Allergies and the Neti Pot

The problems of many patients with bronchitis initially begin with a simple allergy to pollens, cut grass, cedar trees, pets, dust, foods, fresh flowers, cigarette smoke, or anything else. Many people expect them to show up with a season change.

The main way to treat bronchitis is to avoid the irritant that is causing the illness. For allergy-induced bronchitis, this means removing the allergens from the home or work environment. Once allergies are present, avoiding the allergens is a powerful way to reduce the allergies.

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Dr. Oz says this treatment may be more effective than medication. “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,” Dr. Oz says.

This is an excellent way to clean the allergans from your nose. There are no side effects like the many you can get from medicines.

Simply mix warm water with a quarter teaspoon of salt.   “You never want to wash [human] tissue without having saltwater in them,” he says. “Washing out your sinuses with unsalted water can burn and cold water may make you feel like you’re drowning in a pool. Pour the solution in one nostril until the solution runs out the other nostril. Lightly blow your nose to get out the allergans and do the other nostril the same way. Amy, an Oprah audience member who demonstrated the proper way to use a neti pot said “I thought it would feel like drowning, but it feels good. (She later returned to the show to tell how it had changed her life. Many others told how they were able to throw away all the things they had been using just to get through the day.) Neti pots may look like a watering can or a genie bottle, this  “nose bidet”—may actually be the answer to your sinus woes. Available at health food stores and most drug stores, most were sold out after the Oprah show. Anything like this (even an old teapot) that can get the solution into your nose might work. One woman said she was so desperate she used a straw to drop the salt water into her nose. Another said she tipped her head back just enough to allow a little water to go down her throat and remove the allergans there. ______________________________________________________ For thousands of years, Dr. Oz says people have been using similar devices to wash out their noses. If the fluid builds up in your sinuses and causes pressure, you will experience pain, Dr. Oz says. By pouring warm water from the neti pot into your nose, you can stimulate your sinuses and help clear out mucus. “A lot of folks who have conditions that we treat with medications are equally well treated by actually washing the areas of your body,” he says. “When you think about it … you wash your underarms. You have bidets. Why wouldn’t you wash a pretty important part of your body, your sinuses, in the same fashion?” If your sinuses are working normally, they will clean themselves. “That’s why you blow your nose,” he says.