This Sudafed "PE" stuff

[sheila]

Originally Posted by Wassercrats

I've tried salt water in a pressurized can. It didn't work well if at all. A doctor prescribed a steroid spray, but I did research when I got it home and just threw it out because that particular one (a cheap variety) had worse side effects than most. All of them hurt your immune system, even the salt water.

That's an interesting remark about the salt water, as I would guess that includes using a Neti pot? This past cold season we used a neti pot at our house a lot, and it really does help. Or at least we thought so. I also like that it's "natural" in the sense that it's only salt water and not drugs. I don't see how running salt water through my nose hurts my immune system, but I figure it's better than taking drugs.

[Mandi]

I don't think the PE stuff is worth a darn either. Real sudafed can be had by rx, too, if you have a sympathetic doc that doesn't suspect you're running a crystal meth lab along with the running nose.

Something that often gets overlooked for decongestant is guifennissen, which is still freely available. (Those Mucinex commercials - that's basically guifennissen. Buy generic, though.) It has traditionally been aimed at chest colds, but its real power is thinning things down so it's easily drained. Good for ears, sinuses and noses too.

The best decongestant ever was rx stuff called Entex, which was guifennissen and PPA. Alas, it's been pulled. PPA was even better than Sudafed (original flavor.)

We can get the 12 hour (real) sudafed, guifennisen, or a guif/suda blend from the military formulary, so I am a lucky girl, and always well stocked.

I like Claritin for daytime allergy control, and (rx) Attarax at bedtime. Interestingly, Attarax metabolizes overnight into the same chemical that is Zyrtec, so it's like waking up with Zyrtec already on board. And then I go take Claritin and half a guiff/sudafed pill too. I've got a plateful of allergies, let me tell ya. It's better than clamped down lungs from allergic asthma, though.

[Wassercrats]

No Neti pot. My problem wasn't an allergy as far as I know. I just have large turbinates, and my right one is especially annoying. Maybe salt water would work better if you have to wash out allergens.

I think dissolving anything from inside your nose increases your chance of getting sick. I don't remember where I read about the salt water though.

[Dragon]

This may not help with cold symptoms, but you might stock upon vitamin D. It's supposed to help with the immune system. A lot of people don't get enough of the stuff. And may as well throw in some calcium, which works with Vitamin D and keeps your bones in decent shape. Also, 40% of Americans don't get enough of the B complex.

[Mandi]

Oh, yeah - we all do Neti pot daily here, and rx Flonase as indicated by season.

[Andilinks]

Wow, this is a whole new world to me. Sometimes I blow my nose with a kleenex or a handkerchief and never really thought there was any more to it than that. Live and learn.

[Mandi]

You might be thinking of a different kind of, uh, home medical project with the turkey baster . I never heard of anyone using that for saline wash! Try a real neti pot, the volume is good, and you just want it to wash with gravity, not with the extra force a bulb syringe would impart.

Amazon carries them, and I've even found this one at CVS. I've had several different models, and like that simple plastic one best. It is a bad call for me to use something ceramic, if I know it's going to be wet and slippery everytime I handle it LOL!

I used to be into mixing my own saline (sea salt + baking soda to buffer it) but I really prefer the little premixed packets for ease. I would sometimes get too much/too little salt and neither feels very good. Exactly the right amount of salt does NOT feel like getting water up your nose at the pool - more like when your eyes are very watery, and your nose is sort of full from that. (Sorry if this thread is derailing into The Ick for anyone . . . )

Daily hygiene is exactly how I think of it (with extra when I need curative help, like to ward off a sinus infection. You can put a drop or two of something like this (GSE is a natural, powerful antimicrobial) in the rinse to really kick an infection.

This is purely anecdotal, but I feel like I get fewer airborne viruses (and probably bacterial infections, in my case) since I started doing this daily. Salt is death to most microbes - at least, the sort that can threaten us - and it seems to me that one can stay ahead of the invasion timeline for microbes if you rinse out the first battlefield lines once or twice a day (ie, the nose and pharynx.) I am way, way more susceptible to infection (viral, bacterial, fungal) than most people thanks to immunosuppresive drug therapies, and yet I get sick less often than most normal-immunity people. I really think it's the neti pot!

They are also a benefit for people who are prone to middle ear infections, due to Eustachian tube issues; the neti pot can keep inflammation down at the exit of the tube in the throat (which otherwise can close off the exit with swollen tissues.)

It really isn't bad - it doesn't feel like getting water up your nose at all, and it only takes a second. Proper dental hygiene is way, way more involved and (at times).

[Randall]

Originally Posted by Mandi

Try a real neti pot, the volume is good, and you just want it to wash with gravity, not with the extra force a bulb syringe would impart.

Yeah, the turkey baster isn't the best solution. Hard to get the right amount of water, and it's just as likely to squirt back out instead of trickling through.

It really isn't bad - it doesn't feel like getting water up your nose at all, and it only takes a second.

My improvised "saline" doesn't bother me � I just add salt until I can taste it � so I'm sure it'll feel just fine when properly prepared. And I'm one of those people who hates getting (chlorinated) water up my nose.

Randall