Simple Ways You Can Improve Your Air Quality for Better Health

Image source: Allabouthealth.org

Being a pet owner, and someone who suffers from allergies like crazy, I've been learning how to tackle and combat allergens in the home for the last several months now. Some of you may recall when I posted my experience trying an air purifier that plugs into the wall a few months ago. 

Maintaining quality air inside your house is complicated enough what with things like nature throwing pollen at you every once and a while, and that pesky dust that floats around in the air. 

Add a few pets to those typical air quality-reducing factors and it gets even harder. 

It just so happens that having a house full of pets (a wiener dog, 2 lovely cats, and a turtle that smells like pure sewage every 3-5 days) takes a lot of work if you want to keep the smells, allergens, dander, dust, and other cruddy air problems under control. 

So on my journey to try and get my air quality (and allergies) back under control, I've been experimenting with several easy and simple things you can do that's supposed to improve the air. Below are a few things I've found helpful. 

Helpful enough that I'm not sneezing my head off everyday when I wake up, if that tells you anything. 
 


Use HEPA

From HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Arresting) air purifiers -- something on my to-buy-soon list right now -- to HEPA vacuum filters, using HEPA technology can help cut down on everyday allergens and asthma symptoms. HEPA filters are able to catch the tiniest of particles that cause us to suffer so much. That's why they're so popular today. 


Add Activated Carbon to Your Air Purifiers
Combine activated carbon with HEPA and you get a filter that'll not only remove those tiny, allergy-causing particles, but also reduce the chemicals, gases and even odors that are harmful to breathe.

Vacuum The Bed
Vacuuming is something you already know to do,  and something that's likely not necessary to put on a list like this one (I do not want to insult your intelligence, dear reader,) but I have noticed a fairly drastic improvement in my sneezing and sinus issues when I began vacuuming my entire bedroom every single day, and that includes vacuuming my bed! 

Pillows, sheets, covers. I take the vacuum and run it over all of that, right after running it over my hard flooring. 

If you do not have pets who sleep in your bed, you may not require such an extensive daily vacuuming, but if you've not tried vacuuming your bedding on a very regular basis (like I do, daily), then this added tip might be useful to you to try.

Adopt House Plants
Many common house plants are effective in renewing air, and they're nature's natural toxin and pollutant filters. 

I know, I talk about aloe vera here at Healthy, Happy, Wholesome like it's the panacea, the cure-all to all of life's difficulties and problems and stresses... 

Well, it basically is.

When I discuss aloe vera (which is frequent, I know), I always make sure to mention the plant's awesome air-cleansing properties. However, there are a few more plants worthy of mentioning in this department.

• Aside from aloe, Philodendrons, Spider Plant and Devil's Ivy are all also capable of removing formaldehyde from the air indoors, although according to NASA, Philodendrons are best at removing high concentrations of it from indoor air, while aloe is best for removing it in lower concentrations.

• Chrysanthemum and Gerbera Daisies remove the carcinogen benzene from air.

Reduce Your Usage of Smell-Goods!
I know, it's one of the toughest things to cut for many folks. 

Putting a stop to using your chemical-laden perfumes and cleaners that work so well sounds like a life of hell, right?

I mean that Scrubbin' Bubbles (or Foamtastic) stuff works like magic, right? 

I know, but if you're suffering from migraines and allergies and you're using these chemical-filled products often, then you might  want to at least try cutting some of it out.

I love my easy cleaners as much as the next gal. I mean, nothing cleans the shower/tub out like Scrubbin' Bubbles! 

But, these migraines won't tolerate it. 

So, use the products you can't go without, but try to replace a few (especially the rip-off air "re-fresheners" that are basically just a bottle of synthetic fragrances (chemicals) that are sprayed into the air. They're useless. 

Instead, try essential oils, which are safe, natural and allergy-friendly. Peppermint will leave a truly lasting, clean scent. Vinegar will too, and it'll remove and prevent mold! 

Even lemon is a natural cleaner. Tea tree oil is an anti-microbial and anti-bacterial that has one heck of a strong, clean smell. 

Prevent and Remove Mildew
...Speaking of vinegar, use it to prevent and remove mildew, too. Mildew is a cause of wheezing and allergy symptoms. 

Add a de-humidifier into the mix (which will also reduce dust mites), and you should be just dandy. 

Clean it Like You Mean it
Don't forget to clean out small, odd spaces like the inside of your air conditioners, air purifiers, vacuums, heater vents, etc. These places are notorious for harboring dust and crud without you noticing it. Vacuum them up, wipe them down, and you'll be taking your allergy fight one step further. 

Give Your Duct-work a cleaning
While it's not something I've personally gotten around to doing at this point in my life, as an allergy sufferer, if you've already tried most of the solutions available to you like those listed in this article, you can take it one step further and have your duct-work cleaned. The accumulated debris within duct-work can unfortunately wreak havoc on your air quality, and allergies.

There are companies out there that do this cleaning for you, using their own duct-work cleaning tools like what AeroSeal Solutions offers, which has a camera attached to the tool to see everything within the duct-work (and make sure that all the built up debris and fuzz and nasties are cleaned out.)

So what do you do to keep your air quality up and allergies down?

No Bake 3 Ingredient Healthy Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Bars!

Update: This peanut butter bar recipe post has received so much attention in the last weeks that I've been getting emails galore from many of you who've taken the time to share your outcome with me.

I just finished reading an email from a lovely reader named Missy saying that she made these as a last minute snack to stash in her husband's lunch box, who works as a driver for Titan because he's often on the road for long periods of time and has been trying to substitute his frequent junk food-snacking with something a bit healthier.

