3 Shocking Facts About the Air in Your Home

by Christopher Gavigan

We breathe more than we eat. We breathe more than we drink. We are breathing all the time, but how often do you stop to think about what exactly you are breathing? Probably lot more than how often you consider what else you’re putting in your body. Yet, it’s no less important, especially for young children who breathe faster than adults – inhaling 50% more air per pound of body weight.

Air pollution is obvious when you’re caught in a plume of fumes from a diesel truck or when the wind blows smoke in your face from a camp fire or grill, but even when you can’t see the air, it can still be heavily contaminated. Even more importantly, the worst air is generally inside, where most people spend roughly 90% of their time.

Here are 3 shocking facts that will hopefully give you pause to stop and consider every breath you take.

1. The indoor air in the typical American home contains over 500 chemicals.
According to a study published in April 2009:

586 individual chemicals were identified in the air of 52 homes. The pesticides diazinon and chlorpyrifos were found in the greatest amounts and both were found in all of the homes tested.

Twenty-seven different organochlorine pesticides were detected. p,p’-DDE, a breakdown product of the now banned pesticide DDT, was detected in more than 90 percent of homes.

Amounts of PCBs were generally low but were found in more than half the houses. They were detected in 56 percent of the 52 homes studied.

Phthalate chemicals were found at very large concentrations in indoor air.

Researchers were not able to identify at least 120 of the chemicals. I repeat, researchers were not able to identify at least 120 of the chemicals! (Sorry for the repetition, it’s just stunning to me that our regulatory system is so flawed that experienced scientists are unable to identify so many chemicals that we are likely exposed to from common household products every day.) Many of these unidentified chemicals had structures similar to fragrance compounds. Fragrances made up the major chemical component of the collected chemicals.

2. The breathing zone of a baby
(less than 2 feet above ground) can be more contaminated than an adults (4-6 feet) because many contaminants weigh more than air (mercury, pesticides, etc) (links to a PDF file). For example, in one study, the pesticide Chlorpyrifos was found to be nearly four times more concentrated at about 5-10 inches from the floor compared with the air 2 feet or more above the floor in a room with a window open for ventilation.

3. Even though indoor air is typically 2-5 times more polluted than outdoor
and we spend about 90% of our time indoors, there have been few studies documenting the health effects of indoor air and there are no regulations as there are for outdoor air or even workplace air. According to an article in the San Francisco Gate: “The U.S. General Accounting Office has called indoor air pollution “one of the most serious environmental risks to human health,” yet no agency has authority to control pollutants in indoor air.” There are a variety of regulations aimed at limiting outdoor air pollution – and granted, it would be difficult to impossible to have the same types of rules in place for the average home, but at the very least, there could be regulations regarding how many VOCs a product can emit.

No two homes have exactly the same air quality issues and there’s no way to eliminate them all, but you can do many things to reduce your exposure to the worst culprits. Check out the ABCs of Healthier Indoor Air to get started today.

WebMD

Sleep Less, Get Diabetes?

Poor Sleep May Be a Diabetes Risk Factor, Study Says

By Daniel J. DeNoon

WebMD Health News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Aug. 12, 2009 – If you’re getting too little sleep, you may also be getting diabetes.

People at risk of diabetes tend to get too little sleep. They also tend to exercise too little and eat unhealthy Western diets. Is poor sleep really a diabetes risk factor?

Yes, suggests a study by University of Chicago researchers led by Plamen Penev, MD, PhD.

“If confirmed by future larger studies, these results would indicate that a healthy lifestyle should include not only healthy eating habits and adequate amounts of physical activity, but also obtaining a sufficient amount of sleep,” Penev says in a news release.

Five men and six women volunteered for the study. Their average age was about 40. They were a little overweight and didn’t exercise much, but were otherwise healthy. They tended to sleep just under eight hours a day.

During two 14-day periods, they stayed in a lab where their sleep, activity, diet, and blood chemistry were carefully monitored. They weren’t allowed to exercise, and junk food was always at hand.

For one of the 14-day periods, they were allowed to sleep for 8.5 hours a day. During the other period, they were allowed no more than 5.5 hours sleep each day. Sleep researchers say it’s rare for a person to need less than six hours of sleep daily.

