Cleaning the nose with water or snuff
Here I would like to mention two ways of cleaning the nose: Snuffing with real or organic snuff, meaning snuff without tobacco – a well-tried household remedy that alleviates drowsiness, headache and migraine and head cold etc., and provides relief for those suffering from asthma. It refreshes by cleaning and ventilating the nose, head and throat areas. It makes us sneeze and the nose becomes free and we can breathe again more freely. Sneezing releases physical and emotional pressure, and it has a really liberating effect.
There is the further possibility of rinsing the nose with cold or warm water, with or without the addition of salt (a level teaspoon full for one litre).
Yoga Breathing For Asthma Photo Gallery
With the head inclined we hold one nostril into a container with water. The water is first drawn up abruptly through the right and then through the left nostril so that is flows into the throat and can then be spat out. In Indian Yoga this method is practised under the name Neti.
Cleaning the nose according to the method without using tissue paper
If our nasal breathing is blocked due to congestion or acute or chronic cold it is recommended to snort the mucous up the nostrils and draw it into the throat where the slimy nose secretion can then be spat out, or if necessary swallowed so that it can be eliminated via the gastro-intestinal tract. This method without a handkerchief, as it is also practised by indigenous peoples, is probably the most healthy, even if for some it may appear to be unhygienic. It is however also unhygienic when someone continually snorts and snots in our environment, possibly wipes off the secretion that flows out of the nose with the back of the hand and spreads them into the environment. The risk of contagion through the elegant method is substantially greater due to the longer duration of the cold and the increased surface area that is contaminated with the cold virus. Apart from this with civilized blowing of the nose the content of the nose can be easily pressed into the paranasal sinus cavities, whereas with reverse snorting via the chimney the nose (M. Fuchs) is cleaned through aspiration.
ENT specialist physicians repeatedly confirm that this method is the most natural and sensible form of nose cleaning, even if unwitting mothers disallow this with their instinctive children as it is not evidence of good manners.
