{"id":11164,"date":"2026-01-07T18:38:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T00:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11164"},"modified":"2026-01-07T18:38:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T00:38:37","slug":"the-ancient-art-of-nasal-rinsing-might-protect-you-from-a-cold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/01\/07\/the-ancient-art-of-nasal-rinsing-might-protect-you-from-a-cold\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ancient Art of Nasal Rinsing Might Protect You From a Cold"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/cold-nose-washing-nasal-saline-rinse\/\">Wired<\/a> On average, the\u00a0typical American contracts\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/cold-and-flu-prevention-treatment-tips\/\">two to three colds<\/a>\u00a0per year between September and May, at an estimated\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lung.org\/lung-health-diseases\/lung-disease-lookup\/facts-about-the-common-cold\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"cost, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cost<\/a>\u00a0of around $40 billion to the economy. Effective forms of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/crispr-flu-antivirals\/\">treating or preventing colds<\/a>\u00a0have proven hard to come by, with the majority of over-the-counter medicines\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ingentaconnect.com\/content\/ocean\/aap\/2018\/00000039\/00000003\/art00005\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"yielding modest results, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">yielding modest results<\/a>; it\u2019s hard to devise a drug that tackles the vast array of viral pathogens that cause them. The need for better respiratory protection during the winter months is clear. It might be found in a practice that dates back thousands of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The concept of saline nasal irrigation, or bathing the nasal passages with a saltwater solution, is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aafp.org\/pubs\/afp\/issues\/2009\/1115\/p1117.html\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"thought to have been, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">thought to have been<\/a>\u00a0introduced as part of Ayurveda, an alternative medicine system that originated in the Indian subcontinent more than 5,000 years ago. Now, modern science is beginning to demonstrate that this ancient practice really does serve as a surprisingly effective shield against many of the seasonal bugs behind the common cold. In 2024,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lanres\/article\/PIIS2213-2600(24)00140-1\/fulltext\">a major new study<\/a>\u00a0of nearly 14,000 people funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research in the UK found that using a simple saline-based nasal spray between three and six times a day at the first sign of an infection reduced illness duration by around 20 percent. A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.annfammed.org\/content\/23\/Supplement_1\/7416\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"follow-up study, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">follow-up study<\/a>, published last year, reported similar benefits.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wired On average, the\u00a0typical American contracts\u00a0two to three colds\u00a0per year between September and May, at an estimated\u00a0cost\u00a0of around $40 billion to the economy. Effective forms of\u00a0treating or preventing colds\u00a0have proven hard to come by, with the majority of over-the-counter medicines\u00a0yielding modest results; it\u2019s hard to devise a drug that tackles the vast array of viral [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coping-with-covid"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-07-at-19.32.49.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11166,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11164\/revisions\/11166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}