A Look At Air Purifiers- Do They Help Allergies?

As allergy sufferers look for ways of obtaining some allergy relief, this question has been posed many times. The use of an air purifier may help with your allergies if you are allergic to airborne allergens (things like dust mites, pollen, or pet dander). However, the degree of relief obtained really depends on many factors, many of which are under your own control. First, you need to understand what an air purifier is and how it works. An air purifier is a stand-alone unit which is typically placed in one room for the purpose of cleansing the air. It is effective only in the room in which it is placed. The method through which an air purifier works varies by make and model. Some units contain a filter inside that will need to be either cleaned periodically or replaced entirely. Ionic air purifiers use the method of ionization to both trap allergen particles in the filter and force airborne particulate to adhere to surfaces in the room and not stay in the air where they may be inhaled. Another type of filter that may help with allergy relief is an air filter that is placed in your home's A/C unit. This filter then cleanses the air that is pumped throughout your home and will affect the air quality in every room. The air filter needs to be cleaned on a monthly basis. The best way to use air purifiers is in conjunction with other measures. These include the reduction of allergenic substances in your environment as much as possible. If you know that you are allergic to dust, then by all means do whatever is necessary to remove the dust from your home. Use a combination of methods such as steam cleaning the carpets or even removing carpeting altogether. Put dust mite encasements on all bedding. For our family we have found the use of air purifiers to be beneficial. We use an air purifier unit in each of the bedrooms. The filters in these air purifiers are cleaned on a regular basis. An allergy-free filter is also installed in our home's A/C unit, which has really cut down on the dust throughout our entire home. After a lengthy discussion with our allergist, we removed nearly all the carpeting in our home and now use vinyl flooring throughout. Of course, dust mite encasements are used on all the beds (mattresses and box springs) in the house. While I cannot say that we are entirely allergy free, careful attention to these measures has allowed our family to experience some allergy relief. We even take an air purifier with us while on vacation, to purifier and cleanse the air in the hotel room!