Comments on: The Joy of Nasal Rinsing

Question: The Joy of Nasal Rinsing

Toekneesan — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:20:21 -0800

What do you put in your Neti Pot?

I'm tired of paying >$9 for 50 small packets of salt. I'd like to make my own but I'm wondering about recipes. If you use a Neti Pot, do you make your own rinse? If so, what do you add? Does it ever change— during cold or allergy season, for example? Anything beyond salt and baking soda? What ratios do you use? Bonus points for bulk recipes.

By: wrok

wrok — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:24:49 -0800

1 part Non-Iodized Salt
1 part Baking soda

Pretty simple stuff for me.

By: Toekneesan

Toekneesan — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:27:53 -0800

To how much water?

By: Mach5

Mach5 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:31:30 -0800

Check the wiki entry, pretty good info.

By: Ladybug Parade

Ladybug Parade — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:31:56 -0800

I use a Neti Pot when the pollen is especially bad. I just use tap water and kosher salt (not iodized), between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon per pot. You might want to use filtered water, depending on the mineral content of the water where you live. I had never heard of using baking soda, so I'm interested to see what other recipes are out there. The designer salts and premixed solutions are a waste of money, IMHO.

By: Seamus

Seamus — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:32:10 -0800

Just sea salt for me.
About 1/2 to 1 tsp. per pot depending on whether I am rinsing for allergies or rinsing for illness.

By: wrok

wrok — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:32:50 -0800

That's a tough one...

1/2tsp of mixture to 8oz of water or so. That's pretty guesstimate, but probably close... I just eyeball it :)

By: willmize

willmize — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:34:47 -0800

Warm water and sea salt, maybe a half a teaspoon. Done!
I've never used baking soda either. Interested to hear others experience with it.

By: katillathehun

katillathehun — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:39:56 -0800

I have a regular ol' plastic neti pot, and I usually fill it halfway with warm water. I add a 1/4 tsp of kosher salt and it's all good.

By: Knicke

Knicke — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:41:53 -0800

Usually just sea salt (1/2 t. to a pot of warm water). However, this spring I had a really stubborn head cold that got kind of sinus-infectiony for awhile. On a whim, I added a few drops of grapefruit seed extract to the mix. Not sure if it made a difference or not, but the infection subsided after about three days of rinsing with GSE added.

By: jeff-o-matic

jeff-o-matic — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:45:57 -0800

Warm water and kosher salt. Mine came with a measuring spoon, but I sorta eyeball it.

By: unixrat

unixrat — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:47:55 -0800

For your consideration, Salt water, Coffee and then...?

By: wg

wg — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:53:08 -0800

Sometime in college, I had a friend that added fennel seeds and salt to her Neti pot.

By: pseudostrabismus

pseudostrabismus — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:53:18 -0800

Non-iodized sea salt from the grocery store, in the cooking aisle. It's like $3 for a box, and I use that one box for all my cooking, exfoliating, and neti pot needs.... it's lasted about 2 years so far.

I keep the sea salt in a jam jar in the medicine cabinet. I tip out a little shake- probably about a teaspoon, or a big pinch (2 fingers + thumb), but I never measure. Then I put in warm water (regular chlorinated tap water) and swish the pot around to dissolve the salt. I'll maybe stir it with my finger to check that the salt crystals are dissolved in the bottom, as they sting a little if you pour them up your nose. If I feel like I added too much salt, I just dump out a little salt water from the pot and add more from the tap. I do not measure.

If you make your solution too salty or not salty enough, the only bad outcome is that it stings a little. Adjust the salt to water ratio by tipping out some salt water & adding more fresh tap water... or by adding a pinch more salt, and the next rinse will make the stinging go away.

Your sinuses aren't so delicate that a little extra salt will harm them- don't overthink it, just go for it! (Feels so gooood)

By: pseudostrabismus

pseudostrabismus — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:58:53 -0800

Oh, and for amount of water, I use aboit 1 tsp sea salt and then fill the whole pot with water, which is about 250mL of water (1 cup). Then I use half the pot for each nostril, because I am too impatient to mix the solution twice to do a full pot for each nostril.

By: palliser

palliser — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:59:13 -0800

1/2 tsp. kosher salt to 8 oz. water. It should taste like tears.

