor and Lofibra), raise H.D.L. by 10 to 15 percent.

Developing more effective drugs to raise H.D.L. is an important goal. Meanwhile, some doctors are prescribing statins in combination with a niacin or fibrate. This is not ideal, since combining statins with fibrates greatly increases the risk of muscle damage, a rare but potentially serious complication of statins. Statins with niacin may cause liver problems.

But you do not have to wait for the development of safer drugs to improve your cholesterol profile. Changes in the way you live can help to raise H.D.L.

Regular aerobic exercise is a good place to start. But for it to result in a significant benefit in H.D.L., about 1,200 calories a week should be expended on activities like brisk walking, jogging, cycling or lap swimming. For most people, that means walking briskly for three miles four times a week. Duration of exercise, not intensity, confers the greatest benefit.

If you are overweight, losing weight can raise your H.D.L. level. And if you are a smoker, quitting all forms of tobacco can increase your H.D.L. by 15 to 20 percent.

Dr. Peter P. Toth of the University of Illinois School of Medicine at Peoria says certain dietary measures also help. A Mediterranean-style diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, olive oil and legumes, is strongly linked to high blood levels of H.D.L. So is eating more fish (and taking fish oil supplements) and consuming fewer refined carbohydrates.

A low-fat diet is not necessarily helpful. It may even lower H.D.L. levels if carbohydrates fill in the caloric gap. But the kinds of fats consumed can make a big difference.

Most helpful are the monounsaturated fats found in canola, olive, avocado, nut and seed oils; nuts and avocados. These can improve H.D.L. without raising L.D.L. But if you replace saturated fats with polyunsaturates like corn, safflower and soybean oils, both L.D.L. and H.D.L. levels are likely to fall.

Avoiding trans fats, formed when unsaturated oils are partly hydrogenated, is also important. These are found in many processed foods, especially snacks and packaged bakery items that contain added fats. Trans fats raise harmful L.D.L. and lower beneficial H.D.L.

Another helpful dietary measure is to increase the soluble fiber in your diet. Soluble fiber is found in fruits, vegetables, legumes and oats.

In addition, alcohol consumed in moderation, helps to raise H.D.L.'s. Consuming one or two drinks a day can increase H.D.L. levels significantly. Beyond that amount, alcohol can have harmful effects on the heart and increase cancer risk.

quinta-feira, maio 12, 2005

How Hip-Hop Music Lost Its Way and Betrayed Its Fans - New York Times

How Hip-Hop Music Lost Its Way and Betrayed Its Fans - New York Times

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How Hip-Hop Music Lost Its Way and Betrayed Its Fans

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By BRENT STAPLES
Published: May 12, 2005

African-American teenagers are beset on all sides by dangerous myths about race. The most poisonous one defines middle-class normalcy and achievement as "white," while embracing violence, illiteracy and drug dealing as "authentically" black. This fiction rears its head from time to time in films and literature. But it finds its most virulent expression in rap music, which started out with a broad palette of themes but has increasingly evolved into a medium for worshiping misogyny, materialism and murder.
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This dangerous narrowing of hip-hop music would be reason for concern in any case. But it is especially troubling against the backdrop of the 1990's, when rappers provoked a real-world gang war by using recordings and music videos to insult and threaten rivals. Two of the music's biggest stars - Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. - were eventually shot to death.

People who pay only minimal attention to the rap world may have thought the killings would sober up the rap community. Not quite. The May cover of the hip-hop magazine Vibe was on the mark when it depicted fallen rappers standing among tombstones under the headline: "Hip-Hop Murders: Why Haven't We Learned Anything?"

The cover may have been prompted in part by a rivalry between two rappers that culminated in a shootout at a New York radio station, Hot 97, earlier this spring. The events that led up to the shooting show how recording labels now exploit violence to make and sell recordings.

At the center of that Hot 97 shootout was none other than 50 Cent, whose given name is Curtis Jackson III. Mr. Jackson is a confessed former drug dealer who seems to revel in the fact that he was shot several times while dealing in Queens. He has also made a career of "beef" recordings, in which he whips up controversy and heightens tension by insulting rival artists.

