I used a neti pot, but I purchased a SinuPulse nasal irrigator about a year ago and it works better for me. It’s essentially a lower-pressure Water-pik for your nose. The pulsating action dislodges gunk better than a simple stream.
4 Likes
Ten years with nasal polyps here. I picked up my new NeilMed bottle for free yesterday from the ENT connected to the medicine study I am in (June 13th is the final day). He also gave me a recipe and told me not to waste money on the packets:
1/4 to 1/2 tsp SEA or KOSHER salt, no iodine
1 pinch of baking soda (I think we’re talking about a real pinch, not a baking pinch)
8 oz of warm, clean water (sure, go distilled, but he uses clean tap water). I use “baby water” that I can find on the baby aisle in Tijuana. I hope it’s not made with real babies.
ETA: I really like the NeilMed bottles, because I can push the water up into my sinuses just up to the threshold, and let it sit for a while to soak and loosen the harder detritus.
10 Likes
I use a NasoPure, which looks pretty similar, and haven’t bought a packet of magic dust in years.
Warm, clean tap water is perfectly fine, unless you live somewhere that you wouldn’t drink tap water.
1 Like
Ditto, I love my SinuPulse.
Well technically, pollen is kind of the equivalent of tree sperm, so…
Damn trees using my nasal passages (inadvertently) as the target of their money shot!
1 Like
I’ve always just used salt - what does the baking soda add?
Directly in the post:
Go ahead if you’re feeling lucky. I’m not.
2 Likes
How do you clean yours? I have a routine consisting of hot water, Liquinox, peroxide, and periodically zapping it in the microwave, but it is such a pain in the ass that I don’t use it as often as I’d like. (Once or twice over the years I’ve developed a sinus issues after use, which…probably…was not due to imperfect cleaning, but it has made me a bit paranoid.)
A machine-washable neti pot would solve the problem, but the neilmed is easier to use.
1 Like
Speaking from experience, don’t use these when your nose is totally stuffed. You’ll end up with a nose that’s still stuffed and water in your inner ears to boot.
3 Likes
5 Likes
I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years. Pretty much the same recipe as many others: a little kosher salt, a little baking soda, boiled water. I didn’t boil my water until I moved to Alabama where, among other delightful things about the state, people sometimes get brain-eating bacteria or flesh-eating bacteria from the water. Granted it’s always swimming water, not drinking water, but I am not taking chances. I pop a pyrex measuring pitcher in the microwave and make sure the water boils for three minutes. I also use a squirt bottle; gentle pressure works ok, and it seals, so I can have a bottle sitting on the bathroom vanity. I tired chilling it; ouch.
2 Likes
Nth this post. I had an electric model from WaterPik for a while, but surprise surprise! Batteries and Saline don’t mix. Still, I wouldn’t be sleeping at night without doing a daily rinse with a squeezy-bottle.
Feels Awful, Would Recommend: 10/10! (2/10 with rice.)
Which is why I said stupid, sexy trees!
It’s not like trees will grow in our noses… or will they?
1 Like
In NY the tap is great to drink, but can occasionally be really minerally and chlorine-y which can burn like a mf and make things worse, so I use distilled. Ditto on the imprtamce of non-iodized salt. the iodine, it burns.
1 Like
I believe it’s to adjust the pH. I use a ratio of 23:7 salt/baking soda ('cause that’s what it worked out to be on my original packet ingredients).
As a botanist, I feel it to be my duty to point out that the stuff you see there most likely has nothing to do with your allergies.
The yellow pollen you get covering everything is gymnosperm pollen. Pine, spruce, yew name it. It is rather large, because it has air sacks for better floating, and thus is transported over large distances.
The stuff which annoys allergics like me is to the best of my knowledge always angiosperm pollen, and mostly from the nearer surroundings.
BTW, doing salt water flushes since years, but only occasionally. I’ve got a small Eppendorf cap, which incidentally can hold exactly the amount of salt needed to fill my 250ml nose flushing device.
Talking of which: most ridiculous ad for that, ever.
4 Likes
I do one big squeeze until I basically pinch the bottle against the inner tube, and that covers about half the bottle. Then you do it once more and you end up using 90% of the rinse in two shots. You just have to go slowly when you have really irritated sinuses because the swelling blocks flow so bad.
My biggest issue is a previously broken nose that makes one much easier to rinse than the other.
1 Like
Is that Martina Hill?
It’s not really about “feeling lucky”, I just think the risk is minimal. I’ve been doing nasal irrigation with regular tap water for years, and maybe I have been lucky… or maybe the CDC is being overly cautionary. (We do have very good tap water in our town, and I do read the annual water utility report, because I’m dorky that way. Certainly if I were concerned about our tap water quality, I would be less blase about squirting it into my skull.)
Moreover, if these products could make so many people sick by being misapplied in such an easy-to-do, lazy way, wouldn’t there at least be big warnings on every box? Or maybe a prescription required?
ETA: Everyone should do what they feel safest doing. Me, I’m OK with using tap water.
1 Like
