Just imagining it is actually enough.

There is a phenomenon on the Internet that many sites take advantage of: so-called clickbait. This refers to articles that have a sensational headline, which is either relativized or not confirmed by the article.
This also includes the article about which we received inquiries: A woman is said to have lost part of her brain due to nasal rinsing!

One of the inquiries about nasal irrigation via our reporting form
One of the inquiries about nasal irrigation via our reporting form

What do you imagine when you read a headline like that? That a piece of brain leaked through the nose? How can something like this happen?? You HAVE to click that, right?

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What actually happened

There is often another characteristic of clickbait articles:
If an article is actually quite short, it is spread over several pages so that you don't read it straight away, as can be the case. So you often have to leaf through dozens of pages - on which, of course, there are always advertisements - until you find out the real reason for the information in the article title.

The solution is granulomatous amoebic encephalitis

This is a usually fatal infection of the central nervous system. But your brain won't run out of your nose!

What caused the infection?

The Acanthamoeba that causes it can be found worldwide in the earth, in water and in the air. Infection can occur through inhaled air or contaminated water. The amoebas travel through the bloodstream throughout the entire organism, including the brain.

The 69-year-old woman from Washington state, about whom the article is written, wanted to get a chronic sinus infection under control and therefore used nasal irrigation. However, she didn't follow the instructions: she used normal tap water, neither boiled nor added with the special salts.

Now it can actually happen that such amoebae are found in tap water if the pipes are also dirty. When we drink such water, the amoebas are killed by the stomach acid, but already damaged nasal mucous membranes offer no protection.

The woman became infected with the amoebae and died almost a year later from a brain infection caused by the amoebae.

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Conclusion

The woman didn't lose a part of her brain due to the nasal rinse, but rather got a brain infection from the amoebas contained in the water... which cost her not a part of her brain, but her entire life.

Globally, infections with this type of amoeba are extremely rare; only around 300 cases known worldwide. However, the number of unreported cases may be much higher. If nasal rinses are used correctly (distilled or boiled water, if possible no tap water, use of salts), it is impossible for such an infection to occur.


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )