Salt Water in Humidifier

[roster]

Well you didn't ask me, Babette, but.......

I like to first do a good saline rinse. Then I blow my nose and wait a few minutes and blow again before using the Flonase. The wait is just to make sure all of the saline solution is out before using the Flonase.

After I squirt the Flonase, I try not to drink, hack or blow for about 30 minutes so the Flonase will have time to be absorbed into the mucous membranes.

Maybe that's just obsessing, but I do want the stuff to be effective.

[birdshell]

Hey Karen, I KNOW YOU ARE NOT A DOCTOR, I'm just asking as a friend, and I PROMISE NOT TO SUE YOU!!!

<snip>

Do you do the nasal rinse in the AM before your Flonase? Do you wait any interval between rinse and Flonase?

Many many thanks!!!
Barbara

Barbara, please--I am only a humble but retired teacher. While I do have bleeding disorders which would make extracting blood from the twisted turnip easier, feel free to sue if you wish, but the turnip is fresh out of blood.

It is my hope that my experience may be of use to someone else. We have so many ways of doing things that are similar, but each of us is different, with differing preferences and needs. Thus, each of us must decide for ourselves what works best for us.

Actually, what I do is basically use the nasal wash, then blow my nose to clear all of the saline and mucus-oid stuff out. I THEN use the Flonase spray. Yes, the nostrils are a touch damp but the Flonase mist will travel past the nostrils and into the sinuses, mostly. I think that any residual moisture is rather like a spa treatment helping to moisturize the interior of my nose. I adjust using the Flonase from once or twice a day as needed, and always use 2 sprays per nostril.

Sometimes when I have cut back it seems as if I am often smelling something burning. Nothing (hopefully) is burning, but for some reason that is the reaction that I have from reducing the usage.

I hope this answers your question. It must be working for me, as I had sinus polyps and multiple, serious nosebleeds before using Flonase. Since using Flonase--neither has recurred. Yesssss!

Thankfully, we weren't as hypervigilant about bloodborne pathogens when I was a child, or the universal precautions taken in my elementary school might have bankrupted the school district. Then there is the cost of the doctor visits, intermittent hearing loss, visits to specialists at regular intervals, speech therapy, and tissues. And to think that I only had to live for a tad over 40 years that way...before Flonase was released for use by the FDA.

Now that many of the Forum Folk have read MORE than they ever wanted to know about my use of Flonase and nasal washes, I think it is time for me to leave!

Best wishes,

Karen

[wokeupinafog]

Recently my water softener in my house malfunctioned and put salt water in my water lines. I accidently filled my cool mist humidifier with said salt water. Previously the mist from the humidifier immediately dissipated, but with the salt water that I accidently added, the mist filled every room in my 1200 sq ft house from ceiling to floor. The only difference was the salt water in the humidifier. So, obviously in a cool mist humidifier the salt does go into the water vapor.
My whole house looked like a heavy fog.

[Guest]

I have CF and I wish I could put salt in my bedroom air ! I tske hyoertonic saline breathing treatments , which is just air blowing the solution into a mist . It helps loosen mucus and breath easy !

[HoseCrusher]

While it is interesting and colorful to speculate and theorize on if salt added to the humidifier can travel up the hose, those of us that have actually measured it realize that it can. It seems that the humidifier is not an efficient distiller...

Also, after a few years of adding salt to my humidifier water I am still using the same tank and have no build up in it.

Does it help? I don't know if it would help everyone but over the years of using it I haven't had any issues with congestion. My goal was to avoid congestion and adding a little salt to the humidifier water seems to do it for me.

[Bobshouse]

Recently my water softener in my house malfunctioned and put salt water in my water lines. I accidently filled my cool mist humidifier with said salt water. Previously the mist from the humidifier immediately dissipated, but with the salt water that I accidently added, the mist filled every room in my 1200 sq ft house from ceiling to floor. The only difference was the salt water in the humidifier. So, obviously in a cool mist humidifier the salt does go into the water vapor.
My whole house looked like a heavy fog.

Maybe because you just wokeupinafog?

