Wisdom of Healing

Wintertime, indoor and year-round allergies can contribute to loss of sleep, irritability, high stress levels, lack of energy and vitality, and interrupt our ability to think clearly. Medications can make us feel wired, drowsy or have other side effects, including increased risk of heart attacks. What we’re really searching for is long-term relief without the discomforts and potentially life-threatening side-effects the medicines offer.

Well, there’s good news! Choosing the right herbal program, learning effective breathing exercises and making prudent lifestyle changes can provide that much needed relief to help balance and harmonize the immune system, so that allergy triggers may no longer be a problem for you!

Indoor air quality can be much more harmful for us than outdoor air. Indoor air is estimated to be an average of seven times worse than the outdoor air that gets most of the attention. When we live in the city, the air in our homes, offices and schools can be significantly more harmful, in part because the outdoor air circulating into the building is of poor quality to begin with. The fact that most of us spend as much as 7/8 of our life indoors and about 1/3 of our day in the bedroom, it is easy to understand why indoor air would have such an impact on our health.

There are several triggers, or allergy activators, throughout our homes that may be adjusted or eliminated to improve the health of our families, so as to help prevent allergies and other respiratory concerns. Some of the top triggers include: mold, mildew, dust (mites), pet dander, and the off-gassing of hundreds of items throughout your home, school, and workplace. We may become sensitive to any of these triggers at any age. We will address food triggers and chemical sensitivities later.

We’ll first very briefly address mold. Mold is believed to be the cause of some very serious health concerns for many of us, directly or indirectly. Many homes and buildings have mold growing in the basement, carpet, bathroom walls and vents. It may grow seasonally or year-round, appear odorous or unnoticeable. Regardless, mold can have a very significant impact on our overall health and specifically on our respiratory and immune systems. Some of the black molds can even be life-threatening. Inhaling mold spores hour after hour, day after day, may also do to damage our mucosal tissue, the tissue that lines our lungs and respiratory system, digestive tract and the urinary region.

Dust alone is not usually a trigger; but rather it is the mites, or small bugs, that live within the dust that can activate our over-reactive immune systems. Dust mites can also damage our mucosal tissue when inhaled over long periods of time or in great quantities. Pet dander has a similar effect within the body.

The heating and air conditioning systems inside our homes and the buildings we frequent can circulate these airborne allergens throughout every region of the indoors. Our desire to save energy and conserve heat has created very airtight buildings, so there is less circulation of fresh air. The respiratory tract needs fresh air (from the outdoors) circulating indoors to keep healthy and functioning optimally.

The basement is a harbinger of potentially toxic chemicals, molds and dust mites. The mold found in the basement, when left unattended, can spread via the insides of walls, along pipes and in other out-of-site areas. When there has been a mold problem caused by a flood or chronic dampness, it is crucial that everything affected be removed completely.

Anything porous will take the mold in, so it will need to be removed and disposed of. Fabrics may be salvaged by washing or dry-cleaning, but carpets, particle board cabinets or furniture, sheetrock and wallboard need to be thrown away. (Please do not put carpet and sheetrock in a basement, regardless of whether it is considered to be dry. If it is a basement, there will be some dampness, and this will impact your family’s health.) There are some excellent companies and organizations that provide removal of mold and affected fixtures, but there are also many scammers out there, so be certain that any company you choose to work with is fully insured and has a good reputation in your community.

We’re all exposed to tens of thousands of chemical compounds in our modern-day lives. In commercially prepared clothing, appliances, walls, carpeting and furniture; practically everything in life contains chemicals and/or emits off-gassing. Glues, resins, chemicals and components in furniture, cabinetry, new cars, electronics and new construction can be detected by the average nose for a few days or months, but are believed to actually off-gas for an average of three years. This will likely have an effect on an already compromised immune system.

We are exposed to our clothing and bedding virtually every minute of the day. The chemicals in commercial laundry detergents and fabric softeners are believed by some experts contribute to the toxin overload that may lead to the immune system’s breakdown and subsequent overreactions to what we call common allergens. Television commercials lead us to believe that we’ll look dingy and grey if we don’t use the leading brands, but real research indicates that simpler, more natural cleaners do a comparable or better job. So try a natural laundry detergent and household spray for a few weeks and see how you feel!

Providing your family with these health-promoting changes may significantly improve their health, energy levels and prevention of symptoms. We’ll address food, herbs, chemical exposure and more prevention in future posts.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS