After visiting Ethilrist’s link and trying Sttua’s method last night, I have two questions.
Is there any reason for using sea salt rather than table salt? Sea salt does taste different to me, especially on fresh cut vegetables and directly on food, but is there really a difference when it’s diluted in water and squirted up your nose?
When I tried the bowl method. It seemed to work well enough, but the main sensation was, not surprisingly, like getting water up your nose when swimming. I have to wonder if that uncomfortable feeling goes away or diminsihes over time. One link I’ve looked at implied that the discomfort goes away after using the Neti Pot for awhile. Is that truefor the bowl method too?
I believe the reason for sea salt is that it is uniodized, and therefore a more “natural” thing to squirt up your nose. Perhaps the nosebleeds were a result of my irony meter being broken… maybe that’s where we keep them…
I use Nasopure and have been happy with it. I have a looong history of sinus infections, allergies and general stuffiness. Since using Nasopure I have reduced the frequency of the sinus infections. It also really helps me restore more normal air flow through my nose.
I have sinuses I wouldn’t wish an asthmatic Pekingese.
I’ll have to wait until I develop an issue and maybe I’ll take some purple microdot and do the neti thing (I want the experience to be complete).
My son used to snort up the end of a chain (you know…the kind that is bead-straight-bead-straight-bead-straight-bead) and cough the end out of his mouth and run the thing back and forth…just because he could.
Good question. Ours was a gift, and that person might have got it at a store that sells health food products. She does yoga, too, so it was probably some yoga type store. . .you might look in a “new age” store that sells crystals and soap and books, that kind of crap.
The more I read the boards, the less confident I am in my ability to detect and unravel sarcasm. I assume the “quotes” around natural are meant to indicate that iodized salt is, in reality, no different for your sinuses than sea salt and that natural, in this context, means “feel good” or something like it.
I friend recommended these the other day, and I had never heard of them. Then, here is a thread about them.
So, I went yesterday and bought one. To answer an earlier question, local drug stores carry them. They’re under the brand name sinucleanse. For fifteen bucks they give you a plastic pot, some salt and, oddly a spoon (because otherwise I would apparently have no way of stirring in said salt).
Anyway, I’ve done it twice so far and it has helped a bit, but I’m pretty clogged up right now (bad sinuses + the tail end of a cold). It isn’t uncomfortable. A bit odd at first, but no biggie.
The problem I’m having is that I’m so clogged that the water basically just sits there and doesn’t flow through. I get a bit of a drip going, but it would take half an hour for the whole thing to go through. I’m wondering if over time it will get better.
Many folks approach this problem in one of two ways.
One, they can make the salt concentration a bit higher, thereby pulling more moisture out of the nasal tissues.
Two, if nothing can get thru and they don’t feel like keeping their head tipped to the side for 10 minutes, they use an over-the-counter nasal spray containing oxymetolazine first, thus opening up the plugged nose. Then they follow it with the solution.
The smart folks don’t use the nasal spray very often. Otherwise the nose begins to depend on it to get decongested. The neti pot is often used to get people off of nasal sprays, but in a pinch, a spray or two on infrequent occasions can help.
Thanks for the advice. I think overuse of nasal spray about ten years ago is what has put me in a bad sinus situation today. I still use it from time to time, but have definitely cut it down to emergency situations.
I’ll stick with the pot for awhile, and I’m optimistic about it.
I will throw my hat into the Neti Pot ring. I started using mine last Spring after hearing about a study published last winter in JAMA or NEJM saying regular use reduced allergy symptoms. My purely anecdotal evidence showed that while all my neighbors complained that this past spring had been the worst allergy season they’d ever had, this was my best. (Disclaimers: Most of my neighbors are recent NY/NJ transplants, and may have never experienced the joy that is North Carolina in the spring.)
When using one for the first time, it is very important to use warm water. If your water is too cold or too hot, you will pray for the sweet release of death, because hell couldn’t possibly be this bad. Trust me.
I also grind my own salt. Those little, premeasured packets they sell at the drug store are just too damned expensive. I only use them if I’m traveling, and don’t want to explain to the TSA why I have a tupperware container full of a white crystalline powder. I use a 5:1 salt to baking soda ratio, and run it in a blender 10 seconds on and 10 seconds off three times, and keep it in a tupperware container with a couple of silica gel packs to absorb moisture.
Um, no, it’s meant to indicate that salt water of any kind up your nose is not necessarily a survival-oriented occurrence, and is likely to cause your body to freak out. One of my goals past the age of 40 is to stop freaking my body out, because it tends to react badly to such things.
Just a few months ago I was told by my allergist to use SinusRinse for some crazy bad allergies. I did it for the 2 weeks until my next appointment and haven’t used it since- it’s the most unpleasant non-painful thing I can imagine. I hated the whole process, it tickled my sinuses and throat and made me cough and gooey trails of saltwatery-snot would run out of the opposite nostril. It did work, but I’m not looking forward to the next bout of allergies.
This picture cracks me up, though. Pretty girl wants to be a model, sends her picture in to an agency. Gets called for a job to model some “health & beauty aids”. Shows up at the shoot and is directed to snort salt water up her nose from a little teapot. Smile!
Thanks for letting me know where to look. We stopped into a Whole Foods last night and bought one there. My husband tried it when we got home and has now said a few times that he thinks it’s really going to help. So, yay!
Whereas idiots like me, who (15 years ago or so) used oxymetazoline spray daily for a full year, are left to wonder whether that past abuse contributes to their present-day sinus woes.
Heh… that’s the pot I purchased (cheap and flimsy, sort of like a kid’s beach toy, but functional) and I had a similar thought about the photo. The fact that she looks uncannily like an old ex-girlfriend just made it funnier.
I had a teacher in highscool, who was adicted to nasal spray. She kept a big jug of it on her desk and would snort several times during class. The weird thing ( or weirder thing) was, that was before you could go to Costco or Sam’s and get a big jug of anything. She had one of the local drugstores, special order her jugs by the case.