I usually  try to take a poll down once a couple hundred results are recorded. This poll has reached over 290 results, and the results were not what I had expected:

What Methods Do We Use for Nasal Saline Rinses?

51% still use the Neti pot, as you can see from the figure, the majority of us.

42% use the Squeeze-bottle – from Nasopure, NeilMed, there are several available (more on this below).

4% still use the Suction-bulb! That is a surprise.

For those of you who don’t know what that is, think back to those blue or green rubber-like bulbs that many people use to suction a baby’s nose out.

There were a couple of wise-alecs who claimed to use their garden-hose to rinse their noses out!! Nice image.

boogordoctor Nasal Saline Poll Results

What Are Saline Nasal Rinses Good For?

I have reviewed nasal saline rinses elsewhere on this blog, but let’s briefly review their value. Saline Nasal Rinses are good for those with:

• allergic rhinitis
• rhinitis from any cause (chemical rhinitis, say in a swimmer from chlorinated pool)
• sinusitis – acute or chronic
• simple viral URI syndrome
• asthma – optimizing nasal hygiene will benefit your lungs!
• otitis (ear infections) – again, optimal nasal hygiene reduces ear infections
• anyone who is exposed to air pollutants – either indoors or outdoors
• anyone with reflux that contributes to otitis or rhinitis/sinusitis
• once you have achieved a healthy nose – best way to keep it that way!

Whatever is bothering your nose, this will rinse it away. Think of nasal saline rinses like a car-wash for your nose – rinse off the dirt: mold, virus, bacteria, particulate pollutants, chemical toxins, etc.

You get the idea. Basically, ANY “Itis” or inflammatory disorder of the respiratory tract will benefit from optimal nasal hygiene.

Why is that?

Read about the Unified Airway Model to find out:

• What is the Unified Airway?
• It’s All Connected: the Unified Airway

Let Me Make A Recommendation

If you are doing nasal saline rinses …

First: stop using a suction-bulb. Primitive. Too risky for nasal trauma, likely to cause nose-bleeds. The goal here is to be nice to your nose, not to hurt it.

If you are using a Neti pot, time to switch to a squeeze-bottle.

There is an easier way to rinse your nose with saline – especially if you are doing saline rinses with a child.

For those of you who are struggling with the Neti pot to rinse a child’s nose, you know what I mean. Rinsing a child’s nose can be enough of a wrestling match without also struggling to get the positioning just right.

There is now a “Nicer Neti,” as the Nasopure bottle is referred to.

Of all the possible methods for doing nasal saline rinses, this is by far the easiest. And their bottle is BPA-free!

No odd head/neck contortions to get the positioning just right.

And if you have children who need nasal saline rinses, be sure to check out the videos on the Nasopure site: they show 3- and 4-year-old children easily doing nasal saline rinses. By themselves. Without the wrestling match. It’s that easy.

For Transparency:  I have NO financial or other arrangements with Nasopure.com or Dr. Hana Solomon. It is simply that this is the easiest system that I have found (and I have used them ALL), and the one that I use personally for myself and my own children, and the one that I recommend for my patients in clinic.

For those who might be interested in signing up for FREE email updates from this blog – no SPAM ever – you will receive a decent discount for everything on the Nasopure site.

If you or your child(ren) struggle with rhinitis or sinusitis, Dr. Hana’s book is a must-have:

Clearing The Air One Nose at a Time, by Dr. Hana Solomon.

Readers of this blog will recognize this as the book that I was intending to write!

_________________

Thanks for visiting.

Thanks especially to Kim, Jenna, and Lisa, for taking the time to leave comments, ask questions, and most importantly – to share their experiences with all of us. Your contributions to our little community of boogor-heads is greatly appreciated!

I appreciate your comments and questions.  Keep ‘em coming.  Please, “be excellent to one another.”

I invite you to subscribe (it’s FREE) to this blog for weekly updates – you won’t be swamped by updates, I simply cannot write for the blog everyday.

Click here to receive free weekly updates: (http://eepurl.com/FGnP)

Type in your best email address (the one you actually use).

Your email is safe - will never be shared or sold. Ever.

