The 5,000-year-old hack that could cut your sick days by 20% - or prevent some illnesses entirely

Nasal saline is just not cool enough.

Would I use a nasal saline spray or rinse to help treat Covid, flu, and other nasty respiratory illnesses? Absolutely. I would.

What about to help prevent those infections from taking hold in the first place? Sure. I would. I have.

I think we are leaving a cheap and easy way to help prevent/treat respiratory infections on the table. A missed opportunity to help prevent flu and Covid and RSV and the rest. It is one of the few archaic medical practices that has survived the scrutiny of evidence-based medicine. You know, nasal saline — sprays, rinses, and some techniques in between?

It’s unglamorous, unprofitable, and not so buzzworthy. Nerdy perhaps. But the use of nasal saline irrigation as a medical treatment dates back over 5,000 years to the ancient Hindu Ayurvedic tradition, where the practice called jala-neti was performed daily for personal hygiene. Ancient Greek and Roman physicians also developed nasal lavage devices, showing that multiple civilizations independently recogn…