The neti pot: why it's so cool

This morning I woke with a terrible sinus headache, as I sometimes do when the seasons change.  Now, I have nothing against Sudafed--I love the headache relief formula, in fact.  But it doesn't always work.  And the Advil I had taken at 3 a.m., didn't do a thing: my head was still pounding.  The neti is a small, stainless-steel pot that you fill with lukewarm water and pour through one nostril, letting it cleanse your sinuses and come out the other nostril (flushing out all sorts of stuff that should not be in your sinuses!). I ran one pot through each side and my headache was gone: viola!  (Granted, your nose runs for a good hour after using the neti pot, but at least you're not stuffed up anymore.)

If it sounds complicated or intimidating, listen to this short item that ran on NPR last winter. 

Also, it was recently brought to my attention that Dr. Oz mentioned the neti pot on Oprah's show back in April!  Oz said, "The [ear, nose and throat] doctors who are specialists in this area will often say this is a better treatment than a lot of the other drugs that we try to offer folks, because it mechanically cleans out the problem." Click here to see a summary of that show & what Dr. Oz said.

Note: i've heard from friends that the ceramic neti pots do break.  So I recommend the stainless steel model sold by Health + Yoga (www.healthandyoga.com)  Click here to go straight to it.

Comments

[Marci Alboher]

Hannah, I am so excited about this. I just hustled over to that site to buy my very own neti pot. I have had a constant headache for over a week now and I'm opposed to taking decongestants and advil doesn't do a thing. Can't wait till it arrives. But we might need to schedule a lesson! Thanks for sharing this.

[Stacey]

I got a plastic, top rack dishwasher safe one at Osco. I think you can order them in various places on the internet, as well. Mine was called Sinucleanse, and they also sell packets of the salt/baking soda mix if you don't want to make it yourself. I think the metal and ceramic ones are pretty, but I'd be concerned about them tarnishing or breaking.
Anyway, a little side effect I wasn't bargaining for was that using it took away a sinus headache, usually only specialty medicine can do that.