March 10, 2005

Unusual Medical Practices

We've heard about a couple of things that the AMA probably wouldn't approve of, and we'd like to tell you about one of them which has proved to be a boon to us, and ask you about a couple of others.

The Neti Pot has worked wonders for our nasal passages*. We don't want to get into the icky specifics here, but rather would like to invite you to check it out for yourself. We've been sneezing quite a bit, and having considerable sinus distress, since around Christmas time. And are very happy to say that our olfactory explosions have been much less frequent since we started using our Neti Pot. Thanks to the Vidiot for telling us about her experiences in this area and encouraging us to try it out. Based on our experiences**, we'd like to pass the following tips along to anyone brave enough to venture into this therapy:

1. Follow the instructions. Read them before you try this at home. Unexpected results may occur if you think you know what you're doing, but in fact you're doing it the wrong way. Not life-threatening results - but a certain amount of discomfort may be headed your way if you don't RTFM.

2. Don't add too much salt to the lukewarm water. But, make sure you add some salt to the mix. Too much or none at all can also cause some discomfort.

3. Don't look at all the icky stuff coming out of your melon. Especially if you have volatile stomach contents and a habit of bringing them back up when confronted with gross visual stimulation.

4. In this case, having sleep apnea (scroll down to Video Clip of Humor) is a relatively good thing - we find that our nasal passages are aired out by our CPAP machine while we sleep. Especially since we've gotten used to using the CPAP without any hydration (in other words, we pump dry air into our nostrils every night).

We also read about another possible aid to health and well-being (provided it is used for good, and not for evil. Come to think of it, we're kinda surprised that this report didn't come out of Gitmo...). The Ear Candle sounds like a fun experience for pyromaniacs like Your Humble Narrator. As long as we gets to light it, that is. We really can't say much more, other than the theory seems sound, and it seems to have been considered effective for hundreds of years (according to the news item we read).

And, long, long ago in our life's journey, we had a doctor who would use hot water to clean out the wax buildup in our ears (let's refer to it as the Ear Wash in this post). It sounds like pretty much the same theory, but somewhat safer - there's no need to worry about setting yourself or your surroundings on fire. And it worked out very well for us.

If there is anyone within eyeshot of this post who has had some experience with any of the alternative medical therapies we have talked about here today, please drop us a note and let us know the good and the bad times you've had with the Neti Pot, the Ear Candle, and/or the Ear Wash. It's nice to share!

* - and if you saw the size of said nasal passages, you'd realize how huge this endorsement is.

** - they don't call it trial and error around the Funny Farm for nothing...

Posted by (: Tom :) at March 10, 2005 12:01 AM