Each person treats a runny nose in different ways. Someone urgently goes to the pharmacy and asks for “something that will cure it right away,” while others think of their grandmother’s tried and tested method of onion drops.
Rhinitis in the form of a liquid flood from the nose or a dense plug that blocks breathing, has different types and consequences. To begin treatment, you need to know the reasons that caused the disease. Only after this are procedures determined that affect the pathology without harm to the rest of the body.
To treat the runny nose, medicine has invented drugs of various methods, but not all of them are safe for various reasons. Among the remedies for rhinitis, salt water for a runny nose is considered the champion in terms of harmlessness, helping children and adults equally well.
Indications for use
The simplest remedy is prescribed for the following pathologies:
- Rhinitis;
- Sinusitis;
- ARVI, acute respiratory infections;
- Flu;
- Sore throat;
- Runny nose due to allergies.
Each disease has a strictly dosed prescription, but you must first consult with your doctor.
Beneficial features
The saline solution simultaneously has several therapeutic effects:
- Prevents mucous membranes from drying out;
- Rinsing the nose, softens the crusts;
- Relieves swelling;
- Makes it easier to blow your nose;
- Strengthens the immune system;
- Reduces the risk of possible secondary infection;
- Has no side effects;
- Helps strengthen nasal blood vessels;
- Protects against allergies due to pollen and household industrial dust;
- Performs preventive work during the season of exacerbation of colds.
The composition is almost similar to the salt content in the blood serum, so the body does not perceive the treatment as an invasion of foreign substances.
A solution of sea salt is indispensable in the fight against viral, microbial, and allergic attacks, so doctors advise all patients who often catch colds to gargle with salt as a preventative measure and to spend more time by the sea.
Sea salt in the diet
We often hear about the dangers of salt: it increases blood pressure and retains excess fluid in the body. You need to consume less salt, or better yet, eliminate it from your diet altogether. Salt-free diets are suggested to cleanse the body. These statements are true when it comes to table salt. It lacks beneficial substances. Sea salt normalizes blood pressure, improves thyroid function, regulates water balance in the body, and takes part in cell renewal. Replace regular salt with sea salt, you will feel the effect within a few weeks.
Which salt works best?
The choice of salt type is not critical. Therapy with table or sea salt is equally effective for colds.
The only benefit of sea salt is iodine and minerals, which increase the effect of treatment. Pharmacies offer ready-made saline solutions - Aquamaris, Salin or Quicks, made with ocean water, or from salt with sea water for a runny nose. The only negative is the high cost, from 300 rubles.
Water with salt for a runny nose.
In order to prepare a saline solution similar in composition to an isotonic solution, you need to dissolve a small amount of table salt - on the tip of a knife - in 100 ml of water. Instill the prepared solution into your nose up to 5 times during the day.
You can add lemon juice to the solution. The high content of vitamin C in lemon helps restore the permeability of capillary walls, relieve swelling of the mucous membrane of the nasal passage and reduce rhinorrhea.
To prepare the solution, squeeze the juice from half a lemon, mix with a teaspoon of salt and dissolve the resulting mixture in 50 ml of water. Place the prepared solution in the nose to relieve congestion and facilitate nasal breathing.
Sea water helps clear nasal mucus. Purified sea salt is sold in pharmacies. Recipe for preparing the solution: dissolve a teaspoon of sea salt in a glass of water and you can drop it into your nose and gargle. Being a hypertonic solution, saline solution constricts blood vessels and eliminates inflammatory swelling of the nasopharynx.
If you don’t have sea salt at home, you can prepare a saline solution similar in composition to sea water: take half a teaspoon of baking soda and one and a half teaspoons of table rock salt and pour a glass of warm water. Add 1 drop of iodine to the resulting solution. The remedy for fighting the runny nose is ready. Contraindication is an allergy to iodine.
To rinse the nose, add half a teaspoon of eucalyptus or calendula tincture to half a liter of salted water.
Features of use by age
An aqueous solution helps get rid of rhinitis at any age, however, there are some age-related differences in the formulation and dosage.
Infants
Infants are advised to use an aqueous salt preparation in three options:
- Homemade product. Pros: components are always at hand, manufactured at minimal cost. Disadvantages: short duration of action (days), it is easy to violate the exact proportions, the drug is unsterile.
- Saline solution. Advantages: sterility, dropper bottle is ready for use, minimal cost. Disadvantages: If the drug is poured into a large bottle, a pipette is required.
- Otrivin baby is a ready-made pharmaceutical product with a long shelf life. Positive properties: precise proportions, guaranteed sterility, long shelf life, convenient bottle. Negative qualities: high cost.
Washing in childhood
Salt rinsing is not recommended for children under 6 years of age; they can undergo light rinsing with a special dispenser spray several times a day.
For older people, treatment of a runny nose with saline solution is recommended as a preventive measure against colds.
The pharmacy sells special teapots for washing. If it is not possible to purchase a device, a disposable syringe of sufficient volume will do.
