Flu, Colds, Winter, Humidity

Flu, Colds, Winter, Humidity

If I can save you some money and help prevent you from suffering with a cold, or worse yet, the flu is it worth a few minutes of your reading time?  I hope so and I’m betting you will too.  Okay, I’m in Las Vegas and occasionally I’m willing to place a bet.

The first three items in this title go together and so does the fourth, in a very big way.  So now it’s time for me to connect the dots.

Cold winter weather keeps people indoors more and in close proximity.  So once a person gets a cold it’s much more easily spread.  A simple sneeze, a handshake, and other contact can rush a cold or the flu through a building like flood waters over a dam.  

There are the obvious preventive measures that you hear like, get a flu shot, wash your hands, etc.  Now here’s the one that gets overlooked and can make a big difference…..regulate the humidity in your home and if possible your work environment.

The biggest compound in the human body is water.  Humidity is water in the form of a vapor and our bodies should be exposed to humidity in the 30 to 50 percent range.  Have you ever got up from an 8 hour sleep with cracked lips or a nose bleed from simply blowing your nose in the winter?  If so the reason is most often being exposed to low humidity.  For this example let’s say the outside temperature is 25 F with a relative humidity (RH) of 22%.  That would make the dew point -9F.  Inside your home or office let’s bump the temperature up to 72F.  You would have to add humidity to change the dew point from what it is outside, but for now we’re not going to do that.  Here’s the result.  The RH drops down to an amazingly low 4%.  Above I gave you the range your body needs so now you understand why your nose bleeds and your lips crack on those very cold winter days and nights.  Also that static electricity spark you get from walking on carpet is a sign of low humidity.  

Breaks in the lip surface and the nose lining are a flu or cold germs best friend.  That can be the equivalent of getting an infection from an open cut.  Those nasty germs can settle in, make camp, and involve your entire body in a battle which will send you to the doctor with a fever, headache, body aches, and….oh, you get the picture.  

The solution to all of this does not need to be expensive or complicated.  Here, at the very least, is what you need to do.  Humidity the area where you sleep and, if possible, the area where you work.  Humidity in your work area may be out of your control, but some is better than none so let’s concentrate on your home.  

A whole house humidifier is ideal but can be expensive.  Since you are only using this for a few months in the winter let’s drop this down to a single room humidifier.  The cost can range from as low as $20 for a drug store steam humidifier to a couple of hundred bucks for an ultrasonic/steam unit with an automatic humidistat.  You will also need a hygrometer for measuring RH, especially with the cheap solution.  Fortunately those are inexpensive and readily available at your drugstore, Target, or Wally World.  The total cost for humidifying your bedroom can be as low as $30.  That may be less than you would spend on a trip to the doctor.  Remember your goal is to raise the humidity to right around 45%.

There is no ultimate weapon in cold or flu prevention.  The question is does this help?  I can tout you my personal statistics.  In the past 30 years I’ve had 1 major run in with the flu that put me down for a couple of days.  I’ve had 3 major colds (5 to 7 day events) and a couple of minor ones (less than 5 days).  You could say I’m exceptionally lucky and/or healthier than most people but based on other factors I think not.  When I even think I feel a cold coming on I drink lots of green tea with honey and I bulk up on vitamin C.  

I do know that with proper humidity winter nose bleeds and cracked lips will drop.  If regulating the humidity in your sleep environment helps keep you from getting a severe cold or the flu, isn’t it worth it?

© Krystalco LLC 2013  Any publication or reuse of the information on this blog, in part or whole, without express written consent is prohibited.

'WATER DEMYSTIFIED' or 'CLEARING THE AIR ABOUT WATER'

 

 ‘WATER DEMYSTIFIED’

 or

 ‘CLEARING THE AIR ABOUT WATER’

 

H2O, 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen is the combination that gives us liquid life.  Our bodies are mostly made up of it and the earth is mostly covered by it.  Today’s question is what do you really know about water?

There are more than 220 billion trillion gallons of water on the surface of this ever changing planet.  Unfortunately most of it is salt water found in the oceans.  Nature has an amazing process for desalinization of ocean water.   It’s called evaporation.  When the salt water becomes a vapor the salt is left behind so the vapor can reform as a more pure raindrop.  Of course, when that raindrop falls and if it makes its way back into the ocean it becomes salt water once again.  Every day the process continues and the earth just keeps on turning.

So much for science 101, I want to talk about the water in your home.  It is either well water or treated ‘city’ water.  Oh, I almost forgot, there are a few places where the water is actually trucked in for consumption.  I’m not sure what category that falls under.

When you boil this topic down (pun intended) there are only two areas of water that really should be of concern within your living space.  Those things are water hardness and water filtration.  They are, in fact, two very different things.  Hardness and filtration are not interchangeable topics.

