Pouring salt water through my nose

We all knew this would happen. You all start reading this weblog to hear all about my exciting adventures only to be disappointed when I’m off hunting tigers instead of filling the Internet with stories of tiger hunting. Now I’ve been dragged back from the bush to blog some more. Here you are: another post. No tigers were harmed in its creation.

Anybody who knows me knows that I suffer from Insanely Horrible Allergies. You’re probably imagining that I’m a thin, sickly, pasty white guy with a protruding adams apple who gets sick all the time. In reality, I’m reasonably healthy. I walk to work, hike, bicycle, and practice judo and Danzan Ryu jujitsu (more on these later). Unfortunately, I’m constantly sniffling and clearing my throat. I always have a hanky with me. Spring, with its pollens, is a special hell.

This is the point that I should probably put up a disclaimer that I’m not a physician, lawyer, shaman, or anyone else possibly qualified to give medical advice. But, if taking medical advice from random strangers on the Internet is your thing, then I’m the best game in town!

At various points I’ve been on various prescription allergy medications: Zyrtec, Claritin, etc. Unfortunately, these drugs didn’t really do it for me. Furthermore, I’m not a big fan of the “take this pill once a day for the rest of your life” philosophy. First, it’s expensive. Second, it’s not sustainable. In the strange, post-apocalyptic world of tomorrow, you’ll be scavenging boards for shelter and hunting giant cockroaches for food. Zyrtec will be the last thing on anybody’s mind. Those of us with sinus problems will have long since perished anyway. You’ll envy us.

I’ve never thought of myself as being a hippy, per se. And any reasonable geek in my position would have gone to a general practitioner who would have prescribed some other worthless allergy medication. At that point, he would then request a referral to an ear nose and throat doctor who would probably be able get to the bottom of the condition…

I instead chose to take random medical advice from a fellow at my wife’s aikido dojo and purchase a neti pot.

Basically, a neti pot is a tool for nasal irrigation. That is, you pour salt water through your nose to clean out all manner of nasty stuff. In my case, the insane amount of mucous that I produce as a result of my allergies all gets flushed out in the rinse.

Does it work?

Neti turned out to be pretty effective for me. I’m still sniffling, carrying a hanky, and clearing my throat, but it’s much, much less severe than it normally is. Furthermore, I’m able breathe mostly through my nose instead of through my mouth. I’ve been doing this for almost two months now and the effects have been pretty dramatic. So far, this has been the best spring allergy season that I can remember. You can really feel it pull mucous out of your sinuses. If you use it while you have a sinus infection, be prepared for the scary stuff it removes from your head.

One important thing: get the right neti pot. I originally bought a ceramic neti pot (yeah, this one). It’s better than nothing. Unfortunately, it’s too small. It doesn’t fit in your nose properly. You’re always worrying about breaking it. It’s hard to mix salt in. It’s supposedly not terribly sanitary or easy to clean. The list goes on.

When I talked my sister into trying the neti pot, I told her that I would have preferred a different design. Being the clever person she is, she went and found a review and decided on this model. She was kind enough to buy a second one for me.

The hippies at Health and Yoga make a damn fine neti pot. It stands head-and-snot-globules above the ceramic model. It’s cheap too. I recommend getting the instructional video if for nothing more than a laugh. The instructional booklet that it comes with is also useful, but gets a little *cough* scary at times. I’m not putting urine up my nose, thank you very much. Fortunately, they don’t go into the details of that endeavor.

Comments (archived)

Devin, on Jun. 5th, 2005 wrote:
Hurray! You have stalked the tiger that is your allergy, and you have harried it into flight. Congratulations on being a well-armed mouse that inserts rather than removes thorns from predatory felines, and congratulations on drowning the heathen creatures of snot with the purifying fire.

Heather, on Jun. 16, 2005 wrote:
Hey Bro- You may wish to clarify that this ~particular~ post is not related directly to the title of your blog. We all know that you don’t think with your nose, and that while jala neti might yield higher volumes, it is not generally the “gold mining” method of chioce for the nasally obsessed… Congrats on hitting the quarter century mark yesterday. :)

lyn, on Jul. 12, 2005 wrote:
I am wondering if anyone has used the neti pot for improvement of hearing that has suffered as a result of post nasal drip or because of allergies……
Thank you for this blog for suggesting a better pot than ceramic and a model! I’m on my way to try the recommended brand.

Peter, on Jul. 16, 2005 wrote:
Hi, Iyn. Thank you for the reply. I’ve been traveling Europe for a few weeks and just got back. Yes, I brought my neti pot with!
I have not heard anything good or bad with respect to hearing damage caused by post nasal drip and allergies. Is the hearing loss transient with respect to the severity of the post nasal drip? If so, then I’d imagine it may have some effect. If hearing has been permanently damaged, I’d speculate that neti probably wouldn’t have much of a result.
The good news is that I did, in fact, see an ear, nose, and throat specialist. While he did not say anything about ears specifically, he was quite fond of nasal irrigation in general. I asked him about the neti pot, and he seemed to think that it was a fine method—provided that the neti pot is kept clean. Somehow I feel a bit better knowing that an ENT has signed off on me using it.

Ben, on Aug. 15th, 2005 wrote:
I found this submission very intriguing when I read it some time ago. It was only recently that, while I was enjoying honey bought from the farmers’ market, I remembered hearing that eating local honey helps people with allergies. The idea is, I think, that since the bees use the same pollen that makes you so ferociously congested for their honey, eating it helps you build a tolerance for those local environmental allergens. And you support the local economy while you’re at it! I thought I’d let you know on the off chance you hadn’t already heard or disproved this theory.