It’s that time of the year again. A few weeks ago the weather was cold and damp, but today temps hit 23 degrees Celsius over here and the trees are blossoming. It’s great, but for me it has one big disadvantage: allergies! I’m always late getting started on my allergy medicine, but this year I notice my allergies start extremely early. I remember from previous years that I had to order new ones late May, early June, so this year’s allergies are extremely early and it took a while before I made the connection. I thought I had the flu because I suffered from extreme fatigue, felt sick and wanted to stay in bed all day long. I felt to miserable to do anything.
I use a feedreader to keep up-to-date with internet news, and using that I read something in the New York Times about a simple and cheap way to get rid of allergies. It already exists for thousands of years in India but it gets more popular in the West right now: the Neti Pot. According advocates is good for about anything. The device itself is fairly simple: it’s a small ceramic jug, which looks like a flattened tea pot. You put a saline solution in it and rinse your nose and sinuses with it. It treats colds, sinusitis but also hay fever. At least, it claims it does.
I would not be surprised if it works. Theoretically, if you remove the pollen and other stuff that creates the allergic reaction from your nose, the symptoms disappear. To most people it’s just mildly irritating with an irritated nose and irritated eyes, but my body reacts more intense to it. I’m just struck down and have feverish symptoms and extreme fatigue. Theoretically, if I would rinse my nose immediately after I went outside, for example, I would stay symptom free. It’s an interesting concept, but I wonder how I would treat my sore eyes. Let me quote a piece from the article:
In one independent study in 2008, researchers examined a group of children with severe allergies. They found that regular nasal irrigation with a mild saline solution significantly eased symptoms and helped reduce the need for steroid nasal sprays. A 2007 study at the University of Michigan looked at 121 adults with chronic nasal and sinus problems. Over two months, the scientists found that those treated with nasal irrigation reported greater improvements than those treated with a spray.
It sounds too good to be true. I have to pay for my hay fever medication myself, so maybe a Neti Pot is a low budget solution to my hay fever. I wonder if it would work in my situation, because my allergy symptoms are more severe than regular people’s. Maybe I should ask the physicians in my circle of friends about it.
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