Yogis have known about its beneficial effects for centuries, and contemporary Western medicine is slowly catching on: Nasal irrigation with an isotonic solution (meaning, a saline solution similar in salt content to the body's fluids) is becoming increasingly popular.

For a recent cold-and-flu-season story, ABC News interviewed Dr. Ralph Metson, an ear, nose and throat specialist at both the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard Medical School, and co-author of the Harvard Medical School Guide to Healing Your Sinuses. Sinusitis--an inflammation and infection of the sinuses, whose symptoms are often mistaken for a cold or flu--can be prevented by using a bulb syringe and squirting warm salt water into your nostrils on a regular basis, says Metson. "The salt water will run up the nose and run out right back out the same nostril, and bring with it the infected mucus or allergy particles that are causing inflammation."

So how does it work? Here's the standard technique:

First, make an isotonic solution by stirring ¼ teaspoon salt in an 8-ounce glass of warm water and adding a pinch of baking soda. Alternatively, you can buy sterile saline at the pharmacy or grocery store.

You can use a porcelain Neti pot, a bulb, syringe, or nose spray bottle. Lower your head over a sink and turn it so that your left nostril is down.

Make sure that your nose is slightly higher than your mouth and breathe continuously through your mouth to prevent the solution from running down your throat.

Pour solution from the container into your right nostril. It should then--here Metson didn't get it quite right--drain from your left nostril into the sink. Gently blow your nose and repeat the process with the other nostril. Optimally, nasal irrigation should be used once or twice a day.

That's it... even though some experts disagree on how to irrigate properly.

Simple flushing just doesn't cut it, says the father of pulsatile nasal irrigation, Dr. Murray Grossan, former chairman of the Ear, Nose and Throat Dept. of Centinela Valley Hospital in Inglewood, CA.

On his comprehensive website http://www.ent-consult.com/, Grossan explains that the reason for nasal and sinus problems is slow cilia function ("the cilia are tiny oars that move the mucus out of the nose").

"If the cilia slow down, the mucus in your nose becomes stagnant, and like a stagnant stream, grows scum. Once the cilia speed up and the mucus of the nose moves properly, then the bacteria are flushed away and not allowed to enter the body. Healthy cilia are absolutely the key to sinus health."

Only pulsatile irrigation, says Grossan, will do the trick. He claims that with his special technique--"not to be confused with introducing salt water into the nose any old way"--many of his patients have been able to avoid sinus surgery.

In contrast to ordinary irrigation, pulsatile irrigation utilizes a pulsating stream of water to prevent and fight infections. Grossan's patented and FDA-registered Hydro Pulse Nasal and Sinus Irrigation System can be purchased over various health product sites and, says its proud inventor, is now used "by thousands of doctors and tens of thousands of patients around the world."

Grossan stresses that most of his patients who regularly perform pulsatile nasal irrigation haven't had a cold in years. And there may be something to it, even though mainstream medicine is clueless why nasal irrigation works against viral and bacterial infections. Nonetheless, research has proven that it does--even the regular method.

In 1998, doctors Richard Ravizza and John Fornadley of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA conducted a study of 294 college students who were divided in three groups: One group flushed their noses with saline daily, one group took placebo pills, and one group did nothing at all. Compared to the other two groups, the "irrigators" experienced a significant reduction in colds.

So, whichever method you use, it's good to know that there's an effective remedy for clogged sinuses and colds that's non-addictive and has no side effects... which is a lot more than Big Pharma has going for it.

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