The Allergy-Free Kitchen and Dining Room

The worst and most significant enemies in your kitchen and dining room are mice and roaches. They crawl all over the dirty places looking for food. Chances are they carry some chemical substances and a bunch of allergens. To keep your kitchen allergy-proof, you must allergen-proof. That is to keep all allergens and the allergen carriers out of the kitchen and dining room.

1. Seal any sources of food.

It is good for your health and hygienic, for any food you have, make sure you store the food appropriately in airtight containers so that the mice and roaches are out of reach. When they find no food in your home, they will see your home as the less attractive place, which is a good thing, since they are not your guests.

The same goes to the pet food. Make sure you also discard as well as keeping the pet food properly.

2. Food Crumbs

Food Crumbs are the next thing the mice and roaches will look for in your home after you seal all the food safely. To minimize food crumbs in your home, eat in a polite manner. Ideally, you should also clean the kitchen and dining room every day.

3. When you have done the two things mentioned above and those roaches and mice are still coming back(very unlikely) then you might want to use some poison baits on them. A roach or mice eats the poison bait and brings back to the main nests, after that the poison spreads and kills every single one of them. Fast and effective. Well, if that still could not finish the job, then you might need to call in the exterminator. Since the chemicals they use to kill roaches are as harmful to us humans as to roaches and mice, ask the exterminator to focus on the infested areas. Those chemicals are very significant irritants. After the job is done, ventilate your home by opening up windows and doors and let the wind carry the chemicals and odors away.


Other tips for the kitchen:

• Stop using any cleansing fluids/detergents if they cause any irritation to you or your family
• Ventilate your home properly
• Cleanliness is key. Make sure the kitchen, tools, food ware, utensils, everything is clean.

Allergen-proof Your Bedroom

We all spend about one-third of the day in our bedrooms. For this reason,it's important for us to make our bedrooms safe havens from allergens and allergy-triggering substances. By doing what I am about to tell you, it's possible for you to achieve total peace in your sleep. No more runny nose or coughing, and less allergy symptoms.

1. No pets in the bedroom

Make sure you keep your pets out of the bedroom. Pets like cats and dogs carry allergens that could trigger allergy reactions, so for those people with allergies, it is better for you to not have pets at home. Since pets are mostly active enough to walk around your house or neighborhood, they propably carry more allergens than you might be able to imagine.

Still, no pets in your room does not mean your room is free from pet allergens. Pets such as dogs and cats produce or carry allergens that are light enough to float through every corner in your home. This is where a good air filter comes in. An air filter with a HEPA filter will cleanse/filter the air in your house so that allergens are trapped in it. Cleaner air always mean less allergy symptoms and reactions.

2. Encase your mattresses, pillows, bedding, etc

Your mattress is like the multi-million dollar mansion for allergens like dust mites. It is warm and soft, retains moisture, and provides food(your skin flakes and food crumbs) for their survival. To deal with this situation, you can encase your mattresses, pillows, and bedding with encasings that could be bough online through AllergyBeGone. By doing this, you protect yourself from allergens such as dust mites and pet allergens from entering your bed and make it their hiding spot as well as creating a barrier between you and those allergens that have already stayed in your bed. Those encasings need not be those plastic bags that cause you to sweat like a bull during your sleep. Again, you can find these encasings at AllergyBeGone.

3.Filter your air in the bedroom

By using an air-filter, you will be able to breathe easier and comfortably. Light allergens are effectively filtered from the air by operating an air filter in your bed room. By lowering or removing the air-borne allergens, you get to lower your risk against allergic reactions.

A good air-filter can be bought cheaply online.

4. Wash your bedding, bed sheets, mattresses and pillows.

Wash the bedding in water at temperature of at least 55 degree Celsius will kill allergens like dust mites effectively. Ideally, wash them one a month.

5. Frequently clean or wash stuffs such as stuffed animals, old magazines, and CDs in your room that might collect dust and allergens.

By following the 5 tips above, you will be able to reduce the amount of allergens in your room to a degree where no allergens are able to trigger an allergy reaction. You can also refer to other articles and see what you can do to reduce the amount of allergens in your home so that your house can be a safe haven for you and your family.

Inside Your Home - Make Your Home Your Haven

This article is about some general tips that show you how to allergen-proof your house so that it becomes your haven, safe from allergies.

1. Stay cool and dry

If you are allergic to mold, probably the first thing you need to do about your home is to make it ventilated, cool and dry. By keeping your house cool and dry, you effectively decrease the amount of mold, dust mite and roaches in your home. Experts recommend you to use a good dehumidifier that has the ability to remove 13 gallons of water from the air in your home. These dehumidifier cost about $1,200. Obviously you don't need such a great dehumidifier in your home if you just want to make a particular damp spot in your home dry.

2. Keep the dehumidifier clean and dry

So now you have your own dehumidifier working all day round to remove moisture from the air in your home. The next thing you should do is to frequently clean the dehumidifier, that is by removing the water from the machine daily. If it is possible, you might want to drain the water through a pipe and dispose the water out of your home directly.

