Given below is a link to a article from NYT (Short, Stout, Has a Handle on
Colds ) which talks of the growing popularity of Jala Neti as a pancea for
respiratory ailments :
http://tinyurl.com/3ct2cp
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/fashion/03skin.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=jala+neti&oref=slogin
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
citys pollutants and dry heat I developed painfully dry sinuses, Ms. Hakman
said.Seeking the advice of a masseuse and acupuncturist, Jana Warchalowski, Ms.
Hakman was urged to try something she didnt even want to think about. Jana
said she had two words for me: neti pot, Ms. Hakman said. Id heard about it
before. I just kept thinking, No way, thats gross.But this fall, Ms. Hakman
relented. I went out and bought a pretty little ceramic neti pot from Whole
Foods, she said. Ive used it every day since. Now, I can breathe again. Its
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 Aladdins lamp and your grandmothers 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 Winfreys 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 shed 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 couldnt 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 stores cafe four times a week.
Theres 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 Ill 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
its 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 shes 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 users 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 havent 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.
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