I've been doing nasal washes for at least a decade now and they are
amazing. Only problem is they are addictive. I
typically use a waterpik with the Gossan (someone correct me if
that's wrong) tip minimum twice a day. I mix my own solution
each time. Run hot water and 1.5-2 tsps of salt (sea salt or
canning/pickling salt, NOT a salt with iodine), mix, add some
cooler water and run through both nostrils. I personally open
the back of my throat a few times during each side to let some come
down my throat into my mouth because I find this helps my throat
from getting sore, but you can let all of the water come out the
other nostril.<br>
<br>
I find that these help so much that I've actually taken to using
one of the neti yoga pots during the day. I go to the
bathroom on a different floor in my building from my office (I'd
rather random people see if someone comes in) and rinse each sinus.
It would be possible to fill the pot at the sink and then run
your nose into the toilet if you were really shy, but I think that
would just be weird. I use the premeasured packets that
also contain baking soda at work just for the convenience.
<br>
<br>
I notice three benefits from the rinses: 1. I can breathe through
my nose when I'm doing them which I can't ever do otherwise, 2. my
nasal medicines seem to work more effectively when I take them
after I've rinsed my sinuses 3. if I have an infection, the rinses
help to clear it out and also seems really important in preventing
the infection from going down in my chest.<br>
<br>
I also get a temporary benefit in that it really helps the
postnasal drip problem for a while. There is one problem with
this. It's supposed to be bad to do these rinses closer than
about an hour before you go to bed because all of the water might
not drain out of your head before you lie down and then it can
cause an infection, but having just rinsed helps postnasal drip and
cough so that it's easier to sleep... I think you might just have
to play with that personally and see how long it takes you to make
sure it's all drained out. Also, this is probably affected by
whether or not you have had windows installed in your sinuses.<br>
<br>
In addition to these rinses, if you study Neti Yoga, they will
train you how to use some sort of string to basically floss your
sinuses. I've never done this or even tried, but do know that
it exists.<br>
<br>
One last thought. When I'm healthy, I use what my doc calls
hypertonic saline (not sure how this relates to the nebulized kind)
which is lesser concentration, but when sick, he has me up the
concentration substantially so that I'm putting 3 to 3.5 teaspoons
in the waterpik bucket. This higher concentration can be
painful (many kids have to build up to being able to tolerate it
and some people just can't), but it seems to really do the job of
addressing mucous membranes well.<br>
<br>
That's all I've got, but I'd be interested to see what other people
say. One thing that I've been thinking about recently is if
there would be some way to add an antibiotic into the rinse so you
could bet antibiotic up in there like the ENTs do during sinus
surgery... Not sure if drugs even work that way, but it sounded
like an interesting idea to me. <br>
<br>
