What brand of spray are all you sprayers using? The only one I can find is Sterimar, it works fine and everything but seems to cost £5 for 100ml of salty water. This has to be one of the biggest rip offs ever. It means this slightly salty water is about he same price as 15 year old Bruichladdich, 15yo Laphroaig, 16yo Lagavulin, 18yo Glendfiddich, 15yo Glenfa…

Don’t waste your money mate, just blow now and then, its been good enough for me for the last 20 odd years

I use plain water from a tap and mix in one teasponn of table salt and 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. Use lukewarm water in a 1 litre bottle with a screwdown top, shake up and leave to cool down. You can either pour some of this mix in the cup of your hand and sniff or use a syringe and spray in your nose. This advice was given to many years ago by a docter who operated on my sinusses. I always kave a bottle handy in my bathroom and use about a teacup full at a time.

I use a neti pot as well, but most of the time really cannot be bothered and just like to reach for a bottle of something. If I do not clean my nose before going to bed I snore like crazy apparently. Leaving a syringe lying around should work a treat, why did I not think of that? Apostrophes keep bringing up the find thing in Firefox for some reason, typing without them is hard!

I use a Neti Pot from time to time, On-Line firm I bought is from sent a small sample of Neti pot salt, this worked well but they charge £5 for a 500g packet, then I would have postage to pay!!! I use a small amount of Sea Salt bought locally at only £1.20 for the same weight. This works just fine for me. Edit 11-40 UTC 19-09-08

No problems on the salt front! I bought something like 3kg a few months ago for not too much from the hippie shop I bought the pot from.

I just fill an empty saline sprayer with tap water.

I actually just make my own saline spray. Here is a recipe: Combine 1/2 tsp. of sea salt with 1 cup warm water in a bottle with a lid. Add a pinch of baking soda, place the lid on the bottle, and shake. Pour some of the mixture into a nasal spray bottle and you’re ready to go. The rest of the mixture can be stored in your medicine cabinet or even in the kitchen so it will be readily available when your spray bottle needs a refill.

Nasal spray bottle! Thats the word I was looking for, it’s amazing how you (well I) miss these things sometimes. I have found an even better deal than the Sterimar here. £6 for 20ml! now we are talking about a 34yo bottle of Bruichladdich 1972 Legacy VI!

Has anybody tried those teapot looking things that they sell in the healthfood stores. I can’t remember the funny name. I have talked to a couple of people that swear by them. You use it by turning your head and pouring the solution in one nostril and out the other. It is suppose to clean everything out. They are marketed to help with allergies by washing out the pollen.

Yeah its whats talked about above, ‘neti pot’. They work great for keeping your nose/sinuses in tip top shape. Like a radiator flush for your nose.

Yea, Neti Pot. Sorry my spell checker did a bad job on that word

I think I will get one next time I’m at Whole Foods

Jarhog if you get one don’t put much salt in on your first try out, You may get the effect of drowning at sea but you soon get used to it.

Actualy a neti pot is an old yoga technique there is a whole series of cleaning rituals. Including neti cords same idea as the pot but with a special cord. There is a technique where you swallow a cord and then let it come out the back end on its own. Though my favorite yoga sinus and lung cleaning technique is called kapuli bhati (not spelled right) to really simplify in part you quickly exhale very forcefully and it will knock so much out of your sinuses as well as stale air from the bottom of your lungs (the first time you do this is amazingly shocking). The english translation is the shining skull which you actualy will understand after doing the whole technique.

Sutra Neti, where you floss your nose with a long cloth string that goes in one nostril and out your mouth, is what I think Bob is talking about.

Yup well one of the things.

pretty much the same thing. It helps keep you clean. If you watch the movie crumb his brother maxon (I think I got the name right) is swallowing the cord at one point.

I did that once and it hurt like hell. The Neti pot just seems like a better idea. There’s another one of those wacky yoga cleansing rituals where people swallow a really long cloth until it fills their stomach, then they pull it out again covered in stomach goo.

Yup. A lot of yoga cleansings rock though. There is one that is really simple works great on constipation you lean forward while standing squze your stomach in tight then press you hand on each thigh a few times alternating thighs.