Click here to read our Privacy Policy: http://wp.me/PR4iB-r

When the confirmation email from boogor doctor arrives, click on the link to give your okay to receive free weekly updates, occasional book reviews or product reviews, occasional discount-coupons for products that I use (not affiliates), all without needing to visit the website.

It’s free, it’s convenient. No ads. No spam. You can un-subscribe at any time. How cool is that?

Stay Informed.

Stay Healthy.

Best of health and success to you and your families.

Until next time, remember … you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose (unless you’re a boogor doctor :~D)

We’ve heard about the harm from tobacco smoke these days – the number of cancers related to smoking or chewing tobacco, the cost of respiratory illness such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, or emphysema).  We hear about the addictive properties of tobacco smoke, and we see the advertisements for various aids to quit smoking – patches, pills, hypnosis, acupuncture.

Passive Smoking, Like it or Not

What is less often considered is the significant harm done by exposure to secondhand smoke. Also called environmental smoke, or sidestream smoke, we are all exposed to secondhand smoke.  Like it or not.

Indoor Air

Studies conducted by the EPA and others have found that indoor air can be up to 1,00 times more polluted than outdoor air.  Because we spend greater than 90% of our time indoors, this exposure poses a severe risk to our children.

Review of data from experiments done by the tobacco companies (that were not reported by them) reveal that sidestream smoke can be up to 12 times (1,200 percent!!) more toxic than smoke that is inhaled directly from the cigarette (mainstream smoke).

Homes of smokers have particle concentrations in the range of 10-100 ug/m3, and this can be as high as 2,000 ug/m3 in a car with the windows closed!  The EPA considers anything above 80 ug/m3 to be unhealthy for sensitive groups, and any level above 500 to be “hazardous” for ANY person.

Check my previous post, “Stop Breathing: Your Air is Killing You (and what to do about it)” for steps you can take to improve your air quality.

Our Children

It breaks my heart every time I see a child in my clinic that has severe rhinitis and sinusitis, and the whole family smells like an ashtray.  When asked, the parents often deny smoking.  If they do admit to smoking, they insist that they don’t smoke around the children.

The fact is, when you can smell smoke on someone, you are smelling the particulate toxins in their clothing and hair, and you are even smelling the toxins that they have breathed in as the metabolites are being exhaled.  Those kids are saturated in poisons!  The parents expect me to give the kid some medicine that will cure them, and make it OK to keep smoking.  Such a pill doesn’t exist, wish it did.  Bottom line – stop smoking.

The CDC has determined that 38% of our children are exposed to secondhand smoke in the homes.  Children are particularly susceptible to the dangerous effects of secondhand smoke and other environmental pollutants.  “Safe” levels have not been determined for our children.

One of the reasons that children are so susceptible to the hazardous effects of these toxins is that, per weight, they have higher metabolism, and breathe more air, than an adult.  Children breathe, on average, twice as many breaths in a day than we adults do – about 40,000 breaths per day compared to our 20,000 per day.

The Result

Secondhand smoke makes our kids SICK.

A study published in the medical journal, Pediatrics, reported that exposure to secondhand smoke is linked to:

• otitis media – up to 2 million ear infections per year in children due to smoke exposure;
• asthma exacerbations – over half a million doctor visits for asthma per year linked to smoke exposure;
• over 400 thousand cases of bronchitis in children under the age of 5 years linked to smoke exposure;  and
• pneumonia – up to 190 thousand cases of pneumonia per year in children under the age of 5 years!

What about sinusitis?

In a study published in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal (2000; vol 19:  pg 1071-1074:  http://bit.ly/c34dET ), children who were exposed to secondhand smoke had significantly more sinusitis than those not exposed – 68.8% compared to 1.2% .

Is that significant?

Now I’m just a simple pediatric boogor doctor and not a statistician, but by my calculations that’s more than 50 times greater incidence of sinusitis in children exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke.  Five THOUSAND percent higher incidence!!

Smoking and Pregnancy

The effects that were outlined in my last post are even greater on the developing fetus.  When a woman smokes during pregnancy her unborn child is exposed to the chemicals in the smoke.  This can be very harmful, and can lead to:

• Miscarriage
• Prematurity
• Low birth weight
• Increased risk of Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
• Increased risk of later mental illness in the child

What To Do?

