Saline

[Abject]

I need saline for my nose and I can't afford storebought shit. I am going to boil water and add 1g rock salt for every 100mL to try and make an isotonic solution. How long will saline last? If I keep it in a bottle/airtight jar what are there chances of it becoming unsafe?

 

[serotonin2A]

You can't afford those refill packets that they sell at drug stores? They end up being cheaper than bottled water. You can get enough for a whole year for $10.

If you prepare the saline then it will eventually foul unless both the saline and the container are autoclaved. I've seen things start growing in saline, PBS, and even formaldehyde solutions over time. You should ideally make a new solution everyday. I guess you could prepare a stock of saline and then each day filter some of it through a 0.2 micron wheel filter. But honestly it would be cheaper to buy the packets.

 

[Abject]

In Australia saline isn't quite as cheap as the states. Salt is cheap and I was going to just boil water instead of buying specific water as I'm not banging it.
I should be able to get free microns from a needle exchange if you think that's better than making a new solution every few days, just wanting some rough estimate as just plain water doesn't seem to go bad for a long while unless left exposed
Then again I have no knowledge of germs/bacteria
It's literally just going up my nose as my eustachian tubes are inflamed most of the time

 

[serotonin2A]

I think this is just a matter of best practices. There are probably a lot of people who use non-sterile saline to flush their nasal passages, and most of the time it is harmless. But very occasionally there can be a bad outcome. For example, there is a kind of amoeba that is very occasionally found in tap water (it probably enters the water supply from dirty pipes/storage tanks rather than coming from the treatment plant). When it gets into peoples sinuses, it can migrate to the brain and cause an untreatable, fatal infection. Obviously this is a very rare event, but is it worth taking the risk?

 

[flyhighk]

I need saline for my nose and I can't afford storebought shit. I am going to boil water and add 1g rock salt for every 100mL to try and make an isotonic solution. How long will saline last? If I keep it in a bottle/airtight jar what are there chances of it becoming unsafe?

Put water and a good bottle (preferably an amber glass bottle) with its cap in a pressure cooker and let it "cook" for a few hours. Then using sterile gloves, grab the bottle and cap it. Boil some water, add enough salt to make it isotonic (usually 0.9%,) boil it again and pour it in the bottle. You should end up with a fairly sterile bottle of saline. Get a small spray bottle and fill it with the previously made solution. You don't wanna contaminate the sterile bottle or expose it to light.

I have 1-2 year old amber bottles of saline, and they look fine.

 

[MyExcuse]

Don't just boil salt to create a normal saline solution for nasal use(no such thing as "isotonic" saline). For sinus irrigation, you need to balance the pH.

You should balance iodide-free salt with baking soda in a 3:1 ratio salt:bicarbonate

Using about 5-10% aloe leaf juice (filtered) in your saline solution will also help.