Make your own saline solution: simple instructions

Make your own saline solution: simple instructions
Photo: Sven Christian Schulz / Utopia

Making saline solution yourself is easy. It can naturally help with coughs and colds. We’ll show you what else you can use them for.

Whether as a home remedy for colds, for inhalation or gargling: saline solution has many uses. However, you don’t have to buy the mixture at the drugstore. You can make the saline solution yourself with just a few ingredients. You can find out how to do this with just two ingredients in this article.

Make your own saline solution: sea salt and table salt are suitable

To make your own saline solution, use five grams of salt per 500 ml of water.
To make your own saline solution, use five grams of salt per 500 ml of water.
(Photo: Sven Christian Schulz / Utopia)

You can buy saline solutions in drugstores. It is cheaper and easier to make the salt solutions yourself. You can use sea salt for this, but simple table salt is also suitable.

This is how it works:

  1. First, boil 500 milliliters or one liter of water for about two minutes. This ensures that possible bacteria and germs in the water are killed.
  2. Now weigh the salt: You need five grams of salt per 500 ml of water. This corresponds to about a heaped teaspoon.
  3. Add the salt to the water and stir until the salt is completely dissolved in the water.

Saline solutions are ideal for colds: They loosen stuck mucus in the throat and moisten the nasal mucosa. The latter also ensures that your nose stays clear longer when you have a cold. In the following section we will show you various possible applications.

Saline solution for coughs and colds

Making saline solution yourself doesn't take much time or money.
Making saline solution yourself doesn’t take much time or money.
(Photo: Sven Christian Schulz / Utopia)

You can treat various symptoms with the homemade saline solution:

1. Inhale saline solution

If you have a severe runny nose with a stuffy nose, you can relieve the symptoms by inhaling the saline solution. To do this, pour the still hot solution into a heatproof bowl and bend your head over it. Then breathe in and out the hot water vapor calmly and evenly through your nose. If you have a cold, use table salt up to three times a day for ten minutes.

Tip: If you cover your head and bowl with a towel, the saline solution will have a much stronger effect. You can also add some chamomile, which fights the bacteria naturally.

2. Gargle with saline solution

When you inhale with saline, the water vapor only reaches the sinuses. When you gargle with the slightly cooled saline solution, it also reaches the throat and moistens it. This is a good remedy for stuck mucus and hoarseness. You can double the salt concentration here. The only important thing is that you gargle as far back in your throat as possible and do not swallow the saline solution.

Tip: You can also add a drop of tea tree oil or some sage oil. This has an anti-inflammatory effect and soothes the mucous membranes.

3. Saline solution as a nasal rinse

If you have a cold with a severe runny nose, you can also use the saline solution as a nasal rinse. For this you need a nasal shower. You can also use a pipette, but it’s a bit more complicated. Let the salt water cool until it is pleasantly warm. Then you fill it into the nasal douche and let it run through your nostrils. Mucus, but also pollen, are flushed out. The salt water also ensures that new mucus cannot settle as quickly. You can rinse both nostrils twice a day.

Tip: The nasal shower only helps if the salt water can flow through the nose. If your nose is swollen due to a cold, first use a (homemade) natural nasal spray.

Read more at Techzle\.com:

  • 6 home remedies for a cold – how to get well quickly
  • Prevent colds: stay fit through the winter
  • Home remedies for heartburn: What really helps

Edited by Lina Brammertz

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