If you DON’T smoke – excellent !!!

Eliminate Your Child’s Exposure to Smoke:

• If you don’t smoke or have quit- congratulations!! Rock ON!
• keep your kids away from homes where people do smoke
• do not allow others to smoke in your home
• do not allow anyone to smoke in a car with your children
• choose a child care provider who does not smoke
• do not allow workers / handyman types to smoke in your home
• do not be the “good host” and put out an ashtray – do not allow anyone to smoke in your home!  When relatives or friends give you that nasty look when you ask them not to smoke, remember – it’s THEIR addiction, let them get their fix somewhere else, and don’t let them expose you and your children to poisons!
• see previous post here, “Stop Breathing: Your Air is Killing You (and what to do about it)” for tips on improving your air quality

You can enlist your child’s help regarding the goal of eliminating secondhand smoke from your lives.

Remember:  there are 100,000 children below the age of 13 years in this country who smoke cigarettes. Really.

Talk to your children about the dangers of smoking, help them avoid becoming smokers.

If YOU Smoke

The first thing I would stress to you is this: if you are pregnant, you. MUST. STOP. SMOKING!!  Now.  Whatever that takes.  Get help.

If you have children and your child has rhinitis, sinusitis, asthma, otitis media (ear infections), bronchitis, or ANY respiratory condition, you MUST STOP SMOKING!!

Don’t beat yourself up about your difficulty quitting, failed attempts to quit, “falling off the wagon.”  Most smokers who have successfully stopped smoking have “quit” more than 5 times before they actually stopped smoking for good. Keep at it, you must stop smoking!

Ask your child’s pediatrician for recommendations to help quit smoking, or ask your physician.  Ask for help.

Call the EPA regarding air quality, and to take the Smoke Free Pledge: 800-513-1157.

When my practice included adults, we had pretty good success with acupuncture and hypnosis for those trying to quit smoking.

Next Week, we will focus on HOW TO QUIT.

Finally, if you or your child do ultimately require sinus surgery, keep in mind that exposure to smoke will significantly reduce the success rate of the surgery (Ramadan, Hinerman, OHNS 2002).

There you have it.  Sorry for the rant, but our children deserve better.

Thanks for visiting, and see you here again.  I appreciate your comments and questions.  Keep ‘em coming.  Please, “be excellent to one another.”

Best of health and success to you and your families.

Until next time, remember … you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose (unless you’re a boogor doctor :~D)

I invite you to subscribe (it’s FREE) to this blog for weekly updates – you won’t be swamped by updates, I simply cannot write for the blog everyday.

Click here to subscribe for free weekly updates: (http://eepurl.com/FGnP)

Type in your best email address (the one you actually use).  When the confirmation email from boogor doctor arrives, click on the link to give your okay to receive free weekly updates, without needing to visit the website.

It’s free, it’s convenient. No ads, no spam. You can un-subscribe at any time.

Stay Informed.

Stay Healthy.

I promise to continue to work hard to help empower you with knowledge: to improve your health and the health of your children. RF

Resources:

• www.epa.gov/iaq
• S. Schick, S. Glantz. Philip Morris toxicological experiments with sidestream smoke: more toxic than mainstream smoke.  Tobacco Control.  Vol. 14: 396-404; 2005.
• S. Schick, S. Glantz. Concentrations of the carcinogen, NNK, in sidestream cigarette smoke increase after release into indoor air: Results from unpublished tobacco industry research. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.  Vol. 16(8): 1547-1553; 2007.
• K.S. Kakish, et al. Clinical sinusitis in children attending primary care centers. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. Vol. 19: 1071-1074; 2000.
• More help:  Taylored  smoking cessation for parents of children with asthma.  Not a quick-fix, but more effective:  http://bit.ly/btU0ou
• For a much more technical (and excellent) look at the cell and molecular effects of cigarette smoke on respiratory cells, see:
  Yoshida T, Tuder RM. Pathobiology of Cigarette Smoke-Induced Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Physiology Reviews 87: 1047-1082; 2007
• Prenatal exposure to smoking increases later risk of mental illness in the child: http://bit.ly/auXSbk

facts about our air quality for 2010:

