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We may tend to view dampness as an issue in our homes that needs to be addressed with paper towels and wash rags. But never underestimate the positive impact that moisture plays in your living space.
Moisturizing the air at home with a vaporizer or humidifier keeps your living conditions more comfortable and helps alleviate symptoms of many health conditions.
Dry air leads to dry skin when forced-air heating causes the humidity levels to drop down between the 20-30% mark. Also, when the weather outside is especially dry, your skin loses its moisture, leading to tight, dry, itchy, and flaky skin that feels irritating.
In particular, the skin on your hands can become very vulnerable to an excessive loss of moisture due to the fact that your hands happen to have fewer oil glands than other parts of your body.
Lips are also composed of tender skin that tends to become chapped more easily when the air becomes drier, with the next step being your lips starting to crack if their lack of moisture isn’t addressed.
Aside from hand lotion and chapstick, you can regain the lost moisture with a humidifier in your home to rehydrate your skin naturally to help alleviate common symptoms associated with dry skin.
Here are seven reasons that you need a humidifier in your home.
Soothing for Your Sinuses
Low humidity has a really bad reputation when it comes to drying out your sinus passages, causing an awful feeling and quite possibly leading to headaches, nasal discomfort, sinus pressure, and bloody noses
Believe it or not, humidity is a natural way to help clear out your sinuses because of the way that it moistens the air and helps to keep the mucous flowing, decreasing the chances of you suffering from stuffed-up nasal passages.
By having the right levels of humidity in the air, you will be treating your sinuses extremely kindly, potentially soothing them to the point of being able to decrease your chances of having a bloody nose and letting you clear out any excess mucus that you may have so you can breathe more freely.
Puts a Pause on Flu Germs
Get in the habit of using a humidifier in your home to help avoid getting the flu to begin with because if the amount of absolute humidity in the air is way too low, the flu virus lasts longer and spreads faster.
With the use of a humidifier at home during flu season, you become more likely to establish an environment that is less favorable for influenza to exist.
Along with using a humidifier, keep the flu at bay by washing your hands as often as possible and disinfecting all the areas in your home that are frequently touched by people’s hands, such as the doorknobs and water faucet levers.
Guard Your Throat
When your vocal cords can become dry and scratchy when they are exposed to indoor air that doesn’t have enough moisture. If these conditions carry on long enough, your voice can be hoarse, and you can lose it altogether, especially if you were exposed to a virus or the flu recently.
Humidifiers have been able to fight back against croup, a childhood virus that causes inflammation in the upper airways and leads to a strong cough.
Maintaining proper levels of humidity in your home can help with lubricating your throat to minimize the dryness that can cause unwanted inflammation in your windpipe and voice box.
Decrease Snoring
Dry air can actually contribute to snoring symptoms because of insufficient moisture that causes the throat to swell and the nose to get congested, restricting the air movement through the nose.
This causes you to snore because you are breathing through your mouth. Keep the air humidified and ease the dryness to reduce your snoring.
Warm Your Home
Your home will feel warmer when the air is moister. But if the air is drier, your dwelling will feel chillier.
Using a humidifier during the winter season helps to keep temperatures at a comfortable level without putting all the pressure on your heater to provide warmth.
Ease Illness Symptoms
If you are suffering from the flu or a cold, a humidifier can assist with many of the uncomfortable symptoms of being sick, including breathing difficulties, a stuffed-up nose, and a painfully dry throat.
Limit these side effects with a humidifier or vaporizer to get much-needed rest and speed up how long it takes you to bounce back from being sick.
Humidify Houseplants
Moist air is beneficial for people as well as for our houseplants that thrive in environments with an abundance of moisture in the air.
If the air is too dry, the plants can lose leaves and experience stunted growth, making the use of a humidifier an important solution to assist with indoor gardens.
