Anti Allergy Bedding - Some Tips

Anti allergy bedding seems to be in fashion right now. Whether it is that there is widespread paranoia about dust mites or even the recent upsurge in publicity about bed bugs or just that the time has come for such a simple practical measure to be more widely accepted is not clear.

But is it useful?

It may seem obvious that using sheets and pillow cases that stop bugs and mites infesting your mattress or pillow is a good thing but there seems to be little proof that it actually works. So it's down to us as the consumer to watch out and do our shopping carefully and not just grab something due to big claims made in the advertising.

Anti allergy bedding may be a good investment if there are uncontrolled allergy symptoms and removing the carpeting in the house and especially in the bedroom is not practical. The carpets are the biggest hiding place for dust mites - one of the principal triggers for asthma. Frequent vacuuming is a must if the carpets cannot be removed.

Recently I came across some anti allergy bedding that slowly released a vapour that killed the dust mites. Sounds good until you wonder what the chemical is and what effect the vapour would have on your health, so again it is "buyer beware".

Other anti mite measures you can take include washing bed linens and pillows at a high temperature. Even 60 degrees Celsius (that's 140 degrees Fahrenheit) is hot enough to kill dust mites. The other temperature extreme works too - you can kill them by freezing. Some folks just put their pillow in a plastic bag and then pop it into the freezer overnight. This kills the dust mite but does not remove them from the pillow!

And whether you use anti allergy bedding you still need to make basic decisions about what kind of pillow to use. Scientists have found that feather pillows contain much less dust mites than polyester pillows.

Summary

Anti allergy bedding may be a useful way to reduce the allergy burden for an asthmatic family member but it is not a cure or solution on its own.

We still need to use all the normal measures we can in our lifestyle to reduce the overall allergy burden the body is carrying. If there are pets in the house it is essential to exclude them from the bedroom and keeping Fido and Fluffy clean with a wipe down perhaps with a treatment approved by your vet.

Finally a word about my absolute favourite allergy measure, that of using vitamin C as a natural antihistamine. I take several grams a day but for beginners to using vitamin C perhaps just taking a one gram dose may be a good start. To get the dose that you need its best to consult a nutritionally aware health practitioner with experience in allergy treatment.