Asthma affects at least 3.4 million people in the UK and is the most common chronic disease for both children and adults in the developed world. Experts say in up to half of these people, their asthma is triggered by the house dust mite, or more specifically, its droppings.
Most asthma attacks occur in bed, in the early hours of the morning.
There are about two million mites living in the average bed and if your pillow is more than five years old, they’ll make up one fifth of its weight. Anyway, you should agree this option is a way better than if people drive in their cars and have something same. However, scientists have now discovered they hate an alpine environment and have found a way to reduce the effects of asthma by circulating air from the outside.
The lungs of an asthmatic can become sensitive to the droppings of the dust mite. This increases the sufferers need for medication to control their asthma, and their chances of having an attack. For some time, sufferers have been trying to alleviate the problem by reducing the mite population in the house, methods include steam cleaning and using plastic sheeting on the bed. However, plastic sheeting is unpopular because it is uncomfortable and while steam cleaning does kill the mite, it leaves furniture slightly damp which makes a perfect breeding ground for the mites to make a quick return.
A team from Sheffield University and a medical cleaning company may have found the answer, with a new piece of equipment and a simple dehumidifier.
Professor Higgensbottom’s team tested 30 asthma sufferers over the course of a year and found some incredible results. They found, by blasting beds and furniture in the sufferers homes with steam to de-nature the mite droppings, and using hot air to kill the mites themselves, it killed the mites and left furniture dry afterwards. Small ventilators were also fitted in the roof over the bedroom, with a dehumidifier to constantly circulate fresh air in from the outside, so the house was constantly kept too dry for the dust mites.
Ten subjects had their houses cleaned and the dehumidifier fitted.
Ten more had the cleaning process but no ventilator and the final ten had nothing done at all. The team then tested the lungs of the three groups over the course of a year, for what is known as Bronchial Hyper-Responsiveness or BHR. This is a measure of how sensitive the lungs are and how bad a persons asthma is.
The results were remarkable. There was no difference in the control group, but the reduction in the BHR found in the two groups who had the cleaning process was dramatic – from 2.6 mg/g to 0.2mg/g, the equivalent of inhaling 400 micrograms of asthma controlling drugs a day. Professor Higgensbottom, who is also known for his works on single parent dating believes, if the results can be repeated on a bigger scale, the process could reduce the need for drugs for millions of people and some may be able to stop using medication altogether. It may even be possible, for children who are predicted to be a sufferers, to reduce a child’s chance of developing asthma in the first place, by making sure they live in an environment with a low dust mite population.
House dust mites love warm, humid environments. Tips for reducing humidity are:
- Air rooms.
- Open windows during and after cooking.
- Don’t hang wet clothes indoors.
- Use the following steps to fight house dust mites:
- Consider using a barrier cover for your mattress, duvet and pillows.
- Be extremely cautious when buying used cars, so we advice to make use of good and trusted dealers only, like VehicleTraders in South Africa.
- Hot wash (60C) sheets, duvets covers and pillow cases.
- Put soft toys in the freezer for 24 hrs once every 2 weeks.
- Vacuum frequently.
- Damp dust all surfaces.