The child's head is placed over the sink or bathtub in an inclined position, with a slight turn to the side. The product is introduced into the nostril carefully, the pressure of the stream increases gradually. If the rinsing is done correctly, the solution will pour out from the other nostril with mucus impurities. Similar actions are carried out with the second nostril.
Bath for colds - benefits
Scientists have conducted many studies that confirm the undoubted benefits that a bath brings for colds, but you need to follow some precautions. At the first signs of a cold, you need to take emergency measures and then the disease can be avoided altogether. You can take a hot shower, bath, or steam your feet. Moreover, if the body temperature is elevated, but not much, then this is not a contraindication for taking a hot shower. A hot bath is another matter; it is not recommended at elevated temperatures.
Bath for colds and flu
When taking a bath, it is recommended to comply with the following requirements:
- The water temperature should be around 37-38 degrees;
- The bath time should be no more than 15-20 minutes;
- Do not drink alcohol before the procedure. If you decide to treat yourself with mulled wine, do it after taking a bath.
- Do not lock the bathroom door, as anything can happen during an illness and it is better if someone has the opportunity to enter.
- To improve the healing effect, add salt, medicinal herbs, essential oils to the bath; we provide recipes below.
Salt bath for colds
A salt bath for a cold can not only be part of the treatment, but also be used as a prophylactic to improve immunity. It also helps with other diseases:
- skin diseases;
- musculoskeletal system;
- to improve the functioning of the cardiovascular system;
- calms the nervous system.
To prepare a bath for colds, you need to add 1-1.5 kg of sea or table salt. It is preferable, of course, to use sea salt, it contains more useful substances. Do not be alarmed by the amount of product, because the concentration of salt in sea water is even greater. You need to take a bath before going to bed for 15-20 minutes. Then you need to put on woolen socks and wrap yourself in a blanket. You can drink some hot drink, for example, ginger tea. The duration of the course is up to 10 times, but look at how you feel, sometimes three days is enough to get back on your feet.
Eucalyptus bath for colds
Eucalyptus is always used for colds, there are different methods of use, one of them is adding plant oil to the bath, which can be bought at any pharmacy. It is a strong natural antiseptic that inhibits the development of harmful bacteria.
A bath with eucalyptus for colds is prepared as follows:
- 300 grams of sea salt;
- 4-5 drops of eucalyptus oil;
Take a full bath of water, dissolve the salt in it, and then add the plant oil. With eucalyptus medicinal steam, you will not only disinfect the respiratory tract, but also the entire surface of the skin, thus increasing immunity. Take a bath for no more than 20 minutes.
You can make a bath without salt, add only 7-8 drops of eucalyptus and lie in it for 15-20 minutes. However, you need to be careful, there is an individual intolerance to eucalyptus.
Bath with mustard for colds
Mustard baths for colds can be done for the feet or for the whole body. Such foot baths have a good effect; they allow you to get rid of a cold in a short time, especially at its first stage. Pour hot water into a basin, temperature approximately 40 degrees. and stir a couple of tablespoons of mustard powder in it. Lower your legs to your ankles or higher and steam them for 20 minutes. You can add hot water as it cools. Then dry your feet and put on warm socks. This procedure must be repeated for several days.
If desired, mustard baths can be done for the whole body. Dilute 300 grams of mustard powder in water and pour the mixture into a bathtub filled with hot water. Immerse yourself in the water, but don’t get carried away, this procedure takes no more than 5 minutes! Then you need to shower your body and go to bed for at least 2-3 hours.
Pharmacy products
Pharmaceutical solutions have significant advantages over homemade drugs: they are prepared in the correct concentration, absolutely sterile, and packaged in special containers.
- Saline solution. When mixed with salted mineral water (ideally Borjomi or Essentuki), you get an excellent solution for treating rhinitis in allergy sufferers. The resulting drug does not irritate the nasal mucosa, and the respiratory passages are completely cleansed. In combination with other drugs it does not show aggressiveness.
- Preparations made from sea salt. Such a union is the safest for health. Available in ready-made drops or spray form. Pharmacies offer more than a dozen different aqueous formulations, except for the most common ones - Aquamaris or Aqualor, Humer, Salin, and Quicks work well.
Several contraindications
Despite the obvious usefulness and harmlessness of using the solution, there are a number of contraindications to the use of the drug:
- recurring nosebleeds;
- individual intolerance to components;
- sinusitis, accompanied by the release of mucus mixed with pus;
- predisposition to inflammation of the ear cavity;
- tumor growths in the nasal cavity.
Even if there are no listed reasons, a person only has a cold - to be sure of the usefulness of this particular therapy, a medical recommendation is desirable.
Salt provides quick relief for rhinitis and its complicated course. The beneficial qualities of dissolved table or sea salt are undeniable: the aqueous composition is prepared daily, at virtually no cost, the product works without side effects, and has a minimum of reasons for refusal to use.
