Anyone else try the Neti Pot?

[Rackety Sax]

Have you tried coffee (at appropriate temperature, of course)?

Gives your nose a caffeine buzz?

[zorrosg]

I did use a neti pot for a couple of months, and also tried the jalal neti, which is basically using a thread or tube to floss your nasal passages.

I've stopped using them as I felt no real benefits from the practices. I was watching a program called 'The Witch Doctor' on TV the other day, where they made a couple of people try all kind of funky indian alternative cures including neti, and all of these cures had little benefits and looked extremely dubious to boot.

[Jazz Is All]

Reviving for two reasons.

1) I just bought one of these industrial size jobs, called a Nosebuddy, that holds two cups of water.



It works easily but is kind of a cheapy plastic thing. I saw a picture of a similar one that appears to be ceramic but I couldn't locate the actual item for sale anywhere.



2) In case anyone missed this news item, neti potting can be fatal. Seems in Louisiana two people died from brain-eating amoeba that entered their systems this way. What a way to go. Evidently you are supposed to use sterilized water for this procedure, or perhaps just avoid doing it in Bayou country.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011...-water-warning

Jimmy Durante could have stuck that whole thing right up his schnozzola and not even have noticed.




BTW, is it just me or is that second photo not a bit too suggestive for a family-oriented forum like SOTW?

In any case, a saxophonist shouldn't need to spend money on one of these contraptions anyway. All you have to do is get an old tenor neck, turn it upside down, stick the cork in your nose and pour some water into the tenon end. The lacquer will no doubt have an added beneficial effect.

[jazzbluescat]

You put salt in your coffee?

EDIT: I don't cruise around here much lately, so I'll head off those without a sense of humor by saying I'm just kidding!

My grandma put salt in her coffee for perking; not kidding. 'Course, she didn't flush her nose with it.

BTW, there's something disturbingly gross about the Neti Pot routine.

[Jazz Is All]

BTW, there's something disturbingly gross about the Neti Pot routine.

Yeah, but not as gross as the way they do it in India--no pot, just dunking their heads in the Ganghes and rinsing out the nasal passages with the river water. Very appetizing.

[madhag]

to each his own. i'd rather douche my nose than go through surgery. or i might as well give up driving, steak, sex drugs and rock n' roll.

[Jazz Is All]

I gotta tell you that back about 6 years ago I had been choughing up phlegm all winter long for a couple of years and my sinuses were so plugged up with cement boogers that I couldn't breath. I had a constant post nasal drip and was sure I had bronchitis or chronic sinusitis and had to have an operation to undeviate my septum. I had had allergies all my life but only in the spring and summer so I figured this was something new and worse. I saw two different ENT specialists whose big idea was to have me douche my nose with sea water spray and swim in the sea as a cure, along with taking antihistamines. None of that really did much and I just got worse.

Then I found a really good nasal specialist who examined and Xrayed me and told me that operating might help but was delicate and before going ahead with it it was best to see an allergist. She said I might just have new allergies and should first have all the tests to see if that might not be the real problem. She was pretty sure it was.

Sure enough I was allergic to a whole raft of stuff that I hadn't been before, particularly molds and dust mites, simply because I hadn't grown up in this environment. I began allergy shots for the mold spores first, and 2 years later started on the mites, and since about 3 years ago my symptoms have basically been so minimal that I no longer have suffered at all. It just kept getting better and now that I am at the end of the treatment my susceptability to those allergens is so low that I rarely have a reaction and I can't even remember what it was like choking like that all winter long. I basically would have to stick my head in a bag full of dust or mold spores and inhale them in big gulps to have a reaction, and since that never happens I haven't had to take any antihistamines for over 2 years.

So my advice is to see an allergist, get tested and find out if the real cause of the sinus problem is not in fact allergy caused and not sinusitis or brochitis. My insurance covered the shots and if yours does too there is no reason not to get them given that they really work. Even if you have to pay yourself it is worth every cent if you really are suffering as is, because the relief is remarkable.