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The link between air quality and health is well known. In inner cities, respiratory conditions such as asthma are higher than in less-polluted areas, while infectious outbreaks from airborne ‘superbugs’ are becoming more common among hospitalised patients. To counter the ill effects, ionisers can help to clean the air, but thanks to advances in technology, this is now only half the story. A new generation of ionisers can aid your health in a range of other ways, from boosting your immune system and alleviating migraine headaches to improving mood and enhancing workplace performance...
Today and everyday for the rest of our lives, you and I will breathe 10,000 litres of air over which we have little or no control. It will probably be heavily polluted, ion depleted and oxygen deficient, all of which have serious implications for our health. Reporting in the Journal of the American Medical Association last March, researchers examined long-term health data on 500,000 individuals to compare increases in air pollution levels with incidence of death. They discovered that when air pollution levels suddenly increased, there was an unexpected increase in the number of deaths from all causes, including heart attacks and strokes as well as lung-related conditions such as asthma and pneumonia. But while we can’t have a direct impact on pollution levels, we can take some control over the quality of air we breathe by using an ioniser. I do and it’s made a tremendous difference. The way it works is this: Within the air around us are positively and negatively-charged particles called ions. Negative ions clean the air by attracting positively-charged pollutants to form clusters, which become heavy and fall to the ground. But our modern urban environment strips the air of negative ions and therefore levels of free-circulating pollution increase. An ioniser produces negative ions to help redress this imbalance. Why are negative ions ‘healthy’?
Important though it is, air cleaning is only a small part of the story with negative ions. Over the past century, thousands of research studies have demonstrated how small breathable negative ions affect our health in other ways – so much so, I think of them as ‘vitamins of the air’. The negative ions found in nature (most abundant in places like forests, waterfalls or by the ocean) are small enough to pass through our lungs and into our bloodstream. Among many things, they help us to: • Absorb oxygen
• Utilise vitamins and detoxify
• Boost our immune system
• Regulate serotonin (a ‘feel-good’ hormone)
• Reduce asthma and sinus problems. However, while most ionisers on the market today remove toxins in the air, the negative ions they produce are too big to enter our bloodstreams so cannot have the same internal therapeutic effects. But technology is developing, and an Australian company I’ve come across called Bionic Products have produced and patented a device known as the Elanra Therapeutic Ioniser. This is the only ioniser in the world to consistently produce small breathable negative ions that are biologically active. Negative ions reduce bacteria, viruses and other microbes
In a response to the alarming rise in the incidence of hospital ‘superbugs’, the NHS last year funded a year-long study into the effect that negative ions have on these often lethal microbes, and in particular the bacteria Acinetobacter which is resistant to nearly all antibiotics. The study was based at the St James’s Hospital in Leeds in conjunction with researchers from Leeds University. “The results have been fantastic – so much so that we have asked the University to leave the ionisers with us,” Dr Stephen Dean, lead consultant in St James’s intensive care unit, told me. “Since the trial finished in May we’ve kept them in operation and have continued to see greatly reduced Acinetobacter infections on the ward.” Scientists writing in the Journal of Applied Microbiology have also reported a positive outcome to using ionisers – boosting levels of negative ions reduced the presence of airborne viruses by about 40%. And in the US, research by the Department of Agriculture found that ionising a room leads to 52% less dust in the air, and 95% less bacteria (since many of the pollutants found in the air reside on floating dust particles). Improving asthma
Research from Australia's National University, the Pavlov Institute in Russia, and St Bartholomew's Hospital in London has shown that improved lung capacity and relief from asthma symptoms are achieved quite rapidly by exposure to small negative air ions.
One of my clients Martine suffered with asthma for years, which was particularly bad at night: “Since having the Elanra ioniser by my bed, I’ve had hardly any problems breathing and have slept much better. Before I was having several asthma attacks a week.”
