Since mouth breathers are a bit discriminated against in yoga class, the benefit of nasal cleansing for stuffy yogis is clear. With allergy season just around the corner, if you haven’t ever felt the relief that comes from sticking a neti pot in your nose and feeling the salty water drain out the other nostril, you should seriously consider it to the alternative of popping more pills.
So, if you’re interested, you may be wondering what you need to do to get started. There’s really not much. It’s pretty simple actually. You may want to buy a neti pot, but that’s not even necessary. Many ear, nose and throat doctors suggest using a baby bulb syringe for getting the water into the nose. You can’t get much cheaper. If you decide to go the bulb syringe route, the only other thing you will need is a glass jar to put a homemade saline solution in. While you can buy individual pre-measured packets of saline, here’s a homemade recipe that my sister got from her doctor.
The saline recipe:
- Carefully clean and rinse a 1-quart jar. Fill the clean jar with tap water or bottled water. You do not need to boil the water.
- Add one level teaspoon of non-iodized (“pickling”) salt. DO NOT use table salt. Table salt has unwanted additives. You can ask for pickling salt at the grocery store.
- Add one level teaspoon of baking soda (pure bicarbonate).
- Stir or shake before each use. Store at room temperature. After one week pour out any mixture that is left over and make a new recipe.
Once you have your mixture ready, all you have to do is squirt one to two syringes of solution per nostril and let it drain into the sink or tub. Check out this clip for a demonstration on how to properly perform a nasal cleanse using a neti pot. The same technique can be applied if you use a bulb syringe.
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The Benefits of using this solution:
- Rinsing your nose with the salt water and baking soda solution washes crusts (gross) and other debris from your nose.
- Salty water pulls fluid out of swollen membranes. Washing the inside of the nose decongests it and improves airflow. Not only does it make breathing easier, but it helps open the sinus passages.
- Studies show that this mixture of concentrated salt water and baking soda helps the nose membrane to work better and move mucus out of the nose faster.
While the above recommendations have worked for me, there are a lot of websites with even more information on nasal cleansing that you may find useful. I particularly recommend the Himalayan Institute.
Neti Pot Goes Mainstream (New York Times)
Buy a neti pot at Amazon.com!!
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Wow, thanks for this! I’m grateful for your clear explanation and for all the links.
My husband and I have been doing this nasal cleansing for about three months now, but without a neti pot because I couldn’t find one. We just use a small milkjug. We lean over the bath and pour the solution into one nostril, remain upside down for about a minute, and then blow it clear.
We’ve both had sinus infections (strongly coloured mucus) for ages, and antibiotics don’t help. The nasal cleansing really does bring relief. It seems to be the only way we can keep the sinusitis under control and avoid pain. However, it hasn’t actually cleared the infection (yet?).
I mentioned the nasal cleansing to the doctor who gave me the antibiotics and she had never heard of it. She warned me that salt was an irritant. However, when I tried to use just plain water, it was far too hard – lots of burning and tears and spluttering!
I notice you say that it’s not necessary to boil the water. I usually do, although I let it cool a bit, obviously. I find that it’s much easier to do the cleansing with warm water than with cold. We’ve never put the bicarb in, so I’ll add that now.
Thanks for the reminder to use my neti pot! I have one, but need to make a daily habit of using it. I cut the Allegra-D out of my life this year. I don’t miss it so far and I work in a 90-year old, stinky, moldy, crusty middle school filled with adolescent germ machines. I never thought I’d be able to go without my “Daily D.”
Ahhhh….Sigh….through my nose of course.
I was told that it is better to do the neti pot a little after getting up, not first thing in the morning. Another yogi told me that in my YTT.
The light hearted tone to your blog is so great – I totally appreciate it.
I also want to thank you for inspiring me to try using WordPress for my new blog. I’m in a messy state now making the switch…but I wanted to learn all these added features.
Well, I think I’ll go for a little nasal cleansing right now.
I realize I’m a bit late, but I just wanted to chime in for anyone reading this in the future. I’ve been using nasal lavage for several years now (I think since I was pregnant four years ago.) I’ve never used a Neti pot- heck, when I am really desperate and don’t have even a cup, I just put saline in my (clean) hand and snort it up my nose. Not pleasant, but it does the trick. I also use a bulb syringe or a medicine syringe, whichever is clean and available.
What I really wanted to point out is that my doctor (a board certified internist and pediatrician) not only recommends nasal lavage, but her office actually has little kits already made up (a squirt bottle and a recipe similar to above) to hand out to patients with sinus problems. I don’t really get the doctor mentioned in the other comment- your body is saline, your tears are saline…unless you put in tons of salt, it won’t irritate your body……..
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
I’ll join the chorus (late) on the neti pot. I’ve been using one daily for years now and it’s allowed me to go without any medications for seasonal allergies. Better than that, I breath clearer (out of both nostrils!) than I ever have.
For convenience and ease of use, I think it’s worth picking up a neti pot. They’re cheap and locally available. I picked up a stainless steel pot, and I use it in the shower each morning. Toss in a tbsp of non-iodized coarse kosher salt, and I use it in the shower.
I used a neti pot to combat a horrific sinus infection many years ago. I was pretty horrified by the chunks of dried blood and other things that came out — I’d been a bad nosebleeder as a kid. It also felt like it irrigated my chronically dry tear ducts and cleaned out all kinds of stuff behind my eyeballs (a weird feeling).
Anyways, its IMPORTANT to use a real neti pot, distilled water, the best quality salt you can find, and NO baking soda! Commercial baking soda is likely to have trace impurities that you don’t want to be putting directly into your nose, so close to your brain. I always use pure salt sold especially for Neti pots that is extra purified. Why risk exposing yourself to industrial chemicals to save a few bucks? A bag of neti salt will last you at least a year…
Cheap plastic hoses and bulbs also leach trace amounts of chemicals into the water – again, its never been proven to be significant, but why chance it?
Do yourself a favor and neti pot today if you haven’t already and suffer from sinus problems or allergies.
Hi, this is a response to what Tia said (in early 2007…) about the technique she uses at home.
I’m no expert, although I was taught jal neti by a yoga master, but I’m pretty sure the idea of neti is to get the water temperature/salinity and also your standing position and arm position just right so that the water flows through steadily and out in an even thread. You probably shouldn’t be pouring it into your head and then blowing it out — if you are doing that, then make sure to blow ALL the water out (it’s apparently important that none remains) using one of yoga’s breathing techniques with forceful exhalation. But those breathing techniques have implications for people with blood pressure problems, so do check beforehand with someone who knows. Good luck.
Since I first commented, I’ve had quite a few sinus adventures. The cleansing definitely helped me maintain some kind of sanity and stay away from most doctors, but eventually, I was advised not to use the bicarb with the salt because apparently bicarb has the effect of paralysing the cilia in the nose for about three hours after each usage. Instead, this year I started using a product called Flo Sinus Care (from Australia, I think?). The solution it makes is just perfect in terms of comfort, although their little squeezy squirter thing is awful, so we soon gave that up and started using the solution with the neti pot. The Flo had just come to South Africa when I was there in May, so I bought it there. I haven’t managed to track it down in the UK yet. The supposed distributor hasn’t responded to my emails.