Hi, snuffers, A week ago, I bought at my chemist´s a saline cleaning solution for my ears. It´s pretty alike to nasal cleaning sprays. The problem is, I put the liquid in my two ears exactly as the instructions said, and my right ear is blocked since then. Two days ago, my ear was still blocked, and it started to ache, so I made an appointment with my ear-nose-throat doctor (is otorhinolaringologist the right word in English???). I told him the problem, he inspected my ear quite thoroughly, and he diagnosed an ear infection. I have to take oral antibiotics for six days and I have to put some antibiotic drops in my ear for the same time. As I was already there, I told him that a fortnight ago I had started to use snuff. As luck wanted it, Dr. Dreier, a German-born doctor residing many years in Spain, knew about snuff. So I asked him about his informed medical opinion on snuff use. He asked me how much snuff I was sniffing. I lied to him (a white lie, you know), saying 5 grams a day. In fact, I only use about 1 gram per day, due to the fact that I am a newbie and I don´t want to overuse. And he said, “Only 5 grams? 5 grams A DAY? No problem, sir. You can use that quantity without any health issues.” I lied to him because reading this forum, I have estimated an average use of about 5 grams a day, and I want to become an average snuff user. He compared snuff with nicotine patches. He told me that nicotine is not exactly risk-free, but that is nothing compared with smoking a pack a day. He advised me to clean and hydratate my nose on a daily basis, preferably before going to bed. He even prescribed me a nose repair balm. I have bought it along with the antibiotics and the nose balm is not exactly cheap, about 6€ for 10 ml, but I think my nose will be grateful! Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to share my happiness with you all. Enrique PS: I don´t know if this should be an OT thread. If so, please tell me.
5g a day is a lot. I myself use from half a gram to 2 grams when I get an appetite.
Probably 2-3 g is a moderate/usual amount for someone thats been using a long while. I empty a snuff box a day which is probably about 5g; but it took me 30 years to get to that level of use. For the longest time a 25g tin would take me weeks to get through.
Yep, about 5g a day here too.
what exactly is that nose repair balm called I might want to get my hands on some
@n9inchnails: it is called “letibalm” liquid repair balm for nose and lips (that´s exacty what is written in the box). The instructions are written in Spanish, English and Portuguese, so it should mean that it is sold al least in Spain, the UK and Portugal. I forgot to add that although the doctor made a prescription, in Spain is an over the counter, I mean, you can buy it without a prescription.
Enrique, Thanks for this information. I think it is very encouraging. I consider myself a heavy user and 5g a day is about the most I can manage. If the doctor is from Germany, he may be more familiar with schmalzlers, and I could see using 20g a day if I were an exclusive schmalzler user. Its just so much fluffier it can be used in huge quantities. I think I might look for this nose balm. I get chapping on my outer nostrils from blowing. Does it go on the inside or outside of the nose? I use a beeswax lip balm from time to time. “Otorhinolaringologist” may well be an English word, but it seems very cumbersome. I’ve never heard it used, though it may be technically correct. We usually just say “ear-nose-throat doctor” in common parlance. I’ve never used one myself, but I often see plaques on doors of medical clinics with long names like that, so its probably right.
@Enrique, thanks for sharing this with us. You’ve got one wise doctor there!
Good to hear that the people we actually listen to when it comes to health understand our side of things. Also, I use anywhere from 0.5 to 2 grams a day.
@Xander, the doctor said I had to put a very little quantity inside of my nose, and gently squeeze my nostrils with my fingers. He even showed me how to do it. Nonetheless, in the box, it says “Apply directly on the nose and lips. Do not use on children under 3 years of age.” And at the left of it, it shows a picture and says “Area around the nose”. So, I think I am going to try it around the nose, and maybe put it inside, but not very deep, maybe half a centimeter, or one centimeter. Anyway, for the last week or so, my nose has been pretty dry and a little sore, caused by blowing many times, but I have discovered that if I blow my nose using a baby wipe, it´s another story completely! It has a soothing effect, and I don´t have a dry and sore nose anymore. By the way, in Spanish, ear-nose-throat doctor is said “otorrinolaringólogo”, “otorrino” in common parlance. So I tried it in English! :), and I almost was right. I looked it up in Google, and in English is otorhinolaryngologist. This forum is making me learn a lot of things, among them improving my written English! @Pieter: I think you are right. I have always had problems with my ears since I was a child (a non-smoker child, :)), and when I was 16 or so, I got a ruptured tympanum. So I have met a lot of ENT doctors in my life. Since I moved recently, this doctor is new for me, and I have to say that apart from the tip about snuff and the nose, he seems very educated and knowledgeable (if this word exists). I think that from today on, he is going to be my ENT doctor of choice.