• Twenty cities on this year’s list of 25 cities most -polluted by year-round particle levels had cleaner air than last year’s report found.
• Air pollution hovers at unhealthy levels in almost every major city, threatening people’s ability to breathe and placing lives at risk.
• The most widespread kinds of air pollution are ozone (smog) and particle pollution (soot). Breathing either can harm your body and risk your life.
• When inhaled, ozone irritates the lungs, resulting in something like a bad sunburn.
• The American Lung Association leads the fight for healthy air every day. We fight for tighter clean air standards, reduced power plant emissions and cleaner diesel fuels and vehicles.
• Breathing in particle pollution can increase the risk of early death, heart attacks, strokes and emergency room visits for people with asthma, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
• One in ten people in the United States lives in an area with unhealthy year-round levels of fine particle pollution.
• Do you live near, or work on or near a busy highway? Pollution from the traffic may put you at greater risk of harm.
• Air pollution remains a real and urgent threat to public health in the US, despite real progress since 1970.
• Even with the growing “green movement,” air pollution in some parts of our country actually got worse since last year’s report.
• The American Lung Association fought to strengthen the Clean Air Act in 1990.
• People who work or exercise outside face increased risk from the effects of air pollution.
• Nearly six out of ten Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution.
• 28.9 million Americans live in counties where the outdoor air failed all three tests covered in the State of the Air report.
• Two cities—Fargo, N.D and Lincoln, Neb.—ranked among the cleanest in all three air pollution categories covered in State of the Air.
• Certain groups are especially vulnerable to the effects of air pollution, such as: infants, older adults and people with lung diseases like asthma.
• Steps to clean up pollution may have added 5 months to the average lifespan, according to one study.
• Minorities and lower income groups are often disproportionately affected by air pollution which put them at higher risk for illnesses.
• Air pollution is a serious health threat. It sends people to the hospital, shapes how kids’ lungs develop, and can even be deadly.
• Some of the biggest sources of air pollution are dirty power plants, old diesel vehicles and heavy equipment, and ocean-going vessels.
• Steps you can take to improve air quality will also help fight climate change. Drive less. Don’t burn wood or trash. Use less electricity. Make sure your school system requires clean buses. Use plants to purify your air at home, office.
• You can protect your family by checking the air quality forecasts in your community and avoiding exercising or working outdoors when the unhealthy air is expected.

Thanks for visiting, and see you here again.  I appreciate your comments and questions.  Keep ‘em coming.  Please, “be excellent to one another.”

Best of health and success to you and your families.

Until next time, remember … you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose (unless you’re a boogor doctor :~D)

I invite you to subscribe (it’s FREE) to this blog for weekly updates – you won’t be swamped by updates, I simply cannot write for the blog everyday.

Click here to subscribe for free weekly updates: (http://eepurl.com/FGnP)

Type in your best email address (the one you actually use).  When the confirmation email from boogor doctor arrives, click on the link to give your okay to receive free weekly updates, without needing to visit the website.

It’s free, it’s convenient. No ads, no spam. You can un-subscribe at any time.

Stay Informed.

Stay Healthy.

I promise to continue to work hard to help empower you with knowledge: to improve your health and the health of your children. RF

Resources

List from the American Lung Association, Air Quality Facts for 2010

From this blog:

Stop Breathing: Your Air is Killing You (and what you can do about it): http://wp.me/pR4iB-5E One of the most popular posts on this blog.

The Human Pollution Experiment:  http://wp.me/pR4iB-gv

Use Plants to Purify and Detoxify Your Air:  http://wp.me/pR4iB-bs

Better Living Through Less Chemistry: Eliminating Toxic Cleaners How to reduce indoor air pollution: http://wp.me/pR4iB-eo

The Ciliopathies Why air pollution causes rhinitis, sinusitis:  http://wp.me/pR4iB-ch

Saline Sinus Rinses: What Good Are They? Control effects from polluted air using nasal rinses: http://wp.me/pR4iB-1Y

These chemicals have brought great convenience.  But at a great price.  These chemicals are in our environments.  They are in our bodies.  And they are here to stay.  Many of them are stable.  Like, forever.

