Neti pot / water filter question

I am in the UK and suffer from hay-fever which gives post-nasal drip. It gets serious and it has caused me to lose my hearing for months on a few occasions.

I would like to buy a water filter so I can safely use my neti pot without the hassle of boiling water. The issue is that I am a broke student and I can only find the correct grade filters at a price out of my budget.

I was hoping someone might know a thing or two about this and point me in the direction of any brands/products easily available in the UK?

I know Brita filters are no good and that Berkey ones are good (but £££).

At the moment I am looking at this affordable filter (tragic, I know):

Why not boil up water maybe a week's worth so you don't need to do it every day? Or use distilled water.

Here are a couple of threads that might help:

https://permies.com/t/107137/Berkey-Water-Filter-Cheap

https://permies.com/t/2375/water-filter

I use the water out of the kettle.  When I make a cuppa tea, I put some extra water in the kettle for later.

The big problem with water filters and storing the water for later is the water needs to be refrigerated.  Cold water + netty pot = unhappy me.

But the kettle water was boiled this morning and is at room temp.  

Sorry, not much help with the filters.
Many filters only get rid of particles.  Some get rid of other things, but I found even the Britta water filter water gets slimy after a few weeks.  We have a UV filter on our house water because of the well.  This seems to work really well when combined with the regular filter.  

i have never boiled the water i use with my neti pot. I know our water source and feel ok with that. I do use warm water from our tap.
Our water is from a shallow well.

I always feel amazing after using the neti pot. Cooling my sinus/head!

I saw someone buy just the Berky filters for $100 and drill into a stainless pot to attach them, then sit that on another pot so they could filter a few gallons at a time without spending $200+ on the system. Maybe that would lower the cost enough?

The problem with some unfiltered water, even tap water from the mains, is that you could introduce harmful microbiota into your sinuses, which are really close to your brain. I will try to find the article, but in the past two years, I encountered an article talking about how a woman using a neti pot with tapwater died after introducing an amoeba into her brain.

While particulate filtration is important for comfort reasons,  boiling or UV treatment, or distillation, could be critical to ensure regular neti pot use doesn't unintentionally kill you.

-CK

jordan barton wrote:i have never boiled the water i use with my neti pot. I know our water source and feel ok with that. I do use warm water from our tap.
Our water is from a shallow well.

I always feel amazing after using the neti pot. Cooling my sinus/head!

I also have never boiled or treated water in any way. I dont have the neti “pot” but a squeeze bottle type device. And we have township water, not well water. I know there’s some risk blasting tap water up your nose but we drink the stuff so... Plus, considering the things bacteria and mold spores coming in with every breath, it always seemed unreasonable to worry about the sinus rinse. Also, whenever I use the thing I’m feeling so terrible and congested already that it really doesn’t seem like it could get any worse! Hopefully I dont end up regretting that statement haha

https://zerowater.com/

This is the home page about half way down is a 'get yours' link. Saw one for about $20.

I use warm water from the tap, but add about 1/4 teaspoon of finely powdered 1:1 table salt / baking soda.  (Think confectioner's sugar fine)
The baking soda acts as a pH buffer; no saline burn.

When I have a sinus infection or cold, or am travelling and using local tap water I add a single drop of 3% iodine and let my neti pot 'stew' for about 15 minutes.  Again, no burning and it works wonders.

I suffered from allergies most of my life.  Then I found that certain foods contain histamines.  Mostly from grocery store food being so old before we buy it.  Follow this list (mostly during allergy season) and you wont need a neti pot anymore.  One of the single most important things I have ever learned in my life!!

https://www.factvsfitness.com/blogs/news/histamine-intolerance-food-list

A neti pot usually holds a cup of water. (250 ml). I have always recommended (and used) 1/8 tsp sea salt NOT Repeat NOT iodized salt in warm tap water.  This gives you essentially the equivalent of what we call NORMAL SALINE.

Boiled water is just as good but it cannot/shouldn’t be over 100°F or you’ll be VERY UNCOMFORTABLE and immediately miserable.

Of course, adding LOCALLY PRODUCED HONEY to your diet will (in most cases) resolve your allergy issues in several weeks.

Hope this helps.
Trim sends

I'm also in the UK and do regular sinus rinses (especially lately, with the very high pollen counts, I've been allergy central!). But they put so many chemicals in the water where I live, there's no way I'm putting that into my sinuses.
The water filter I use is the Klar. It's pricey, but not Berkey pricy. I'd rather it wasn't all plastic, but the filter lasts a long time, and I needed something that would also remove fluoride, which the Brita doesn't. I still use the cooled boiled filtered water left in the kettle after making tea for my sinus rinse, to avoid bacteria and algae that can grow in the filter jug.
Unless you know for sure the provenence of your water, it's safest not to risk using unboiled tap water.
And as others have said, the water needs to be skin temperature and have a small amount of salt or salt & bicard added. I found by forgetting once or twice that using plain water is excruciatingly painful!

Yes use honey

Anne Miller wrote: Or use distilled water.

Drinking distilled water can be potentially dangerous.  It has had the natural ionic balance altered.  If you put distilled water in a stainless steel vessel the water will eventually cause serious pitting.  Filtered water is fine provided that it is not an ionic filter.  There was an institution in Australia that used only distilled water in its sterilizers.  After three changes of the chamber because of pitting, the sterilizer technicians eventually worked out it was the water trying to find an ionic balance. Basically, if you drink distilled water, you need to ensure that you replace the lost ions by eating mineral rich foods.  Distilled water can irritate the gut wall and increase gastric acidity, causing ulcers.  Distilled water may retain most volatile compounds.  If someone is fasting or on a low calorie diet, there can be a resulting chemical imbalance.  On the positive side, distilled water does not usually have the more harmful water bourne pathogens that can be a problem.  IMHO, Filtered water would be the preferred option because it removes the pathogens, spores and harmful chemicals while keeping the natural ionic state in tact.

