Santa Ana winds blow into Orange County at least three times a year, and this massage therapist is used to hearing the question: Is it a sinus headache or tension? Well, yes and yes.

Sinuses are sensitive to excessive dust and pollens, even if a person does not have allergies. Muscles around the scalp and face can react to impurities in the air with a scrunch, leading to a telling side-of-the-head tension pain that we often call sinus headaches.

Neti pots help flush the sinuses, but for people with tension knots in the scalp and neck, standing over the sink and tilting the head to drain water through the sinus can make the tension worse.

My solution is to take a good shower, blowing air out of the nose to clear the sinuses at the end of the shower. And, of course, a therapeutic massage to unravel knots in the neck, above the ear and across the large sinus behind the forehead and cheeks.

I like to call this massage the “brain transplant” as it tends to open up not only clogged sinuses but also all those little problem-solving furrows around the forehead and eyes.

Bon air!

-- Sue