water for nasal rinse

dke4art

My pulmonologist has recommended that I use a nasal rinse twice a day. I'm thinking that this is probably impossible onthis trip. any ideas?

British

If you take one of those contraptions that you can put in a cup or mug to boil water, a travel immersion water heater, they come in dual voltage and can be found on Amazon, you can heat the bottled water and take the packets of nasal salts with you, adding them to the cooled, boiled water which is the recommended method for using something like a netipot.

joycesw

Are you talking about a netipot, or something of that ilk??? I would think you could bring the saline packets (would be very easy to pack) and then use the bottled water you are given. I would think that using the bottles at the ambient temps would be sufficient to dissolve the saline packets...oops! Just read British's answer...good advice! A nasal rinse is a good way to combat the dust you will encounter.

British

Research has shown that you must boil the water, that kills any amoeba like creatures that can even be found in bottled water which is not sterile. There have been cases of people getting amoeba in the brain. It's not a case of dissolving the salts.

APerite

You may also want to consider the NeilMed Sinugator. My otolaryngologist suggested I use it when I travel. It's easy to use, battery operated, and light-weight.. I took it with me on my trip to Norway last month. Ask your pulmonologist if either the Nedi Pot of Sunugator would be suitable for you. Enjoy your trip.

joycesw

Yikes! That is good info, British! I will keep that in mind when Fall allergy season kicks in...hmmm. Maybe that's why sometimes I can't remember why I went to the grocery store even though I have dutifully made up a list (which I have forgotten at home)! This is probably TMI!!

AlanS

This whole topic is creepy so I did some extensive reading. At first I was a bit skeptical- an amoeba that attacks your brain, really? Well, there is one, Naegleria fowleri, and if gets in your brain, your chances of surviving are apparently slim! Death - which occurs in 99 percent of cases - can happen within five days.

Typically, people contract the amoeba from swimming in warm freshwater lakes and rivers since the organism thrives in warm temperatures. Stomach acid can kill the organism so you can't get it from drinking water containing the amoeba, unless you snort some up your nose, so for that reason the number of reported instances is low compared to other maladies.

One commonly cited report from 2012 says the amoeba was suspected in the deaths of two unrelated Louisiana people that were using neti pots. Tests on their home plumbing came back positive for the amoeba, although the city's water distribution systems' tests came back negative. The bacteria was found in a tankless water heater in the man's home and in the bathroom sink and faucet tub of the woman's home.

The big question is can it be found in bottled water? I'm not convinced. If the water is sterile, distilled, boiled, chlorinated, or passed through a filter with an absolute pore size of 1 micron or smaller during the bottling process you should be safe. Though most bottled "Spring Water" is indeed filtered, you must be sure it is with a 1 micron or smaller filter, but it will likely not state that on the bottle. So, will you bet your life that the bottler, wherever it may be around the world, filters or treats their water with such care as Deer Park? (see below)

I just happen to have a bottle of Deer Park 100% Natural Spring Water (A Nestlé Waters Product) here by my chair. There is no filtration info on the label, so I went to their website and after some digging found that they claim to follow a very strict (OSHA, FDA, Federally regulated) bottling process. One section said this:

"4
Micro-filtration

Specialized two-stage advanced
micro-filters, designed specifically for
our process, filter the raw
spring water.

These filters are
pharmaceutical grade
and are designed to
remove particles as small
as 0.2 micron in diameter. "

Now, I just need to check my refrigerator water filter- I'm cheap, I refill my bottle a couple times before recycling it.

TLady

I just returned from Tanzania. I have asthma and chronic sinus problems. I used a scarf to cover my mouth and nose as much as possible. I also purchased an over the counter squeeze bottle of saline nasal spray which I used at the end of each game drive. It worked just fine, but purchase more than one bottle.

Yes, you have to used to distilled water to use a Neti-Pot, because any water can transmit bacteria to your brain. Even in the US.

British

The CDC recommend basically what I said earlier in this thread.