3. Use several small carpets to replace the big ones

For the carpets inside your home, do consider using several small carpets. Obviously tiled floors are the most ideal setting for people with allergies, because there is no way for these allergens and allergens-carriers to sneak in. But if you absolutely need to have a soft surface in your home, instead of using just one big size carpet, use several carpets of small pieces. This will make washing and cleaning the carpet an easier job.

When you wash your carpets, make sure they are dried within 24 hours. If it takes any longer than that, since mold likes wet surface, they would be likely to decide "to stay for the long term" inside your carpets. No good. This applies to anything that needs to be washed. Dry those thing fast, before those allergens grab hold.

4. Effective Carpet Cleaning Made Easy
Carpets trap stuffs, and in this case, carpets trap a lot of allergens. As time goes by, carpets will collect a lot of allergy triggers in them, so it is advisable for you to take several actions to make sure that the carpets are clean and safe to people with allergy. Obviously, if it is possible, do not use carpets at all. If you couldn't live without carpets, there are things you can and need to do to make sure the carpets are clean.

This is powerful and effective. Combine regular vacuuming/carpet cleaning with home dehumidifying, the allergy levels in your home will decline rapidly, probably to a point where no allergens are able to trigger any allergy symptoms.

To clean the carpets, wash them at least once a month with hot water at a temperature of at least 55 degree Celsius. Dry them within 24 hours, and if it is possible make it a habit to vacuum the carpets once a week. Ideally, vacuum them twice a week.

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A vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter is the best choice. Unlike conventional vacuum cleaner, a HEPA vacuum cleaner is able to trap allergens. Conventional vacuum cleaner will suck in allergens as fast as it blows out the allergens through the vents in its back.
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5. No Smoking Inside Your Home

Secondhand smoke is a significant asthma trigger. It also irritates the lungs and the airways. Each puff of smoke contains several hundreds to thousands of chemicals. Smoking indoor with children inside your home, may even cause them to get childhood asthma. So if you have smokers at home, ask them to quit smoking if possible, it's good for everyone. If not, you have to ask he/she to smoke elsewhere.

6. Ventilate Your House With Fresh Air

If humidity is not a problem in your area, you might want to open up the windows more frequently to let the fresh air come in. By doing this, you are able to blow allergens and pollutants out of your home, as well as bringing in fresh air for the family. Yes pollens might be able to come in, and if you are affected by pollens, you can get a pollen screen filter.

7. Discard unwanted stuffs in your home

We tend to stock stuffs for future use inside our homes. Most of the time those stuffs are not needed, especially those with organic chemicals which irritate the lungs and airways. Make sure you store paints, mineral spirits, and stuffs with chemicals appropriately. Discard any unneeded old chemical items.

By performing some, better if all, of the seven steps, you will be able to at least cut down the amount of allergens inside your home, and directly you can feel the allergy levels in your home have been lowered. Give it some time like 1-2 months and see the difference for yourself.

How To Deal With Allergens Outside Your Home

This article will be categorized in the The Allergy-free Home, because in my opinion, you have to make sure less or no allergens can get their way into your house in the first place before you can effectively remove allergens and their hiding spots in your house.

1. Seal any holes and gaps that could allow allergens-carrying bugs/insects that could sneak into your house. Places to look at include under the door, door gaps, and the drains. Everyone can do this, with the proper tools and kits. Just go to the hardware/tools shop, and tell the storekeeper you need stuffs to fill gaps and holes. And hey, just ask your son to help you deal with this, if you don't have the time.

2. If you have air-conditioners, make sure the filter is clean all the time. And make sure they get cleaned and serviced by the professionals. A cleaner air conditioner can only mean cleaner air in your home.

3. Use doormats to reduce the amount of allergens that you potentially bring in while you were out. Other than that, specify which shoes are for outdoors and which shoes are for indoor. Never step in your house with the "outdoor" shoes.

Now these are three useful tips you can use to reduce allergens from slipping into your home. By implementing these tips you are able to at least cut down the amount of allergens in your home, and therefore lower the risk of allergy.

Things You Should Know Before Cleaning Your Home

Your home is most probably where you spend most of your time. Exposing yourself to allergens at home is not a good thing, since we are all staying at home most of the time. If your house looks neat, clean and tidy on the surface, that does not mean that your house is free from allergens. In fact, your house is one nice spot for allergens.

In order to allergen-proof your home, you have to know these:

1. If you have pets such as cats or dogs, remember to consult with your vet to determine how frequent you should bath your pet. Pets such as cats and dogs are some of the main sources of allergens.

2. Roaches. I hate roaches, honestly. They look very disgusting, and every time I came face to face with roaches, I would be scared like an elephant facing a mice. They crawl every where, mostly in the dirty and wet places, so that causes them to be such a good allergens-carriers. Other than that, they leave bacterias, fecal pellets, and their body parts. Even if you manage to kill them, their body slowly decay which then releases more allergens into the air.

