Though there are ceramic neti pots available, I chose plastic because I wanted to be able to travel with my neti pot. I premix pickling salt and baking powder for however long I’ll be gone.
Strangely enough, small plastic bags filled with white powder may arouse suspicion at airport security checks. This occurred to me as I packed for my trip to D.C. back in March. Sure enough, after scanning my carry-on, they pulled it off of the belt and asked for “the owner of this bag” to step to the side.
When the TSA officer opened my bag and held up the little baggy, I prepared for the worst. Granted, the baggie was WITH my neti pot, and I had halfway been expecting this, so I calmly explained the whole thing. The officer swabbed my bag (not sure whether she was ruling out drugs or just explosives) and sent me on my way, neti salts intact, no drug dogs involved.
Maintaining the neti routine on the road can be tricky. When I was in Chattanooga last month, my hotel room did not have a microwave. The only way to get warm water was to use it straight from the tap, without giving it time to dechlorinate. Ouch! Did that ever burn! It was bad enough that I skipped one day (despite the high ragweed levels), then went crawling back for more when the congestion got too unbearable.
While nasal irrigation is not the perfect cure, it works at least as well as prescription nasal inhalants (i.e., Flonase) for the allergies, at a fraction of the cost, and no drugs involved. Neither method is perfect — with both I get/got occasional sinus headaches when allergen levels are crazy high. However, regular neti-ing provides the added bonus of removing other invaders, like bacteria and viruses, giving me a leg-up on staying healthy — works for me!
Her Green Life 