Is your bed a health hazard? You may sleep better at night when you are unaware of the bugs living in your mattress, but dust mites can cause serious health problems. Dr. Philip Tierno, author of The Secret Life of Germs (Pocket Books, 2001) appeared on Oprah to warn people of these curious bed-fellows.
It's not the dust mites themselves that threaten us. It's what they leave behind. Dust mite excrement can aggravate your allergies. "Each mite excretes approximately 20 pellets a day," says Garry Lassman, president of The Mattress Doctor, a mattress-cleaning service. Inhaling these minute droppings and their allergens can irritate the nose, throat and lungs and exacerbate existing respiratory conditions, like asthma.
Dust mites are more prevalent in the bedroom because they thrive on conditions found almost exclusively within the average mattress, says Lassman. "The average double mattress contains over two million dust mites."
Microscopic in size, dust mites feed on our dead skin cells. According to Dr. Tierno, the average human loses a million and a half skin cells per hour over the day. At night, as you snuggle into bed, those skin cells are sloughed off and end up in your sheets, pillowcases and mattress.
Since Canadians spend about 90 per cent of their time indoors, according to Health Canada, it is beneficial to your health to try to maintain a dust-mite-free home.
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