Dust Mites & Asthma - Yes or No to Getting Rid of Them?
A retrospective review by the Cochrane Group was published this week in Copenhagen. This type of review looks at the data for many similar past studies and attempts to draw a conclusions about specific issues. In this case, researchers looked at whether getting rid of dust mites would improve asthma and allergies.
They examined 54 different studies that involved more than 3000 patients. In the course of their review, they concluded that getting rid of dust mites had little to no effect on controlling asthma and allergy symptoms. In response, they recommended against physical and chemical means of eliminating dust mites, including expensive vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters.
This obviously goes against traditional teaching about how to control asthma and allergies. In fact, Mike Tringale, the director of external affairs for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, spoke out against the Cochrane Center's conclusions, pointing out that the review was incomplete. Also, Tringale said, “There’s not one cause of the problem and there’s not one solution.”
So, who do you believe? At this point, I'm just not sure. But one thing I do know: getting rid of 1 trigger is probably not enough anyway to get rid of your asthma symptoms. You'll also need to take your medicine regularly as prescribed, avoid smoking, and avoid other triggers as well.
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No matter how clean the home, all mattresses are prone to the same problem. When we sleep, we produce up to half a liter of sweat every night & shed about a gram of skin each day and although we wear night clothes, which we wash regularly, together with our bed linen, this is no protection against what happens to the mattress.
Very quickly the mattress will become host to a multitude of horrors, from bacteria to fungal spores and microscopic house dust mites which feed off dead flakes of skin. Is it any wonder that without cleaning a mattress, it could be the dirtiest item in your home? It is estimated that there are up to 2 million house dust mites living in a mattress and in an average pillow, 10% of its weight is made up of dead skin and dust mites.
House dust mites find a mattress the perfect breeding ground. With warmth and moisture and no natural enemies, they will establish in a mattress within several months and it is their droppings which cause most problems. These have been medically proven to trigger a whole host of allergic reactions, from Asthma, Eczema and Bronchitis, to Itchy Eyes and Sneezing.
Even protective bedding sheets may be largely ineffective in reducing problems like asthma, when they are the only measure taken to combat an allergy (source: New England Journal of Medicine).
The idea of mattress cleaning isn’t a new one. In other European countries and the United States, it has been performed for years. It’s chemical-free, dry and all performed on site using specially designed state of the art equipment.
The current view of many experts is that dust mites are impossible to totally remove. This is true, it would be very expensive and almost impossible, but by knowing a little about them it is very feasible to make a dramatic impact on them and improve your dust mite allergy.
Therefore, if a combination of measures are undertaken, then the likelihood of some one’s dust mite allergy improving will increase drastically.
Most suggestions will be to remove carpets and replace with hardwood floor, buy a good protective mattress cover, wash at 130+ degrees and clean regularly. However, while this may help, this is not the right answer for everybody and that is why when we come to you to clean your mattress, we can help in many other ways as well. Check out our site for more health benefits at www.thebedmed.com
Although it’s not the dust mite themselves that cause the problem, it’s the mites excrement. We start by eliminating the source.
We use a three stage process:
First we start off by using our patented high powered vacuum head that generates high frequency (HF) waves. These HF waves pulverize and loosen the dust mites and their excrement along with any other dust, spores and bacteria that may be in your mattress. These are then eliminated and contained in our special HEPA filter, which traps 99.97 percent of everything it collects. With this type of filter entrapment, you can rest assured what comes out of your mattress won’t end up in the air you breathe.
After the thorough vacuuming, we proceed to our UVC Germicidal light. Unlike other units used in the market, our UVC light is a stand alone unit. This allows us to focus more on the sanitizing process and it also produces a stronger, more intensive penetrable light. As the UVC light moves across your mattress, the rays penetrate and kill any dust mites, bacteria, viruses, and spores that may of been left behind. Leaving them incapable of reproducing and causing further damage.
The final step in the process is to spray the surfaces with our Anti-Allergen Sanitizing spray. Our sanitizing spray is an Anti-Allergen solution containing ingredients that are proven effective against household dust mites. Derived from natural rock and extracts from plant seeds, the ingredients work together by instantly neutralizing and rendering harmless protein allergens created by dust mites. The dust mite spray is not a drug or pesticide. It actually de-natures and substantially reduces the anti-body binding capacity of the allergens in dust mite droppings so that they are not recognizable by the body’s immune system. Depending on how severe your allergies, if used weekly this will reduce the frequency that your mattress needs to be cleaned. It is safe for people, pets and the environment. Our sanitizing spray can be applied to mattresses, bedding, upholstery and all surfaces that are washable.