Sinus Washing

I've been struggling with a sinus infection, and my doctors recommended I start using a neti pot to help treat it. So, I did: I got a nice porcelain neti pot, since I need to use a microwave to bring the sinus rinse to body temperature, and I wasn't about to pour a bunch of microplastics and plasticizers into my nose if I could avoid it.

There are apparently a lot of different kinds of nasal washes out there; but most are actually made at home. My ENT suggested a hypertonic, basic solution; I then augmented her recipe with some bacteriocidal chemicals (xylitol and povidone-iodine). Here's what I ended-up with:

• 500 mL distilled water
  • I used 500 mL water bottles; it was very convenient.
• 9 g (1½ tsp) pure salt (2×isotonic)
  • You can cheat and use iodized table salt if you don't have pure salt available. (This is what I did.)
  • Antimicrobial.
  • Dries out mucous.
  • Can cause a burning sensation if hypotonic or hypertonic.
• 1 g (¼ tsp) baking soda
  • Adjusts Ph to make a hypertonic solution feel better.
  • Do not use with povidone-iodine; it will immediately degrade it.
• 4 g (¾ tsp) xylitol
  • Antimicrobial.
  • Mucolytic and breaks up biofilms.
• 0.5 mL (⅛ tsp) povidone-iodine
  • Antiseptic.
  • Chemically different from the iodine in salt; you can't substitute one for the other.
  • Don't add unless you are targeting a sinus infection.

I just added these ingredients to a new water bottle, shook it up, and stored it in the fridge (to reduce the odds that bad stuff would start growing in my wash, because anything that gets into the wash also gets into your nose!).

Then, when it came time to wash, I would pour a small amount of water from the bottle into my neti pot, and the neti pot would go into the microwave for 12 seconds, which would bring the water from fridge temps to body temperature. I would then lean my head over the sink, tilt it, place the nozzle of the neti pot into the higher nostril, and pour until water started coming out the bottom nostril. At this point, I would, with my free hand, press-closed the bottom nostril, and then press-closed the top nostril while the neti pot was still pouring; I would then immediately cease pouring from the neti poti. With the wash now in my nose, I would bend forward until my head was almost to the floor, and I'd wait until I had felt it drain all the way through my sinuses. I'd then turn my head to each side for a little bit, to allow the wash to move around. Then I'd go to the sink, cease pinching my nostrils, and blow. Then I'd repeat, this time with the other nostril on-top. Then I'd chew two pieces of chewing gum together, and spend the next half-hour or so blowing my nose.

I did (after reading research showing that only leaning forward misses substantial parts of the sinuses) a couple times lean backwards instead of forwards. I don't really recommend doing this, because your nasal wash will go straight into your ears, and that actually hurts. But if you do decide to do this, make sure you close your soft palate tightly because if you don't, your nasal wash will go right down your throat. Accordingly, I don't recommend using povidone-iodine in your wash if you do this, because I assume that's not a good thing to swallow.

Later-on, when I didn't need as aggressive of a recipe, I halved the salt (to make it isotonic) and dropped the povidone-iodine. The recipe I made above feels a lot like getting chlorinated pool water up your nose; but without the hypertonicity or the povidone-iodine, it's actually quite neutral-feeling.

So there ya go. Hope that helps anyone else going through this. Of course, if you plan to do this too, please make sure to run it by your doctor first!

UPDATE:

I didn't like having to throw out a lot of unused solution, so here's the solution I came up with for that: After making the wash, pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze it. This way, there's no risk of the solution becoming contaminated over time and causing a sinus infection.