[patrissimo]

On the original point, I agree there are some problems with putting salt in a CPAP humidifier - it will decrease the efficiency, the salt will concentrate during the night, it will destroy any metal parts it comes in contact with, and you will get scaling which will be annoying to clean. But none of that means that zero salt will go into the CPAP air. Maybe some will. And in theory, it seems like it would be ideal to be getting air that is "isotonic" - has the same salt concentration as our body.

What my ENT told me, when looking into nasal saline rinses, is that a rinse with less salt than your body (hypotonic) will tend to cause congestion, as your body responds to the osmotic gradient by swelling its cells. A rinse with the same amount of salt as your body (isotonic, like NeilMed and most popular ones) will be neutral to your body (it may rinse out bad stuff, but it won't cause an osmotic reaction). A rinse with more salt than your body (hypertonic) will tend to cause decongestion, as your body responds by shrinking its cells.

So, just like having dry air go through our moist breathing passages is a problem (dehydrates us), and humidifiers are better because they make air more like the environment of our body, I would expect that having saltless air would be a problem too. Our bodies are able to handle saltless air (they do all day long), just as they're able to handle dry air (they do all day long), but the ideal air would be air better matched to our body. Which means: wet & salty.

Unlikely to be worthwhile, given the numerous practical problems, but lets not turn up our noses at it. No one rinses their noses with saltless water anymore, it is needlessly irritating and easy to fix, perhaps in the future breathing saltless air from your CPAP will be considered just as foolish.

[chunkyfrog]

I don't get the seashore aroma from salt water; maybe tear off a pinch of nori, and drop it in?

[Goofproof]

I don't get the seashore aroma from salt water; maybe tear off a pinch of nori, and drop it in?

I prefur to snort Buttery Flavored Popcorn Salt, the table salt iterates my nose, and it wears down my credit cards faster. Jim

[Guest]

What about the humidifier been a cold air humidifier the water is not heated neither is the air

[Goofproof]

What about the humidifier been a cold air humidifier the water is not heated neither is the air

(Called a Passover Humidifier)

What about a HH, thats been a cold air humidifier, thats not heated, neither is the air, just a tank empty with salt added, and maybe a little sand and a beach
umbrella. Sounds refreshing.

[DTXBrian]

Just an idea.

Someone heavily salt the water in a CPAP humidifier. Crank the heat up high, pull the mask off the house, and let it run for a couple of hours free-flow pointed at something for the water to condense on. A cold piece of glass or something. Collect the water, and taste it, to see if there's any salt in it. It should be readily apparent.

If someone has an old machine they no longer use, or they're about to upgrade to a new machine, they would be a good candidate to try this.

[HoseCrusher]

A test like that has already been performed. The results indicated that at the mask vent flow rate there is some aerosol formed and salt from the water in the humidifier can make its way up the hose.

The higher the flow rate and the higher the pressure results in greater amounts of aerosol formed.

[DTXBrian]

A test like that has already been performed. The results indicated that at the mask vent flow rate there is some aerosol formed and salt from the water in the humidifier can make its way up the hose.

The higher the flow rate and the higher the pressure results in greater amounts of aerosol formed.

Huh, I didn't see reference to it in this thread. Must've overlooked it.

In any case, I imagine it also greatly depends upon a lot of things. The geometry of the humidifier tank, how full it is, the volume of air passing over it... also, I would imagine that most of the aerosol would collect on the sides of the hose and end up as rainout.

[Goofproof]

A test like that has already been performed. The results indicated that at the mask vent flow rate there is some aerosol formed and salt from the water in the humidifier can make its way up the hose.

The higher the flow rate and the higher the pressure results in greater amounts of aerosol formed.

Huh, I didn't see reference to it in this thread. Must've overlooked it.

In any case, I imagine it also greatly depends upon a lot of things. The geometry of the humidifier tank, how full it is, the volume of air passing over it... also, I would imagine that most of the aerosol would collect on the sides of the hose and end up as rainout.

You expect us to believe you read every post in this dead thread from 10 years ago. All that's left is to read the dozen or so dead threads on the same thing. Only one thing matters, clean distilled water is the only thing that's supposed to be put in the HH, Tap water or bottled water can be used, if you are too lazy to do things right, at the danger of having to clean harder and more often, anything else belongs in the garden, to make your plants grow. (B.S.) Jim