Missy said when he called her for their nightly "good-night call," he was raving about the new snack in his box, saying that he  could eat them all day long, "'specially since they don't make me tired" like the greasy chips and fried foods he's accustomed to.

"I'm so thrilled to have finally found a healthier snack that'll hopefully keep him from this road to diabetes. Hubby is leaving out again in the morning and has already asked when I'll be making more of the bars."

It warmed my heart to read such a positive story about something as simple as these peanut butter bars. "This time, I'll have to save myself a couple, and I'm not even a fan of peanut butter!" Missy said in her email to me. 

 I want to thank all of you (and you, Missy!) for your kind words, for sharing my post and most of all, for sharing your stories with me, like my friend Missy has. 

They really make my day.

 I will be responding to each email individually, but please be patient as I try to get each of you.

 Lately, as my exercise routine has enhanced (and hopefully, so has my muscle mass!), it seems my hunger has skyrocketed. I've been finding myself craving a little something long before dinner time, and some days, even after dinner! I haven't been staying as "full" lately as I used to, and am having sugar cravings galore.

Therefore, I decided to create a "snack" that I could eat throughout the day that's both filling and somewhat healthy.

I'm cheap. I'm easy. And I'm quick.

So I wanted a recipe to match.

I don't like to cook, I don't have much spare time on my hands to cook anything that takes longer than 10-20 minutes. I needed something that ...
1. Required little to no cooking.
2. Could pack quite a filling punch for me and my seemingly bottomless pit gut,
3. Something that required ingredients I already had on hand (what can I say, I was hungry!)
4. Something that wouldn't be too harsh on my health, and optional, but hopefully, something that I could probably make a large batch of and eat on a regular basis, whenever the breakthrough hunger or cravings strike.

I typically crave chocolate and cakes and all things sugary, but desperately want to eat healthy. So, I went in search for the quickest, tastiest, somewhat healthiest recipe I could find that only required a few ingredients, and ingredients I had on hand (which wasn't many!)

I found this very basic recipe: 3 Ingredient No Bake Peanut Butter Bars --  found on Spark People, and submitted by user LEXRAP -- and I tweaked the hell out of it until it was just what I needed. 

Let me just say, I absolutely adore these peanut butter bars. They are the perfect filling snack to not only curb my hunger and cravings, but keep me from feeling too run down while working. The omegas and protein-filled ingredients I've added make these bars great for some mid-day pep. I can eat them at all hours of the day and night, and find myself excited to eat them every time I make a new batch. And the best part, these are a total success for keeping my bouts of hunger away, day or night.

Makes 20 bars

- 1 Cup of Peanut Butter
- 3 Cups of Oats I used instant oats because it's what I had on hand.
- 1/2 Cup of Honey. If you don't have honey on hand (I ran out after making these bars 3 times in one week), then you can substitute with 2 tablespoons of milk and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.

There's your 3 ingredients to make the no-bake peanut butter bars!

What I start off with: Oats + the peanut butter in measuring cup. Small bowl of Multi-Grain Cheerio's in a side-bowl. The Cheerio's will be crushed and later added to the mix (but you don't have to crush them, or even add them for that matter.)  

 **All the ingredients are mixed together, in no specific order. I simply heat the peanut butter with the honey, or the honey-alternative (brown sugar + milk)**

Here's my healthy additions or "tweaks" as optionals:

From left: Hemp Pro powder, Cheerio's, Peanut butter+brown sugar, milk (in Check Into Cash cup. LOL), Oats & Mila/Chia seeds

And again, so you really get the idea.

Super Close-Up of Mila + Oats

-(Optional) Hemp protein, or hemp fiber or hemp seeds. I've used all. The seeds are delicious, and they give the bars more texture.  

Adding the Hemp powder

 

-(Optional) Chia or Mila Seeds. I use Mila right now since they're small bits so they don't stick in my teeth as badly as chia, and because that's what I had on hand, but Chia seeds are just as well.

-(Optional) Cereal. Crushed up, or whole. I used old Cheerios (the kind with the 3 different flavors, including wholegrain) that just happened to be sitting around for the last month because I wanted to make a snack that was as filling (and healthy) as possible. The Mila/Chia seeds, hemp and cereal make this a more filling snack than it would've otherwise been without them. 


I chose to crush my Cheerios into smaller bits. I just prefer it that way, but you can just toss in the whole bits of cereal if you prefer. I simply place about 1/2  cup of Cheerios in a bag, then use whatever is close by to crush them into smaller bits before tossing them into the mixture and stirring things up. 

Inside the bag -- the freshly crushed Cheerios, which made for the perfect little bitty crunch and added texture!

Melt the peanut butter and honey just until smooth, either in the microwave or stove top. Give the two ingredients a stir, then fold in the oats (and crushed or whole cereal pieces). Mix ingredients together.

So golden, chewy and delicious!

WONDERFUL HOUSEHOLD USES OF TOOTHPASTE

Incase you didn't know, you can use toothpaste for more than just your pearly whites. Heres a few:

1. Cleaning surfaces such as the toilet or tub. It cuts grime loose & it's easy. It also whitens the stained areas!

2. Clean silver, jewelry, faucets, sinks, etc.  Rub the entire surface or jewelry with the toothpaste, let it sit a while (depending how dirty) then rinse with warm water. It will make any silver & diamons shine! If youre using it on the sink or faucets, wash it with sponge or cloth then rinse. You'll be amazed at how great it looks.

3. Pimples. Many people use tooth paste for pimples but for me, it does not seem to make any difference. But you can always give it a try1

4. Burns. This is the best thing Ive found to relieve burns. Im constantly burning myself with my flat iron. Rubbing tooth paste on the entire burn and leaving it for a while will completely stop the burning & help with inflamation. If its a severe burn, consult a physician!