Health & Fit: 5 Ways Your Bedroom Is Affecting Your Health

© Photo courtesy of Pixabay Make it a routine to clean your bedroom to avoid unwanted germs. After a long day, there’s nothing more refreshing than getting some shut eye in the comfort of your own home. But, did you know your bedroom could be affecting your health? Here’s five ways your sleep sanctuary might be making you sick.

Dust Mites

Your pillows, sheets, and mattress are the perfect home for dust mites, who thrive in dark, damp environments. The microscopic spiders feast on your dead, shed skin cells that are found all over your bedding. These mites are a common trigger for year-round allergies and asthma. Common dust mite allergy symptoms include: sneezing, runny nose, postnasal drip, and cough.

The Health Benefits of Vinegar

While it's not a miracle elixir, vinegar can give your health a boost in these ways. Move over, balsamic! A new crop of gourmet vinegars has arrived, offering new flavors and possibly even novel health benefits. From fruit- or herb-infused vinegars (think: raspberry, pineapple, rosemary) to drinking vinegars like those from McClary Bros. or the organic Suja brand, vinegars have become hot ingredients in the kitchen.

Unfortunately there’s no way to completely get rid of these pesky mites, but you can significantly reduce how many there are with a few easy strategies including: using allergen-proof bed covers, washing your bed weekly, keeping humidity low, and vacuuming regularly, Mayo Clinic suggests.

Bed Bugs

Unlike dust mites, you can see bed bugs with the naked eye. The reddish-brown parasitic insects feed solely on the blood of humans and animals while they sleep. Their flat bodies allows them to hide in small crevices and travel from place to place with you. Although they don’t pose a serious medical threat, they do leave small, itchy bites on your body. Bite marks may take up to two weeks to develop in some people, therefore the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends to keep an eye out for other clues signaling you may have bed bugs: bug exoskeletons in your sheets, rusty-colored blood spots on your sheets from their fecal matter, and a sweet musty odor. If you have an infestation, it is best to call a professional pest control company.

The Most Important Muscle You've Never Heard Of

How and why to strengthen your gluteus medius. Chances are, you know about your gluteus maximus, the large muscle in your rear end. But have you ever heard of the gluteus medius, a very important muscle just beneath it? The relatively small fan-shaped muscle connects the pelvis with the outer thigh and is typically underdeveloped because most people do not know how to properly activate it during activity.

Dust, Bacteria, and Mold

Clean up your room! All of the items scattered throughout your messy bedroom can collect dust, bacteria, and mold, which can trigger your allergies and lead to other health problems. Cleaning up your bedroom will not only reduce stress, but it will also set you up for a healthy night of rest.

Pollen And Other Allergens

If you have seasonal allergies, don’t sleep with your windows open. This will bring pollen and other allergens into your room. Instead, turn the air conditioner on and set it to “recirculate.” The optimal bedroom temperature is 68 degrees or below, according to director of The Sleep to Live Institute, Dr. Robert Oexman. This temperature not only helps you sleep better, but it also helps prevent dust mites from breeding as frequently.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

VOCs are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids that may be found in your bedroom, including paints, wood preservatives, cosmetics, air fresheners, and dry-cleaned clothing. Not much is known about the health effects from the levels of organics in our homes, but some symptoms from exposure may include: eye, nose, and throat irritation, and headaches, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. You can check the Household Products Database to learn more about what’s in the products in your home.

5 Diseases You're Never 'Too Young' to Get

Research shows that diagnoses are spiking among adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s. We all know that your risk of chronic disease tends to increase as you age. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to improve your odds of staying healthy.Research shows that many young adults are developing typically age-related diseases at record-high rates. Meanwhile, some diseases are actually more likely to strike – and more likely to prove fatal – in a person’s younger years than in later life.Here, we explore five diseases you should keep an eye on, no matter your age.

allergens like pollen, mold, and dust mites can trigger a season-long bout of sniffling, sneezing, and itching. Worst part is, these allergens seem to be everywhere, even lurking in your home. But before you start cleaning everything you own, you should probably go get an allergy test at your doctor’s office first. “You don’t want to go tearing up the house and find out that you’re actually allergic to the ragweed outside,” says Hugh Windom, MD, an allergist-immunologist and professor of medicine at the University of South Florida.

Still want to declare a war on allergens? Here are 10 spots where they’re probably hiding.

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