On Nasal Irrigation and Living Spiritually in the 21st Century

Happy New Year to all.

A couple of items in the New York Times struck me:

The first was in the Styles section, a piece about neti pots, though according to the writer I think I’m behind the eight ball on this story. Oprah apparently talked about neti pots months ago, which sparked a spike in purchases, which prompted the NYT story. The gist of the story is that neti pots are very good for cleansing the sinuses, and they are. But for those who can’t seem to master the neti pot or are put off by the looks and bulk of it, I have a suggestion.

Instead of a neti pot, I use an item you can purchase at any drug store for a couple of bucks. In the infant section you’ll find something that looks like large eyedropper. (See photo.) It’s about five inches long and about ¾ inches in circumference. You can get the very same results with one of these. The amount of liquid that fits into such an eyedropper is a perfect fit for each nostril. Using it will help you feel much more control and eliminate that drowning feeling of the ongoing stream of the neti pot, which is what prevented me from using it for so long. If you have sinus issues, especially as a result of winter dryness or cold, a rinse is great way of alleviating pain.

The other item that struck me was on the cover of today’s NYT. It was about Alcides Moreno, the New Jersey window washer who made a miraculous recovery from a 47-story fall last year. The story describes the extreme lengths that emergency care doctors went to in order to save his life. The only other person to survive such a fall took a plunge from only half that height. Most die after a fall from a height of only a few stories.

The headline used the word “miracle,” and the word was repeated several times within the story, even from the doctors who worked on him. (some nine operations, and he faces several more.) But nothing about his survival, short of the fact that he lived at all, struck me as miraculous. Instead, it is testament to the technical advances of modern medicine.

I’m no philosopher but you don’t have to be one to feel a little queasy or questioning about this story and others like it. To me the miracle was that he survived‚—apparently he was even semi-conscious when the paramedics arrived, which is amazing—not how they were able to keep him alive using artificial, or man-made, means. That he stayed alive is something I wonder, even worry, about. Should he have? Was he supposed to? Spiritual thinkers talk about how difficult it is to live “mystically” in the 21st century. Our world is filled with distractions. Years ago if you wanted to get closer to God you went and lived in a monastery or cave and the more earthbound would take care of your worldly needs. Today we straddle our spiritual quests with modern day realities, like the need to go to work to afford health insurance. It’s much harder to understand where we fit into this scheme. If a loved one of mine survived such a devastating trauma, would I want such extreme measures to be taken on his poor racked body? It’s something to ponder.

To read a story on the paradoxical topic of medical advances and man, Atul Gawande wrote a fabulous piece in the New Yorker. Here’s the link.