I don’t. Its a matter of taste. It makes sure you don’t have snuff just hanging around in your nose. I’ve noticed it seems to be the most popular among the chaps who hardly touch menthol. Could be my imagination about the menthol thing.

I have recently started using saline spray, mostly because of dryness in the morning. As habit, i would smoke cigarettes the first couple hours; i was to dry to snuff or dip. Since i kicked the smokes, dip was my go-to morning nicotine, but it was turning into my next vice. Saline is amazing- i use it before fine snuffs, after snuffing to clear out(i think i pulled out some snuff out from last year), and sometimes prior to snuff just to pack more in there w/out hitting my sinuses. I would say saline has uped my enjoyment level two-fold.

I either use a neti pot or a NeilMed Sinus Rinse squeeze bottle. For my mix I use tap water and sea salt.

Hint from an old aquarist. When you need salt for nasal use, go to an aquarium store and buy a box of sea salt mix. All the trace elements at a tiny fraction of the cost of anything else.

I use an old havfever medicine spray bottle with plain water in it to get a good rinse going. What is the benefit of saline over water?

@clootie.  When using a hypotonic solution the water will rush into your cells to correct the concentration differential, likely leading them to burst.(not good).  The reverse with a hypertonic solution is problematic as well. Saline is good as it is supposed to be nearer the salt content found in your bodily tissues/fluids. 

My fear with the netti, which is used by many people is that if the water is improperly treated you can become the victim of the dreaded brain eating amoeba. There is no cure for it, if the amoeba pass the blood brain barrier, they will eat your brain and as you can imagine that is no fun. (Also, this summer… take care in what natural water sources you swim in and hope you don’t have abrasions in your sinuses) 

http://blogs.webmd.com/breaking-news/2011/12/brain-eating-amoeba-in-neti-pots.html

 I find the use of snuff actually helps keep my nose and sinuses quite healthy. I dare say snuffers have much less bacterias and viruses than non snuffers. You are almost guaranteed to have MORE after using a netti with _tap _water. Sure the netti is useful at times but the sinuses should be rested after its use. I, (not a doctor) would not recommend snuffing immediately after doing a netti flush.

I concur with @juxtaposer in that snuff keeps my sinuses clear. In the morning because of a fan, my sinuses are usually bone dry. My cure for this is a “preemptive snuff” which gets the fluids going. Also you can just take a shower which I like to use to REALLY get all of my nose cleaned out.

Also, if you choose to use spray/neti saline>DI water>nasal spray>boiled tap water>tap water. Medicated nasal spray causes addiction and rebound. Your sinuses will shut on you if you become habituated to it.

When i first started snuffing I used my sinus rinse every single night because I was afraid (for some odd reason) of leaving a bit of snuff in there over night.  I used saline spray at work, etc, etc, etc.  Now, I can’t remember the last time I used my sinus rinse, and I use my saline spray only if my nose gets a bit sore from a particularly heavy bender on dry snuffs.

The body has an amazing ability to reject what it doesn’t want.  If there are a few crumbs left in there in the morning (those of you who are squeamish, stop reading now), they are all wrapped in a thin layer of mucous and easily blow right out.  It sounds gross, but it works really well for me.

I don’t use any of that stuff.  I just blow my nose and if I feel like there is some excess left I sniff some White elephant or D. White and the rest magically comes out!  hahahaha

Salene adjusts the pH level of the water to that of the mucus membrane in your nose so that there isn’t any irritation/sting.

This makes for a more pleasant experience when you are pouring (with a neti pot) or forcing (with a NeilMed pump) water into one nostril, having it flow all the way through your sinuses and coming out the other nostril.

FYI: Neti pots work by gravity (you have to tilt your head so that the water flows “downstream” into your nose, through your sinuses and out your nose again.) NeilMed pumps work by squeezing the bottle and creating a pressurized flow of water.

I usually just use an off brand you can get at the dollar store for just under two bucks, but I do think I’ll try the recipe with baking soda to see if it makes any difference.//

I have since the last comment tried the sea salt recipe and I like it.  The only amendment I would make is to use spring water as I found in the first time I tried tap water that the chlorine burnt my snout.