Brazilian hospitals now commonly use negative ion generators to treat breathing problems, after a successful trial involving 36 children with consistent or crippling asthmatic allergies. During the trial, only one child suffered an asthma attack and no further attacks occurred in any of the children that sustained regular negative ion therapy,1. Boosting the immune system
Research from universities all over the world, including Australia's La Trobe University, has clearly shown that small negative ions, when breathed in, increase the body's production of an important bug-busting immune cell called IgA. The study from La Trobe states that "such a finding is suggestive of an enhancement of the immune response as a result of negative ionisation. IgA guards against viral and bacterial attachment and colonisation of mucous membrane." In other words, it means fewer infections. Our ability to metabolise vitamin C and other vitamins is also boosted by negative ions, 2. Enhanced performance at work
Scientists in Russia, Norway, Israel, the US and the UK are among those who have successfully linked the existence of negative ion depletion in the air to detrimental biological and behavioural effects in humans. Dr Leslie Hawkins, a senior lecturer in human biology at the University of Surrey, conducted extensive double-blind occupational studies to determine if positive and/or negative atmospheric ion levels could influence actual performance levels as well as attitudes among computer operators. He demonstrated that the majority (5:1) reported feeling more comfortable and alert when the deionised environment in which they had been working was replenished with a natural level of negative ions. His studies also revealed that this replenished air increased work efficiency and productivity with a concurrent reduction in reported symptoms of nausea, stress, fatigue and dizziness, 3. A natural anti-depressant
Serotonin is an important brain chemical related to mood and stress. Many antidepressant drugs, including Prozac, alter brain metabolism of Serotonin. So do negative ions, but without the side-effects. In a study conducted by Columbia University, 25 people with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) sat in front of a negative ion air purifier for a half hour every morning for a month. Half the subjects were given a low level of negative ions, and the other half a high level. The higher level of negative ion treatment proved to be as effective against SAD as antidepressant drugs, but without the side effects, 4. So impressed were Colombia that they actually registered a patent for the clinical treatment of depression with negative ions. In another study I’ve come across, more than 100 outpatients at a mental health clinic were exposed to negative ionisation for just 40 minutes per day. After only a few sessions, normal sleep returned in 80% of insomniac patients; 75% of patients with headaches had their pain disappear; over 50% of depressive patients reported a return to normal; and 100% of anxiety sufferers said their symptoms had disappeared. Preventing migraine headaches
Some migraine headaches originate when an overload of serotonin causes the diameter of blood vessels leading to the brain to dilate, and get wider in the brain. Consequently, blood flow increases, and pain receptors in the vessels are stretched, which leads to the excruciating pain associated with a migraine. In numerous studies, negative ion treatment has proven to regulate the over-production of serotonin, and therefore the subsequent migraine headaches, 5. I’ve seen many other studies that also show how negative ions boost mental performance and concentration, improve driving, enhance physical performance and aid better sleep. To find out more about Air Ionisers visit click here
Wishing you the best of health References
1. The Ion Effect, by F. Soyka, Published by Bantham Books (1977 & 1991).
2. Prof. A. A. Minkh et al, Proceedings of International Conference on Ionisation of the Air, Academy of Medical Sciences, 16-17 October, 1961.
3. Dr L H Hawkins, University of Surrey, Health Hazards from VDTs, Published by John Wiley & Sons (1984).
4. Dr. M. Terman & Dr. J. S. Terman, Columbia University, Journal of Alternative and Comparative Medicine (1995).
5. F. G Sulman, ‘Migraine and Headache Due to Weather and Allied Causes and its Specific Treatment’, Upsala J. Med. Sci. Suppl, 31: 41-44 (1980); Prof. A. P. Kreuger, ‘The Biological Mechanisms of Air Ion Action’, Journal of General Physiology (1957); The Biological Properties of Gaseous Ions, The Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, MacGraw Hill (1962).‘
6. E. Merimsky, Y. I. Litmanovitch and F. G. Sulman, ‘Prevention of Post-Operative Thromboembolism by Negative Air Ionization in a Double-Blind Study, 9th International Congress Biometeorology, Osnabrueck CHP-18, Abstracts pp. 82 (1981). Source: www.patrickholford.com |
