Oct 5, 2007

saltwater

the cure for anything is saltwater - sweat, tears or the sea.
isak dinesen said this.

so did my grandmother.
it is my most favorite quote. ever.

my grandmother said this all the time. she took a dip in the icy atlantic off the coast of rye beach, nh every day of the summer and she had the most beautiful, luminous skin i have ever seen – despite having her face in the sun all day every day. if we had a little cut, she’d tell us to go in the ocean. it will get better. she was right. it always did. and now, whenever we are at the beach, i tell my kids the same. when we reached our teen years and had a less than flawless complexion, she’d say – go in the ocean … your face will clear right up. once again, nana was right.

i’m a firm believer in the fact that you always feel better after a good cry, or a good, sweaty run. and if you cry while you run – it’s a total bonus - doubly cleansing.

a small cold has made an appearance the past couple of days. in the form of a sore throat, runny nose & the faintest feeling of a low grade fever. i am uncharacteristically not getting all jacked up about this. it will get better. but, that said - with 15 days to go – this must be nipped in the bud. it needs to get better. now.

the first thing i do when i have a sore throat is gargle with warm salt water. i learned this from my dad, who most likely learned it from his mom - the same one with the luminous complexion and an affinity for the sea.

so i’m gargling. religiously. and yesterday on the way to the big dog run i ask my coach if he has a magic elixir for getting rid of a cold. fast.

of course he does. saltwater.

and now, along with swimming in it, and gargling it –
i can put snorting it on my list too.
i’ve said it before –if it has anything to do with running, i will do anything he tells me to do. and this now includes scooping a bit of my saltwater that was once just reserved for gargling, onto a teaspoon -

and snorting it.

and i’ll tell you – it’s a trip. maybe not quite the trip of college years (figurativley speaking of course, mom) -- but a trip nonetheless. i stand there. at the kitchen sink – spoon poised; and tell myself its for my own good. i need to do this. it will make it better. it will cure what ails me. and so without further ado – i just do it.

my head spins, my eyes want to bug out, i am crying from half laughter & the half burny feeling up my nose. and my husband just shakes his head at the lengths to which i will go for all that this marathon training encompasses. he says - hell, i'd just stay sick.

i love saltwater. i love swimming in it. i love the feeling of salt on my skin after a long hot sweaty run, or after boogie boarding in the ocean. i love the salt in my hair & almost hate to wash it out after a day at the beach. but saltwater up my nose? not really feeling the love -- but i'll keep doing it, because while its too soon to tell if it works, i have very high hopes & no reason to think it won’t.

because saltwater cures everything. nana said so.

12 comments:

Andria said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Andria said...

Sorry about that, I meant to put a link in but hit post before I did...

This looks more like what you need instead of snorting straight salt:

http://fitsugar.com/219308

I have not tried it, but I am thinking of getting one for allergies...

zanne said...

thanks andria! the link isn't working - not sure why. and just to clarify lest anyone think i am completely bonkers: i am not snorting straight salt. ouch. its' diluted in water. :-)

Anonymous said...

My dad has had several sinus surgeries and his ENT has him rinsing his sinuses out with a saline solution everyday now. He says it helps. The particular device he uses has some kind of medical name, but it's really just a neti pot. Maybe that would be easier - pouring vs. snorting?

Anonymous said...

Oh, hey, I got andria's link to work and a neti pot is exactly what she's talking about, too!

Sorry, andria, for duplicating your suggestion!

Anonymous said...

Me again. :)

I think this doo-hickey may be what my dad has:

http://www.hydromedonline.com/

(And yes, I do have a job. I'm simply ignoring it at the moment, ha!)

zanne said...

oh this is funny. i knew about neti pots & asked my coach if that's what he meant ... he said no - he just snorted it off a spoon. when we were running yesterday morning, we ran by a pharmacy that had "we have neti pots" on their sign out front ... i was so out of my talking zone i couldn't even say "look - neti pots!". while i think the neti pot would indeed be less violent - i may just stick with the hard core sniffing it off a spoon thing. cause i got a spoon & i don't have to go out & run another errand to get a pot. if i buy one more running-related gadget, accoutrement or otherwise - my husband may go insane.

i can't believe though, that i didn't know about this saline/nasal thing before yesterday. it was total news to me. imagine my surprise when i saw all the saline sprays at the pharmacy when i went to stock up on zicam & theraflu - must have been living under a rock to not know about this cure!

Laurel said...

Haha, WOW! I never thought about it that way but you're right!

Well, when you start injecting it, then we will have to talk.

Nancy said...

I think there is some study somewhere that old sailors used to snort salt water and they had very low rates of sinus infection. It seems like it is in the category of "old wives tale" that actually works. ENT's are recommending it!!

You are braver than me. :) Good luck with it.

Vickie said...

I'll have to remember the snorting saltwater trick! If it helps your throat, why not your nose? Maybe I should be doing that in the mornings when my allergy running nose is out of control.

zanne said...

i'm telling you - my nose has totally cleared up! i'm a convert.

Andria said...

I think this line of comments is one of the funniest I've read. But I love it. I really think I'm going to try it the next time my allergies flare up.