Nasal Irrigation

Murray Grossan, M.D.

One current theory for the high incidence of asthma is that by snowing the child with antibiotics at the slightest sniffle, the child develops an alternative method of handling infection from the normal system. Evidence of this is that there is less asthma in early nursery school kids with lots of older siblings at home. Children in East Germany with poor medical care, lots of dirt have much less asthma than kids in West Germany—clean with lots of medical care.

So, please don't insist on an antibiotic despite the doctor's advice not to give it to your child. It currently takes me 4 minutes to write a prescription for an antibiotic and 30 minutes to try to convince the patient not to take one.

A good way of avoiding antibiotics is to remove mucous from the nose and sinuses. Less mucous, less infection, less antibiotic. Fortunately kids at 5 or older can use the Water Pik sinus irrigator. This consists of a standard Water Pik used for Dental care with a Grossan Sinus adaptor that reduces pressure and makes for easy sinus irrigation.

Simply add one teaspoon of salt or Breathe.ease to the Water Pik basin and a pint of warm water. Adjust the pressure so that the stream is about one inch high. This corresponds to a pressure of about 5 PSI, just right. Not too high to cause mucous to go into the ear. The normal healthy nose has cilia that pulse at 16 pulses per second. In disease the cilia slow down. Using the water pik at the rate of 20 pulses per second you have an ideal way of restoring normal cilia pulse rate of the nose and sinuses. This helps prevent infection.

Hot tea (not caffeinated!) also promotes lung and nasal ciliary clearance. Coughing may be a sign of poor cilia function in the chest. Normally the chest cilia act to remove thick mucus and debris from the lungs. When this fails, coughing occurs. If there is coughing try hot tea with lemon hydrating the body - drink till the urine turns light.

For kids under 5 I recommend the Proetz sinus irrigation method that is detailed in my book The Sinus Cure. Children should be encouraged to moisten the nose. One of the best ways is to use a spray of moisturizer called Locke Ringer's solution. This has been shown to aid cilia function better than saline solution. Since it doesn't burn, kids will use it. One commerical preparation—Breathe.ease—comes with a measuring spoon and a refillable spray bottle. This lasts about 150 weeks. It doesn't contain benzalkonium so it doesn't burn.

[Equally important is to teach the child GENTLE nose blowing. Forceful sneezing and blowing can push mucous into the ear.]

There is little question that sinus infection can aggravate asthma. either by draining mucous into the lungs or by bacterial infection acting as a trigger to stimulate an asthmatic attack. Clearing a sinus infection can be dramatically beneficial to the asthmatic.

Further details on nasal irrigation and other useful techniques can be found at www.ent-consult.com.