Hardness

Hard water will not cause you any physical harm.  It may make your water taste strange and it also may give it an odor, but with regard to health the point is moot.  I have city water and although treated for chemicals and other crap that may cause physical and health problems, it is not treated for hardness.  Very hard water has 7.0 to 10.5 grains per gallon (GPG) of hardness.  Our city water has 19 GPG, which easily exceeds the standard of very hard water.

So if it is not a health problem do you really need to treat hard water to make it softer?  You may want to because of two other issues.  1) Calcium and Magnesium precipitate out of hard water in the form of scale.  These appear as white deposits that are left behind in the separation process.  It’s the same scale that leaves your skin feeling dry and sometimes itchy after a shower in hard water.  It’s the same scale that will eventually build up in plumbing and appliances, which can be a cause of future problems and shortened appliance life.  2) Hard water cuts into a soaps ability to lather.  It also causes soap to leave behind a sticky filmy scum.  With hard water you will need to use more soap to get the same effect of a clean wash in soft water.  

Since we’re about money savings here, hard water will cost you money.  So now the question become how do I fix it and at what cost?  A water softener is the fix and the cost will vary depending on the type and who installs it.  Figure the cost to be anywhere from $500 to 2K.  If you go much higher than the $2,000 mark you will have a hard time getting the return on your investment during the life of the softener system.  There are several types of softeners to choose from.  I’ll mention the most common here.  They are magnetic and chemical softener systems.  

Magnetic…..Although it does alter the ionization of water, which will turn hard water into SOFTER water, this is gray area technology.  It should also be noted that magnetic or electromagnetic softeners (Such as the Easy Water system) must have the water used quickly after being altered.  If the water is not used for its intended purpose it will return to its hardened state.  

Chemical…..Salt water softeners are the most economical and, contrary to what some water softener companies would have you believe, very little salt remains in the water during the softening process.  I repeat, very little salt remains with the water.  Some very expensive water softening operations would have you believe salt softeners are bad.  They will point to some areas where it is against code to install a salt water softener.  Here’s the down on dirty on the code issue.  In a few areas of California and Texas it is against the law IF you have a septic system and are not on city sewage.  This is not done because the salt in your potable water is excessive.  This is code because during the backwash process the salt will go into septic tank, which often have outflow lines and leach beds.  These leach beds COULD let the salt makes its way into an aquifer.  Notice I used the word COULD and not WILL or DOES.  This code thing is a precautionary measure and there is no hard evidence of this ever happening.  It’s an err on the side of caution thing.  Very California in nature. 

There are also Potassium water softeners.  If the salt thing really bothers you regardless of the facts, simply go potassium.  It will cost you three to five times as much in buying the potassium, but hey, it’s your choice.  

Watch the warranty on the softener you buy.  Remember you get what you pay for and this is no exception.  If you buy a $500 softener with a 5 year warranty, don’t be surprised if you are having a funeral for it in 5 or 6 years.  This is especially true in very hard water areas.  

Filtration

Filtration is the area you should really be concerned with because this CAN affect your health.  Notice, again, I said CAN and not DOES or WILL.  If you are on city water it must meet certain Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, which removes the bad stuff down to a defined safe level.

Here’s a fun little fact.  Blind taste tests have shown some city water is favored over bottled water.  If you’re buying bottled water to drink at home you really need to ask yourself “WHY?”

If you want the ultimate in pure water for cooking and drinking then your best option is to install a Reverse Osmosis (RO) water filter under your kitchen sink.   For every gallon of RO filtered water used an additional 4 gallons are washed down the drain in the filtering process.  At an initial cost of less than $200 (Oh, you will be buying filters after the initial cost at a cost of around $30 a pop and some units use 3, 4 or 5 filters.) The water pouring out of these devices is about a pure and clean as it gets.  In fact, RO water purification systems are used in many bottled water plants.  Yep, and you can have it at home for pennies compared to what bottled water costs.  

DID YOU KNOW BOTTLED WATER COSTS MORE THAN GASOLINE?  If you pay $1 for a 16 oz. Bottle of water that makes the cost of water $8 per gallon.   I’ve seen places charging $3 a bottle or $24 a gallon for water.  I truly do understand the OCCASIONAL need to buy a bottle of water, however, I don’t understand how any sane person is willing to pay big $$$ for tap water that costs …… less than $1.50 per 1000 gallons.  (NOTE:  EPA guidelines for bottled water only apply if the water is shipped across state lines.  State guidelines apply for product produced and sold within the state.  In many states it is perfectly legal to bottle city tap water and sell it.)

Oh, for those of you that regularly buy bottled water just because you THINK it tastes better or you THINK it is better for you, I’ve got this bridge in New York that I’m selling for a real bargain price…………….

 

© Krystalco LLC 2013  Any publication or reuse of the information on this blog, in part or whole, without express written consent is prohibited.