Nose hose: Relief for sinus sufferers

Sinus problems helped by nasal irrigation

by Lori Price - The Dallas Morning News

Trudi Herstein thought she would breathe easy after having surgery to open sinus cavities that were 90 percent blocked. But soon after the 1997 surgery, her sinuses were clogged again. It was one incident in a string of many in her sinus crisis.

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"I'd had five years worth of sinus infections, having them six or eight times a year," the Carrollton resident says. "Antibiotics were a part of my daily meal."

Then, her doctor recommended that she wash her nose two or three times a day with a nasal irrigator. The infections and attacks slowed, and now she rarely has them, she says. "It's completely changed my life," Ms. Herstein says. "My nose doesn't feel dry, and I can breath all the time."

Dr. Murray Grossan, a Los Angeles otolaryngologist who designed the irrigator that Ms. Herstein used, presented the device at the American Academy of Family Practitioners conference held in Dallas recently. The product is made by HydroMed and can be ordered upon request by most pharmacists.

Called a nasal douche by some patients, the Grossan Nasal Irrigator is a tip that attaches to a Water Pik and uses warm salt water to clean the inside of the nasal passages. The solution and the Water Pik's pulsating pressure help clear sinuses, post-nasal drip and phlegm, Dr. Grossan says. "Most upper-respiratory problems, including sinus infections and allergies, are related to poor function of nasal cilia, tiny hairs in the mucous membranes that act to remove pollutants and contagions," Dr. Grossan says. "By removing bacteria and reducing the bacterial load by way of (pulsating) nasal irrigation, the body has a better chance to handle the infection nature's way." Nasal irrigation is not all that new, Dr. Grossan says.

The idea of the product he developed was patterned after a common yoga practice used more than 3,000 years ago, he adds. "It has been used since ancient times in Indian traditional medicine," he says. Nasal irrigation is essential to the treatment of sinus disease, says Dr. Jennifer Jordan, a Dallas ear, nose and throat physician. After her patients have sinus surgery, she recommends that they use some type of irrigator because it helps clean the nose better, she adds. Keeping the nose moist also can help fight nosebleeds, Dr. Jordan says. But nasal irrigators such as Dr. Grossan's probably shouldn't be a substitute for other treatment, such as antihistamines, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory products, Dr. Jordan says. "Other products decrease swelling, and this helps clean your nose," Dr. Jordan says. "It's not that one is better than the other, but they work well together."

Murray Grossan, M.D.

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First Published: Thanksgiving 2000
Updated: April 2007

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