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Spring cleaning may mean vacuuming the coils on your refrigerator, clearing the lint from inside the dryer cabinet and vent duct, and putting your bulky woolens at the back of your closet for storage, but one University of Michigan Health System expert recommends another area that could use some cleaning-your nose, especially if you're one of the millions of people who have to cope with spring allergies, nasal congestion, stuffy sniffers, and post-nasal drip.
One of the best methods for relieving those symptoms is nasal irrigation, according to Melissa Pynnonen, M.D., co-director of the Michigan Sinus Center and assistant professor in the department of otolaryngology at the University of Michigan. Nasal irrigation involves rinsing the nose and nasal passages with a solution, generally saltwater.
The easiest and cheapest option? A quarter teaspoon of kosher salt, 8 ounces of warm tap water, and a quarter teaspoon of baking soda. If you're new to nasal irrigation, says Pynnonen, use an 8-ounce squeeze bottle to squirt 4 ounces of the mixture into each nostril. (The solution exits through the opposite nostril.) And, to prevent the solution from gushing out of your mouth, Pynnonen suggests opening your mouth and making a "K" sound to close off the mouth and throat. A device known as neti-pot, which looks like a miniature teapot, as well as a turkey baster or syringe can also work.
"For most patients, the benefit of nasal irrigation is that it does a great job of treating symptoms that otherwise aren't well treated with medicine," Pynnonen says. "Nasal irrigation can be considered a first-line treatment for common nasal and sinus symptoms. It's often more effective than medications."
Plus, if you have mild allergies, she says, nasal irrigations alone may be all you need to keep your symptoms in check. Pynnonen also recently led a study in which her team that saline irrigation is more effective than saline sprays at controlling sinus symptoms. Patients who used nasal irrigation," she says, "experienced as much improvement as some patients with chronic sinusitis get with sinus surgery."
For kids who are old enough to cooperate with the treatment, use a smaller amount of the solution. ::University of Michigan
Difficulty level: Easy
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