3. And there always are the mice. Tell you what, mouse allergens are found in more than 95% of the houses, on average.

4. Things like perfumes and air-fresheners can irritate our airways. With these products in your home, you and your family will become much more sensitive against animal dander, pollens, dust, and other allergens. But if you can't live without them, then it's okay not to discard them.

I will be posting more information on how to allergen-proof your home so that your house is safe for those who are affected by allergies.

A Great Piece Of Advice For Allergy Patients

Self-help treatment is low-cost, and sometimes very effective, but if you are one of those people who pass out when you get into contact with certain allergens/substances, in other words, your allergy condition is very chronic, instead of playing with self-help treatments yourself, you should see your own doctor.

Make sure the doctor you visit is offering competent advice. And follow his/her advice and you should be able to improve your allergy condition faster.

The Allergy-free Environment

I want to introduce a new topic in this blog, which is going to be extremely helpful to people with allergies. The new topic is going to be "The Allergy-free Environment"

This section "The Allergy-free Environment" is about removing or avoiding allergens in your home, workplace, or where ever you are. This is the avoidance strategy of dealing with allergies. By minimizing the exposure towards those allergens, you can lower the risk of allergies.

By using the series of articles in this blog's section, you will be able to outwit allergy triggers no matter where you are. That means less coughing, wheezing, and other symptoms at work or at home.

Identifying The Causes Your Allergies Accurately

When Mayo Clinic conducted a test on patients, to determine if the patients were able to guess which substances they were allergic to before getting allergy tests. To their surprise(and mine,too) 70% were wrong.

All allergies are caused by one thing, that is the overreaction of your immune system. Of course, in order to prevent, cure or relieve allergies, you first need to know what substances you are allergic to. When you know the allergens of your body, you can now effectively avoid those substances, and have at least some ways to deal with them(well, if you think you don't have what it takes to combat allergies, I am here, the blog will always be here, and there is the helpful doctor you can get help from at the nearest clinic or hospital.)

How to identify your allergies (with the help of your allergist please) :-)

Skin tests
The most commonly used is the skin prick test. A drop of suspected allergen solution is put on the skin of the arm, and pricked into the skin with a needle, with other allergen solutions to be applied with new fresh needle, each time.

It usually takes only 20 minutes for any reaction to become apparent. A positive reaction is shown with redness and swelling.

Blood tests
A blood sample is taken and examined for Immunoglobulin E. And based on the amount of IgE, the allergist is able to determine if you are affected by allergy.

These two tests were carried out most of the time to identify allergies and allergens.

Blood test is more accurate than skin test, especially when the patient is allergic to more than one substance. When the allergens are determined, the patient will then be given a set of treatments by the allergist, most of the time. Most probably, the patient will be given desensitization treatment. This treatment will last about five years, the patient is given the first small shot of allergens(weakened) into the body, and for each shot, the concentration is increased.

Conventional Approach to Heal Allergies

Conventional Allergy treatment is the most common type of medical treatment for allergy patients. Most allergists treat patients by using the conventional medical knowledge.

So here is the brief history of conventional view of Allergy, it took a lot of reading for me to know this :-)

1. When doctors gave immunization shots to patients in the early 1900, some patients died. They knew something was going on. They knew those deaths were not caused by toxic reaction. They suspected some kind of reaction was going on in the patients' body when the shots were given.

This "unknown" reaction needed a name, so they decided to call it allergen, from Greek's allos (other) ergon (work). In the beginning, the scientists blamed immune system for creating allergy reactions.

2. Then, there came a British Scientist named Sir Henry Dale. He discovered histamine, the chemical that causes runny nose and itchy eyes. Histamine was then researched until antihistamine was created, with the hope that antihistamine could help stopping histamine.

3. Then, the biggest breakthrough of allergy history. A Japanese couple researchers discovered Immunoglobin E or IgE. IgE is responsible for many allergic reactions. People with allergies have 10 times as much of it in their bloodstream as people who are not affected by allergies.

When IgE comes in contact with an allergen(foreign substance), it triggers the release of histamine , prostaglandins and leukotriences. The books I am reading now says that these chemicals are responsible for allergies not allergens.

So now, allergy and IgE are inseparable. Allergy, from a conventional allergist view, is basically an reaction that involves IgE.

Intro

The American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology stated that 40 percent of Americans have at least one kind of allergy. That's over 100 million people!

For the last two decades, more and more people have been heavily affected by the rising allergy rates. I too, was affected by allergies. I was troubled by food and environmental allergies. But now since I've found those simple things I can do to build up tolerance towards allergens, I am now not that sensitive to allergens compared to my condition a few years ago.

This will be the place where I share my tips and strategies on how to prevent, improve or even cure allergies.

So this is the first post of the blog, and I hope you enjoy your day, as I write more articles and resources on this blog.