He was following this pattern in a radio interview in March when a rival showed up at the station. The story's murky, but it appears that the rival's entourage met Mr. Jackson's on the street, resulting in gunfire.

Mr. Jackson's on-air agitation was clearly timed to coincide with the release of "The Massacre," his grotesquely violent and misogynist compact disc. The CD cover depicts the artist standing before a wall adorned with weapons, pointing what appears to be a shotgun at the camera. The photographs in the liner notes depict every ghetto stereotype - the artist selling drugs, the artist in a gunfight - and includes a mock autopsy report that has been seen as a covert threat aimed at some of his critics.

The "Massacre" promotion raises the ante in a most destructive way. New artists, desperate for stardom, will say or do anything to win notice - and buzz - for their next projects. As the trend escalates, inner-city listeners who are already at risk of dying prematurely are being fed a toxic diet of rap cuts that glorify murder and make it seem perfectly normal to spend your life in prison.

Critics who have been angered by this trend have pointed at Jimmy Iovine, the music impresario whose Interscope Records reaped millions on gangster rap in the 90's. Mr. Iovine makes a convenient target as a white man who is lording over an essentially black art form. But also listed on "The Massacre" as an executive producer is the legendary rapper Dr. Dre, a black man who happens to be one of the most powerful people in the business. Dr. Dre has a unique vantage point on rap-related violence. He was co-founder of Death Row Records, an infamous California company that marketed West Coast rap in the 1990's and had a front-row seat for the feud that led to so much bloodshed back then.

The music business hopes to make a financial killing on a recently announced summer concert tour that is set to feature 50 Cent and the mega-selling rap star Eminem. But promoters will need to make heavy use of metal detectors to suppress the kind of gun-related violence that gangster artists celebrate. That this lethal genre of art has grown speaks volumes about the industry's greed and lack of self-control.

But trends like this reach a tipping point, when business as usual becomes unacceptable to the public as a whole. Judging from the rising hue and cry, hip-hop is just about there.
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quarta-feira, maio 04, 2005

General Styling Questions

General Styling Questions

quinta-feira, março 17, 2005

sinusitis sinusite

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PERSONAL HEALTH

When Trouble Hits Those Holes in Your Head

By JANE E. BRODY

Published: March 15, 2005

You've had a cold for five to seven days and thought you were getting better. Then it grew worse. More congestion, increasing fatigue and now headache or facial pain around your nose or eyes or upper teeth. You guessed it was a sinus infection.

Depending on the severity of the symptoms, the doctor's examination and inclinations about treatment, you may be prescribed an antibiotic.

Advertisement

But is this what you need to get better?

Chances are, it is not. Most cases of acute sinusitis are caused by viruses, not bacteria, and taking an antibiotic does nothing more than enrich the pharmaceutical companies and increase the chances of being infected with drug-resistant bacteria.

The average adult catches two or three colds a year, and 0.5 to 2 percent of them are complicated by bacterial infections. In other words, if antibiotics are prescribed for most sinusitis cases, they are most likely being way overprescribed.

In the course of a year, an estimated 37 million Americans experience sinusitis, the fifth most common diagnosis for which antibiotics are prescribed in outpatient settings.

But how is the doctor to know whether an antibiotic is what is needed? Unless a sample of the pus in the nasal cavities is examined under a microscope - a rare act in most physicians' offices - there is no certain way to tell.

Doctors are advised to use antibiotics to treat sinusitis when at least three of four signs are present: purulent (yellowish or greenish) nasal discharge predominantly on one side, local facial pain mainly on one side, purulent nasal discharge on both sides or pus in the nasal cavity.

Many physicians as well as patients take purulent nasal discharge lasting seven or more days as the primary indication of a bacterial sinus infection. Yet, study after careful study has shown no reliable benefit of antibiotics when doctors try to apply this or any of the other criteria in deciding on drug treatment.

In the latest study, published last month in The Journal of Family Practice, no significant benefit over a placebo was found from using the antibiotic amoxicillin among 135 patients with typical indications of a sinus infection. All the patients complained of sinusitis, with pus in the nasal cavity, facial pressure or nasal discharge lasting longer than seven days.

