User Review
( votes)Neilmed Sinus Rinse
a Review
Sinusitis and Allergies Relief
Neilmed Sinus Rinse products are worth trying if you wake up in the morning from a restless sleep with a headache and/or painful pressure behind one or both eyes. It hurts just to keep your eyes open and you wish you could plug your ears. Your kids seem like such annoying brats and your spouses voice sounds like fingernails scraping a chalkboard. This happens at least once or twice a week; sometimes more, but why? It’s really pretty simple: Your kids really are brats and your spouse is a nag. However, that doesn’t explain the pain and pressure behind the eyes. You’ve probably got sinusitis; a common condition usually caused by allergies, and sometimes irritated by bratty kids and a nagging spouse. Taking a Valium will help the first problem. An ant-inflammatory like Aleve or ibuprofen, combined with decongestants such as Sudafed can help the pain and pressure, but do you really want to be pushing drugs through your body several times a week? There are other ways to alleviate the pain and help heal the sinuses of allergy sufferers. You should also learn to be more tolerant of your spouse and kids, but that topic is for another day and will be covered in an upcoming review about single malt scotch. For this review, we will cover two products that significantly reduce the symptoms and pain associated with sinus problems caused by common allergies. Sinus Relief and Allergy Relief comes in the form of two, very inexpensive products: NeilMed and ALKALOL.
Neilmed Sinus Rinse Kit
NeilMed is a product that consists of a plastic bottle irrigation device and 50 or 100 single-use packages of a powdery substance consisting basically of salt and baking sodium. (sodium chloride and sodium bicarbonate) The NeilMed kit uses a technique known as, ‘large-volume sinus irrigation’ Basically, this means rinsing your sinuses out with a large amount of saline solution. Neilmed is basically a sinus rinse product. For years, saline nasal sprays have been on the market. While these help to moisturize your nasal passages, they do not thoroughly wash out your sinuses like the NeilMed Sinus Relief products do. The NeilMed Sinus Rinse Regular Nasal Wash kit includes one 8oz plastic, irrigator bottle and 50 packets of solution.
What is ALKALOL?
Alkalol is a liquid nasal and mouthwash that has been around since 1896. It is a special formula designed to provide soothing relief from allergies, sinuses, head colds and throat irritations. A 16oz bottle of alkalol contains Purified water (USP); Menthol; Eucalyptol; Thymol; Camphor; Benzoin; Oils of Wintergreen, Spearmint, Pine, and Cinnamon; Potassium Alum; Potassium Chlorate; Sodium Bicarbonate; Sodium Chloride; Alcohol (2/100 of 1%); Caramel Color. Alkalol is not something to use in place of a NeilMed sinus irrigation kit, but it can be used with it, as we’ll explain.
How to use the NeilMed Sinus Rinse Irrigator with ALKALOL
The NeilMed sinus rinse works by mixing one package of the saline powder and water into the plastic irrigation bottle. A black line on the clear-plastic, Neilmed bottle will show you how much water to use. Also, it is preferable to use distilled water for its purity. The water should be warm, but not so hot that it burns your nostrils. Also, you may be curious as to how you can save money and make your own saline solution. This is certainly possible, but be careful. Too much or too little salt can do more harm to your sinuses than good. For this reason, nothing beats the convenience of the perfect, pre-measured packages. With the NeilMed bottle full of solution, screw on the syringe-attached lid, cover the opening with your finger and shake well to mix and dissolve the powder. Start by pushing the opening of the bottle against one of your nostrils and gently squeeze until water starts flowing into your nose over a bathroom sink. The secret – and this part takes practice, is to get the nasal rinse solution to completely flow through one nostril and out the other nostril. You may switch nostrils if you wish, until the entire bottle of nasal-rinse solution has flowed through your nasal passage. It is normal for your nose to run for a while after doing this. Remember, the idea is to rinse and drain your sinuses. Also, sodium is a known healing agent. So, using NeilMed is not a one-time remedy, but a routine that can be used once or twice a day, or as often as you feel it is needed.
ALKALOL can be used in conjunction with your sinus-rinse routine. Simply mix the ALKALOL formula in with the water that you use in your NeilMed nasal bottle. The ALKALOL formula is very strong, so start out with a couple of tablespoons and see how it feels. You can increase it slowly, if you desire a more powerful dose of the menthol.
Results For Sinus Relief Neilmed Products
I’ve been using the NeilMed sinus rinse product for two years on a daily basis, and wouldn’t be without it. I actually look forward to giving my nasal passages this treatment each and every morning. This routine will leave your nasal passages feeling clean and refreshed. You will breathe better! I also will attest to the fact that my frequency of headaches and problems with sinus pressure has been reduced with usage of this product. When things get particularly bad, I will use the NeilMed rinse two or three times a day. It really is a necessity for allergy sufferers. ALKALOL takes the refreshing feeling of a sinus rinse one step further, by adding an invigorating menthol aroma to the experience. I have found it useful to add ALKALOL to your solution when you are experiencing an unusually stuffy nose, like those associated with head colds. I discovered this product last year at the local Safeway store in the allergy and cold drug section. A NeilMed Sinus Rinse package with 50 packets of solution can be purchased for around $12-$14 dollars. A 16oz bottle of Alkalol sells for about $6.99, but can be bought online in 3-packs for $13.00. For sinus relief…for allergy relief, both ALKALOL and the NeilMed Sinus Rinse products get high ratings.
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Woman's World
I think you should explain how to use the Alkalol with the Neilmed a little more. Do you use the packets and the Alkalol in the bottle at the same time? In what proportions?
Hi, Mitch:
I don’t use alkolol packets. In fact, didn’t know they had them! I’ll have to look into that. I put about 3 tablespoons of the liquid Alkolol into my neilmed bottle along with about a half teaspoon of salt-baking soda combined.
I use distilled water and warm it up so it is closer to body temperature. You can experiment with the strength. Don’t want it to burn too bad.
Hi
I’m a little confused. When you use the alkolol, you do not use the pre-measured neil-med packet? Or, are you opening packet and measuring out a half teaspoon?
Thanks for any clarification.
Linda
Yes, you use the complete neil-med packet as you normally would. This is your saline base. Add a tablespoon or so of alkolol. Experiment with the strength to find what you’re comfortable with. If you want it stronger, you can use 2 or more tablespoons. I don’t actually buy the neilmed packets anymore. I make my own mixture of 3 cups salt to one cup baking soda. I use about 1 teaspoon of the mixture per use.