Ever since I’ve known him, my husband has had sinus issues. He has allergies, gets yearly sinus infections, and on a regular basis his nose is always to some degree plugged up. It’s been this way for his entire adult life. He just resigned himself to putting up with the constant sniffling, nose-blowing, and a lot of breathing through his mouth. That was, until a couple weeks ago.
At the beginning of the fall allergy season my husband decided to buy a new product called SinuCleanse. We had seen this product on TV, and couldn’t help but laugh at the ads. You see a person sticking something up one of her nostrils while a clear watery liquid starts dripping out the other nostril. The people in the ad are amazed at how great the product is without ever addressing how weird it is to push fluid through your nose. Weird.
Thankfully my husband finally got over his juvenile mentality and bought the product. And amazingly, it works! The very first time he used it, he noticed he could immediately breathe easier through his nose, but wasn’t impressed. He expected this type of instant result, but that it would be temporary. However after over an hour passed, instead of his breathing getting worse it got much better.
Here’s how it works. Inside the package you get many individual packets of a dry saline solution. You dump this saline solution in the included dispenser filled nearly to the top with water. This dispenser comes with a cone-shaped lid. You stick this lid up one of your nostrils and squeeze until half the liquid is gone. Then you repeat on the other nostril.
How often do you use it?
That depends. Per the package, you can use it a couple times every day or just whenever the need arises. Since my husband has such regular issues with breathing, he uses it on average of once a day. But even if he waits a couple days before using it, his breathing is still considerably better than before he ever began using it. For him, the effects of SinuCleanse have lasted as long as three days.
What does it feel like?
Like when you get water up your nose. No pain or discomfort. However when he first started using 2 packets in a single treatment, he felt a moderate burning sensation in his nose. There is a warning on a package that this could happen. But after a few times of doing the 2 packet treatments, that feeling went away. He continues to use 2 packets for each treatment.
What does it cost?
The package that includes the dispenser and 30 saline solution packets cost $9.99. It cost us $5.99 to get a resupply of 60 additional solution packets. So after purchasing the initial package with dispenser, it costs us about $3.00 every month for my husband to continue with his once a day treatments where he uses 2 packets each treatment. That’s not a bad price to pay for being able to breathe easier.
This sinus irrigation is also called a sinus wash, or lavage. This can be done at home without needing a product like SinuCleanse, but it would require you to have a particular container called a neti pot or a devise called a nasal bulb syringe. You may be able to find neti pots in your local health food store.
Turns out this isn’t some new American fad. This simple procedure has been done for hundreds of years in India and parts of Asia. So you may find it reassuring to know this has essentially been tried and tested. However, these ancient cultures didn’t have the convenience of just going down to their neighborhood Walgreens whenever they got the sniffles.
