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♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Howdy folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous
physical therapists on the internet!
- In our opinion, of course Bob.
- Today the question is
can saline irrigation help nasal allergies?
We're gonna have a pharmacist's opinion on this,
on sinus nasal flush.
- Oh, so-
- So, what do you know about this Brad?
Well, we're not gonna talk about that.
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So, that's exciting.
- Yeah so, we'll probably see a lot
of people vomiting in their vehicles.
(both laugh)
- Why Bob? - Why?
All right, so Brad,
let's get back to this.
What do you know about saline irrigation
or nasal lavage and all that?
- To be honest with you Bob,
I don't know what the heck you're talking about.
I have never heard of this before.
- All right, all right. - So, I am a little bit-
- All right, we gotta get rid of this.
All right, here we go. - Hey Bob!
- Thanks for coming by. - You betcha!
- So, we've got Chris, the pharmacist
and a real expert on this,
has dealt with this for years, I'm sure.
- Talking about it all the time.
Absolutely. - So.
- Staple.
- So, what does nasal lavage help with?
I mean, what does saline solution irrigation help with?
- Yeah, I mean, a salient irrigation
is basically when people either have sinusitis,
which is a sinus infection, or allergies,
although, it seems to be a little bit
more effective for sinusitis.
It's just basically salt water
that's poured into the nose and then flushed out.
So, what that's gonna do
is just kind of clear all the junk out of there.
So, if it's in case, we're talking,
since we're heading into allergy season,
it's gonna help to get some of the allergens
that are irritating your sinuses out.
Or if it's an infection,
if there's bacteria harboring in there,
it's gonna help to kind of clear that out,
to allow your body's natural immune system
work more efficiently.
- You talked about proteins
whenever we were talking off camera.
- Well yeah, I mean, an allergen is just kind of,
like, so if it's cat dander
or you know, dog dander,
or you know, let's say, I mean,
it could be mold spores,
or it could be you know, just ragweed or whatever.
I mean, people, there's a gazillion different
allergies that somebody can be irritated with.
But, it's essentially a protein sequence
in those allergens that create your body's immune response
and then you get phlegm
and all the good stuff that causes all those
little chemotaxis factors that are
gonna make you feel miserable.
Watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, the whole nine yards.
- And, you were (mumbles) to the fact before
that it's best to get on top of this.
I mean, once it's kind of embedded, it's over, right?
- Yeah, I mean, you want to be proactive.
Now, if you know you're a seasonal allergy person,
you want to be treating those preemptively.
So, a lot of times I'll tell people to start getting,
ramping up for the allergy season
in mid to late February because it's March when you know,
the thaw, like with us in Minnesota and Wisconsin,
we're heading into our normal thaw
and heading in you know,
in our own spring weather. - Right, right.
- And so, things are starting to pollinate.
- Yeah. - And, allergies are actually
really bad early up here this year.
So, it's actually pretty high allergen content.
So yeah, trying to do a nasal saline,
you know, lavage I think is very appropriate at this point.
You know, coupling with antihistamines
and nasal sprays that we would recommend as well.
- As far as antihistamines,
can you overdo those?
- Well, you want to use them as directed.
I mean really, I mean, everything that used to be
a prescription when I came out in my career
is now available full strength over the counter.
- Sure. - So, I mean,
it's either gonna be loratadine, which is Claritin.
It's gonna be cetirizine, which is Zyrtec.
And, it's gonna be fexofenadine, which is Allegra.
And then, Xyzal, which is fancy cetirizine.
So, I mean, it's, which is levocetirizine.
So, I mean, it's just fancy cetirizine.
- So, you just follow it as directed and then-
- Yeah, one a day, all of them.
It's easy. - Okay.
- So, it's just one a day.
I would tell you that with Xyzal and Zyrtec,
small chance of drowsiness,
even though they're classified as non-sedating.
Take them at bedtime for most people.
- Sure.
Well, I've got an electronic unit here.
- All right, this is the fun one!
How do you feel about waterboarding?
- Yeah, this is a, you know,
this can go really bad with me sometimes
because I think I have a deviated septum.
- That could be. - And, I didn't know it.
- Yeah. - But, I do this
and I can't breathe very well into this one.
That one I can breathe well into.
- That sounds like we need an ENT specialist here
at this point. - Right! (laughs)
Well, what I started doing
was wearing the nasal strips at night.
- Sure, does it help? - And, it absolutely helped!
- Good. - 'Cause I was
taping my mouth shut, trying to breathe through my nose.
And I'd wake up, having trouble getting enough air.
You know? - Yeah!
- And so, now it actually,
handles that problem. - Yeah, just enough
of a bridge and then, they also have coils too,
that you can put on the inside.
Some people don't like the adhesive.
- Oh yeah! - They're like a little spring
that they actually insert in the nostril.
- Oh, you're kidding? - No, no.
- Is that at your pharmacy?
- I've seen them at my pharmacy.
I've seen them online.
I've had patients bring them in.
So, they said, "Hey, my doctor gave me that."
- I actually had the tape on last night
and my nose started bleeding.
- Yeah. - 'cause it's on night
after night, after night.
- Well sure, the adhesive in the same spot,
'cause you want to put it you know,
getting it positioned properly is actually
one of the best things that you can do if you-
- Yes. - Not that we're getting
a little sidetracked, but it's-
- No, no, that's a fantastic,
I'm glad you're helping me here.
So now, this thing all snaps into place.
Now, the biggest thing is here,
you gotta to make sure you add the water
before you put the salt pod in or what you're in trouble.
