Remember that amazing little white pot that Oprah endorsed a couple years ago? I vividly recall how it boasted of reducing sinus infections, allergies, colds, etc. But a scary thing is that its recently been implicated in TWO fatalities. Before you throw yours away, read on.
"In both cases, the victims, both in the New Orleans area, contracted a
deadly brain-eating amoeba after using these devices to rinse their
sinus cavities with tap water."
Upon further inspection of the article it is noted that the two individuals used straight tap water and that the water was contaminated with bacteria that led to a brain eating infection.
What does this mean for you daily/weekly/seasonal users? Well with anything that comes out of your tap even if you consider your tap water just so clean, I would still even filter it. Filters are cheap, and effective. And you seriously never know what is in your water even if you can't taste it.
Additionally Dr. Oz when first promoting the Neti Pot specifically suggested adding non-iodized salt to help hydrate and to specifically use distilled or filtered water. This way you won't be putting infected bacteria in your sinuses.
So the lesson?
Clean water, clean water, clean water.
Happy sinuses!
2 comments:
I've never heard of these...I need to get in touch with Oprah! ;)
ps- I tagged you in a post!
I work in a microbiology lab and you would not believe what is in tap water. Did you know there is an acceptable level of fecal contamination in municipal water sources? These amoebas are more common when the temperature is really high and water levels are low. I don't use neti pots but if I did I would use distilled water.
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