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HOW TO BATTLE SINUS INFECTIONS
(anecdotal suggestion, I’m not a doctor)

A word to the wise. Apparently something most Indian people know, it’s a good idea to regularly flush you sinus out with saline solution. That would be WARM WATER with some dissolved salt. You can use a sanitized plastic bottle (washed with warm, soapy water, rinsed VERY well).

If you are a regular sufferer of sinus infections, a NETI POT is not a bad idea. Whatever you use, keeping it very clean is very important. Think STERILE.

Salt the water to taste. Don’t do way too little, and certainly don’t do way too much. The best way is to start with mild saline, swish some in your mouth FIRST. If it’s too salty, pour some out, and refill with some more warm water. I use warm tap water, but purists may want to use warmed-up filtered water.

Once you have it well mixed in your clean bottle, lean over a sink, and tip the bottle into one nostril. You want to look straight down over a sink, then tilt your head ninety degrees to the right or left, so that your face is looking to one side while you’re bent down.

Here’s the big idea (I didn’t know this before):

You have sinuses on the left AND right side of your face. They’re connected in the middle.

You can pour warm slightly-salty (saline) water into one nose, in this posture, it flows into your sinus, through a hole somewhere back there in the middle, and through to the lower sinus, and out your other nostril.

If you’re leaning too far back, some saline will slip down into your throat, so you’ll end up coughing that out.

It’s easy to tell, especially if the water is warm, where it is travelling through your head.

It’s not painful when you do it right, I’ve sat for 2-3 minutes just pouring warm saline through one nostril and out of the other. You snort, blow out the extra, do it again. Do the other side.

You will know if you are overdoing it. It should not be painful, you should not be coughing up a lot. If you are, you’re doing it wrong. Lean into the sink, you want the saline to come out your other nostril, not go down your throat.

It should not sting, be objectionably salty, or give you a feeling of drowning. Only do this a maximum of three times a day (3x daily). Keep a feel on your heartbeat. If your heart starts racing, you’re getting too much salt in your body.

Okay, there you have it. The saline kills off a ton of bacteria.

If you can attack a sinus infection just as it’s setting in (if you suffer from them, you know what I’m talking about), the sooner you start rinsing with saline, you’ll knock it out within a day or two.

The most I’ve had to do it was 3 days in a row, more in the first day, then tapered down to just once or twice in the last day.

A last piece of advice:  If you are super congested, that middle passage in your sinus may be blocked.  In this case, I would dump out the mixture, and make it again with slightly hotter water and a little more salt.  Pour it back in and just try to hold it there. With enough patience, the clog will sometimes give way, and once you get saline flushing through your sinus, just do enough to get good breathing restored, rest, give it another try in 1-2 hours.

The saline causes the membranes in your sinus to open a little, and the goo stuck in there gets loosened up to where it can be discharged.  Spit it out, blow it out, get rid of it. Don’t swallow it.

SO GROSS RIGHT?

it works.

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