Breathe Naturally - October 13, 2023
Air Purifiers for Respiratory Issues
Must knows and crucial air purifiers to stay away from!
Can Air Purifiers Help?
Respiratory issues can be a constant daily struggle that never seems to end. From allergies to asthma, keeping tabs on the quality of the air you surround yourself with can be a daunting task.
Air pollution is the silent but deadly killer that is connected to millions of deaths each year and for people with a sensitive respiratory system, poor air quality can be the bane of their existence. Fortunately making a few conscious decisions each day can do wonders towards calming your respiratory issues.
As long as you stay far away from ozone emitting purifiers, having an air purifier run on a regular basis can do wonders for your respiratory issues.
Whether it's allergies, asthma or COPD, using an air purifier to actively purify the air in your home will reduce the irritation the air causes your nose and lungs on a daily basis.
Is Air Quality Aggravating Your Respiratory Issues?
Is the air quality in your home making your respiratory symptoms worse? The first step in combating respiratory issues is to determine what aggravates your symptoms and where you're finding yourself most aggravated or irritated.
Usually, it's not as simple as being allergic to dog dander and simply staying away from dogs. Most peoples respiratory systems are more complex than just one pollutant causing discomfort, more often than not it's a combination of things.
As a general rule of thumb in life, anything that you measure and observe improves over time and figuring out where and when you're most affected will get you on the fast track to conquering your respiratory illness. Reducing exposure to pollutants and airborne particles is a sure-fire way to ease your symptoms and an air purifier is the easiest way to eliminate those pollutants floating around in your home.
What's agravating your respitory system?
Allergies
Whether it's seasonal allergies, pet allergies, or maybe you're just sensitive to random smells and odors, either way, an air purifier is going to reduce the amount of allergens present in the air in your home.
Combined with limiting exposure to the outside air by closing your windows and turning on the AC will, adding an air purifier will allow you to create an allergen-free space where you can breathe freely and get relief!
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - COPD
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a progressive lung disease where the airways are partially blocked and it progressively becomes harder to breathe as time moves on. Over 12 million Americans have been diagnosed with COPD related diseases like Emphysema and Chronic Bronchitis but it is believed that almost twice the amount of people actually suffer from it.
For people who suffer from COPD related illnesses, an air purifier can be one of the most important devices in your home. Everyday byproducts of life, such as pollen, dander and dust that normal lungs can handle, become painful problems for people with restricted airways. An air purifier isn't a substitute for medical treatment, but goes a long way in improving the everyday life of someone who suffers from COPD.
Asthma
Asthma is an illness that affects people of all shapes and sizes and ages. It affects roughly 25 million people in the United States alone, of which 7 million are young children.
While inhalers and medications calm the airways after an asthma attack occurs, an air purifier can act as a preventative measure, eliminating airborne pollutants before they become an issue.
Pollutants such as pet dander, smoke, mold spores and dust are all common asthma aggravators that purifiers are perfect at removing from the air. Leaving you with a clean and fresh safe-space away from harmful indoor particles and odors.
Lung Cancer
The most severe of the Respiratory Illnesses is Lung Cancer. While no study has been shown linking air purifiers to easing the symptoms of lung cancer, air purifiers actively purify the air removing airborne particles that can aggravate your lungs making the symptoms even worse. However, there is substantial evidence that the regular use of an air purifier reduces the chance of getting lung cancer.
Using Air Purifiers to Ease Respiratory Symptoms
Air purifiers are great for easing respiratory symptoms because instead of adding particles to the air to combat pollution, they actively remove harmful airborne particulates, leaving behind a cleaner, fresher air.
As long as an air purifier includes a high-efficiency hepa filter and a carbon prefilter it's going to filter mold spores, dander, dust, pollen and other allergens, bacteria, virus carriers and lint.
