Why You Should Protect Yourself from Dry Air

Dry air has poised to be dangerous to human health. It is a situation whereby the moisture in the air in a particular surrounding becomes too low. Incidents of dry air occur during the months of December, January, and February. This season is what we call harmattan in Nigeria. You might be thinking dry air is a trivial condition that does not need to be addressed; however, reading this article to the end would help you understand the harmful effects of dry air on your health. It also explains steps to take when the humidity within your home drops drastically. Following this article also means that you would be getting suggestions and management tips on what to do when you experience dry air in your surroundings.

Dry air can affect you in various ways. Its effects range from sinus infections to terrible skin conditions. It can also expose you to the risk of falling sick. It also affects your furniture and other things within your home, such that these things become dangerous for use. For example, if dry air affects your furniture, it means using them would be hazardous for you, as they could cause significant home accidents.

Before we delve into the health risks of dry air on your health, let us quickly take a look at the factor that causes dry air.

Causes of Dry Air

The primary cause of dry air is the low humidity or moisture level in the environment. This is usually associated with the weather. The time of the season when the humidity or moisture level in the airdrops is known as winter. This is usually between December and February. Reduction in the humidity level in the air is typically a result of prevalent episodes of dry air. When dry air sets in, the moisture in the airdrops drastically. This is why it is really crucial to protect yourself and your home from dry air.

When The Air in Your Home Gets Too Dry…

• You begin to experience difficulty in breathing, and you constantly wake up with a dry nose and dry sinuses.
• You begin to notice the rapid peeling of your wall paints. At this point, you might need to get a dry air remedy because this is a big sign that the air in your home is just too dry.
• The woods or furniture in your home begin to make creaking sounds. This is a sure sign that the air in your house is too dry. Though sometimes, the creaking sound of furniture or other wood products could be as a result of their old age. Nonetheless, it is vital to note that these sounds could sometimes be as a result of dry air in the house.
• Cracks begin to surface on the walls of your house. This weakens the house over time, which makes it unfit for you to live in.

Why Dry Air Is Bad for Your Health

The effects of dry air cause discomfort and can lead to major health issues like sinus infections. In order to understand the health risks, you are exposing yourself to, it is important that you pay close attention to this part of the article.  The following are the effects of dry air on health.

• Disruption in the mucus membrane’s proper functioning: Your body produces mucus that helps combat irritation and inflammation in delicate parts of your body, like your major respiratory organs. When you allow dry air into your home, the organs that produce this mucus would be affected and would no longer function as effectively as they should. At this point, infections begin to strike those delicate parts your mucus is meant to protect. Dry air has been discovered by medical practitioners to help flu last longer than normal. Flu, which is the short form of influenza. It is also a significant threat to your sinuses and your health in general.
• Dry air also exposes you to dry skin. When the moisture in the air within your home drops below average, you begin to experience severe skin symptoms. These symptoms might include itching, cracks, and irritation. Infections can also be introduced into the body through the cracks on the skin, causing you to fall sick or worsen your health condition. In other words, dry air increases your chances of getting infected by pathogens.
• Rapid loss of hair or hair breakage is also an effect of dry air. Dry air dries out your scalp such that combing your hair becomes a herculean task.
• With the prevalence of dry air in your home, you might experience nose bleeds. Nose bleed could be as a result of too dry sinuses or infection in the respiratory tracts. Either way, both causes have a common factor, which is dry air.
• The medical record holds that spending a long period in an environment that has little or no humidity in it could reduce your ability to get quality sleep over time and trigger stress.
• Dry air can also leave you dehydrated, weak, and fatigued. The result of dehydration is concentrated urine; this automatically means that when you begin to notice a high degree of concentration in your urine, you need to check your environment and try as much as possible to increase the humidity level in that surrounding.
• Dry air has also been discovered to reduce your ability to fight off infections. It does this by drying up your nasal mucous (an essential agent that helps your body fend off viral infections.)
• The effects of dry air on your furniture both at home and in the office can be injurious to your health. Dry air makes your furniture weak such that the woods crack or become extremely frail that sitting or leaning on them could injure you. Dry air is capable of weakening your furniture to the point of making them lose their ability to withstand or carry your weight when you sit or lean on them.
• In addition, dry air could cause cracks in the walls of your homes. These cracks then automatically become entrance and exit points for dangerous reptiles and insects. Also, cracks or openings in walls can pave the way for the quick loss of humidity in the house while ushering in dry winter air from outside.
• Dry air can tamper with the electricity in your surroundings and turn every metal into shocking agents. Wondering how this is possible? When the humidity level of a particular environment drops, the static voltage discharge rises, leading to shock.

Remedies for Health Issues Caused By Dry Air

• Stay hydrated. Drink enough fluids and healthy liquid beverages.
• Take energy-giving foods and energy drinks if you feel weak and tired.
• Soak a towel in warm water and inhale deep on it.
• Inhale warm steam from hot water or hot foods. This can help prevent your nasal cavity from drying up.
• Keep your inhalers handy if you are asthmatic.
• Take very cool showers or baths to keep your skin from drying up.
• Cream your body while you are still wet from showering to fight off dry skin and other skin related infections caused by dry air.
• Moisturize your hair before combing and adopt a hair treatment routine to keep your hair healthy.
• Use lip balm to keep your lips from drying up.
• When you notice complications that are beyond home treatment, do not hesitate to contact your doctor for proper medical intervention.

Kicking Off Dry Air from Your Surroundings

• Use humidifiers to boost the humidity level of that environment.
• Seal every crack or opening that allows dry winter air into the house from outside.
• Add house plants to your indoor decorations. Plants are capable of boosting the indoor humidity level.
• Boiling water and cooking within the home can also help increase the humidity level in your home. This is due to the steam produced during the boiling or cooking process.

In conclusion, as little and trivial as dry air seems to be, it has proven to be quite harmful to health. It exposes the body to infections by weakening the immune system. It dries out all the body fluids that help fend off viral infections and worsen already existing health issues. Taking proper measures against dry air can help prevent these numerous dry air-related health issues. If the health issues persist after taking these measures, visit the hospital for professional treatment and advice.