Do you Neti? (Not for the squeamish)

Every year about this time, I am faced with a dilemma. Either I suffer through a horrible head cold that keeps me from sleeping for weeks... or I perform a ritual that is the equivalent of waterboarding myself.

To use a neti pot, you boil water for 10 minutes (to kill any microbes) and you add salt and you let it cool down to a comfortable temperature (the only comfortable thing about the process). Then you put the salty lukewarm water into a teapot looking device that forms an airtight seal with your nostril. Then you tilt the contraption and your head forcing the brine up one nostril until stuff runs out the other nostril. What runs out of the other nostril is a mixture of the lukewarm salt water, plus all of the gunk that has been clogging up your sinuses.

When you do this, you realize how connected everything is. Tilt your head to drastically and you end up gagging and spitting salty mucous from out of your throat.

Why do people put themselves through this awful ritual? Because it works... and there is a great relief once you have finished pouring salt water up your nose and out the other side. It is the only thing, short of narcotic cough syrup (perhaps the topic of another thread) that brings any relief from a horrible head cold.