We live in a very polluted area of Causeway Bay and having being spoiled with the no smoking indoors in CA our allergies have been really bad here. Several days ago Jeff started doing a nasal rinse rather than submit to medical surgery to correct his sinus allergies. Today Jeff feels that daily routine has helped him alot eliminating his allergies. It's basically salty warm water that is shot up in a steady stream up one nostril and comes out the other nostril.

Here are some resources he found online to learn more about it but I suggest looking locally for classes or instruction.

The one that we have is from here: Neilmed

Jeff just ordered a real stainless steel neti pot from Health and Yoga.

The benefits of this one are:
A) larger size, this one is 16 oz versus 8 oz for the squeeze bottle
B) continous flow - the squeeze bottle you have to resqueeze after a little bit.

There was some talk of the continous flow helping to pull out more contaminants, but not sure if this is valid.

There are a whole bunch of articles on the net about this practice. It's called "jal neti". Here are some starters: the 2nd link is really good and has lots of good info.

Health and Yoga: Jal Neti
Net Handbook (pdf)

We also bought the Neti Wash Plus to add to the solution when we get more comforatable with the basic saline solution. It's supposed to prevent infection and is speficially made for neti pots.

Not only am I hoping to prevent colds and eliminate allergies, but the improvement in my sense of smell and taste will probably help me with my wine tasting education.