Cold and flu season can be a trying time under even the best circumstances. If your family is suffering from long, lingering colds in your Charles Town, West Virginia, home, your indoor air quality could be to blame. Addressing the overall air quality in your home may yield some surprising benefits for your health. If you’re looking for a fresh way to tackle your cold symptoms, consider getting to the root of the issue and cleaning the air in your house so these viruses are sucked away before they reach you in the first place.
Poor Air Quality Causes Inflammation
If you have poor indoor air quality (IAQ) with contaminants lingering in the home, you may experience ongoing trouble with inflammation and irritation. The body will release inflammatory agents in response to many different irritants. You may have inflammation from dust mites, allergens, or other irritants that are circulating unchecked through the home.
When this is exacerbated by a cold virus, your body suddenly has multiple issues to contend with. The result is often a lingering cold that you feel like you can’t kick. The existing inflammation makes it harder for your body to fight off the new invader, so you’re likely to get sick easier and stay sick longer. Keeping your home clean will help you avoid many colds, and those that you do catch will be easier to kick if the house is well maintained.
Viruses Can Linger Longer
Viruses will find a home with poor IAQ much more welcoming than one where the air is clean. If you have a dirty air filter, this can harbor viruses and other contaminants. Make sure you’re changing your air filter regularly during cold and flu season and keeping up with regular system maintenance visits. If you notice your family getting sick regularly or taking a long time to recover, swap out your air filter to make sure you’re getting rid of any hidden hazards.
You should also look to other places in the home that airborne contaminants can hide. Your vacuum cleaner is one such culprit. If you have viruses lingering in the chamber of your vacuum cleaner, they can become airborne anytime that you run it. Keep your vacuum clean and look to a model with a HEPA filter for the best virus protection.
Improper Humidity Makes Symptoms Worse
Humidity is a tricky part of your IAQ. If the humidity levels in the home are too high, you risk creating a comfortable harbor for viruses. However, if the humidity is too low, you may suffer from dry, cracked nasal passages, which make it easier to get sick and more difficult to heal. In the winter months, dry heat is a more common problem than excess humidity.
Adding a humidifier to your home can help improve both your comfort and your health. Dry air feels colder than air with proper humidity, so you may save on your heating bill when you increase the humidity slightly. Banishing dryness can also ease itchy eyes, dry skin, and other problems.
Low IAQ Causes Its Own Symptoms
It’s often difficult to distinguish the symptoms of a cold or flu from those of allergies and poor IAQ. If you suffer frequently from congestion, itchy eyes, and headaches, you may think that it’s a string of colds when the problem is really with the air quality in your home. Dust mites, pollen, dander, and other irritants can linger in your air ducts or air filter.
Installing an air purifier in the home will help you achieve cleaner air throughout the house. This whole-home system pulls contaminants from the air as they circulate through your central heating and cooling system. If you’re suffering from a cold that you can’t kick, addressing your air quality is a smart place to start.
Are you struggling to kick that cold this season? If your indoor air quality leaves something to be desired, give our professionals at Griffith Energy Services a call at 888-474-3391. We’ll help you find the right IAQ solutions for your home so you can breathe easy and get healthy.
Image provided by Shutterstock