A small subgroup of patients receiving the antibiotic became better faster than the others. But the researchers were unable to discern anything about those patients in advance of treatment that indicated a bacterial infection, as opposed to a viral one.

That does not mean that antibiotics are useless in treating sinusitis. But it does mean more research is needed to help doctors determine who is most likely to benefit from the costly and potentially harmful drugs.

Many people who do not seek medical care for an apparent sinus infections try to treat the problem on their own, typically buying one or more over-the-counter "sinus remedies."

Many millions of dollars are spent on such "remedies," none of them getting at the cause of the problem.

So What Is Sinusitis?

Sinusitis is simply an inflammation of the lining of the sinus cavities. There are four pairs of sinuses, which are spaces normally filled with air in the front of the skull: over the eyes in the brow area; inside each cheekbone; just behind the bridge of the nose and between the eyes; and in the upper region of the nose and behind the eyes. The membranes that line the sinus cavities are moistened by thin mucus.

Sinus inflammation has many causes, including infection by viruses, bacteria or fungi; an allergic reaction to a food or environmental substance; or the response to an inhaled irritant like tobacco smoke or outdoor or indoor air pollution.

Each sinus cavity has an opening into the nose to allow a free exchange of air and mucus. But if something causes swelling within the nose, air can be trapped inside a sinus cavity, along with pus and other secretions, causing increased pressure on the wall of the sinus. Or the congestion can create a vacuum in a sinus cavity. Either causes pain when air can no longer pass freely in and out of a sinus cavity.

Typical symptoms of sinusitis depend on which cavity or cavities are involved. These are some of the symptoms:

? A headache upon awakening.

? Pain when the forehead is touched.

? An ache in the upper teeth or jaw or a cheek that is tender to the touch.

? Swollen eyelids and tissues around the eyes and pain between the eyes.

? Loss of smell, stuffy nose and tenderness on the sides of the nose.

? Earaches, neck pain and a deep aching on the top of the head.

There are three ways to characterize sinus attacks: acute, lasting three weeks or less; chronic, three to eight weeks and, perhaps, months or years; and recurrent, referring to several acute attacks a year.

It is reasonable to conclude that you have acute sinusitis when a cold becomes worse after a week or persists for more than two weeks, especially if it is accompanied by a purulent nasal discharge that fills paper tissue after tissue.

Chronic sinusitis, on the other hand, is most likely a result of an airborne allergy to substances like mold, dust and pollen that cause chronic allergic rhinitis (nasal inflammation).

Seeking Treatments

The treatment for sinusitis is best determined by its likely cause. With or without antibiotics, most cases of acute sinusitis clear up in two weeks.

An acute attack, at the outset, is best treated symptomatically.

The most important action is drinking lots and lots of liquids, which help thin secretions in the nose and sinuses and promote drainage. Hot soup and spicy foods help, as well. You can also use a saline nose spray or even a nasal saline wash (each is sold over the counter), as many times a day as needed to loosen secretions. And each is harmless.

Humidifying the air also helps, as long as you prevent mold growth. The preferred method is to wet a washcloth with hot water, or heat a wet cloth in the microwave for about two minutes. Hold it over the nose and mouth and breathe the warm moist air.

Another approach is to use a portable battery-operated humidifier that delivers moist air through a mask over the nose and mouth. If you use a humidifier or vaporizer, you must thoroughly clean the equipment every day and refill it each time with clean water to prevent the growth of allergenic molds.

During a sinus attack, avoid alcoholic beverages, which increase nasal and sinus swelling. Flying can also make things worse. If you're using an oral or a nasal decongestant, limit treatment to three days, lest you create a rebound reaction that worsens the inflammation.

If inflammation seems chronic and persists despite 10 days' antibiotic therapy, consider consulting an allergist to find the cause. While self-treatments described above can reduce symptoms, significant relief can result from the use of a prescribed nasal steroid that is inhaled.

Humming can also help by increasing air flow to the sinuses, as can nasal strips that widen the nasal passages. But there is no scientific evidence - only testimonials - to support the benefit of colloidal silver nose drops.

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