Posted on 11/17/2005 1:13:17 PM PST by kingattax
NEW YORK - Can you really cure the common cold just by swishing salt water through your nose? Yogis have been swearing by it for ages. Now, even Americans who've never said "om" are saying "ah" after trying the ancient Indian art of nose washing.
To get at the source of their stuffiness, nose washers use a tool that looks like a tiny Aladdin's lamp, called a neti pot. They fill the pot with warm salt water, then ever-so-gently insert the tip of the spout into one nostril. Then they tip back the pot and let the waters flow.
As the warm stream swishes through one side of the nose, loops around the sinuses and pours back out the other nostril, the salty solution washes away mold, pollen and dust. Gross? Sure. Effective? For many, it's the Holy Grail of sinus relief.
"The first time I saw someone wash their nose two years ago, I thought, 'I am so not doing that,' " said Monica Groth, 26, a meditation accessories business owner from Colby, Wis. But Groth was so tired of getting colds year after year that she tried it anyway. She's been rinsing and draining - and free of colds, she says - ever since. "Just think of all the grime we breathe in every day," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
I'll try anything
The Chinese have a reliable cure for the cold and it costs less than $2 for a little bottle of pills. Called Gan Mao Ling, containing only a combination of herbs of some sort, it never let me down, cured every cold overnight. I did start taking the pills on the day I was coming down fast with a cold, don't know how they would work with an "old" cold.
Everyone in my large office used the things, which we could pick up at any Chinese grocery store.
Sheesh! Any pharmacy has saline nasal spray that's a lot easier to use than this thing.
I'd be willing to bet if the Yogis lived near a CVS, they would have thrown this thing away years ago.
Zicam seems to be working for me. I'm trying for the first time getting over a cold that had already hit. I woke up feeling bad Sunday, got Zicam Sunday afternoon and by Monday morning I was back up to 85 or 87 percent. I try never to run at more than 90 percent anyway.
I had nasal surgery years ago, and the doctor said I should "irrigate" my nose regularly for the rest of my life. It actually does clear the sinuses, but it certainly doesn't cure colds. I have one right now.
Thanks!
I always pick up a snotty cold just after the holidays and keep it in some form all winter.
I'll try your advice.
The advantage over plain over-the-counter saline nasal spray is that you can control the salt content. ENT docs regularly advise hypertonic saline irrigation for people with sinus problems (a concentration of salt higher than what is found in the body; normal saline solution is 0.9%, which is the concentration found in the body). The advantage of hypertonic (as compared to the 0.9% isotonic) is that it will draw the mucous and other "junk" out of the nasal passages and sinuses. If you have sinus problems, it works well.
I've been gargling with warm salt water for sore throats since boyhood
never tried it through the nose, and I'm coming down with something all day now ... can't wait to get home !
I've been gargling with warm salt water for sore throats since boyhood
never tried it through the nose, and I'm coming down with something all day now ... can't wait to get home !
They have one of these pots in the Lehman's catalog. I was going to get one for my dad for a gag gift.
But I was afraid he'd demonstrate it....
a soup spoon works just a well.
Any idea what herbs are in Gan Mao Ling?
I don't remember. It's a mix of several Chinese sounding things like chrysanthemum.
So I got curious and googled. There are endless brands of gan mao ling available online, all of which are more expensive than the little bottle of pills your Chinese grocer has on his shelves. It's been coming in from China for at least 15 years, it's probably been inspected by the FDA, and if anything was going to go wrong, we would have "heard by now.
Ingredients in one online version: .
"Each tablet contains the following beneficial herbal ingredients:
Gang mei gen (Ilex asprella/roughhaired holly root) - expels heat and toxins San cha ku (Evodia lepta root & leaf) - expels heat, aids immunity Ye ju hua (Chrysanthemum indicum flower) - rids fire and toxicity Huang jing cao (Vitex negundo herb) - moistens lungs, aids digestion Huang jing gen (Vitex negundo root) - moistens lungs, aids digestion Ban lan gen (Isatis indigotica root) - clears heat and toxins, cools blood, subdues swelling Jin yin hua (Lonicera japonica/honeysuckle flower) - removes toxins and heat from blood"
you are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO disgusting!
Then my work here is done....
This looks like an image from a porn movie.
Much easier to get an over-the-counter spray-up-the-nose bottle (not the squirt kind, but the good measured-pump spray kind, like NasalCrom and some other products come in), and a bottle of saline solution for contact lenses, with which to fill and refill the little spray bottle repeatedly. About 6 squirts up each nostril, with a good inward sniff with each squirt, then lean forwards and sideways to slosh it around, and finish off with a good blow into a Kleenex. Takes about 30 seconds total, and consts virtually nothing (the saline solution is about $3 for a 12 oz. bottle). I do it every morning of the year without fail, and no longer get colds or bronchitis.
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