Neti Pot

What is a Neti Pot and
what is it used for?


The Jill Fellow Answer
Ok, so the concept of a Neti Pot has been in western pop culture recently because Oprah had an episode where Dr. Oz had a woman from the audience come and use a Neti Pot on the stage for her first time. (Read about the episode here.) The Neti Pot looks like Aladdin's lamp (or like a tea pot if you buy a plastic one). You take it and fill it with salt water. Then you pour the water into one nostril, and it comes out in a stream from the other nostril. It made Oprah's audience scream, but the women who did it came back on a few months later and said the daily practice had completely changed her life and relieved a lot of her sinus and allergy problems. Since this re-aired in 2007, it has been hard to find a Neti Pot in trendy areas of the country like Los Angeles, according to my sister Kristie Crvelin.

The concept of using the Neti Pot actually comes from the Yoga people. The practice is known as jala neti and is part of Ayurvedia techniques (more questions on that later, I guess.) The eastern practitioners of jala neti actually use the Neti Pot everyday as naturally as brushing their teeth according to wikipedia, the video linked below and other sites I read. I also read that the simple Neti Pot usage shown on Oprah and accepted in western culture is only part of the practice. People can go on to learn to snort and inhale the water and pass it in patterns from the mouth to the nose. These practices should be learned with a trained teacher.

In western cultures, we call the process Nasal Irrigation. Basically people who use Neti Pots -- Western or Eastern -- think they can cure many things relating to the throat, nose and mouth. They claim the salt pulls out blockages and dirt from the sinuses and nasal passage which could affect anything from sore throats to sinus infections to ear infections and so on.

Most Neti Pot instructions indicated that the pot should be filled with 8 oz. of distilled or filtered warm or home temperature water. There are solutions that can be bought to add to the water, or you can use non iodized salt. Experts disagree on the amount to use, but they all agree that salt must be added to the salter in some form or amount.

The Jill Fellow Experience

I got my first sinus infection and immediately turned to the internet for help with natural remedies. It did not take long to find a Neti Pot instructional video. I only had time to stop at one store on my way home from work the next day. I had no choice but to try a local Albertson's food store. I walked right up the pharmacist and asked him if they sell Neti Pots. He looked at me like I was crazy, but before I could walk away his assistant showed him that they had special ordered only one and kept it behind the counter. She scanned it to order another one and then sold it to be for about $15. It came with a plastic, blue Neti Pot and 50 salt mixture packets. The instructions were clear, and the pot was easy to use. The first time the did it, I looked up a little at my bathroom mirror to make sure it was actually coming out of my other nostril, and it was. I was scared of what would happen if I swallowed during the pouring, and I when I accidentally did, the water just slowed for a split second and was fine. When the water was done, I moved the pot and breathed out hard from both nostrils, and a ton of water flew out right away. The directions talked about blowing your nose carefully to avoid putting any pressure on your ears. I did not listen. I just blew my nose normally, and I had some ear pain afterwards because I think I had an ear infection as well. Whether you have ear pain or not, you should not blow your nose as you normally would. When we blow we tend to blow from one nostril at a time, and this is what adds pressure to the ears.

I believe that the fact that my ears were at all affected by this process is a sign that it can have an impact on many areas of the ears, nose and throat as users claims it does. The process definitely cleared my nasal passages and exposed some problems with my ears. When I did it twice in one day, I thought it dried out my nostrils, but that was no big deal to me. The second time I used the pot, I started the process and had to stop mid-flow because it was uncomfortable like water up your nose in the pool. I changed by position by leaning down closer to the sink, and that helped. But the process can be more or less comfortable based on what is going on in your nose I think. The cheap blue pots are the same price as the nice white ones, but the the cheap one I had was not very comfortable on my nostril because it had some sharp plastic edges. Some drug store kits include the white one, so look around or order it.

I highly recommend this practice for one main reason. Why not? A lot of people suffer from pain that doctors have no answers for. Take control of the situation and give this a try. Of all my reading online, no one mentioned a single side effect from just giving it a try.


Other sources and answers:
Search Nasal irrigation on wikipedia.org

Nasal irrigation can also be used with a syringe.

Here is a video demonstration from Youtube.com of how to use a Neti pot. (I followed the instructions from the video, and they worked well. Expect in the video she fills the pot with tap water and most sources say to use filtered or distilled water.)

Please comment with your answers and experiences.