As a patient battling breathing difficulties, such as asthma, you must have a humidifier for asthma.
And if you suffer from seasonal allergies, this further buttress why you need a humidifier installed in your home.
One of the numerous challenges you experience as an asthmatic is getting the perfect or ideal humidity levels.
Inadequate or unideal moisture levels can set the ball rolling for allergens and asthma triggers to grow and accumulate in your home.
So an optimal humidity level helps to improve your overall indoor air quality. Thus, resulting in improved asthma symptoms and less use of inhalers.
This article will clarify the benefits of a humidifier and how you can be intentional with it to get your desired outcome.
What Is Asthma?
Asthma is a lung disease that results in difficulty breathing due to inflammation and constriction of the respiratory passages.
Symptoms of Asthma
- Pain and tightness of the chest
- Shortness of breath
- Coughing and wheezing
- Over secretion of phlegm or mucus
The Correlation Between Humidity And Asthma
Unhealthy humidity levels can have negative impacts on your asthma symptoms.
As a matter of fact, according to some research, there’s a relationship between humidity and asthma.
In low-humid environments, asthma symptoms flare up. In addition, dryness alters the structure of the mucus lining.
Consequently, this irritates the lungs and nasal passages. And the aftermath is intensified breathing difficulties.
The key to managing your asthma symptoms effectively is ensuring that your home’s moisture is within the optimal humidity level.
So this is where a humidifier saves the day.
Conversely, an overly humid atmosphere can also exacerbate asthma and allergies.
Excess indoor moisture promotes the growth of several allergens and triggers, such as moulds, dust mites, spores, and bacteria.
Dust mites can cling to mattresses, beddings, carpets, curtains and upholstered furniture.
These organisms elevate the amount of dust in your home. As a result, they are responsible for mild to several asthma symptoms and can even trigger an asthma attack.
These pathogens are responsible for most asthma flare-ups.
Here is an epic blog post with the best hacks for removing dust from your indoor air.
The Ideal Humidity Level For Your Asthma
As the Environmental Protection Agency recommends, the optimal humidity level is 30% to 50%.
Within this advised range, your nasal passages get adequate moisture, which relaxes your respiratory muscles.
By so doing, your lungs get an ample supply of air. And you can breathe effectively.
At the same time, the growth of moulds, spores, dust mites and allergens is generally deterred under suitable humid conditions.
This translates to a massive reduction in your triggers.
Consequently, the less your exposure to triggers, the fewer your asthma flares.
Symptoms Of Humidity Induced-Asthma
As you’ve learned thus far, air dryness can have a horrible effect on asthma.
But how do you tell if your asthma is induced by humidity?
Cos it could be pretty confusing sometimes to identify what provokes your asthma.
In the absence of adequate indoor moisture, your asthma manifestations skyrocket. And these are what you may experience.
- Wheezing
- Chest tightness
- Shortness of breath
- Coughing
- Difficulty breathing
Five Signs Of Low Indoor Humidity
When the air in your home is dry and well below 30% humidity, you may experience the following:
- Troubles breathing: If you’re continually suffering from runny nose, nasal congestion, and soar throat, it’s about time you installed a humidifier. Cold weather doesn’t necessarily mean you must suffer from cold as well. Dry could also trigger such symptoms.
- Sparks flying around: This is not electricity in switches but a build-up of static charges. When moisture decreases, you start getting this weird sensation of electrocution or shocks when you touch certain surfaces, especially metals. If you’re noticing sparks flying around, then it’s time you considered getting a humidifier.
- Dry skin and lips: It turns out that the dry air seems to suck the moisture out of you via osmosis. And that’s why moisturisers no longer seem to produce the desired result on your skin. A humidifier is an excellent fix to this problem.
- Damages in your house: Low moisture causes the walls, furniture, and wooden floors to crack and wear out.
- Nose bleeds: When nosebleeds become a routine, even when you aren’t suffering from any illness, dry air may be the culprit. This happens when the relative humidity level is way below 30%. As already noted, dry air dries the delicate mucus membrane and irritates the respiratory tract. Similarly, nosebleeds also happen due to the same reason. The only way to avoid this is to give your nasal airways what they need. In this case, moisture.
Does A Humidifier Help With Asthma?
Yes, it does. A humidifier does a great job of improving your asthma symptoms.
This is because this machine ejects mists into the air, which is vital to keep your asthma flares in check.
Click here for a more detailed post that addresses this crucial question.
