This is your Great-Grandma's Nasal Wash!
Teaching elementary school children reveals that our culture is embarrassed that we have nostrils.
The silly giggles snickle the room when I teach my young learners to draw those holes in our face: nostrils. Aside from coaching them to not stick fingers up those holes and expect to use my art supplies, we have to learn to love those holes. When they draw faces without them, I gasp, "How will you breathe?!!" and again I get a blast of the giggles. Children cannot say why they laugh at their noses. They don't "nose"!
A colleague suffering from severe asthma shares outdoor duty with me every morning so we notice other teachers walking by with the Never Ending Hacking Cough. One morning she revealed a secret: Alkalol.
The following is my experience of this natural, CHEAP, remedy to disgust the cough so badly as to make it flee from us.
The Cough that never goes away seems to be what everyone has succumbed to this year. I had it to the point of needing antibiotics. My doctor said it started with post nasal drip and settled in my chest. Had I combated it earlier, the Cough might not have brought me to popped and stuffed ears and hacking until I threw my back out.
Herbal and Tea Remedies
When the rumbling cough first came on, I upped my doses of echinacea and goldenseal. The Goldenseal is a mucus fighter. Removing all dairy except Half & Half in my afternoon power coffee, I tried to reduce the production of mucus. I increased Garlic oil for bacterial fighting. And I drank plenty of warm tea....my favorite being Celestial Seasoning's "Apple Cinnamon" and Lipton's "Green Tea" with fruit flavors. These were good for continual throat lubrication. But the Cough persisted.
Drugs
I succumbed to drugs. First the saline nasal solution which irritated my delicate nasal skin. Then I tried "12 Hour Sinex" which did open one nostril but it closed again at Noon. I gumbled Mucinex D along with the antibiotics which relieved the Cough from becoming pnuemonic.Alkalol
It's been with us for 100 years. Usually in the aisle with hydrogen-peroxide and rubbing alcohol, these days one might need to ask for it behind the pharmacy counter. Some stores still carry it on the shelf. Walmart doesn't carry it at all. It is a mixture of 1% Alcohol and lovely mentholated oils. That's it. For a deeper understanding, click on the next url.
http://www.alkalolcompany.com/index.php/alkalol/faqs/frequently_asked_questionsNon-Addictive
The only addictive quality I found was the Good Feeling I had after I blew out all the crap laying in my sinuses. It took about 3 days of treatment and then it was gone! My throat was no longer raspy. Now I use it once a week as a preventative. I cleaned my sinuses out the night before my root canal. Deep meditational breathing was possible during root canal!
Conclusion:
The worst side-affect of alkalol is that people laugh at me as if I'm wearing mismatched plaid socks. For example, one teacher suffering the clogged ear - cough had a hard day at school. It was after 3 pm when we met up and I suggested "alkalol". Our bookkeeper, obviously listening in, belted out a hardy laugh. I asked her why. She said she could not see me in the same sentence as alcohol. But I have no ethics against responsible drinking: I am a teetotaler for medical reasons.I corrected her and said, "Rubbing Alcohol". Disinfectant. Plaid socks.
