a neti pot with salty water

[Guest guest]

GABY HAKMAN worked as a chef in professional kitchens

in Miami for nearly 20 years, standing in the vacuum

of powerful venting fans, inhaling smoke. But she had

even bigger nasal challenges ahead. “I work as a

personal chef now, which is a lot less toxic, but I

also moved to New York City, and because of the city’s

pollutants and dry heat I developed painfully dry

sinuses,” Ms. Hakman said.

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Jimenez for The New York Times

YouTube

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME Neti pots are now so

mainstream, they are the stuff of jokes. An Ohio man

called Drew, right, spoofs them on a popular YouTube

video.

Seeking the advice of a masseuse and acupuncturist,

Jana Warchalowski, Ms. Hakman was urged to try

something she didn’t even want to think about. “Jana

said she had two words for me: neti pot,” Ms. Hakman

said. “I’d heard about it before. I just kept

thinking, ‘No way, that’s gross.’”

But this fall, Ms. Hakman relented.

“I went out and bought a pretty little ceramic neti

pot from Whole Foods,” she said. “I’ve used it every

day since. Now, I can breathe again. It’s even gotten

rid of the bags under my eyes.”

Originally part of a millennia-old Indian yogic

tradition, the practice of nasal irrigation — jala

neti — is performed with a small pot that looks like a

cross between Aladdin’s lamp and your grandmother’s

gravy boat. The neti pot made its way into this

country in the early 1970s as a yoga meditation

device, but even as yoga became mainstream, the neti

pot remained on the fringes of alternative culture.

That is, until now. Due to a confluence of influences,

the neti pot is having what can only be termed a

moment, sold in drugstores, health food stores, even

at Wal-Mart and Walgreens.

The practice gained wide exposure last spring when it

was introduced on Oprah Winfrey’s show by a frequent

guest, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and an

author of health books. Dr. Oz explained that bathing

the sinus cavities in a warm saline solution can

reduce symptoms of allergies, cold, flu and other

nasal problems.

He called upon a chronic sinusitis sufferer,

identified as Amy from Texas, to demonstrate the neti

pot. “Welcome to your nose bidet,” Ms. Winfrey said

enthusiastically as the woman inserted the spout of a

ceramic pot into one nostril, tilted her head and let

a solution of non-iodized salt and water flow up her

nose and out the other nostril.

A month later, in a follow-up, Amy spoke by phone on

air and reported she’d used a neti pot every day

since, with happy results. She had not had a single

sinus headache, she said.

A star was born.

The neti pot became a hot topic online, featured in

blogs and daily journals, chatted about on message

boards, demonstrated in some 60 YouTube videos. It was

billed as a cure-all to ward off cold or flu, improve

a sense of smell or taste, sharpen vision and even

reduce snoring. “Nose bidet” became one of the most

popular topics searched on Google.

Neither Whole Foods Market, where neti pots have been

sold nationwide for almost a decade, nor the Himalayan

Institute, one of the largest retail and wholesale

distributors of neti pots in the United States, would

disclose sales figures, but representatives of each

company said that after the Oprah shows there were

sharp spikes in demand.

Jan Mathews, the chief executive of East West Living,

a seller of spiritual books and supplies with a store

in Manhattan, said: “After Oprah, we went from selling

dozens of neti pots a week to dozens a day, and sold

out. For two weeks we couldn’t restock fast enough. It

may have started with Oprah, but then it became word

of mouth.”

In December, Ms. Mathews began in-store neti pot

demonstrations in the store’s cafe four times a week.

“There’s a growing clamor for natural alternatives to

cold and allergy medicines,” she said. “In my demo,

there may be about a dozen or so people in attendance,

but sometimes I’ll look up and realize the whole rest

of the cafe is watching.”

PROMOTERS of the neti pot link it to other methods of

purifying and detoxifying the body that have become

popular at spas and from providers of alternative

health care, procedures like seaweed facials, liver

flushes and coffee enemas.

Few if any Western medical schools teach the use of

the neti pot. But Dr. Bradley Marple, the chairman of

the rhinology and paranasal sinus committee for the

American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck

Surgery, said that nasal irrigation is a well-known

remedy for various respiratory complaints.

“There are an estimated billion viral episodes of the

upper respiratory tract a year,” said Dr. Marple, a

professor of otolaryngology at the University of Texas

Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.

“Studies indicate that saline nasal irrigation is a

highly effective, minimally invasive intervention for

people suffering from nasal issues,” Dr. Marple said.

“But it’s just not as sexy to talk about. People want

to hear about surgery or antibiotics.”

He added that there are many commercially available

products that deliver a saline solution to the nasal

area, including squeeze bottles and spray cans. They

may be more convenient than using a neti pot, he said,

but because of its gentler pressure, a neti pot can be

an advantage for patients who suffer ear discomfort

due to pressure.

Amy Neunsinger of Los Angeles, a commercial and

fashion photographer, says she’s made using it fun for

her toddler son.

“Last year when he had a sinus infection, instead of

putting him on antibiotics as the doctor recommended,

I had him try the neti pot,” Ms. Neunsinger said. “He

was 3. I told him, ‘Hold your breath, just like in

swimming lessons,’ and he tried it and it worked. He

felt so much better, and his infection went away

quickly on its own.”

“Now, we do it together once a week,” she said. “He

loves to tear open the little packets of salt and mix

it up.”

One user’s neti pot video has had nearly a

quarter-million views on YouTube. In the video, “How

to Irrigate Your Nasal Passages,” a cartoonist from

Ohio who goes by the name Drew, demonstrates (to a

song titled “I Like to Watch the Rain Come Down”) how

to use a neti pot with salty water, then with black

coffee, then with Kentucky bourbon, exploding with an

expletive a millisecond before the video snaps off.

In an e-mail message, Drew, 28, wrote: “I haven’t had

any sinus problems in a few months. Maybe the whiskey

did the trick?

“The last time it was used, I filled it with half and

half to serve with coffee — bad idea. The cream went

everywhere when you tried to pour it, and our guests

immediately recognized the neti pot as ‘that thing I

saw you put in your nose.’”

Spiritual freedom is my birthright.

I am a free thinker. I am able to rise above mental

prejudices and stereotypes of others.

I am a free thinker. Nobody and nothing can manipulate

me or deceive me.

I am a free thinker. I freely choose truth and love.

Today, I embrace a greater degree of spiritual

freedom.

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