Air Matters: A Solution for the Wellness Home

In my opinion, it is very difficult to address the concept of Self Care, an Active Wellness Lifestyle or the Wellness Home without addressing Healthy Air. Air quality is one, if not, the major pathway that toxic chemicals and particulates enter our bodies to cause innumerable health concerns. 

Air pollution is a global problem of concern to us all. According to Professor Michael Brauer, University of British Columbia, “Air pollution is the 4th highest risk factor for death globally and by far the leading environmental risk factor for disease.”

Poor air quality air, both outdoors and indoors, is an environmental concern in the world today and is a contributing factor to many health challenges. Air pollution isn’t just experienced in highly populated towns and cities but occurs everywhere. In their book, Invisible Killers, Dr. Stewart Lonky and biochemist Rik Deitsch report, “There are over 1460 metric tons of airborne toxins that travel on the jet stream around the world. Because of this there is no place on the planet that can be considered a pristine environment.”

This is a problematic issue as many times we feel ineffective in helping or improving the problem on the whole. One way that we can be pro-active is to realize that much of the air we breathe, we breathe indoors. Currently, indoor air pollution ranks tenth among preventable risk factors contributing to the global burden of disease. Concentrations of pollutants can be many times higher indoors than outdoors.

The air within our homes and other buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air even the largest and most industrialized cities according to the

US Environmental Protection Agency.

Indoor air pollution can be 2 to 5 times higher than what we are exposed to outdoors. The air inside our homes is the same air as outside, but added pollution from cleaning products, off gassing of chemicals from carpets, paints, glues from furniture, particleboards, and with the other by-products of our modern lives all contribute to poor indoor air quality.

Dusts, molds, pollens and other particles in our air can directly impact us through hay fever or other allergies. Improving the quality of our air can reduce the air pollution we experience, as well as helping to reduce airborne transmissions in offices, schools, and other such environments.

Importance of Indoor Air Quality

“Indoor air quality” refers to the quality of the air in a home, school, office, or other building environment. The potential impact of indoor air quality on human health is noteworthy for several reasons:

Americans, on average, spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors, where the concentrations of some pollutants are often 2 to 5 times higher than typical outdoor concentrations. People who are often most susceptible to the adverse effects of pollution (e.g., the very young, older adults, the infirm and people with cardiovascular or respiratory disease) tend to spend even more time indoors.

Indoor concentrations of some pollutants have increased in recent decades due to such factors as energy-efficient building construction (when it lacks sufficient mechanical ventilation to ensure adequate air exchange) and increased use of synthetic building materials, furnishings, personal care products, pesticides, and household cleaners.

“Cleaning up the air we breathe prevents non-communicable diseases as well as reduces disease risks among women and vulnerable groups, including children and the elderly...”, says Dr. Flavia Bustreo, WHO Assistant Director-General Family, Women and Children’s Health.

Air as nature intended.

Air in natural settings such as forests, waterfalls, and the ocean have a soothing, relaxing sensation. In forests, the Japanese call this ‘Shinrin-yoku’ or “forest bathing”. This feeling in part is caused by the abundant negative ions found natural environments. Negative ions are particles in the air that carry a net negative electrical charge. Research suggests that negative ions contribute to the sense of well-being that we get from breathing fresh, clean air.

The KenkoAir® Purifier is designed to combat allergy and harmful causing particles and enhance the negative ion content of the air we breathe. The KenkoAir® Purifier utilizes a H3 multi-stage Hepa filtration process that eliminates 99.9% of air particles as small as 0.3 microns. The negative ion generator does not produce ozone as seen with many other air filtration systems on the market.

We breathe without even thinking, (approximately 23,000 times a day) as such, air wellness is a simple solution for a huge problem that fits into and compliments the Nikken Wellness Home, helping us to enjoy a more natural, pollutant-free environment.

Breathing cleaner air is one way we all can be Healthy by Choice.