Tuesday, February 5, 2008

An Incredulous Testimonial: My First Neti Pot Experience

I have been losing a battle with a sinus infection over the past few days, despite trying multiple over the counter remedies. I started with sudafed and dayquil / nyquil, which were largely ineffective for ~48 hours. I've now moved onto Tylenol Sinus and Theraflu, plus some antibiotics from my doctor that I have high hopes for. But what looks like it could be the clincher for me is something I was steered to by a colleague at the office - a neti pot.

I'd never heard of a neti pot before, and given the wording of the reco I received, I was actually kind of wary of it.

The initial reco:

"This is going to sound weird but the Neti Pot really does help clean out your sinuses. ... Hope that's not too much info but you should check it out during your next Walgreens pit stop..."

Hmm.

So I asked my doctor about it while she wrote my prescription and she said, "Yeah, I was thinking about that. It's kind of nasty, but some of the pulmonary guys (or maybe pediatric guys, either way, some of her colleagues) swear by it."

"Kind of nasty"? What is this thing?

More info from Wikipedia:

"Nasal irrigation is reputed to help prevent colds and otherwise promote good nasal health by cleaning out the nasal passages and helps alleviate stuffiness, dryness and the symptoms of allergies"
Note: the bolding is mine


When in doubt, check YouTube. Wow. 100 results for neti pot. I can't say I've watched them all, but I do have two early favorites.

The Martha Steward sound-alike 'how to'

(This woman is probably some local struggling actor somewhere, but, whoa - the look on her face makes me feel like she's someone's hostage, or maybe this is what the Heaven's Gate folks were up to before they cashed in their chips)



And the WTF random demo in one's kitchen



I have only performed one neti pot treatment, so I can't yet say it is delivering brilliant results for me personally. But I don't have any reservations about pronouncing it generally brilliant. Seriously, who thought of this for the first time?

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