Great news Enrique, wish my doctor took the same view. Stefan
Neat thread Enriqe, you have a great command of English, I wish my Spanish were half as good. I use about three g’s a day now, but part of that seemingly heavy use is due to the fact that I mostly place large pinches in my nose physically because I find sniffing just too brutal. I also still smoke about two or three bowls of pipe tobacco a day. If this isn’t a hijack, I’d be interested to know how many of you all smoke a pipe and sniff both? Hope you heal up soon, Enrique.
I smoke a pipe some days and snuff every day, about 2 to 3 grams a day depending on what I’m snuffing. When its mostly Scotches I snuff less, mostly Schmalslers, I snuff more.
@wildwilliam: Thank you very much! It´s very nice of you telling me that, I think I am going to blush 
You know, I teach high school English for a living. I have never been in the UK nor the US ( well, not true, I have been in Gibraltar many times) although I´d love to go, maybe in a few years, when my daughters get older. But the problem is that in Spain, the level of English in high schools is not very high, so I feel I am very, very rusty, especially when listening or speaking in English. I am a little better at written English, although I still make a lot of mistakes. Learning English has been a passion for me, since I got acquainted with it many years ago, when in primary school. Today, I am an avid reader and I read almost every book in English. A year ago, I bought a Kindle, and I just love it. I smoked a pipe for a short time, perhaps for two years. I struggled to learn the technique, which is very difficult, in my humble opinion. Little by little I learnt, so I ended up smoking four or five bowls a day. One day, out of the blue, I felt my tongue was very, very sore. It never really went away, so I finally gave up pipesmoking. I think the problem was that I loved aromatics, never could stand latakia or English blends. My two favorite tobaccos: Dan´s Blue Note and McBaren´s Vanilla Cream (the loose one, not in flake). McBarens in general are biters, but I simply loved Vanilla cream. Nowadays, I still smoke a bowl from time to time, but they can be months apart. I have commented this in another thread a few minutes ago: a friend of mine, whom I met on a pipe forum on the Internet, a Spanishman who lives in Berlin, said that once he was hesitant to light up his pipe while drinking a beer in a German pub, and when he timidly filled his bowl, and was going to light up at long last, an older gentleman in a nearby table said to him: “Don´t be embarrassed. You should be proud, young man. You belong to an elite”. I always liked the sound of that sentence. Enrique PS: I think my posts are getting longer and longer. Today I have been lying in bed with a little fever, or sitting in front of my computer when my temperature got low, so I have had a lot of time to write on this forum. Sorry if I wrote too much!
“I am a little better at written English, although I still make a lot of mistakes.” said enrique. So basicly people think you’re from america when you’re online???
I don’t know bob, if he said “innit?” enough in his posts, that sounds like a Brit to me…
Yah, “innit” and “mosey” and “bloody bollocks”, if you pardon my french.
The doctors over here that I’ve seen here in the USA are very ill informed about nasal snuff. They seem to be skeptical if best that it is a safe activity. I would think that they would be happy that I’m not smoking. But the VA seems very tobacco free and I really rely on tobacco enjoyment as a part of my normal routine. Plus snuff is so much cheaper to purchase than cigarettes and even American dip (which is apparently loaded with TSNAs). Out of any tobacco products Ive ever used and with Swedish Match discontinuing Claq Qui(It was like heaven in a snus for me), snuff is now my only regular source of Nicotine. It boggles me even more that nobody even sells American made snuff in my state (Wisconsin), and they seem more popular in Europe then the actual US. Id love to try some of those American scotches but now with this PACT thing i don’t even know where id begin to look, short of driving to a mill. Wish our country would stop trying to use cigarettes as a poster child for the dangers of all tobacco products.
Wow, now I am a little lost. innit, does it mean isn´t it? uff, too lost here. My English is not so good. I think I mainly use American English expressions because I read a lot of books written by American authors, so they stick in my head, if you know what I mean. When I was studying at the university, the English taught there was mainly British English, you know, RP, Received Pronunciation, BBC English. That was a very long time ago.I now mix AEnglish and BEnglish, I know
Don’t you worry a thing, Mr. Medina, it’s exactly that mix’n and match’n that makes the language alive, and indeed, us individuals. Imagine if everyone was talking in the same, boring parlance all the time. Now that’d be dull. And I’m not trying to be droll here. But I guess I am. With all the innuendo and other such contextual trickery built-in, english is a fun language to learn and use. We hear anew, we imitate, we make it our own. This is how we evolve our vocabulary, and provenance be damned. And sometimes you can simply just go horribly wrong with it, as is evident in this little post of mine. Like a wise man once said: “English, Mother Radiation! Do you speak it?!”