Monday, November 17, 2014

How the dry air in your home is affecting you.




When you think of the fall and winter season, you might not think of quality of your breathing air.  When you first turn on your furnace the forced air systems will start to dry out the air in your home.  This is not a good thing because with the winter months cold air can decrease the humidity in the air also.  Both contributing factors can lead to sinuses being dried out, and with the lack of moisture it can cause nose bleeds and swollen sinuses.  The lack of humidity it the air can also lead to headaches, fatigue, difficulty sleeping and many other ailments.

A great way to start helping the humidity levels of the air in your home is to purchase a couple of humidifiers and place in the rooms that are used most often.  Then at bedtime move the humidifiers into the bedrooms to help with breathing and to keep nasal passages moist.  Air humidity levels should be somewhere around 35-50% at all times.  This will more than likely solve the issue, but there are cases that a person will need to also use a few sprays of a saline solution nasal spray to daily.  Also, make sure you are drinking enough water every day to keep your body hydrated to counter the dry air you are breathing in.

Remember your body is made up of about 60% water, you need to replace what you might lose.

To read more about how breathing in dry air can affect your body click on the link.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Has the change in the weather got your allergies acting up?




When the colder weather hits it is time to start using that furnace again.  You might notice that this can make you sneeze, cough, and even start wheezing.  No one likes to be stuffed up and miserable, but what you might not know is that dust and allergens settling in your air ducts are the culprit.

Heating ducts have all summer long to sit and accumulate allergens and dust and when the fall weather hits they get forced into your family’s breathing air with the use of your furnace.  This can make you feel congested and perhaps run down.  Keeping the breathing air in your home as clean as possible is helpful to keeping you and your family feeling good.

Some helpful tips to keeping your heating ducts clear of dust and allergens is to get them routinely cleaned.  Hire a professional to come in before you start using your furnace to remove the dust and allergens.  If possible, make sure when they are being cleaned you arrange to leave for a few hours.  Having the heating ducts cleaned can cause a lot of dust and mold particles to be released and this can be harmful to your body.

Also, another helpful tip is to use HEPA filters in your furnace to help eliminate the production of allergens in your home.  These specialty filters are formulated to catch allergens from entering your environment.  Filters should be changed every month if you are still using the 1” pleated filter, and if you are using the 3” filter then it should be changed every three months.

If you would like to know more, click on the following link about Allergies (Check Your Furnace)