The thing that causes the allergic reaction to pollen is a reaction to the pollen proteins.  Cooking denatures protein so the allergen is usually rendered safe.  A physical filter of about 5 - 10 microns can get rid of spores.  A clay filter removed bacteria and things bigger but not the minerals so it is a good option.  To remove metals like chlorine, just let the water stand for a day.  Clay filters can be made from using an unglazed clay plant pot with the drain hole plugged.

Using a weak saline solution as a nasal douche is OK.  If you change the pH of the nasal sinuses by adding bicarb or the like it can alter the natural flora and if you get a severe sinusitis,  it can cause abscesses.  A sinus abscess is potentially fatal.

Silver is a good bacteriostatic and well tolerated but if you use anything with Chlorine in it, it needs to stand for 24-48 hours after the use of chlorine to enable the chlorine to kill the bugs and dissipate.  When we were in Papua New Guinea and ran out of rain water, they pumped water into the tanks from the river.  We added 1 litre (approx 1 US Qt) of household bleach to 3000 litres (800 US Gal) of water. We waited 24 hours and then it was OK to drink.  There was a filter available but we never used it.

emma nark wrote:I am in the UK and suffer from hay-fever which gives post-nasal drip. It gets serious and it has caused me to lose my hearing for months on a few occasions.

I would like to buy a water filter so I can safely use my neti pot without the hassle of boiling water. The issue is that I am a broke student and I can only find the correct grade filters at a price out of my budget.

I was hoping someone might know a thing or two about this and point me in the direction of any brands/products easily available in the UK?

I know Brita filters are no good and that Berkey ones are good (but £££).

At the moment I am looking at this affordable filter (tragic, I know):

I use a Berkey water filter for everything.

Separate water kettle for tea, coffee, etc.

50/50 mix works well for temperature.  

Paul Fookes wrote:

Anne Miller wrote: Or use distilled water.

Drinking distilled water can be potentially dangerous.

I would never drink distilled water.

It is a safe recommendation for using in a neti pot is my understanding.

Anne Miller wrote:

Paul Fookes wrote:

Anne Miller wrote: Or use distilled water.

Drinking distilled water can be potentially dangerous.

I would never drink distilled water.

It is a safe recommendation for using in a neti pot is my understanding.

My understanding that distilled is preferred for neti pot use...but water through my Berkey filter (warmed) works well for me.  

Ok, here is the summary of my 20+ years of experience with allergies, neti pots, nasal rinses, nasal surgery and everything else:

I am a life long hay-fever sufferer, and my allergies exploded after I returned from the first Desert Storm war. The next year in Korea I remember being on duty sitting at a desk and going through an entire box of Kleenex in about an hour. When neti pots first starting gaining traction in popular consciousness in the early 2000s, I began using them, and even though they stung like crazy, they did offer some relief. After years of using them, I've switched to irrigating my sinuses with a slightly different device called a NeilMed rinse bottle.

This plastic squeeze bottle does the same job as a neti pot, but I prefer it because I can control the amount and pressure of water going in through how hard I squeeze the bottle, and also because it has a lid and is more sanitary. NeilMed is also cheaper than a neti pot-- they are less than $10 on Amazon (USA) or even better, virtually every allergist and ear-nose-throat doctor in the world will have a cabinet full of them to give away as samples. So the cost is zero to minimal, especially if you mix your own solution. The doctor-approved recipe is right here: https://www.aaaai.org/tools-for-the-public/conditions-library/allergies/saline-sinus-rinse-recipe

So frequent nasal rinses helped me quite a bit until finally at age 52, a surgeon removed most of my turbinate sinuses and straightened out my septum. This helped the most-- for the first time in my life I can breathe through my nose. It isn't all roses, though. The inside of my nose is now a dry, scarred up place, and where the area used to be a twisty maze of passages that would let nothing through, it now seems to be just a sloping drainpipe that goes in a straight shot from my nose to the back of my throat. It's terrible when I cough or accidentally inhale water, but I don't mind too much-- it is such a glorious luxury to be able to breathe through my nose.

So that's my experience with neti pots and other nasal rinses as a severe sufferer for more than 20 years. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer.

Davis Andrews wrote:When neti pots first starting gaining traction in popular consciousness in the early 2000s, I began using them, and even though they stung like crazy, they did offer some relief.  

Even with a little salt or bicarbonate of soda it still stings? I found that plain water stung like crazy but salted water didn't.

For me the saline solution in the sinuses does sting, yes. But my experience is (and was also taught this in Occupational Safety classes) that salt water actually hurts less than fresh water, so yes, you are correct.

For those who don't know what a neti pot is!

PReboil any water you need in advance so you have it accessible at any time

Something I just heard (from a doctor) about neti pots/sinus rinses:apparently a small amount of hydrogen peroxide in a nasal rinse will drastically reduce the number of covid (or any other virus) particles in the sinuses.

But, before any of you do this I recommend either talking to your doctor or researching on your own. This came from one guy and I haven’t looked into it any more myself. I also dont think he specified how much peroxide.

But considering its good for everyone to know and is relevant to the neti pot, I figured I would post it here.