Althouse: "Tap water is safe for drinking, but not for irrigating your nose."

December 16, 2011

"Tap water is safe for drinking, but not for irrigating your nose."

Watch out, neti potheads.

21 comments:

Toad Trend said...: Who knew??? My daughter uses one of those things, I'll be sure to tell her to boil the water first.

Ick.; 12/16/11, 8:18 AM
Anonymous said...: Old news, in at least one of those cases the amoeba entered into the water supply because of bad plumbing, groundwater contamination. You're also supposed to add salt before you use the Neti and that kills some microbes, but boiling is better. I've used it before but not had much noticeable improvement.; 12/16/11, 8:36 AM
test said...: OT:

I hoped for a topic on Thomas Friedman's article which included a reference to UW as a normative opposite to the admitted leftist echobox of Manhattan.; 12/16/11, 8:36 AM
Franklin said...: That's messed up right there.

Sort of on par with the elevator tragedy earlier this week.

People just doing normal things (I guess pouring water up your nose isn't necessarily "normal", but...) and suffering these exotic accidents is messed up.; 12/16/11, 8:41 AM
Psychedelic George said...: Snot true, is it? I hope not.; 12/16/11, 8:41 AM
d-day said...: Neti pot - so odd, so awesome. Weird hippy-chick nurse practitioner filled in for my doctor one day and recommended it for my allergies. After one use, I was converted. It was like smelling in 3D.; 12/16/11, 8:41 AM
Baronger said...: The instructions that came with my neti pot which I got years ago, specifically say to use previously boiled water.

Giving that this came from India, I'm pretty sure that its always been known that you have to boil the water. I wouldn't want to pour untreated Ganges through my nose.

But it is wonderful for allergies and colds.; 12/16/11, 8:51 AM
traditionalguy said...: That would make one great commenter's name: "Brain Eating Amoeba."

And wait until the Global Warming Alarmists hear about the plague of brain eating amoebas caused by CO2 emissions.; 12/16/11, 8:55 AM
Wince said...: Brain Eating Amoeba?

Due to the proximities involved, I suppose there are those who have to be careful with their enemas.; 12/16/11, 9:08 AM
madAsHell said...: Water-boarding!!

Where are the hordes of protesters??; 12/16/11, 9:09 AM
Anonymous said...: Most commercially available supplies for nasal irrigation will instruct the use of distilled water only.

The same goes for humidifiers for CPAPs or other repspratory equipment.; 12/16/11, 9:31 AM
DADvocate said...: Gosh, you don't have to be such a snot about it.

I use a similar system occasionally. Using filtered water, I add the salts and zap in the microwave.; 12/16/11, 10:22 AM
edutcher said...: Obviously these kids never heard of World War II.; 12/16/11, 10:29 AM
Anonymous said...: I use one of those pots, and it helps my sinus infections and problems tremendously. I usually boil the tap water, but I will for sure now.

I agree, it's probably the contaminated water rather than the flushing, but whatevs.; 12/16/11, 10:43 AM
Anonymous said...: It's the fact that you're flushing the amoeba right up against the edge of your brain that's the problem. It's just a short jaunt from the back of your nose into your brain. No reason to put a brain-eating amoeba ni that location.; 12/16/11, 10:53 AM
Carnifex said...: Maybe it says something about me, but I never heard of a neti pot before. I'll ask my wife later, she's into the whole herb's and healing thing.

As far as brain eating bacteria, ever hear of touloremia? Got it in my eye's once as a teenager. After 2 days both eyes were so swollen I literally couldn't see, and they were squirting puss. Finally got to a doctor on monday morning. He said if It had been a few more days I would've died. You get touloremia from infected rabbits. Only way to tell if the rabbit is infected is to examine its kidneys, or liver for white spots.; 12/16/11, 11:26 AM
Blue@9 said...: I was skeptical, but the neti pot is awesome when your sinuses are congested. You don't even need to buy something like that--any vessel that holds liquid can work. I use a glass Coke bottle that I've washed and sterilized.; 12/16/11, 1:30 PM
Levi Starks said...: I don't doubt the truth about this, but what does it say about those of us who grew up swimming in ponds?
I've probably sucked 10 gallons of pond, and river water through my nose over the course of my life.
I guess I'm lucky to be alive; 12/16/11, 1:34 PM
HT said...: Thank you for posting this! I use the nety pot now from time to time. I used to use it ALL the time. But I think the water here in DC is particularly harsh and I suspect it was a factor in CAUSING several sinus infections this summer. (Who knows though.)

Ever since the summer, I have been boiling the water. All the effort and steps now mean that I use it a lot less, maybe once a week. My sinuses have healed.

But now I know: boil the water no matter where I am. To think of the places I've used tap water for nety around the world!

(Those who read the comments would have read one man's skepticism that the amoeba truly exist in tap water. I would like to go with that even though I will continue to boil. DC once had an outbreak of crypto sporidieum.); 12/16/11, 5:39 PM
Anonymous said...: "I don't doubt the truth about this, but what does it say about those of us who grew up swimming in ponds?"

What it says is that, fortunately, the infection is extremely rare. "Infection killed 121 people in the U.S. from 1937 through 2007" The problem is, it's like rabies, nearly universally fatal once it's diagnosed. The survival rate is on the order of 1%, according to the Wikipedia article (which is better than rabies, of course, where the survival rate is vanishingly small).; 12/16/11, 5:58 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: To expand on kcom's comment, the article I read said 32 people died in the US of Naegleria from 2001 to 2010. In that same period, 36,000 drowned.; 12/16/11, 7:31 PM