Sunday, November 13, 2011

Homemade Sinus Rinse

I recently ran out of the NeilMed sinus rinse packets and was unable to find them in my local stores, so I set out to find a homemade alternative. The ingredients are simply a non-iodized salt, distilled or boiled and cooled water, and baking soda. It's so much cheaper to make at home and just as effective as the packets, I won't be buying the packets anymore.

If you've never tried a sinus rinse before and have nasal allergy problems, you'll want to try this. The first one or two times you do it it'll be weird, I won't lie. It's not painful, but it can be uncomfortable. Once you know what to expect though it's easy to do and so much more effective than any allergy medication.

1. In a clean glass or measuring cup, add 8 oz water and heat in the microwave in 10 second increments until body temperature. Any warmer and it may feel like you're burning your nostrils. Make sure to mix the water after each 10 second increment as the water on top is often hotter than the water on bottom.

2. In the sinus rinse bottle, add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda (this helps keep the salt from burning), 1/2 teaspoon salt, and water. Gently shake to combine until dissolved.

3. Leaning over a sink, gently squeeze bottle into one nostril letting it exit through the other. Blow nose and repeat in opposing nostril.

There are all kinds of videos on YouTube showing you how to do it. Here's one that I particularly enjoy, showing you can do the sinus rinse with a water bottle with a squirt tip:

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Diana! Great post, my mom should really do these as well as take her local honey.

Where do you get the bottles?

Diana said...

Thanks!!! I got that bottle at Walmart. The initial kit costs $10-15 I think. I'm trying to get better about taking local honey too. Now that we're getting into cold weather it'll be easier since I tend to come down with bronchitis, I found that if I drink a cup of honeysuckle tea each day I don't get sick. Since the honeysuckle has a medicinal taste to it, I also use peppermint tea and add the honey. (The honeysuckle tea I get at teacupp.com; I'm planning on planting my own vines in the spring so I can grow and sell my own tea.)

Unknown said...

Thanks, its great.

Alex