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I wonder why that works?
I use the neilmed sinus rinse almost every day and it has been life-changing. Last time I got sick there was no stuffy nose or runny anything because I just cleaned it all out it was phenomenal.
I just asked copilot. The salt water has a couple of benefits over pure water; it's less irritating to mucous membranes, it thins mucus more effectively, and it has modest antimicrobial effects.
Don't trust copilot though.
My guess would be that the hypertonicity of the salt water causes water to move out of your nose's tissues through osmosis, reducing swelling, while the water clears out the mucus and stuff clogging it up.
Isotonic is what you're shooting for. Hyper- or hypotonic will cause discomfort. You can buy saline packets from any pharmacy, mix those with a specified amount of distilled water and you'll have the correct concentration with minimal extra bits (which you'll get a lot of with tap water... don't use tap water).
Done correctly and applied at roughly the same temp as your body, you'll barely feel it in your sinuses.
Isotonic is good for routine use, but hypertonic doesn't burn that bad if you're really congested. I've used 2 neilmed packets before in my 8 oz water when I had viral nasal infection (as the instructions suggest) and didn't experience burning. However if I'm not congested like this, hypertonic will burn.
Pure water would be bad, but salt somehow works, just like going to the beach (even if you are thousands of miles away:-D).