As their sleep times shortened, the volunteers went to bed later (at half past midnight rather than at 11:15 p.m.) and got up earlier (at 6 a.m. rather than 7:45 a.m.).

With all the junk food lying around and with so little physical activity, they gained more than 4 pounds of weight regardless of how much they slept.

What was different was their ability to control their blood sugar. When sleeping too little, the volunteers’ blood sugar was higher on a glucose-tolerance test. They also became less sensitive to the blood sugar-lowering hormone insulin.

“When the unhealthy aspects of the Westernized lifestyle are combined with reduced sleep duration, this might contribute to the increased risk of many overweight and sedentary individuals developing diabetes,” Penev says.

กรุ๊ปเลือดไหนเหมาะกับน้ำผลไม้ชนิดใด

คนเลือดกรุ๊ปโอ

ส่วนมากจะมีกรดในกระเพาะอาหารสูง สามารถย่อยอาหารจำพวกเนื้อสัตว์ได้อย่างรวดเร็ว แต่ไม่ควรกินอาหารจำพวกแป้งมากเกินไป เพราะจะย่อยยาก เสี่ยงต่อโรคเบาหวานและโรคอ้วน

เครื่องดื่มที่เหมาะกับเลือดกรุ๊ปโอคือ

- น้ำสับปะรด

-  น้ำลูกพรุน

แต่ไม่ควรดื่มน้ำแอปเปิล น้ำส้ม น้ำกะหล่ำปลี

เลือดกรุ๊ปเอ

เรียกว่าตรงข้ามกับกรุ๊ปโอ แทบจะทุกอย่าง เพราะเลือดกรุ๊ปนี้จะมีกรดในกระเพาะอาหารต่ำ จึงเหมาะกับอาหารมังสวิรัติและควรหลีกเลี่ยงเนื้อสัตว์ ที่สำคัญควรหลีกเลี่ยงอาหารจำพวกอาหารสำเร็จรูป ช่น

- ไส้กรอก

- แฮม

เพราะอาหารจำพวกนี้มีสารดินประสิวที่ไปกระตุ้นให้เกิดมะเร็งในกระเพาะอาหาร

เครื่องดื่มที่เหมาะสมกับคนเลือดกรุ๊ปเอก็คือ

- น้ำแอปพริคอต

- น้ำแคร์รอต

- น้ำเซเลอรี

- น้ำเกรปฟรุต

- น้ำสับปะรด

- น้ำมะนาว

เพราะมี วิตามินซีสูง แต่ไม่ควรดื่มน้ำส้ม น้ำมะละกอ และน้ำมะเขือเทศ

เลือดกรุ๊ปบี

เป็นกรุ๊ปเลือดที่สามารถต้านทานโรคมะเร็งและโรคหัวใจได้ แต่ยังมีปัญหาเรื่องภูมิคุ้มกันของร่างกาย

จึงควรกินอาหารจำพวก

- ผักใบเขียว

-  ตับ

- ไข่

- นมไขมันต่ำ

เพื่อเพิ่มประสิทธิภาพในการเผาผลาญ

น้ำกะหล่ำปลี

น้ำแครนเบอร์รี่

น้ำองุ่น

น้ำมะละกอ

น้ำสับปะรด

เป็นเครื่องดื่มที่เหมาะ แต่ให้ระวังการดื่มน้ำมะเขือเทศ

เลือดกรุ๊ปเอบี

คนเลือดกรุ๊ปนี้ เสี่ยงต่อการเป็นมะเร็งในกระเพาะอาหาร จึงควรรับประทานอาหารที่มีวิตามินซี เช่น

- บร็อกโคลี่

- เชอร์รี่

-  ส้มโอ

-  เกรปฟรุต

-  กะหล่ำปลี

และดื่มน้ำแคร์รอต

- น้ำเซเลอรี

-  น้ำแครนเบอร์รี่

- น้ำองุ่น

- น้ำมะละกอ

เพราะช่วยต้านมะเร็งได้ แต่ไม่ควรดื่มน้ำส้มเพราะทำให้ย่อยยาก