Even chemicals that were banned in this country over 30 years ago are still in our environment.  They can still be found in our food, and in our bodies.  And some of them are horribly toxic.

An Example:  DDT

An example is the pesticide, DDT (and its metabolite, DDE).  They were banned in this country in 1972.  Yet, they are still both found in 100% of samples of raisins and spinach (both fresh and frozen), and many other foods in this country.  They can still be found in our bodies.

These two compounds, DDT and DDE, have many hazardous effects on humans, including:

• disruption of endocrine function (linked to diabetes, for example),
• developmental neurotoxicity (exposure of pregnant women results in retardation of the child’s development), and
• asthma, to name only a few.

VOC’s  (volatile organic compounds)

These and other toxic chemicals are all around us, every day.  They are in the cleaners that we use in our homes and at work every day.  And they are in our food.  They are in the plastics that we use, for everything.  They are ubiquitous.  They are everywhere.

The various volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) are used to make PVC pipes, other plastics, and chemical household cleaners. VOC’s come out of whatever plastic they are in – that’s what “volatile” means – they vaporize.

That means they are in the air around us.  They come out of our furniture, our wall-coverings, our clothing.  That “new car smell” or “new house smell” that we love so much?  That’s volatile organic compounds.

These VOC’s contribute to allergies, asthma, and altered immunity.  Many reliable medical studies have come to the same conclusions on these facts.  The link between VOC’s and asthma is clear.  In fact, comparing a child who has asthma with one who does not, it is possible to tell them apart simply by measuring the VOC toxins in their exhaled breath!

Cancer and diabetes and birth defects, Oh My

Let me say that again in case you missed it:  Children with asthma have much higher levels of these toxins in their bodies, a difference that can be measured in their breath.  Our children should not be the “canaries in our mine”.

Our children are particularly susceptible to toxins.  For an explanation, see my recent post, The Human Pollution Experiment.

In addition to allergies, rhinitis, asthma, and alterations in our immune systems, these toxins (in pesticides and plastics) have been linked to cancer, diabetes, and birth defects.  Through multiple scientific studies.  Performed by reputable institutions.

These studies have been performed at some of the best scientific and medical institutions in the world.  They cannot be ignored, or dismissed as the product of an “alternative lunatic fringe”.  I wish.  This threat is real, immediate, and significant.  As we further pollute our environment, the threat is worsening.

So what can we do about it?

The theme this month will be “better living through less chemistry.”

This is the introductory post, the first 1 of 4 series.

The next 3 posts in this series will detail what we can all do to reduce or eliminate these chemicals from our lives.  More importantly, how we can eliminate them from the lives of our children.

We will focus on our water, our food, and the cleaners that we use.  These will be practical tips, not theoretical.  I think you’ll find them useful.  I have.

If you are interested in these topics, please click here to subscribe to this blog (it’s FREE).  Be sure to type in your best email address (the one that you actually use).  You will then receive an email with a “confirmation link” – click on that link to get weekly updates from this blog in your email.

It’s free, it’s convenient, it’s an easy way to stay up-t0-date on information to keep you and your family healthy.  You can un-subscribe at any time.

Stay Informed.

Stay Healthy.

Thanks for visiting, and see you here again.  I appreciate your comments and questions.  Keep ‘em coming.  Please, “be excellent to one another.”

Best of health and success to you and your families.

Until next time, remember … you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose (unless you’re a boogor doctor :~D)

Resources:

For the story of Rachel Carson’s epic struggle to raise awareness of the environmental dangers of DDT and other toxins, see her book, Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, released in 1962. (This is an affiliate link).

This blog: Stop Breathing: Your Air is Killing You (and what to do about it).

Toxins in plastics contribute to allergies, asthma, many studies including this one, 2004: http://bit.ly/cJogf7.

Exhaled toxins in breath able to distinguish children with asthma from those without. Study reported 2009. Scary stuff: http://bit.ly/cazZbX

Crinnion WJ. Environmental Medicine, Part 1: The Human Burden of Environmental Toxins and Their Common Health Effects. Alternative Medicine Review. Vol. 5: pg 52-63; 2000: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10696119.

http://www.greenbang.com/better-living-through-chemistry-not-so-much_13826.html