Water Ya Nose? It Works?!

Last Updated (Tuesday, 21 April 2009 10:20) Written by Raymond Nakamura

I'm thinking of changing the name of spring to Snow Pink and the Four Dwarfs. Snow Pink could be the cherry blossom petals fluttering to Earth, or m my wife with hay fever. Sneezy, Dopey, Sleepy, and Grumpy could be her symptoms. 

Keeping Your Nose Clean

Although or maybe because my wife is a pharmacist, she is reluctant to rely too heavily on drugs. A friend told her about nasal irrigation. Apparently yogis have been doing it for a long time. The Mayo Clinic supports it. And a few studies have indicated that it can be helpful. The friend swears by it.

Sinus Up

I figured my nose hairs already grew fast enough without irrigation. But no, this was about a saline solution to hay fever, by flushing out your sinuses. Ever since I saw a guy I know hammer a nail up his nose, I have been curious about the hidden recesses of the sinuses. My hay fever tends not to be as bad, but a few times this spring, it has been annoying. So I decided to give it a shot, or snort as the case may be. 

Materials and Methods

Online you can find lots of videos and recipes. They now also sell various fancy gadgets. They might work, but I don't know if you need them. I am not doing a consumer report here. The problem with the teapots and most of the videos is they show people with big schnozes. Whatever you use, make sure your gear clean so you don't actually introduce infections.

I had a squeezable water bottle I no longer use because of a general and not necessarily well-documented concern about plastics. But I was just doing this as an experiment for now. But it's hard to do a proper experiment on yourself, since you can't replicate yourself. Even if I alternated days or something, the conditions could be different or there could be a lingering effect. Here are some things I noticed. 

Preliminary Observations

The idea of intentionally pouring water into your nose takes some getting used to. Breathe through your mouth and you don't get so much coming out your mouth. This probably also depends on the angle the water goes in. The salt is supposed to make it like the concentration of ions in your blood. If you use just plain water, it hurts. A bit like too much wasabi but it lasts longer. Plain water makes the cells swell up and maybe burst. Now I understand why it bothered me getting water up my nose after doing somersaults in the pool. I've only done it for a few days, but it does seem to reduce my sneezing and it feels cleaner in there.

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