Hay fever sufferers have been left baffled after discovering the ‘correct way’ to use nasal spray.
While everyone knows they should inhale the nasal spray, many fail to reap the benefits because the medication bypasses the nasal passages entirely, a health expert said.
Professor Helen Brough, a consultant in paediatric allergy and clinical immunology, appeared on ITV’s This Morning and surprised presenter Cat Deeley with her little-known tip.
Instead of spraying and inhaling the spray, she advised aiming it toward the outer corners of your nose and letting the hairs catch the medication.
“I have a lot of families who come to see me because they’ve been prescribed all the drugs but they’re still not getting any benefit,” Professor Brough said.
‘So if you apply the nasal spray directly into your nose and inhale it, you’ll just swallow the steroid down into your stomach, which won’t help you.’
“You have to lower your head and then tilt the steroid nasal spray to the side of your nose, and the nasal hairs will slowly carry it up where it needs to go,” he continued.
‘And then you don’t have to inhale. You just have to put a tissue here (at the base of your nose) if you have to, if any falls out, but most of the time nothing falls out.
Professor Helen Brough (pictured) appeared on ITV’s This Morning and surprised presenter Cat Deeley with her little-known tip. Instead of spraying and inhaling the spray, she advised aiming it towards the outer corners of the nose.
“So if you apply the nasal spray directly into your nose and inhale it, you’ll just swallow the steroid down into your stomach, which won’t help you,” he said.
“And that means he’ll go where he’s told and it also means he’ll be much less likely to get nosebleeds.”
The revelation left TV presenters and viewers alike stunned, with many admitting they had “no idea” they had been using nasal sprays incorrectly for years.
“I have been suffering from hay fever for 34 years and no doctor has dared to tell me how to use a nasal spray correctly. Fantastic!” wrote one of them.
“My husband did that to my daughter and I kept saying no, it wasn’t going to be like that, but I admit I was wrong,” wrote another.
A third called the discovery a “game changer.”
Always read the instructions on the bottle when using new treatments.
