There are portable vaporiser machines currently being marketed for use when sick to breathe in a salt solution – would this be bad for your lungs? I have used these type of devices for asthma when I’m sick with a prescribed medication solution, however, I’m interested if anyone has tried this with just water (and does it work?) Or with the salt solution (and does it work?) Or is salt a very bad idea as can the salt crystallise on your lungs?
In: Biology
Breathing in nebulized saline is safe & often prescribed.
When you’re sick, water vapor can help relieve some irritation & congestion in the lungs by hydrating them (if they’re particularly dry) & by breaking up some of that mucous that might be built up & giving you trouble breathing.
Adding salt to the solution will actually help with hydrating the tissue as well as breaking up mucus. This is because, as a natural property of water, water follows salt down a gradient from low concentration to high concentration. In other words, water will go where high amounts of salt go, thus increasing the amount of contact water makes with the membrane in your lungs.
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