How Organic Bedding Can Help Those with Health Problems
It can be frustrating today to listen to the news or to go to the doctor. It seems that diseases, even some of the most serious, are terrorizing our population where they didn’t before. Perhaps this phenomenon is not as great as it seems and it is simply a matter of better diagnostic tools discovering problems earlier, but many fear it is a sign of what we are doing to ourselves through the foods we eat and the products we buy.
One of the most commonly talked about conditions, which seems to have seen a major growth in recent years, is asthma. This is a chronic condition, which affects the airways and currently affects more than twenty million Americans. The passages, which are generally open and accommodating for the airways, when afflicted with the disease suffer periods of dramatic swelling. This pushes on the airways making them tighter and narrowed. This makes it difficult to breathe and the sufferer will wheeze, cough, and have a general shortness of breath until treated with medication. While this medication is dosed in mist, which makes it react very quickly, asthma attacks result in millions of emergency trips to the hospital each year and can be very serious if treatment is not delivered promptly. Adult onset of the condition has become far more common in recent years. There have been several specialists who have predicted that this is due to changes in the atmosphere, such as increased smog. However, could it also be that we are poisoning ourselves right in our own home?
It seems that, as more research is done, toxic chemicals can be found in nearly every commercial product in the home, from paint on the walls to the rugs on the floors. Even our bedding, which frequently features man-made textiles such as nylon, can be laced with toxic fumes. Environmentalists today are beginning to recommend natural and organic products, which have not been altered and that have not been dosed with steady streams of pesticides and herbicides.
Natural bedding is among the first places to start making changes if you are asthmatic or if someone else in your house is. Natural materials such as wool and organic cotton don’t give off harmful fumes, which can act as allergens and increase the chances of an asthma attack. Furthermore, these products are less susceptible to some of the other allergens commonly found in traditional bedding, such as dust mites. These microscopic organisms can cause allergic reaction in many people. Sneezing, dizziness, or watery eyes are among the many symptoms reported by those who suffer this allergy. It is thought that it is not the organism itself, but rather its feces that causes this reaction in human beings. So, to get rid of the feces, one must learn tricks to defend against the dust mites’ invasion.
Natural bedding, especially organic wool, can serve as a deterrent to the tiny visitors. These bugs require the heat and moisture from humans in order to survive. Wool is much better at dispersing moisture and drying quickly. Furthermore, it can be aired out unlike man-made products and mattress fillers. The wool allows the air to pass through, which prevents dust mites and kills those who have made a home there. Similarly, natural latex, which is produced from the rubber tree, has a natural barrier that prevents infestation. Thus, if one invests in organic bedding and keeps the blankets pulled down during the day, dust mite invasion will be prevented and he or she can literally breathe easier at night.
If that is not enough to convince you to make the investment, consider these facts. Traditional bedding can be exposed to hundreds of harmful chemicals during the growing and manufacturing processes. More than half of those chemicals are able to be absorbed directly by human skin, which provides instant access to the blood stream. The long term effects of many of these chemicals are not yet known. This can include some of the products that are used to coat mattresses for the purposes of fire retardation and stain resistance. In larger amounts, it has been shown that many of the chemicals in question can cause cancer or may act as neurotoxins, which attack the nervous system. Organic bedding makes use of 100% natural products, which are not treated with pesticides or herbicides, are not chemically processed, and are naturally resilient to things like fire, bed bugs, and stains. Air can circulate more easily through natural materials and there is no fear that any chemicals are going to be carried along for the ride. They can even help to regulate your body temperature, because natural materials, like wool, breathe so well, they can provide heat in the winter and coolness in the summer, which often results in a better night’s sleep. As we all know, the benefits of a good night’s sleep is a whole other story.