As a person who has dealt with pollen allergies for over 33 years, I am still always looking for some good method of sinus relief.
I have had all the testing and tried the shots.
There have been any number of antihistamine and decongestants that I have tried and most just knock me for loop with their side effects.
When the wind switches direction and blows from inland out to sea, the weed pollen count goes up and I can feel my sinus fighting it.
Once I get a sore throat, I know there is no turning back.
I will end with a sinus infection in about 2 to 3 days.
Nothing seems to stop the process.
However, I thought there might be hope with sinus irrigation and using a neti pot.
The first time I heard about sinus irrigation was in the 80s when a nurse-practitioner at my local college health center told me about it.
I had experienced natural cleaning with ocean saltwater when I surfed so the idea did not seem too foreign.
There was always some saltwater that would end lodged in my sinus after a good surf session.
Of course, I was not aware of it until much later when in the middle of class it surprisingly dribbled out.
When I was surfing a lot, it did seem my sinus was less prone to infection.
The practitioner told me I should try using a Waterpik with a special attachment that had a cork on the end.
Well, I never did try it.
Recently neti pots and sinus irrigation has received more press.
I have seen many mentions of it on health blogs, newspapers, and magazines.
Therefore, I decided to try it since again nothing was working.
My normal pattern of sinusitis is a pollen overload followed by inflammation, infection, and antibiotics.
A neti pot at first was suggested to me but I felt I needed to go a step further because I have a big sinus cavity.
I did not think a neti pot would do the job since they kind of dribble water through your sinus.
I wanted to blast mine clean.
So as previously suggested back in the 80s, I got myself a Waterpik and an attachment for sinus irrigation.
There are specially made machines for sinus irrigation but I believe them to be similar to the Waterpik and I already owned a Waterpik.
If you do not use some type of water saline solution to wash your sinus, regular water feels like it is burning your brains out.
It hurts.
You must use about 1/2 teaspoon of non-iodized salt to every 8 ounces of room temperature water and some people add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to that as well.
I just used the salt.
Now I use Med-Systems packets just because they are faster.
I have doubts they work any better.
The water should be distilled or filtered water.
I did not use distilled or filtered water and still don't but I should.
You put the attachment up to one of your nostrils and plug it up.
Then turn on the machine at a lower speed, tilt your head to let the water drain out and let it rip.
It feels weird.
The water runs out the open nostril and into the sink.
Then after a while, you switch sides.
I would go back and forth until the Waterpik reservoir was empty.
It definitely clears your sinus of just about everything.
You can even have a blocked nasal passage and it will clear that.
However, the effects and relief might be short lasting.
Soon the sinus fills back up with mucus.
And the other problem I have is I end up holding so much water up there I cannot tell if I am truly helping the situation.
The salt solution is healthy for your sinus and its capacity to heal is obvious.
This is a benefit.
Any infected material will be washed or cleaned out and that is good.
However, in my case, my body may be too overrun and sinus irrigation cannot overcome my infection or pre-infection.
I have yet to stop an actual infection with irrigation alone or head-off a pending inflammation attack.
The main idea for trying the irrigation was to head-off the infection.
It was to wash clean my sinus of all the pollen and I hope cut down the inflammation caused by the reaction to the pollen.
However, I cannot tell if in the end it works to do that.
So I cannot with definite certainty say this works.
It appears to be one of those items that works for some people and not for others.
Will I continue to try sinus irrigation? Yes, because it does clean my sinus out.
I am hoping to further experiment with it to see if I can time it right on when I start using the system.
Or during pre-times of increased pollen counts I might try it every day and see if that heads off a pollen problem before it starts.
Will sinus irrigation work for you? I have friends who are singers and actors who swear that a neti pot works for them.
You can only experiment for you to find out.
For some it might be just the right thing to do and for others like me it might just be another weapon in our arsenal to try to head off sinus infection.