Here's another one that deals with your nasal passages, but this focuses on allergies. When I first moved to the Midwest, they had way more trees than Colorado. As a result, I had absolutely horrific allergies during different parts of the year—depending on what tree was blooming or losing its leaves. Anyone who has had allergy issues knows how debilitating and joyless they can be. 

I saw doctors. Took pills. Drank viscous elixirs straight from the bottle. They helped in some ways but always hurt in others (putting me to sleep at 2 pm at my work desk). It was annual misery without relief. 

It was again Marty who helped after seeing me struggle. She pretty casually said I needed a Neti pot. What’s that? She explained. What do you do with it? She explained. If you haven’t been introduced, a Neti pot is like a little genie's lamp that you put salinated water into and then pour into a nostril and let the water run through your nasal passage, where it then exits out the other nostril. You send half the bottle of water in one nostril and then switch and send the second half through the other. The result is what they call a nasal lavage. After she explained how it worked, I said thanks, but no sale. That actually sounds worse than the allergies. 

A few days later in the throes of allergy hell, I found myself at the bathroom sink holding my freshly acquired Neti pot. While it is undoubtedly a bizarre sensation one can't really prepare themselves for, the fact that it completely resolved my allergy issues near immediately, made it a sensation I was happy to become habituated to (if not even came to look forward to). 

Here’s why it works. When you have allergies, there are certain things (e.g., pollens) in the air that you breathe in that your body finds irritating. Western medicine's answer to this is to have you take drugs that work to suppress your body's reaction to the presence of these irritants. Those medicines can be helpful, but they often come with unappealing side effects (e.g., foggy mind, drowsiness). However, the thing those medicines do not do is remove the irritants. That’s what the Neti pot does. 

So, let’s say some trees bloom near your home and leave a fine green dusting over everything. Unfortunately, given your need to breathe, your nasal passages will also be part of that dusting. Now, the good news is you have your humidifier, or it is spring time, so your sinuses are healthy and moist. The bad news is that your beautiful sinuses are coated with this fine pollen your body finds offensive. If you take a pill, it will help you not realize that the annoying thing is there, BUT it is still there. If you instead use a Neti pot and flush all of that evil film out of your sinuses, then you will not need a pill because what was irritating you is no longer in your body. 

Since discovering the Neti pot, I have had zero issues with allergies. Not only that, when my kids were young, they and the neighbor kids loved to watch me do it over the sink, and they would ask to be called upon when I was doing it, and then I would have six small people craning their heads to get the best views of a rivulet of water pouring out of one of my nostrils. My first public performance was a little unsettling but/and now that the kids are all older, I can say I kinda miss my Neti pot audience. I imagine I could attract a new group of local youngsters to my bathroom show but fear that may introduce some new problems into my life ;-)