Steam InHaler

nmartinez

I got one of the steam inhaler things that Ken discusses in his videos on getting rid of mucus for Christmas this year. Super cool tool. So, mmost of the stuff Ken mentioned he said to use when your sick or have a cold or the flew. Is it the same with the steam inhalers or is it good to use them daily?

highmtn

You know, a good hot shower with steam can really clear your sinuses out from inhaling some vapors, even if you don't feel ill. It has a way of getting gunk loose that you didn't know was in your nose, throat, or sinuses.

I have the steamer, too, but I only use it when I'm feeling like I might need extra help, from weather, allergy, or heath stresses. A shower seems to be enough on other occasions.

When I do have a congestion or throat issue, I usually open a bottle of tea tree oil and hold it near the steam mask, so that the vapors from the tea tree oil are drawn into the mask and penetrate with the steam vapors.

I just do that for a few seconds to help open up the sinuses and upper vocal tract.

Bob

nmartinez

@highmtn I was amazed, like you said, I had mucus and junk I didn't even realize I had. haha! I won't use it everyday, but probably often

kylevox1987

Hi was this the MyPurMist steam inhaler or the Veridian?

doc_ramadani

My wife is a pharmacist and has a lot of experience on those inhalers. She likes the PariBoy.

kylevox1987

Hi guys, having trouble with dust mite allergies at the moment, making my throat itchy, causing excess post nasal drip and giving me excess mucus on my vocal chords which is getting in the way of my singing! I'm guessing steaming will help? When should I do this? The morning of a show? Or Before I warm up later in the day? Also I have NeilMed Sinus Rinse.. I'm going to do that tonight (The night before a show, which is tomorrow night). Does anyone do the Sinus rinse on the actual day of a show or is that not recommended?

HuduVudu

@kylevox1987

So quick background on me. I have allergy induced asthma. It is pretty bad and it has basically shut down my voice (and my life). I am allergic to many things some of it seasonal, some not. I am pretty seriously allergic to dust mites also. I am currently working through the allergy shot process. Because this has had such a huge impact on my life and it has been difficult to get a diagnosis on it, I have had to do a ton of research on it. So understand where what I am saying is coming from.

First, are you SURE that dust mites are the allergen that you dealing with? It is REALLY important to know what allergen you are dealing with so that you can effectively deal with it. Also know that allergies don't go away on their own. That means for you to deal with them, if you are not going to do allergen shots, you must know what you are dealing with so that you can properly mitigate it. There is no other way to deal with the allergies themselves. You can do things that will help with the symptoms of the allergies but the allergies will always cause you problems forever and depending on the allergy will ebb and flow with how much of allergen is in your environment.

Allergens do two things that cause us a lot of grief. The first thing that they do is produce a histamine response. This is the itchiness, watery eyes, post nasal drip type of response. It is usually very immediate upon contact to a large amount of the allergen. If the exposure to the allergen persists then the body will start to cause an inflammatory reaction in the areas of contact. First the body tries to flush the allergen using physical means then it tries to kill it with other parts of the immune system. If the allergen is an airborne allergen then everywhere the allergen comes in contact with the body then these responses will happen. The problem with just addressing the symptoms is that after a while the inflammation will get out of hand and cause all kinds of other problems. For seasonal allergies this is not as big of a deal because the allergy goes away. Unfortunately dust mites are not seasonal and they will not go away, so you will be treating symptoms forever if they are a problem.

That said if it is dust mites there are what you are allergic to then there are things you can do to minimize the number of dust mites in your environment. There is a lot of good information on the internet on what to do, so I will leave it to you to do that research. Most dust mite problems are centered around your sleeping area so that is where you are probably going to focus.

Ken is very much about non-invasive methods and alternative or natural fixes. He eschews the pill mentality. I agree with his sentiment whole heartedly, but some situations warrant solutions that are along the lines of the pill mentality. For allergens you can use topical type steroids that don't go into your blood stream to deal with chronic long term allergens. This is once again a band aid but depending on the situation it might be warranted. Ingested steroids should be avoided at all costs and only used for short periods to obtain important milestones in treatment. Because I have just started my treatment using allergy shots I still have a lot of problems with dust mites at night and I use a nasal spray on top of my inhalers to deal with the extra burden of dust mites in my bedding.

Ultimately how you deal with this is dependent on the level that you are willing to go to and how much it is affecting what you are trying to do. For me it has produced laryngitis and I have been suffering through that in my singing. It finally got to the point where it was damaging my voice by continuing to sing with laryngitis, so I am on hiatus until I can get my allergens under control.

Hope that helps provides some clarity