Benefits Of Humidifier For Asthma
Aside from relieving your allergies and asthma symptoms, a humidifier for allergies and asthma can also benefits your general well-being.
Here are some of the importance of a humidifier below.
- Humidifiers moisturize your lips and skin.
- Relieve your allergy symptoms
- Prevents cold and flu
- Protect your furniture.
- They help soothe your sinuses.
- Protect your throat
- Prevents the spread of germs in your home.
- Reduce snoring
- Prevents skin infections such as eczema
- Humidifiers warm your home.
A humidifier can do so much for you…
It can also help prevent the spread of airborne viruses and bacteria, as they thrive in dry environments.
Click here for my detailed article on the benefits of a humidifier for asthma.
You’ll learn a lot about how a humidifier can positively impact your home and health in general.
Now, that said…
If you need to learn more about humidifiers for allergies and asthma, click here for my blog post that covers all you need to know.
Types Of Humidifier
There’re two main types of humidifiers; Cool Mist Humidifiers and Warm Mist Humidifiers.
A cool mist humidifier, as opposed to what the name suggests, disperses mist at room temperature into the air.
On the other hand, a warm Mist Humidifier releases warm mist into the air.
These humidifiers are generally effective.
But suppose you must opt for any of them, consider a few factors. Such as whether the humidification process involves heat, the humidifier’s size, the presence of auto shut-off, even your budget and more.
However, humidifiers can be classified into five categories according to their mode of operation. And these are:
1. Central Humidifier
These humidifiers are built into the air conditioning unit of your house. Unfortunately, they are the most pricey of all humidifiers.
However, they humidify your whole house and ensure you aren’t exposed to dryness anywhere in your home.
Also, you don’t need to worry about installing another humidifier or replenishing its water supply.
In addition, these humidifiers don’t cause steam burns like other humidifiers.
So they are the most suitable options if you have pets or children.
The filters may need replacement once a year or every three months, depending on how often you use them.
To install this humidifier, you’d need to engage the services of an HVAC specialist.
2. Evaporative Humidifiers
This is the most straightforward humidifier. Here’s a simple description of this unit and how it operates:
It functions like a bucket of water that makes up for the lost atmospheric moisture as the water evaporates.
When you add a fan to the setup, you’ve got an Evaporative Humidifier. The fan blows vapour through a moist filter at the bottom of the humidifier.
As the water evaporates and blows into your room’s atmosphere, it compensates for the lost vapour.
This humidifier is less expensive than the Central Humidifier. However, it needs frequent cleaning.
Furthermore, evaporative humidifiers need close monitoring during their operation.
This is because these devices tend to release more moisture than required.
3. Impeller Humidifiers
Impellers are COOL MIST Humidifiers. This machine disperses cool mist into the air using a high-speed rotating disk or impellers.
They’re simple in operation and thus less costly than the other options.
Another advantage of this humidifier is that it’s both child-friendly and pet-friendly.
However, a downside to this device is that you need to change the water frequently.
You don’t want to start dealing with moulds and bacteria. Cos if this happens, it could further deteriorate your asthma conditions.
4. Ultrasonic Humidifiers
The mode of operation of these humidifiers is very similar to the impeller types. But they use a vibrating disk instead of an impeller in producing mist.
Disk vibrates at ultrasonic speeds to create water droplets, hence the name.
Also, these humidifiers are available in both WARM AND COOL MIST versions. These humidifiers are also child-friendly.
However, since these humidifiers lack a boiling feature, there’s a tendency for bacterial growth in the water.
You may have to disinfect it regularly for safer use.
5. Steam Vapourizers
These humidifiers are the cheapest. They create steam by basically heating water electrically.
Since the steam is scorching, they are cooled before being released into the air.
This type of humidifier can cause severe steam burns. And so they’re neither child-friendly nor pet-friendly.
Humidifier For Asthma Attack
Humidifiers do provide humongous breathing benefit to asthmatics as well as allergy sufferers.
Supplying your home with the right amount of moisture keeps your in-house air quality in an ideal and breathable state.
However, a humidifier can’t be used to treat or cure an asthma attack.
So for emphasis…
A humidifier only helps with your asthma symptoms, depending on the severity of your asthma condition.
Best Humidifiers For Allergies And Asthma
Getting the best humidifiers to combat your allergies and asthma requires a lot of research.
It can be really tasking to identify the humidifier that best suits your needs.
