Finally there is an option to blowing your nose senseless due to allergies.   This solution has further benefits too.  For instance concerned parents such as myself have rejected standard throat and nose medicine as we believe it can actually cause harm to our kids.   And young or old,  don't we all want an answer to the common cold?  Beyond that, wouldn't you prefer a natural solution?  I'm not going to go off about zinc or zinc gluconate.   Bear with me.  I'm talking immediate impact, no waiting.

Last fall I began researching alternatives and for about $20.00 you can expect great results.

Let me back up, for years I told my own mother I refused to give my kids cough medicine as I knew it had no scientific documentation or cause to help with a cold or cough.  Why?  Because it treated the throat, it didn't heal it.  It did nothing for the actual cold.  Call me silly but I have disdain for treating symptoms and not remedying the cause.  Imagine you are being bullied every time you leave your house.  Your answer is to not leave the house or hire and escort every time you leave.  That's not solving the problem, that's dealing with it.  The solution is to find confront the abuser and end the bullying.  Then you can walk out your door carefree. 

Using this approach to solving my own problems for myself and my children what I learned is that you can do something about clogged sinuses.   Sure blowing your nose is a great start.  If you are like me that is a big battle with your children.  Teaching them why you blow your nose is a big help too.  I mean, don't just tell your kid to blow their nose, explain to them why.  I explain, "The cold is in your snot.  If you walk around sucking snot, you just pull the cold right back up into you.  If you want to get better, you need to get as much out of you as possible so your body can combat what little is left."  Warning... your kids can go extreme on this. LOL

Allow me to stay side tracked just a bit more.  In the case of cough... that is your throat itching.  Cough syrup is meant to treat the itch in your throat.  The more you cough the more you hack up your throat tissue.  That needs time to heal, in order to heal you need to stop coughing.  Cough syrup is meant to break that cycle. The purpose of cough syrup is the coat your throat.   Honey does a better job than over the counter remedies.  Here is why.  Over the counter remedies start with syrup.  Many types are used.  They add numbing agents such as alcohol.  That in a nutshell is cough syrup.  The reason your mother always told you to never drink after taking the syrup is because it washed off the coating.  The Mayo Clinic backs me up on this.  It is listed in the WHAT DOESN'T WORK category.

So what is this magical twenty dollar cure?

It's called a Neti Pot, some call them a nose bidet.  Developed thousands of years ago, neti pots arrive from India where they have been used in yoga to improve breathing.  It looks similar to a small traditional style tea pot or plant watering pot.  It draws it's name based on the procedure, Jala Neti.  In fact yoga medicine (Ayurvedic) has a number of directives to follow.   I won't go there.

The idea seems really bizarre if you have not tried it.  The technique is simple but takes a little practice.   You use salt water.  Sea salt is ideal.  Kosher salt is non-iodized too.  Warm water and a teaspoon of salt will do it.  I realize it seems easy to take the no salt at all road, but this is just as big a mistake as taking a hot shower for dry skin. And if you don't know, hot showers augment dry skin conditions, it doesn't or help.  It may sooth while in the shower but the heat actually dries out the skin.   Yeah, I know... I research far too much. 

Jala Neti

You tilt your head sideways over your sink and insert the neti's syringe end into your side nostril which now is on top.  The tilt of you head (thirty degrees) should allow the water to flow from your top nostril into your sinuses (they fill up although you don't think so) and the water flows right out your other nostril now on the bottom.  Keep your mouth open. 

When done, blow your nose once.  Just like coughing, you tear up tissue when you overblow.  I'm sure you will all ignore this part my instruction.  Purge your mucas all you want if you are stubborn.

If you are flooding your sinus and no water comes through... you are completely blocked.  This can happen.  You'll need to purge our nose and sinus the old fashioned way.

You will notice immediately pressure is relieved in the sinuses.  Using it for a sinus headache works too.  And it even does wonders for allergies not just clogged sinuses during a common cold. 

I've learned the quality of life from using a neti pot regularly is something short of profound.  Don't write this off as silly. 

But while I'm at it here is the scope of it all.  Behind your nose to the left and right you have hidden cavities.  These are your sinuses.   When your nose is stopped up, it not only has snot in it that you want to blow out but it has a rear section (the sinuses) which needs to be treated.   You can't reach back there and clean out anything in there in general.   You certainly can't blow your nose hard enough to clear your sinuses, and even if you could there would still be residue of what was inside you anyhow.   This leaves your body to deal with a tiny speck, that snowballs in growth all over again.  By flushing it out with a neti pot, you rinse out everything.  Using a Neti Pot has statistically shown it works both on the short term and long term.   I like that information because it means even if you are the lazy type, you can still expect positive results.

The only negative I've experienced is leaking.  For an hour or so after doing this, water left behind may leak out of your sinus cavaty and out your nose.  Funny.

Look, you will all google this on your own and find out more I'm sure.   My goal is to share what I know as a catalyst.  Have fun and be healthy.   And remember, don't treat problems in life, solve them.  

Here is a Neti Pot Comparison Chart.

And did you know that antibiotics have trouble treating sinus infections?  There is little blood flow in your sinus area, the antibiotics travel through the blood stream.  So little gets there, it's like a gamble an antibiotic will get to where it is intended. 

I found a video on the Mayo Clinic web site that shows how to clear your nasal passages in general: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/nasal-lavage/MM00552 

One final thought... nasal spray.  Get it?  It's aim is to open the sinuses.  Simlar but different but you should get my point.