Literally thousands of books, web pages and general information
have
been circulated around about the importance of breathing clean, fresh air on
a regular basis, and more has been written about the same subject for
those of us who suffer from allergies, asthma, chronic bronchitis,
COPD, emphysema, etc. However, have you really paid
attention to that information?
If you have, very well done. If you haven't, here it goes again.
When you suffer from
anything that is lung related, the air you breath every
day, can make the difference between a normal day and a visit to your
doctor or hospital. After suffering from these things for a while, you get your
normal prescriptions to fight the allergy symptoms or the asthma.
Nevertheless, the little unseen culprits aggravating the condition
still exist in your environment and taking care of these
"things" is of the utmost importance.
Here
are some tips of how to keep your environment
clean. Always remember that you need to do your
own research to discover what you can do to keep your
surroundings clean and working for you and not against
you.
- Ensure that there is no dust in your house. I don't care how
difficult cleaning the house appears to be it is vital that your
house be free of dust. Get a heppa filter
vacuum cleaner and if necessary, vacuum your place twice a day
until your house is completely out of dust and you have to work
only maintaining it that way.
- Wash your bedding at least once a week and
choose a detergent
that will not irritate your skin or contribute to allergy spells.
Remember also
that sometimes different smells will trigger an allergy or asthma
attack and you need to be aware of what some of those smells are.
While you are washing your bedding, pass the vacuum cleaner on the
mattress.
- Watch out for mold. If there is mold in your house, find a way
to get rid of it as it will definitely aggravate or cause an
aggravated condition. A great place for mold is under the
carpet, bathroom and poorly ventilated corners.
- Do not keep stuffed animals around you and if
you are like me and/or have small children, you do, vacuum them as regularly as possible so there will be nothing
accumulating on them that will deteriorate your breathing.
- If you have pets you can get rid of them, or groom them weekly
so there will be no pet dander around you. Remember that pet
dander is very easy to breath as your pet will constantly
produce it and you will not see it but will be breathing it at
all times.
- If you have books,
magazines, or newspapers keep them where you are not going to breath
the dust and dust mites. Books need to be cleaned as much as
everything else and the magazines and newspapers can be thrown
away immediately after you finish reading it.
- Purchase a good
air filter and put it in your bedroom. Keep it going
every night while you are there. Some of us get asthma in the middle of the night or will wake up with
it. If you are lucky, you will wake up only with a bad allergy
attack. Having a filter in your room will prevent this from
happening. Believe it or not, filters work and keep your
environment clean. However, check the filter once a
week to ensure that there is no dust blocking the air filter.
- When taking medication for allergy or asthma, consult with your
physician to see if there is a more natural way of dealing with
these things. Knowing your options give you more control over the
situation you are going trough (this applies for more than allergy
and asthma) specially because the majority of asthma drugs have
side effects and some of them are serious.
- While on any kind of medication, investigate it as much as you
can and become an expert. There are side effects you may
suffer that are not
given to you by your physician or drug store. Go in the Internet
and check as many medical sites as you can and get as much
information as possible on the subject from every place that you
can find. Some medications have
interactions that are very dangerous (if not deadly) and you need
to be aware of what those interactions are.
- Keep cockroaches
away from the house as their droppings are deadly to an asthmatic,
specially babies, toddlers, young children and children.
- I know it sounds like a lot of
work, nevertheless, taking care of
these things will ensure that the air you breath is clean and will
not harm you. We already have enough dangers around us. Breathing
should not be one of them.
Another important point is that if you know someone who suffers from
allergies or asthma, help them keep their environment clean. Do not
introduce anything that will aggravate their condition such as
perfumes, and smells. Caring and
helping with this small detail is not only easy but life saving. Think
about it.
This may be another boring piece to read, and yes, you have heard
this so many times before. So how come you have not done something
about it? After all, it is only your life that is put on the line
every time you don't take care of your environment and the health of
your friends and pets.
We have enough dangers lurking around every day. The fear of being
robbed, shot, violated, etc. should be more than enough to deal with.
Breathing should not be one.
Do
not let anyone endanger your health, and do not pay
attention to anything negative said about you and your
health. Keep in perspective that there are a lot
of ill intentioned people who are bitter and will do
whatever they can think of to make you miserable.
