# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![smilingjaws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@smilingjaws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smilingjaws)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2000, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/21 "2000-04-15T05:21:00Z")
You can sneer all you want at this practice, but I do this every time my sinuses get clogged. I also, use a bulb syringe (baby nasal aspirator), fill it with a salt water solution (pinch of baking soda added to cut the sting) and snort it up my nose. I have very bad allergies and typical deviated septum. My sinuses get clogged and doing the aspiration clears them out so I can breathe. It also seems to clear irritants out of my sinuses so I can stop allergy attacks before they become serious. This works much better than $50/bottle prescription drugs. I started doing this after having 8 sinus infections in one winter and being on antibiotics and decongestants continuously. Since that time (3 years ago) I just irrigate my sinuses at the first sign of trouble. Now snot doesn’t get stuck up in my sinuses and allow bacteria to grow and my sinuses to become infected. I’d rather clean my sinuses with salt water anyday than take lots of prescription drugs. I’m even more paranoid about this since a child in my daughter’s school died from a sinus infection that was treated improperly, developed into a brain abscess and killed her. ---
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/22 "2000-04-14T18:38:00Z")
“It also doubles as a swell bong! And if you flush your nose with the bong water you get a double high!!!” ---
**Author:** ![warinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@warinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/warinner)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/23 "2000-04-14T21:34:00Z")
Gr8Kat wrote: > [@](#): > > 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. It’s hardly alternative medicine. Saline irrigation is a recommended treatment for chronic sinusitis. The basic thinking, as I understand it, is that sinus infections are caused by anaerobic bacteria that are normal sinus flora but cause problems when the sinuses are congested. One obvious treatment is to flush the backed up snot out. > [@](#): > > Rhinology 1986 Dec;24(4):265-9 > Balanced physiological saline in the treatment of chronic rhinitis. > > Nuutinen J, Holopainen E, Haahtela T, Ruoppi P, Silvasti M > > The effects of a special balanced physiological saline on nasal symptoms of 93 patients with chronic rhinitis were studied. The main diagnoses of the patients were allergic rhinitis, atrophic rhinitis and ozaena, rhinitis sicca, chronic sinusitis, nasal polyposis and postoperative condition after nasal surgery. The tested solution was administered by a simple metered dose pump. 85 (91%) of the patients reported beneficial effects of the tested solution on nasal symptoms. In addition, 22 (71%) of those patients who used continuous anti-allergic medication, mainly intranasal steroids, reported that the tested solution improved the efficacy of their ordinary drug. So the tested solution proved to be beneficial in humidifying atrophic or otherwise dry mucosa, douching crusty nose and as adjuvant therapy in the treatment of allergic rhinitis. > Allergy Asthma Proc 1998 Jul-Aug;19(4):181-4 > > Treatment of sinusitis in the next millennium. > > Kaliner M > > Institute for Asthma and Allergy, Washington Hospital Center, District of Columbia, USA. > > Sinusitis is an increasingly more important disease due to its increasing prevalence, costs, and recognition. Most acute sinusitis episodes follow colds or acute allergic rhinitis. Chronic sinusitis is most commonly due to allergic and nonallergic rhinitis or anatomical defects in the nose. Several common immunologic abnormalities usually present as sinusitis and may be recognized first by the allergist-immunologist. Treatment involves a carefully selected antibiotic prescribed for an adequate period of time, nasal hygiene using nasal saline washes, topical nasal corticosteroids, and decongestants. Medical management of sinusitis tends to be effective, even in patients with long-standing sinus disease. I don’t think using sea salt or nonsterile water is such a hot idea though. Andrew Warinner ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2000, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/24 "2000-04-15T15:39:00Z")
I’m using it. Not that brand (mine is based on a plain old WaterPik with a 3rd-party adaptor on the end) but same idea. Can’t swear by it yet, but it seems to be helping. Frankly, things have reached the point that I’d seriously consider a bag of concrete and a turkey baster (seal up the entire nasal cavity and breathe through my mouth for the rest of my life)-- On the “purpose for visit” line at the ENT doc’s form, I put “ototomy”–so the prospect of running salt water up one nostril and out the other wasn’t especially daunting. * * * Disable Similes in this Post ---
**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 17, 2000, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/25 "2000-04-17T00:42:00Z")
Ha. You made me laugh, AHunter. Basically, because the concrete-and-turkey-baster suggestion is along the same lines as one I came up with in a fit of nasal desperation: snort a poisonous, powdered metal up my nose so that it would kill my mucous membrances forever. Someone then told me that then my dead mucous membranes would probably swell and make it worse. I dropped that idea. The point is, sinus problems can drive us to consider the sinuses our enemy, rather than just another part of our body. I’ve gotten better now, and consider flushing out my sinuses to be a much better solution than a radical skull amputation, nose transplant, implanting a permanent anaesthetic dispenser, or anything like that. ---
**Author:** ![CalifBoomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CalifBoomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalifBoomer)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/26 "2000-04-17T01:18:00Z")
Oh, so _that’s_ the way you use that thing. No wonder I always have water in my shoes. ---
**Author:** ![Sentinel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sentinel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sentinel)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/27 "2000-04-17T20:12:00Z")
I still know people who INSIST that a person must have regular enemas to clean out their bowels of ‘clotted masses of dead red meat’ (like any meat in there would be alive). Not to mention the assorted ‘healthy and invigorating’ solutions of herbs and such that can be squirted up there. Nothing like packing your butt with weeds. Actually, a couple of large, green salads would do the same or a few doses of any available fiber laxative. The nasal thing is probably a scam. The body has ways of cleaning itself naturally anyhow and I don’t think it gets real far into the sinus cavities. I’ve known of people with major sinus problems who have had their sinuses surgically cleared and it is not a real easy or pleasant thing. I think all that thing does is flush out the nose itself. For $49.95, it’s over priced. A child’s ear syringe would do the same for 75 cents. * * * **CAREFUL! We don’t want to learn from this!** (Calvin and Hobbs) ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/28 "2000-04-18T06:43:00Z")
Saline rinsing is a valid Western medical technique for: 1. Rinsing away iritants (pollens, bugs, etc…) 2. Dealing with stubborn congestion (remember, salt water reduces inflammation). And this is good to stop allergic reactions and infections. If you look on the shelves in the OTC drug section among the nasal decongestant sprays, you’ll find a cheap saline spray there. The glass ball running water saline treatment is way over the top. Granted, in extreme congestion cases or for chronic conditions, Western MDs will use irrigation. But there is no need for a regular rinsing of the nasal cavity by the average person. Those with allergies will find the saline spray to be sufficient. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572/29 "2000-04-18T20:32:00Z")
I think the biggest problem with this or most other “alternative” treatments is that too much is claimed for them. Will this doodad clear out congested nasal passages? Sure! Will it cure the common cold, cancer, and toejam? Of course not. Most alternative remedies do have SOME value (ok, so homeopathy isn’t good for much except keeping you from dying of thirst), but their proponents take that and run with it. * * * “There are only two things that are infinite: The Universe, and human stupidity-- and I’m not sure about the Universe” –A. Einstein [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-joke-please-god/10572.md?page=1)