Ethos Carpet Care - The Facts About Asthma and Allergy Control

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The Facts About Asthma and Allergy Control

Dust Mites

We all know that allergies and asthma rates are exploding. Why? Well after attending numerous seminars on this subject the main consensus seems to be that our 20th Century way of life is the biggest culprit.

Most of us now live in centrally heated, double-glazed houses that, due to energy efficiency, have become less and less well ventilated. Who remembers years ago draughty houses, open fires and frost on the inside window panes in winter. Living in these houses was uncomfortable but healthier due to the adequate ventilation.

We have seen first hand the misery caused by asthma as we know many people who cannot lead a full life due to the fear of another attack. Unfortunately, those occurrences aren’t getting less and less they are becoming more common.

We expect most people know someone who carries an inhaler and it is generally recognised that children suffer more than most. Below are some facts about household allergies. These are not unsubstantiated hearsay, they are the facts that nearly all experts in this field agree on, read on � Child with asthma

  1. The common house dust mite is the main culprit in causing household allergies. This little mite, distantly related to the spider family, feeds on the dead skin that we shed everyday. Most prevalent in bedding, carpets and upholstery. Their faeces contain a known allergen that attacks the lining of the lung and allows more allergen to attach the inner lining. This is what causes asthma attacks. Call us now to find our how to reverse this damage.
  2. Getting rid of your carpets is the worst thing you can do. About 25 years ago the wooden flooring industry in Sweden urged all Swedes to rip up their carpets and replace them with wooden floors citing a recently published piece of research which claimed that carpets were bad for you and caused household allergies (funnily enough this research just happened to be funded by the wooden flooring industry). Guess what happened next � that’s right you’ve guessed it � cases of asthma and other household allergies increased 300% over the next 20 years and is still climbing. What the timber flooring companies didn’t tell us (because of their own vested interests) was that a properly fitted and regularly maintained carpet actually reduced the cases of household allergies and allergy attacks.
  3. There is no known cure for asthma � The only treatment is for the symptoms (relieving tightness and attacks). What the medical profession has not picked up on is allergen avoidance � creating an atmosphere whereby yours and your child’s exposure to these allergens is reduced. This will in time lead to less attacks and it has been proved by leading Entomologist Dr John Maunder of Cambridge University (we have attended some of his seminars) that over time with proper professional allergen removal techniques the damage caused by dust mite allergen can be reversed. Please call us now for more free advice.

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10% of the weight of a two year old pillow can contain dead dust mites and their faeces plus the millions of live ones. The best thing you can do in the short term is change pillow cases regularly and replace the pillow at least annually. Your pillow is the one thing that you are constantly breathing against whilst you are asleep. This creates a high risk of breathing in house dust mite allergen.

Due to the change in life-style in the UK over the past twenty years with the introduction of double glazing and central heating systems we have made our homes into breeding grounds for microscopic, skin eating creatures called Dust Mites - these ugly pre-historic looking eight-legged cousins of the spider and tick are not visible to the naked eye, but just one gram (approximately half of a teaspoon) of house dust can contain up to a thousand Dust Mites and several thousand Dust Mite droppings.

Astonishingly 90% of all house dust is made up of our skin. That's because on average every three days we shed a layer of skin. It's the protein in these tiny particles of dead skin that we are constantly shedding which is manna (heavy food) for Dust Mites. As mites only measure 0.3 mm they settle anywhere in our warm humid (70% Rh or greater) climates including in our - carpets, mattresses, pillows, upholstered furniture, clothing and in our clothing draws, wardrobes, etc. In fact, an average house can contain over 2 million Dust Mites with a new generation arriving every 3 weeks.

Each Mite lives for 3 to 4 months, each female lays 20 to 50 eggs every threeweeks. Each Mite produces around 20 droppings per day, (that's nearly 200 times their own body weight). There are so many droppings in our homes that any soft furnishing in a bedroom of two years old, that has not been professional cleaned, will weigh 10% heavier than when new. It is the digestive enzymes contained within the Dust Mite excrement that triggers most respiratory allergies such as Asthma, and is the single biggest cause of eczema and all year round rhinitis, the sneezing and runny nose associated with allergies. Once airborne, Mite faecal pellets remain aloft for an extended period of time (10 minutes or more) and are easily inhaled. With 28% of the population suffering from respiratory allergies, Dust Mites are one of the main reasons that indoor air is more allergenic than out door air. However there is proof that childhood Asthma is on the increase in the UK with one in three children being affected by exposure to Dust Mite droppings in their early infancy. Find out how Promite™ can help reverse this damage.

Please call us if you need any more advice on this important subject. We publish free consumer guides on allergies and keeping a healthy home. Call us for your free copies

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