By: palliser

palliser — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:02:31 -0800

I tip out a little shake- probably about a teaspoon, or a big pinch (2 fingers + thumb), but I never measure. Then I put in warm water (regular chlorinated tap water) and swish the pot around to dissolve the salt.

A big pinch is about 1/4 teaspoon; a usual pinch is about 1/8 teaspoon. (Just didn't want the OP dumping a whole teaspoon into one neti pot, which would be way way salty -- at least twice as much as necessary.)

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:03:05 -0800

How about 100 packets for $10? Still ridiculously expensive for salt and baking soda, but 50% less so.

By: GenjiandProust

GenjiandProust — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:21:59 -0800

I use any salt without anti-clumping agents. Mostly coarse sea salt, these days, since finer grain salt and some kosher salt seem to have the extra additives. About a teaspoon per pot, although it varies.

By: devilsbrigade

devilsbrigade — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:34:03 -0800

I fill it up about a 3rd of the way up with water and put in sea salt slowly, swirling it around, until it starts to look cloudy. It's really just trial and error until you find an amount that feels alright. You'll know if you didn't put enough in, you'll know if you put too much in. A few times and you'll get a sense for how much. But yeah, worst that happens is that it stings a bit.

By: IndigoRain

IndigoRain — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:08:19 -0800

I use 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp baking soda for 1 cup of water. I use 1 cup per nostril so I usually just mix up 2 cups at once.

I also use a WaterPik, not a neti pot.

"The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of the use of pulsatile hypertonic saline nasal irrigation in the treatment of sinonasal disease...Patients who used nasal irrigation for the treatment of sinonasal disease experienced statistically significant improvements in 23 of the 30 nasal symptoms queried."

By: answergrape

answergrape — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:21:20 -0800

I know people who add things such as glycerin and Tea Tree Oil (when infected).

By: Sidhedevil

Sidhedevil — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:50:33 -0800

I also use a WaterPik, not a neti pot.

I am with you on this, and it has changed my life. I use 1/2 tsp salt to 1/4 tsp baking soda, because my ENT told me a hypertonic solution worked better than an isotonic solution.

By: rainy

rainy — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:05:01 -0800

Just sea salt. First time I hear about baking soda. Will try..

By: booth

booth — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:18:12 -0800

I prefer distilled water (much less than $1 per gallon at the grocery store) because our tap water has an unpleasant nose-taste. And in the winter, when it's cold in my house, I usually nuke it for 10sec to take the chill off.

I use four pinches of kosher salt per pot. If it stings, a little more usually takes care of it.

By: jockc

jockc — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:44:03 -0800

I used to mix my own but I started using the packets. The convenience is worth it to me.

When I mixed it myself I believe it was 1/2 tsp kosher salt per 8 oz water , and a 1/8 tsp (approx) of baking soda. I would be careful about putting anything else in there. You can screw up your sense of smell if you aren't careful.

By: chairface

chairface — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:08:08 -0800

1/4 tsp salt to 6 oz. water. Add a pinch of baking soda to buffer.

I don't bother anymore. I'm willing to pay for packets for the convenience factor.

By: ijoyner

ijoyner — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:10:06 -0800

Sea salt (cheap @ bulk foods section of the (earthy-type) supermarket).
I've thought of an alternative to packets that would make dosing the salt easier on a day-to-day basis: a SMTWTFS pill sorter that you can go ahead and put the right amount of salt in once a week and that way you don't have to dig for the ziplock bag of salt, the dosing spoon, etc.

By: rxrfrx

rxrfrx — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:24:25 -0800

1X PBS

By: knile

knile — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:58:54 -0800

I did not enjoy using spice-aisle sea salt, as it was too coarse. I found a bag like this of fine salt and dump a 1/4 teaspoon of it into my NP then fill most of the way with water, never measuring the water. The bag came from either a local natural foods store or my supermarket with a superbig natural section.

By: Alaska Jack

Alaska Jack — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:14:32 -0800

I don't use a neti pot, but rather a NeilMed bottle, which is the same idea, just kind of a squeeze bottle. I mix up a 50-50 batch of non-iodized table salt and baking soda, then put that and a quarter-teaspon in a small tupperware-type container in the bathroom. So it's super-easy. Before I shower, I just scoop out a rounded quarter-teaspoon, stick in in the bottle, and reseal the tupperware. - AJ