Remember the Jalneti that your grandparents used, it's back!

Anything yoga related has been succesfully adopted as a pop-culture
"thing", now it is the turn of the "jala neti". Last I remember seeing
one was at my grandfathers old home in Kerala, one that belonged to my
great grandfather I believe. Wish I had saved that one! Here is an
article about it from the New York Times --

"GABY HAKMAN worked as a chef in professional kitchens in Miami for
nearly 20 years, standing in the vacuum of powerful venting fans,
inhaling smoke. But she had even bigger nasal challenges ahead. "I
work as a personal chef now, which is a lot less toxic, but I also
moved to New York City, and because of the city's pollutants and dry
heat I developed painfully dry sinuses," Ms. Hakman said.

Seeking the advice of a masseuse and acupuncturist, Jana Warchalowski,
Ms. Hakman was urged to try something she didn't even want to think
about. "Jana said she had two words for me: neti pot," Ms. Hakman
said. "I'd heard about it before. I just kept thinking, 'No way,
that's gross.'"

But this fall, Ms. Hakman relented. "I went out and bought a pretty
little ceramic neti pot from Whole Foods," she said. "I've used it
every day since. Now, I can breathe again. It's even gotten rid of the
bags under my eyes."

Originally part of a millennia-old Indian yogic tradition, the
practice of nasal irrigation — jala neti — is performed with a small
pot that looks like a cross between Aladdin's lamp and your
grandmother's gravy boat. The neti pot made its way into this country
in the early 1970s as a yoga meditation device, but even as yoga
became mainstream, the neti pot remained on the fringes of alternative
culture.

That is, until now. Due to a confluence of influences, the neti pot is
having what can only be termed a moment, sold in drugstores, health
food stores, even at Wal-Mart and Walgreens.

The practice gained wide exposure last spring when it was introduced
on Oprah Winfrey's show by a frequent guest, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a
cardiothoracic surgeon and an author of health books. Dr. Oz explained
that bathing the sinus cavities in a warm saline solution can reduce
symptoms of allergies, cold, flu and other nasal problems."

Read the full article at --
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/fashion/03skin.html?_r=1&ex=1200200400&en=c03c34d3e67ea2c0&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin