Fall can be your favorite time or most dreaded time of year depending on your relationship with your sinuses. If you are someone who feels the fall burn in the nasal cavities and always catches a fall virus or who’s allergies turn into sinus infections that you could set your watch by, we have your answer- the garlic neti pot. Yes, I said garlic. That is not a typo.

Neti potting is from the Vedic traditions and helps to moisten, irrigate, and rebuild the delicate lining of our sinuses. When we add garlic to this tradition it can act as a powerful anti-viral, anti-microbial and anti-fungal treatment you can do in the comfort of your own home for little to no money. If you are someone that associates a certain time of year with sinus infections and not feeling well, we recommend you try this preventatively, BEFORE you get sick. But if you are already sick or filing this away under- if sick then… it can greatly reduce your symptoms and curtail the length of the infection in acute illness as well.

If you don’t follow these instructions to the letter, it’s going to hurt, a lot.  So please read the instructions thoroughly, and follow them carefully.

Things You Will Need

• A neti pot.

• Non-iodized salt.

• Purified water (and a way to boil it). Distilled from the store works too.

• A clove of fresh garlic.

• A strainer.

You can buy the neti pot online, or at the local drug store.  Sometimes it is called a “nasal irrigation cup”.  To simplify your life, I recommend that you buy one of the combo packs that have the salt pre-measured.  This way, you don’t have to experiment, and you’ll know exactly how it feels when you measure the saline solution correctly.

Mastering the Neti Pot

Use the neti pot normally for a few days. Instructions should come with the pot.  Follow them carefully.  Basically, you’re going to dissolve the correct amount of salt into lukewarm water, and then pour the solution through one nostril while tilting your head.  When done correctly, the water will flow up into the sinuses, and then down and out the other nostril.

Yes, it’s weird.  But when you do it right, it feels great, and it works!

Do not use tap water for this. Or if you must, then filter it and boil it. There have been a few cases of a strange amoeba getting lodged in the sinus cavity. This amoeba is only found in tap water. To be safe, I always boil my water thoroughly, even if it’s filtered.

Make sure that you don’t blow your nose like normal after using the neti pot.  If you hold one nostril and blow, you run the risk of driving water up into the sinuses.  It’s not fun, so don’t do it.  Instead, you should blow gently through both nostrils.

The Garlic Infusion Method

Now that you’re a neti pot master, it’s time to add the garlic infusion.  This will supercharge the effectiveness of the neti pot.  On its own, the neti pot can be very effective, but it doesn’t always solve stubborn sinus issues.  Adding the garlic infusion will do the trick.

• Finely chop the clove of garlic.  Let it sit for about 15 minutes.

• Place the garlic in a strainer. Make sure that NONE of the garlic pieces can fit through the holes in the strainer. Trust me, you don’t want bits of garlic in your sinuses.

• Pour filtered boiling water over the garlic (through the strainer) and into a cup. This is called an infusion. 

• Let the infusion cool until it is lukewarm.  If it’s too hot, it will hurt when you pour it through your sinuses.

• Pour the lukewarm infusion into your neti pot.

• Add salt as usual (make sure to use the correct amount), and follow the standard method for using a neti pot. The only difference is that the water has been infused with garlic.

• There should be little to no pain if you do this correctly.  If there is pain, it is caused either by an incorrect amount of salt, or by pieces of garlic that got through the strainer.

• Repeat this process once in the morning and again at night until the sinus issue disappears.

Once you’ve solved your sinus problem, I recommend that you continue to use the neti pot once daily, but without the garlic infusion.  If you like, you can add the garlic infusion once in a while, just to keep things extra clean.  If you keep up the neti pot habit, you’ll be amazed at how free and clear your sinuses feel!