Former NFL running back Marshall Faulk suffered from postnasal drip, until he discovered balloon sinuplasty. | Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Department of Agriculture
Former NFL running back Marshall Faulk suffered from postnasal drip, until he discovered balloon sinuplasty. | Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Department of Agriculture
NFL Hall-of-Famer Marshall Faulk says balloon sinuplasty is “a must” after he underwent the procedure to alleviate years of suffering from postnasal drip and sinusitis.
Faulk, who played 13 years in the NFL, said he “tried it all” over the years to treat his sinusitis, but nothing worked until he found out about balloon sinuplasty.
“The minute that I wasn’t working out every day of my life, the problems that I had started to magnify,” Faulk said in a YouTube video posted by Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.
After his time as a running back ended, he began a career as an analyst with the NFL Network covering the NFL draft. He said it was during that period when his symptoms became worse and began to affect his voice.
“If I was at work, broadcasting, I started having severe postnasal drip,” Faulk said, adding that he tried taking allergy medicine, rinsing his nasal cavity and taking steam showers, but none of the remedies helped.
“I was trying all kinds of homeopathic remedies and teas and stuff like that,” he said in the YouTube video. “I literally tried it all.”
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, balloon sinuplasty is a minimally invasive procedure used to treat sinusitis or sinus infections, where doctors place a small balloon through the nose to dilate the sinus openings by inflating the balloon. The results of the procedure typically are permanent.
“It’s crazy that it was such a simple procedure to get done to fix something that I struggled with for a long time,” Faulk said.
Faulk, who played for San Diego State University, was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in 1994, won Rookie of the Year honors in his first season and was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 2000, when he scored 26 touchdowns that season while playing for the St. Louis Rams. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
Dr. Matt Hershcovitch and the team at SoCal Breathe Free Sinus & Allergy Centers offer balloon dilation as a first line of defense for patients like Faulk, who struggle with sinusitis getting in the way of living their life.
If you're interested in evaluating your symptoms and are considering seeing a doctor, take this Sinus Self-Assessment Quiz.
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