Health Gazelle: Nebulizer Solution

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Nebulized Xylitol-Saline Solution

This recipe is from a former Registered Nurse. She has adjusted and re-adjusted this recipe for individual family members. It is meant to be used with a nebulizer and face mask. For her family, it has made a huge difference in the effective and antibiotic-free treatment of acute bronchitis, shortening the duration and intensity of illness considerably. They have also used it to good effect for asthma, as the mist reduces bronchial inflammation and promotes the movement of mucous from the bronchii (and nasal passages). I also used this recipe to good effect for several months. It helped me stay out of the ER and helped me reach my goal of reducing the number of prescription medications I required. I am now off all prescription medications.

Recipe

One pint (2 cups, 500 ml) GLASS jar, cleaned in HOT water, such as in a dishwasher or with boiling water. Rinse with sterile water (to remove any soap residue).
Fill with distilled or reverse osmosis water. Because this solution will be inhaled through the mist created by the nebulizer, the water needs to be sterile and pure, with no contaminants, microbial or otherwise. (Not tap water)
Add 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt or "pickling/canning" salt. (Sea salt has a benefical balance of minerals.) DO NOT use table salt as it contains many undesirable additives.
Add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of Xylitol.
Stir well. Discard after one week.

*Note of Caution*
When treating a serious respiratory condition with compromised lungs (ie Cystic Fibrosis), please exercise Extreme Caution. The recipe here is found to be non-irritating for this family, but we cannot guarantee that it would not irritate already damaged lungs. Although there are people with Cystic Fibrosis who are using xylitol in nebulizer solutions for treatment, the proportions of saline and xylitol are still in the experimental stage. Irritation of the mucosa of a person with Cystic Fibrosis could cause serious problems, such as lung bleeds, in some cases.

5 Dec 2007 Disclaimer Note:
If you have linked to this page from this blog, I am not comfortable with the statement there that: She claims they kept her out of the ER completely with all her respitory problems. I am not comfortable with it because it makes it sound like nebulizing with this xylitol-saline solution is the only thing I did and, to me, that implies this is some "magic bullet" -- i.e. "if you will just inhale this, that's all you need to do as a drug substitute". I don't think that is realistic. In my experience, if you are going to break the cycle of running from one drug to the next, you have to get away from the idea of quick fixes and magic bullets. I have made many lifestyle changes and dietary changes and I take a lot of supplements. In an emergency, this solution has been extremely helpful to me. But, please, do not get the idea that you can substitute this for a prescription medication without also working on diet and lifestyle and resolving some of the underlying problems causing the symptoms.

As I state in the intro, this helped me to stay out of the ER and helped me get off the 8 prescription drugs I used to take. I used this nebulizer solution regularly for several months during a time when I was withdrawing from prescription drugs. It did help me to avoid going to the ER on many occassions when I otherwise would have certainly ended up there. But it was certainly not the only measure I took to avoid the ER at that time, a time in my life when I was extremely ill. I also relied on hot and cold treatments, herbal extracts, poultice, guaifenisen (a drug I still take, though I now take 200mg/day instead of the 600mg to 1200mg I used to take) and probably a whole lot of other things I no longer even remember.

If you are looking for natural solutions as part of an overall lifestyle approach and philosophy, this may be very useful to you. But if you are looking for a quick fix and have no plans to make any lifestyle changes, then this may not accomplish what you want it to do. Drugs are better at getting dramatic short-term results, which is why a lot of people like them: It's very obvious what they do. What's not so obvious is the long-term consequences of these short-term solutions. I don't like drugs because they don't really fix anything at all and, on top of that, the side effects are a very high price to pay. In the long run, drugs deplete essential nutrients, thereby making health problems worse.

While I am updating this page anyway, I want to also note:
As stated on the Xylitol-Saline Solution page of this site, "Based on an article about research on xylitol, its germ-killing properties, and the potential benefit to Cystic Fibrosis patients, I developed a modified sinus solution using xylitol and saline." The registered nurse who developed the recipe on this page was a friend and I shared that article with her. No one in her family has cystic fibrosis but there is a history of other serious, life-threatening respiratory problems. She was kind enough to give her permission to post the recipe on my website, for which I am grateful.

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