Indoor Allergies are Nothing to Sneeze At!
Posted: May 3, 2016
It seems as though half of the folks in my office (including yours truly) have been suffering miserably with seasonal allergies or a related type illness this year! At times during the past few weeks with all the coughing and sneezing going on, our office has sounded like an infirmary. I took it upon myself to do a little reasearch into some preventive measures that you may want to consider when attempting to “allergy proof” your home. Thanks are due to Family Health magazine for these simple suggestions.
While you can’t avoid allergens outside, there are ways to make sure your home is a safe haven for allergy triggers. Some good suggestions:
- Leave the Outdoors, Outdoors – if you’re outside all day you probably have allergens in your hair and clothing. When you come into the house, leave your shoes at the door, get out of those clothes and put them in the wash pile and get in to the shower.
- Keep it Clean – carpets and rugs are magnets for trapping allergens. Vacuum often preferably with a HEPA filtered vacuum. Those filters can help contain extremely tiny allergens and it will help keep the dust down
- Avoid air fresheners – They smell nice but can contain volatile organic compounds that can trigger allergies…..toss them out
- Close it up – Allergens are at their highest in the early morning and at dusk. Consider keeping your doors and windows closed during those times.
- Clear the air – Keep all heating and cooling system filters changed on a regular basis and buy filters that state they are allergen reducing on the packaging
These are just a few suggestions that may make getting through allergy season a little more bearable. Obvously, these steps are not always practical but doing some of them on a regular basis wlll reduce the sniffling, coughing and sneezing, not to mention, lower your costs and trips to the local drug store.
What do you actual know about indoor allergies? Take this quiz.
More at WebMD’s Allergies Health Center
