Neti Pot
CVS
$100 / year
I regale anyone and everyone with my decades-long tale of chronic sinus infections, awful allergies, and a poorly performed Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS).
The surgery was supposed to be the silver bullet for my allergy and sinus issues after seeing two ENTs for 1+ year of diagnosis. But I kept on getting sinus infections requiring antibiotics.
3 months post-surgery with a sinus infection yet again, a third ENT who was a straight shooter just flatly told me that there is literally nothing better than using a neti pot to keep things clear in there.
Despite the use of a neti pot initially seeming like a simulated drowning, he's right on the money. And the sense of drowning quickly diminishes with daily use. I often compare it brushing your teeth. If you made somebody start doing that after 25+ years of their life, they'd tell you to fuck off because it's laborious and unpleasant.
But I would be a far more miserable, less active, curmudgeon with much poorer sleep quality if I didn't start using one of these daily. It is life transforming when you're effortless, easily fending off allergy issues and breathing fully through both nostrils when awake or asleep.
It is the simplest of solutions: water + saline packet + squeezable neti pot during my daily shower where I also floss, brush my teeth, and use mouthwash (alongside other standard shower fare).
There's important caveats to this recommended tool re: if you're on well water or something else potentially teeming with brain parasites. And I do buy a new one quarterly for good measure.
But for many, the danger of brain infection is overblown and for everyone else a bottle of water and a neti pot is a much more valuable investment than another round of Allegra D or toughing out the pain or whatever you may be doing otherwise.
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