I’ve never had much luck with my net pot but I also usually use it at the beginning of a head cold. I’ve heard that it can help shorten the duration of the cold and make it less painful by this isn’t the case, in my experience.
I’ve also been told that it can speed up the head clearing at the end of a cold so that’s what I was going for just now.
I have only 2 words to describe it
SNOT PLUG
Someone needs to invent a neti pot for my lungs because they could totally use the same treatment right about now.
I did have one problem this time. I’m not sure if the water was a smidge too hot or if I didn’t mix the powder well enough but the second nostril felt like I was snorting acid. Hurt like crazy. Ouch.
Once the burning stopped, yes. I spent about 2 or 3 minutes blowing my nose but now I feel remarkably clear. I’m less light headed than I was 15 minutes ago. I’m not constantly snuffling either, which is nice because it doesn’t sound pleasant in polite company. I have never noticed such an immediate improvement after using a neti pot but this is also the only time I’ve used it when my head was already trying to clear itself.
My chest still feels full and phlegmy with rumbling and productive coughing but my head is singing the praises of the almighty neti pot.
That is perhaps my favorite (and most disgusting) time to use a neti pot. It feels like a really productive use of my time to be blowing so much gunk out.
It’s also oddly fascinating. NOT that I want to have a cold anytime soon.
I know some people love their neti pots, but I just… tolerate mine.
I hate the feeling of using it. Hate hate hate it. Yes, it’s interesting to see all the gunk that has taken up residence in my sinuses, all the pretty colors and such, but the feeling just feels so wrong to me.
It works, but it’s sort of like that guy who had to cut off his arm with a Swiss Army knife to survive the fall into the crevasse. Ok, maybe not exactly like that, but it’s close.
Never used the pot, but used their nasal irrigation squirt bottles. Its the wierdest sensation. I do it slowly enough to not trigger a cough reflex, but it feels like my whole head is filling up with water…slowly!
I remember a few years back reading about some folks investigating using dense, oxygen-carrying liquids to flush out crap from lungs. It was aimed at treating cystic fibrosis. Haven’t seen anything recently.
Congo, it’s not supposed to burn! You’re either using an unbuffered solution, or you’ve got way too much salt and not enough water. You can buffer the solution by adding half as much sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) as you do salt. Also, skip the table salt. It has iodine, and iodine fucking stings!
Also, Wiki says you can use the same solution, only stronger (hypertonic) in a nebulizer to help clear out the gunk in your chest. Interestingly enough, I read an article awhile back that said the lungs had “taste receptors” for bitter substances and would dilate the bronchi if in response. The theory on this was that mold spores have a bitter taste, and if they were inhaled, opening the bronchi would help the person cough them out so they couldn’t colonize the lungs. So, you could, in theory (I don’t know if it’s been tried), use a nebulizer and some (diet) tonic water (has quinine, very bitter) to clear out your lungs.
God yes I love my neti pot! I just finished vet tech school. The next to last quarter, we visited a hog farm. I have never experienced a more horrifying stench in my life! When we got home, I took an extra long shower (lather, rinse, REPEAT!) but could still smell the foulness. So I used the neti pot to wash the funk out of my nose. Worked like a charm! My husband has more chronic issues, but I’ve been happy to have it around more than once.
I don’t make my own solution! I have a huge amount of official Neti Pot packets and they’re the same ones I’ve used every time I’ve used it. That’s why I think I didn’t mix it well enough and I got a noseful of powder and a little water, or the water was too hot. I tend to like my water pretty hot and I might have forgotten that when I was filling the pot for the second time. Considering that I forgot the word milk yesterday and I misread the car clock because I forgot that disconnecting the battery stops it, I wouldn’t be surprised if I poured boiling water down my nostril. I tend to get stupid when I have a head cold. That’s why I don’t make my own solution.
While my neti pot is not successful 100% of the time for me, it does indeed help me breathe. I always use it after mowing the lawn or doing any activity that involves cleaning up moldy items. I use it when I have a cold too, but I have been so stuffed up that the water couldn’t move through at all.
The bonus in using them is the entertainment they provide when you demonstrate them for grade-school children.
I tried mine on Sunday (power was out - I had nothing more interesting to do) and I was so stuffed that after 15 minutes, I was able to dribble approximately 2 tablespoons of water out of my right nostril and nothing out of my left. I figured I’d give it a couple days before I tried again.
Here’s another hint: use the Neti pot in the shower!
If you trust your municipal water system, just fill the pot from the shower head. This has the additional benefit of being the EXACT proper temperature.
I’m on a private well system, and I’m leery of urban legend, although I admit, brushing my teeth and cooking and washing the rest of my body doesn’t seem to cause any problems. And I’m not obtaining my water from a tepid Florida pond teeming with God-knows-what.
Using bottled water is painful, because the damned stuff is COLD compared to perfect shower temperature water.
~VOW
I resisted using this sinus-wash stuff for years, but after a particularly evil sinus infection, I found that it cleared me out better than anything other than simply getting well.
This may very well wipe out the need for me to ever use antibiotics again, as my body was able to defeat the infection after a week of daily neti-pot usage, where normally that would have been the time that PND caused me to have a bloody throat, sending me to the doctor for vicodin and antibiotics…
Well, after a day of supposed improvement, the cold is getting worse again. 'nother brain washing and 'nother snot plug. Resisting cold medicine for now because I REALLY need to do homework but I’m not sure how long I’m gonna last.
