# Is THIS a joke? (please God...) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2000, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572 "2000-04-12T21:04:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LabRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/898d66/32.png) [@LabRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LabRat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/1 "2000-04-13T05:00:00Z")
Tell me they’re kidding. They’re kidding, right? www2.active.ch/~gerstei/main.en.html * * * A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he’s pissed. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/2 "2000-04-13T05:18:00Z")
This looks suspiciously similar to ear candling, which indeed exists (although the efficacy of it is somewhat debatable). So I’d have to guess you actually can order one of these. Here’s Cecil’s article on [ear candles](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_098.html). ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/3 "2000-04-13T05:31:00Z")
It doesn’t look any nuttier than any of the other alternative remedies out there. Sticking a candle in your ear, sticking needles in your body, drinking urine, rearranging your furniture, flushing out your knows… see, it fits right in. * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy Are we kin? Visit me at [The Kat House](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/home.htm) and find out! [Join the FSH Muscular Dystrophy Webring](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/fshwebring.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/4 "2000-04-13T05:32:00Z")
Flushing out your _nose_. Still sounds nutty. * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy Are we kin? Visit me at [The Kat House](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/home.htm) and find out! [Join the FSH Muscular Dystrophy Webring](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/fshwebring.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/5 "2000-04-13T05:52:00Z")
Uhh, am I missing something? It’s just a device to flush out your sinuses with saline, right? Sounds like a perfectly normal practice to me. I’ve never seen this particular device before; what I have seen is a little squirt bottle which you apply kind of like eye drops … you tilt your headback, and the saline runs through your nose and down your throat. It’s not pleasant, but it’s vastly preferable to those nasty nasal sprays with decongestant drugs in them. Have you ever been swimming in the ocean, and noticed that your sinuses were clear afterwards? Maybe this isn’t a common reaction but it works for me. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/6 "2000-04-12T21:04:00Z")
Sounds like total BS to me. I don’t know how I’d be able to let salt water run through my nasal cavity without choking on it. If you’ve ever had any kind of liquid accidentally go up you nasal pasage when drinking, that would be the feeling I would expect… and for me, it wasn’t very pleasant. * * * -Dragwyr “If God had meant for man to eat waffles, he would have given him lips like snowshoes” -Rev. Billy C. Wirtz ---
**Author:** ![SingleDad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@SingleDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SingleDad)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/7 "2000-04-12T21:20:00Z")
I had a cold a couple months ago. Because Denver has really dry air, and perhaps also because I smoke, the cold dried my nose out so much I wasn’t able to sleep because of the pain and discomfort. I bought a bottle of neutral saline solution that morning. I tried it that night and although I woke up every couple of hours with a dry nose and had to put in a couple more squirts, overall I slept pretty comfortably. * * * Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/8 "2000-04-12T21:42:00Z")
But is it something that _needs_ to be done on a regular basis? I daresay, human beings have survived fine lo these many millenia without buying this doo-dad. Why do we need it now? And this line: > [@](#): > > After the first few uses, you might experience a slight irritation in your nasal cavity. This is a sign that the clearing of your nasal passages was a necessity. Sounds like typical alterna-health propaganda. “If it hurts, that means it’s working! The impurities are being flushed out and _that’s_ what’s causing the pain!” Perhaps the “slight irritation” comes from pouring a half-gallon of salt water up your nose? Maybe a person with dried out sinuses does benefit from a squirt of saline solution, but this product looks like it was designed to appeal to the “flush it out” way of thinking. Just like I’m sure there are people who benefit from an enima, but I doubt regular “high colonics” to clean up “impurities” in the intestines really are necessary or beneficial. Go ahead, if you want a nose enema, or high “nostrilnic,” then send them your money, but they can keep their nostrums out of my nostrils, thankyouverymuch. * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy Are we kin? Visit me at [The Kat House](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/home.htm) and find out! [Join the FSH Muscular Dystrophy Webring](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/fshwebring.htm) ---
**Author:** ![LabRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/898d66/32.png) [@LabRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LabRat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/9 "2000-04-13T04:02:00Z")
I have to say I agree with the “sounds like purge-the-toxins bullsh\*t” crowd. I had an anatomy lab in college and got a look at how extensive your sinuses are. I don’t think that thing could get reach enough of your sinuses to be significant even if flushing did help. I also agree that the line about “if it hurts, you needed it” is baloney. I guess if it was agonizing you’d be getting REALLY healthy. -LabRat * * * A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he’s pissed. ---
**Author:** ![LabRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/898d66/32.png) [@LabRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LabRat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/10 "2000-04-13T04:03:00Z")
Gr8Kat, you’re kidding about that drinking urine stuff, right? ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/11 "2000-04-13T04:18:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by LabRat: > \*\*Gr8Kat, you’re kidding about that drinking urine stuff, right? \*\* Nope check [this](http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/cvdk/urinetherapy/index.html)out . * * * _If you christians were more like your Christ the world would be a better place_ -Mahatma Gandhi ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/12 "2000-04-13T04:24:00Z")
Lets try that again. Check [[http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/cvdk/urinetherapy/index.html](http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/cvdk/urinetherapy/index.html)]this out . ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/13 "2000-04-13T04:25:00Z")
Screw it you know what I meant. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/14 "2000-04-13T04:42:00Z")
Actually, flushing out the sinuses with saline solution was part (a small part)of treatment my boss got at the Mayo Clinic! I believe they were a bit more agressive than the device above could be. Since you can squirt saline solution up your nose with an $3 ear wax remover, why would you want to pay $49.95 for a glass bulb? Yes, I remember Cecil had a Yogi pull a string through his nose on the old TV show. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/15 "2000-04-13T04:56:00Z")
I actually saw an article about the health benefits of urine, but because of copyright concerns I guess I’ll only quote the first and last sentences of the article: decreased likelihood of heart attacks, team > [@](#): > > BALTIMORE–A team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found a link between the consumption of dog urine and the decreased likelihood of heart attacks, team leaders announced Tuesday in cracking, uneven voices. > > … > > ``` > Tuesday's announcement is believed to be the most significant medical breakthrough from the Johns Hopkins team since its 1997 discovery that a grape stuffed in the left nostril for 48 hours will lower blood pressure by 30 percent. > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/16 "2000-04-13T06:47:00Z")
So, you hoped it was a joke, but apparently it 'snot. ---
**Author:** ![Zor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/848f3c/32.png) [@Zor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zor)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/17 "2000-04-13T07:10:00Z")
**he Ryan** , would you care to give us a cite? I’d be interested in reading that article 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Commander\_Fortune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Commander\_Fortune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Fortune)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/18 "2000-04-13T07:28:00Z")
No Joke. I flush my nasal sinus with salt water as needed during hayfever season. Pretty superflous little bottle considering a bulb syringe will only run you about $2.99 though. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/19 "2000-04-13T07:50:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Zor: > **he Ryan, would you care to give us a cite? I’d be interested in reading that article 🙂** It’s from the 28 July 1999 issue of America’s Finest News Source. ---
**Author:** ![LabRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/898d66/32.png) [@LabRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LabRat)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2000, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/20 "2000-04-15T05:06:00Z")
Do you supose that the grape-up-the-nostril interferes with the bouquet of the dog whiz? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572.md?page=2)