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Colette (Marin County, Ca ) on 03/19/2018
Mike (Surrey, England) on 02/26/2016
Daisy (Jacksonville, Florida) on 03/28/2012
I have been using salt/baking soda sinus rinse for years, but never with the "miraculous" success others reported. There was even a couple of times when I felt like the rinse helped push the infection further up and further in. To combat this I have at separate times added either tincture of iodine or Lugol's in it -- very, very little because it has a nuclear sting -- which seemed to work and has helped in severe infections, but still nothing spectacular.
Over the last two or three days I have been building up to a full-blown sinus infection and came here to study the recommendations again when I came across this tip and realized that even though I have tried iodine, I have never tried *povidone* iodine, which is much less irritating to tissue and widely used in wound healing preparations.
I don't actually have any Betadine on hand except for some prepackaged surgical wipes a friend gave me (like wet wipes for your hands, but with betadine instead) but since I'd only need a few drops to try I figured that was enough. I knew the very first snort would tell me all I needed to know. So today when praparing the rinse I was going to do anyway, I tipped a few drops of water into the wipe packet, and then tipped the diluted betadine from the wipe packet into my sinus rinse bottle, added the water and salt/baking soda mix as usual, and had at it.
Oh. My. Gosh. It didn't sting a bit. And what's more, the building inflammation and congestion I'd had when I started was entirely gone by the time I mixed the second rinse only minutes later. (I usually do two rinses at a time. ) When I did the second rinse, instead of meeting the usual resistance from all the inflammation, the water ran out as fast as it ran in! And now, twenty minutes later, the relief is lasting just fine.
This is definitely a keeper, and not just because of povidone iodine's ease on the tissues and nasal mucosa. I have long had troubles with yeastiness, and am convinced that a lot of my sinus troubles are due to yeast... And as it happens, povidone iodine is active against fungi as well as bacteria. (I don't know about viruses, sorry. ) And if I had to place a bet, I'd say the near miraculous relief I got today was because it hit the yeast as well as whatever bacteria was trying to get a hold up in there.
Thank you so much for posting this little tip. The only thing I would add is that whoever tries it needs to make sure that they are using POVIDONE iodine (Betadine solution or its generic equivalent) and not tincture of iodine, or even a Betadine lotion/cream/cleanser/scrub, because it's not the same thing and there are a lot of products labeled Betadine. The ingredients in Betadine Solution are Povidone-Iodine 10%, Pareth 25-9, Purified Water, and Sodium Hydroxide, and that's it. If you put some other form of iodine in your nasal rinse, I'm going to bet that you come away sincerely wishing you hadn't, because I've tried them all and never found one that didn't sting like a mother until this.
Thank you again for posting this!!!
B14a3w3 (Stewartstown, Pa) on 03/20/2011
Sabrina (Denver, CO) on 09/24/2007