Coryell Clayworks - Home of the OM Neti Pot

A story on CNN has caught my attention today about the deadly amoeba, Naegleria fowleri that can be found in lakes and ponds and even tap water. Two people have died in Louisiana after having rinsed their sinuses with contaminated water. The infection is very serious as it causes death in 95% of the cases. Symptoms resemble bacterial meningitis, such as vomiting, headaches and sleepiness, and can cause changes in a person’s behavior and lead to confusion and hallucinations.
Apparently tap water can be safe for drinking, but not for irrigating your nose. It is recommended that you use distilled or sterile water. You can sterilize water by boiling it.
Sorry to have to alarm you all, but we all want to be safe. I’ll also remind you that neti pots made by Coryell Clayworks are easily cleaned, and dishwasher safe. There are no hard to clean holes or crevices found in other neti pots.

Many pollen allergy sufferers can find relief without using drugs by applying some simple, common-sense hygiene practices.

We have to think of our hair, eyebrows, eyelashes and fingernails as pollen-collecting magnets. Anytime we are outdoors during high pollen season, especially on sunny days, we must remember that pollen is attaching itself to our hairs. When we touch our hair or eyes with our hands, pollen can also collect under our fingernails.

Rather than JUST using a neti pot 1-2 times daily for allergy relief, try these other measures to reduce pollen irritation, as well:

Clip fingernails short and scrub under them with a brush morning and evening.
Scrub eyelids and eyebrows with some baby shampoo and hot water on a washcloth.
After washing eye lids and lashes, you may use a gentle saline eyewash if eyes are feeling itchy and runny.
Wipe the whole face off with a damp washcloth after being outdoors.
Shower in the evening before bed, washing hair and face.
If showering is not practical for you, use other measures to remove pollen from your hair, such as bending forward over a tub, sink or laundry basket and brushing hair vigorously, and/or wiping hair with a damp washcloth.
Above all, do not lie on your pillow without removing pollen from hair first. If you have, launder and replace the pillowcase, clean the hair of pollen and then rest easy.
Evaluate any hats or caps you wear outdoors, and clean pollen off them daily, either by washing or brushing well.

Coupled with your nasal irrigation regimen, these other practices should help you to weather the pollen season with a minimum of suffering.

My cats have learned that as much as they howl for breakfast at 5:30 or 6:00 a.m., they are just going to have to wait until after I neti before they will be fed. I think that they have actually learned to like it when they hear the sloshing of water as I dissolve the salt in the neti pot. It brings on a sort of pavlovian response in them, because they know it means that their breakfast is next. A certain calm comes over them and they just pace around knowingly.

Do you have any animals involved in your neti practice?

The leaves on our deciduous trees in Maine are just opening. I love these brief weeks when the leaves are all baby versions of themselves. Of course, it signals that the tree flowers will be following soon, and with them the pollen that some of us dread. This is an important time for us to remember to neti every day. You may already have the habit of using your neti pot in the mornings when you wake up. You may want to consider switching to the evenings for awhile until pollen season passes, or perhaps even using the neti pot BOTH morning and evenings. But the evening is important if you have been outside during the day when the flowers are open and releasing their pollens. This may give you a more restful sleep. Then just see how you feel when you wake up; you may or may not need to clear your sinuses again after sleeping.

What works best for you during tree pollen season?

Many of you who have used your neti pots for some time now may know what I am talking about. Sometimes after using a neti pot, a little bit of the salt water stays inside the nasal cavity, and then decides to drip out unexpectedly, sometimes at an inopportune moment. For example, I remember once looking over someone’s shoulder at some papers on a desk, and as I leaned forward, some drops of salt water rained onto my friend’s papers. I felt really suave.

But take heart, there is a preventive move you can make to avoid just such glamorous surprises. Right after you neti and dry your nose off, place a tissue over your nose and bend forward at the waist so that your head is lower than your waist. Tip your head forward and back and side to side a few times, exhaling through each nostril into the tissue. This will help to clear any remaining water out of your sinuses. Then you can read over other people’s shoulders in dry confidence.

Does anyone else want to come clean with an embarrassing neti drip story?

Well I’ve unwound from another Common Ground Country Fair. I only do one fair a year. At some point I know I have to do a trade show, probably Expo East, but for now it is just “the Fair”.

I can remember only a few years ago very few people knew what a neti pot was. I had to do a lot of explaining back then. This year many people knew what a neti pot was. I guess I have Dr. Oz to thank for that. I even had a medical group affiliated with a hospital interested in buying them. They said that they prescribe them to patients regularly, and medicare will pay there cost!

So this year my main challenge was to explain why my neti pots were so much better than others on the market. It wasn’t that hard really. Often all I had to do is ask if their present neti pot, or their Mom’s, or Brother’s, etc, had a handle, and was it hollow, and could they actually clean it. Isn’t that unsanitary? Oh yeah! It also helps that they’re nice to look at and they come with matching soap dishes, toothbrush holders and salt jars. In fact the toothbrush holders were big sellers on their own.

I want to thank my helpers at the Fair, first Lily….big time, Molly…it’s OK you got a little lost, my brother David who happened to show up at just the right time, Brenda who “got it” with no training and a family crisis to deal with too, and not the least my darling spouse Kay, who did the lions share, and finally for Anne and Alex for housing me and making sure I was well fed in the morning.

Recently a customer asked me why my neti pots have no handles on them. I designed the neti pot to easily cradle in the hand. I prefer to use a neti pot this way and many of my customers like it also. I realize that this is a personal preference and some people would prefer using a handle. There is, however, a good reason to avoid neti pots with handles. Almost all of them have hollow handles or worse partially hollow handles. Look inside these neti pots and you will see a deep hole into the handle. This hole is impossible to clean and dirt and bacteria will collect and fester there. A neti pot should be easy to clean. If I ever do introduce a neti pot with a handle, it will definitely be a solid one and a smooth interior.

People often tell me that I have saved there life. They had sinus headaches or constant allergy attacks. Nothing helped, not even drugs. Then they bought one of my netipots. Well I didn’t save there life. I didn’t invent the netipot, so I always feel reluctant to accept their gratitude. I am always glad that they have found relief from their suffering and that it was my netipot they chose.

Then there are those who have owned other netipots but love mine the best. They love how it fits their hand,or how it fits in there nose or, how it looks in their bathroom. Those comments I can truly own and take to heart for those are ones that I really feel I am responsible for.

How did I come to netipots? It was sort of serendipitous. It was 1998 and I had two small children and was buying them books through the mail order catalog Chinaberry. The founder Ann Ruethling, wrote a testimonial about how wonderful netipots were and offered them for sale along with the children’s books. Being a potter. I made my own netipot. I work in a very dusty environment and I find that a sinus rinse is very helpful. I was also taking yoga classes at a local ashram and the other students also wanted netipots like mine. The final piece of synchronicity was that I worked part time for another potter who made large pots and kept asking me if I had any small pots that would fit in between his own pots in the kiln to fill out the space. At first I told him I had no items that would fit, but later I thought maybe I should start making netipots. Coryell Clayworks was born