- Yeah, you wanna make sure that you get a thorough mixture.
You don't- - You wanna talk
about the water?
- Yeah, so basically, the water that you can use
in these, ideally distilled,
or if you're gonna use water from your home,
filtered is acceptable,
but if it's tap water, you must boil it.
And, there's some debate as if it should be boiled
for one minute versus three to five minutes.
One minute is necessary.
You know, it's gonna kill all the germs.
But then, the most, if you go three to five minutes,
that's certainly fine.
If it's worth doing it, it's worth overdoing.
But, at some point, make sure it cools down
to tepid or room temperature.
You don't want really cold water
going into sinus passages either.
I mean, even 70 degrees is- - Yeah, I heated this
up a little bit.
- So yeah, it'll just be a little bit more comfortable.
But, you don't want something that's gonna scald you,
'cause that could actually create injury.
And so, you want to make sure that
whether you use a neti pot,
and we'll talk, this is the electronic,
this is the fancy electronic version.
- Why don't you talk about that right now?
Neti pot versus squeeze bottle.
- Yeah, so there's neti pot and squeeze bottles
are the other types of ways that you can do a nasal lavage.
- Probably the easiest way. - Yeah.
And so, that's usually what, I mean,
that's what I typically recommend.
The squeeze bottles you have to be careful with
because if it's too aggressive,
you can actually cause harm and injury.
There's a, you know, people read
about the brain eating amoeba,
you know, Naegleria fowleri. - Naegleria fowleri.
- Fowleri yeah, and so, I just looked at that
a little while ago.
It's a pseudo amoeba and- (laughs)
- You really don't wanna get this.
I mean- - Yeah, you don't.
- Now, is it a brain infection?
- Brain infection, but there's only 10 of them
in the United States from 2010 to-
- 2010 cases? - Yeah.
So, it's not common. - But, you don't wanna
chance it. - But, you don't want it.
- Right. - It is serious.
It's nothing to really joke about,
'cause it could kill you.
But- - Yeah, that's why-
- I mean, you're talking about 10 people
out of you know, 350 million.
- Yeah, that's why you don't wanna use tap water.
And now, quick question about it though,
is let's say you boil the tap water
and then you put it into your refrigerator
or whatever to save it.
Can you do that?
Or, I don't know. - I mean, yeah.
I mean, yeah, 'cause you, yeah,
if you have a clean bottle and it's boiled, it's fine,
as long as the container you place it in is clean.
- Sure. - You wouldn't want to be
reusing maybe your exit water.
(Chris laughs) - Right, right.
Right, exactly.
So, all right, so, this has these little-
- I can't wait to see this. (Bob laughs)
- Well, I can't either,
'cause I know it's gonna go bad
because, and by the way, you know,
this has it so that the suction
is going in this way and out this way.
- Yep, just make sure you clean it between uses.
That's big thing too
because you can actually introduce infection.
So, either using you know,
like the bulb syringes, the squeeze bottles,
your neti pots, make sure you clean it between each use.
- Yeah, they have little,
like, little sponges that you can stick.
- Yep, you can kind of-
- Yeah, that's what I was using.
- Yep, Q-tip will work too.
- So, I'll put the,
these come with pre-mixed salt pads
and I can put this right on here.
Foil side down.
- It's like a Keurig.
(Chris laughs) - Yeah, there we go.
All right, so, what I've discovered
and you probably know this already,
one, I was thinking the nasal cavities like,
go up this way, so I should be up like this.
- Yeah well, nope.
Yeah, you actually, no, hold it level
'cause your sinus passages, I mean,
you have some above your eyes and they're here.
- Yeah, and that's what I found out.
- Yep. - And, the other thing,
because this side is blocked somewhat,
I pushed this side over a little bit.
That's what's made a difference for me.
We'll see.
We'll see how this goes. - You want me to hold this?
- No, I've already made a mess.
- All right.
- So. - All right, here we go.
- Maybe I could go from the side.
- All right. (laughs) - So, let's do that.
All right. (laughs)
- Breathe through your mouth.
- Yeah.
All right. - I know CPR
if we have a problem.
There we go, this is exciting.
This is live filming at its best.
Does it really? (laughs) - Good god!
- [Brad] Oh my god Bob! (Chris laughs)
- Well, I don't need to go all the way down.
I can just show that it's,
you can see the upper level going down.
- Now, you're just like the commercial.
You're smiling, you're happy,
and now you're gonna be able to breathe
so well when you're done.
- So, I'm gonna stop right here.
(Chris laughs) (water splashes)
- [Brad] Whoa! (Chris laughs)
- Yeah, there's a little residual.
Your sinuses can only hold so much folks.
- Yeah. - So ideally,
I recommend that people either do this
in their bathrooms or actually even in the shower,
just simply you know,
because you can kind of clear things out.
It's a little easier.
- So, if you wanna be grossed out,
you can look at the little what the residual was in there.
I don't know if you wanna see that.
- It's actually pretty clean.
- Yeah, not too bad. - I wouldn't be drinking that.
(Bob laughs)
But, it definitely, it does work.
And it actually is something that'll definitely
help people to feel a little bit more comfortable.
- It feels good when you do it.
And, that was about as good as it goes for me.
- Yeah. - Even though I have
a big nose, I have little passages apparently.
- Yeah, you're still a little full. (laughs)
- Yeah, so I'm a little full. (laughs)
- Bob's gonna need a little me time.
- Yeah, yeah. (Chris laughs)
All right, thanks Chris,
for coming in and explaining all of this.
And, check it out.
It's something you can certainly try.
- All right, thanks guys.
- Thanks.