Allergies Archives

June 9, 2010October 17, 2014

Why Do Allergies Occur – Allergies – Why Me?

Customer called up and told me she has never been allergic to anything in her life and now all of a sudden she is allergic to dust mites. “Why do allergies occur and why me?” were her two questions.

First of all she really should be asking her doctor that question when she received the diagnosis. Don’t be afraid to talk to you doctor and ask questions. Why do allergies occur is a legitimate question.

Years ago when I was 14 or 15 I got really sick after eating some watermelon. My face was so swollen I had a hard time seeing and breathing was not easy. Mom took me to the doctor. He said I was allergic to melons. Of course Mom told him no way, because I had been eating them all my life and never had a problem. He went on to tell us sometimes allergic reactions just happen for no reason. I did not believe him, thought it was just a bad watermelon, so I ate some more. I had the same reaction.

Our body and our immune system change as we age. Being exposed to certain things, mold for example, can cause our immune system to react differently. In “Flourishing with Food Allergies” they discuss something called the toxic load theory where your body gets overloaded with too much of a certain thing or a combination of several things at one time. Oh, and let’s not forget stress. Stress affects sleep, and loss of sleep affects the immune system.

Sometimes bad things just happen to good people. By the way, I still try a little piece of watermelon once a year to see if the allergy has gone away. Not yet but I am still hoping.

Wishing you the best of health
Mike Krause
AllergyStore.com – Serving Customers Since 1989
800 771-ACHOO

October 1, 2009June 22, 2014

Allergy Cover – Which One Is Best – Membrane or Membrane Free

Which allergy mattress is cover best for you? That depends on what you are looking for it to do.

All of the allergy cover we carry will protect you against dust mites, pollen and mold spores. In most cases any allergy cover sold will do that. Don’t get me wrong, not all covers are created equally.

The membrane free allergy mattress cover is by far the lightest and coolest. Our Pristine cover is made out of a specially processed polyester which makes it have the smallest mean pore size (2.8) of all our fabrics. The down side is some people don’t like polyester because it makes them hot. A polyester allergy cover does not breath as well as the 100% cotton cover will.

Both Allersoft cotton and Allersoft Organic cotton allergy mattress covers are cool and light. They do a great job of protecting you and your mattress from dust mite allergens. The problem with cotton is you can’t get the pore size (4.91) as small as the pristine but as I said that is still small enough.

The Allersoft Blend is 60% polyester and 40% cotton so the pore size of this allergy cover is 3.9 microns. Once again more than small enough to give you complete protection.

Price wise, anything organic will cost you extar since more has gone into growing and manufacturing the cover. The pristine allergy cover is the most expensive of the non-organic covers followed by the 100% cotton and then the Allersoft Blend.

Since all membrane free allergy covers we carry are effective the decision you have to make will be based on budget and fabric.

If you are looking for a cover that is water-proof or effective against bed bugs then you will want to look at our Lined cotton poly or Stretch Knit Polyester bed bug cover. In most cases we recommend theses type of allergy covers for children’s beds simply because they can put up with the abuse and the urethane membrane makes these allergy covers water-proof.

The cotton poly has a nice feel to it and in most cases does not make the sleeper hot. The stretch knit bed bug cover was specially designed for bed bugs but works just as well for dust mites and other allergens.

What allergy cover do we have on our bed? We have a cotton poly cover on the mattress, 100% Allersoft cotton on our comforter and a mixture of fabrics on the pillows. My favorite allergy cover is the organic cotton because the more I learn about the various chemicals used in products the less I want to be around them.

If you want fabric samples of our allergy covers just give us a call at 800 771-2246 and we will be happy to send them to you.

Wishing you the best of health
Mike Krause

AllergyStore.com – Serving our customers for 20 years.

November 12, 2008June 22, 2014

HEPA Room Air Cleaners

We get asked every so often why we only carry Austin Air Healthmate and Airpura HEPA air cleaners. The answer is very simple. They work. You turn them on and they suck in the dust and other allergens floating in the air. I don’t agree with consumer reports on this one.

Neither the Austin Air or Airpura air cleaners have any fancy controls, flashing lights or warning noises. All they have is a 3 speed on/off switch. Pretty simple yet very effective. The machines are made from 16 gage steel and have a powder coated finish so there is no out gassing or rattles coming from any plastic. My daughter even uses her air cleaner as a night stand.

The design of the Austin air and Airpura units is basic. Air is drawn into the unit on all sides of the machine. Then it is drawn through 2 prefilters, activated carbon/zeolite and the the HEPA filter. A couple of the Airpura air cleaners also incorporate UV as a way to keep the filter free of virus and bacteria. Like I said, simple but effective.

Several brands of air cleaners being sold today use ionization as a way of cleaning the air. All ionization does is make the particles heavy and they drop to the floor or on the furniture. The air is cleaner until you walk across the floor and then the particles will become airborne again. They float around awhile and then fall again.

Both manufactures stand behind their machines with warranties of 5 to 10 years. I can guarantee you most of the air cleaners being sold today will not last more than 2 years much less 5. We have customers that have had their air cleaners for 15 plus years and they are still going strong.

We can have any air cleaner we want in our home. The only HEPA air cleaner we use are Austin Air Healthmate. They are simple yet effective. For more general information about air cleaners and air purifiers check out hepaaircleaner.com.

Wishing you the best of health.
Mike Krause
AllergyStore.com

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