But you don’t need to bother racking your brain conducting this research yourself.
We’ve got you covered!
So here’s our latest article that rounds up the 15 best humidifiers for allergies and asthma.
Humidifier For Asthma-Maintenance Tips
Firstly, you must install a hygrometer or a digital humidistat in different parts of your home.
It helps you monitor the humidity levels in various areas of your home.
When you do this consistently over a long period, say a year, the readings obtained can be instrumental in forecasting seasonal humidity changes in your indoor air.
This gives you an idea of how to manage your in-house humidity. Plus, you could tell which part of your home needs more attention regarding moisture.
As an asthmatic, you must install a dehumidifier, if you don’t mind. In situations where you experience spikes in your humidity, a dehumidifier can help remove the excess moisture, restoring your humidity to normal levels.
It’s also good to have an air purifier and a humidifier. These devices work together as a unit to improve your air quality.
The perfect option is a humidifier and air purifier combo. These 2-in-1 machines are powerful in ensuring your air quality meets the optimal conditions.
Also, please make sure to switch on the bathroom fan while bathing. It helps to prevent over-humidification of your house.
Managing A Humidifier For Asthma
- A humidifier can be a breeding place for germs if you frequently fail to clean them. So please make sure you wash your humidifier once every three days.
- Wash it with a mild dishwasher or a natural cleanser like vinegar and water.
- After washing, allow the humidifier to dry completely before refilling it.
- Desist from using bleach or other chemicals. These substances are harmful and can irritate your respiratory system if inhaled alongside the mists.
- Aside from the fact that these mineral deposits promote the growth of moulds, bacteria and other pathogens, they are dispersed into your home as whitish dust and settle on surfaces. This can aggravate your asthma. Of course, you can always use distilled water in your humidifiers to avoid this situation.
- Please always change its filter when due, as the manufacturer instructed.
Conclusion
Humidifiers are an excellent tool for effectively keeping your asthma symptoms under control.
But to get the best out of this device, you must continuously regulate your humidifier to keep humidity within 30 to 50%.
Also, you must ensure you clean your humidifier frequently. You should develop a cleaning schedule and stick with it diligently.
Otherwise, know that it will cause more harm than good to your health.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a humidifier good for asthma?
Humidifiers are outstanding devices for battling your breathing troubles, as moisture is necessary for us to breathe effectively.
To ensure your air is well-moisturized, you should have a humidifier.
And to reply to the question, a humidifier is good for asthma. And here is more information on that.
What type of humidifier is good for asthma?
Humidifiers generally work for asthma. But some have fewer drawbacks compared to others.
Warm mist humidifiers can ameliorate asthma manifestations, but they appear to worsen colds and coughs by causing inflammation of nasal passages.
The cool mist humidifier, in contrast, seems to soothe colds and coughs. However, suppose your asthma or allergies manifest with coughs or colds. In that case, you may opt for a cool mist humidifier.
However, please remember that the cool mist humidifier requires frequent cleaning and sanitization.
Why is a humidifier good for asthma?
A humidifier is good for asthma because the lungs and nasal passages need moisture to perform optimally.
The mucus lining, which serves as the first layer of defence, must constantly be humid to perform its job.
Dry air alters the mucus membrane’s structural integrity, increasing your susceptibility to viruses and bacterial attacks.
This, coupled with the fact that dryness also causes constriction of the nasal tracts, can worsen your asthma and allergies.
To prevent this from happening, you need to supply your indoor air with enough vapour.
This is when a humidifier comes in handy.
Why are humidifiers bad for asthma?
Humidifiers generally are excellent machines for easing your asthma problems. But they can also negatively impact your asthma under certain conditions.
Firstly, bacteria and moulds would accumulate if you don’t clean your humidifier regularly, especially a cool mist humidifier.
During operation, the machine emits this infected mist into the air. When you breathe in the vapour, your asthma and allergies trigger.
Secondly, when you overuse a humidifier without proper monitoring, the indoor air becomes overly humid (humidity over 60%).
The resultant excess vapours condense in your nasal tracts and impede the free flow of air in and out of the lungs.
Besides, moulds and mildew dustmite thrive in such surroundings, causing harm and intensifying your breathing troubles.
In addition, using tap water in a humidifier can cause a build of minerals, which can be released as whitish dust.
Besides being an eyesore, these dust particles can also degenerate your asthma.
So you want to do your possible best to prevent this from occurring.