Make sure to use filters rated Merv 17 for the most efficient residential level purification you can buy. Filter airborne particles down to 0.3 microns at a 99.97% efficiency level. Its easier to get into the White House than past Merv 17 Hepa Filters.
Top Purifier Picks for Respiratory Issues
When selecting an air purifier that's going to work well for people with respiratory issues, you need to first consider what kind of relief do you need? Broad relief from a whole bunch of particles at a fast and reliable speed? Or specific .03 micron-level precision for incredibly sensitive lungs?
For those with COPD and Lung Cancer, the latter may be your best option. For people with regular allergies and asthma, the first option with more of a broad spectrum of protection will work the best. The most important factor is you and your individual needs, and remember a purifier is better than no purifier, as long as it's not an Ozone Emitting Purifier.
Broad Relief
For those who suffer from allergies, asthma and other types of mild grade respiratory issues, you need a more broad approach to air purification. It's not usually any one-particle that irritates you, rather it's when chain particles link up that they cause you severe discomfort.For that reason, you need a purifier that can move tons of air quickly and efficiently. You also want to make sure the purifier has a carbon prefilter to help with large particles and dangers that would gum up your hepa filter making it useless after a month or so. That's why the Honeywell Hpa300 True Hepa Allergen Remover is our top pick for allergy sufferers and people with asthma.
Honeywell Hpa300
The Honeywell Hpa300 True Hepa Purifier is the perfect addition for anyone with respiratory issues. Rated to filter up to a 465 sq. ft. room, 5 times per hour, all day long! Say goodbye to your allergies and hello to a sanctuary of fresh, clean air in your own home!
Like its predecessors, the Hpa300 is great at removing allergens from the air. In fact, it removes 99.97% of airborne particles as small as 0.03 microns. Removing particles such as dander pollen, dust, mold & smoke, as well as capturing germs, reducing cooking and other foul odors.
The Honeywell brand has been selling filters and air purifiers for over 25 years and is a very trusted brand in the industry. The designs and successes of the HPA100 and HPA200 Models lead the way for an incredibly efficient and low-cost large room air purifier. The simplistic and compact design allows this purifier to fit in almost any space.
Featuring 3 different fan speeds, a turbo clean setting for fast odor removal and quick allergen relief. A filter change indicator light to make sure you are always using clean filters. This purifier also ranks among the average purifier noise level despite its large filtration volume. This purifier placed in any home will do wonders towards helping you combat your respiratory problems.
For a more in-depth look at the Hpa300 head on over to our complete review by clicking this link.
Specialized High-Efficiency Relief
Sometimes broad relief isn't enough and you need something more specialized for your specific needs. People with more sensitive lungs and respiratory systems need a more sensitive purifier and have to be more vigilant about the air quality they surround themselves with.
The good news is recent advancements in computer and AI technology have allowed air purifier to advance to the point where they can not only monitor the air quality in a particular room but also, it can make calculated settings adjustments to bring the air quality back to just the way you like it! Let me introduce you to the Levoit LV-Pur131 Large Room Air Purifier.
Levoit Lv-Pur131 Air Purifier
Not only does this purifier rank amoung the top for best sqft/price ratio, but also ranks at the top for purifier size/sqft ratio due to its incredibly efficient compact design.
The Levoit LV-Pur131 can filter up to 360 sq ft 4.5 times per hour with a 30% higher efficiency than ordinary air purifiers. This purifier works perfectly in large open spaces due to its incredibly high purification capacity. With its elegant 21st century design it can blend into almost any living space.
Equipped with Amazon’s Alexa and other virtual assistants, as well as WiFi capabilities, this unit can be controlled from anywhere in the world with just a few presses of a button. Allowing you to keep your living space fresh and clean even when you’re not around to enjoy it, and even better, when you arrive home you’ll be hit with waves of fresh air instead of last night's dinner.
LV-Pur131 can sense the quality of the air in an environment and changes settings to whatever best fits your needs. This feature is called auto mode and will allow you to let your purifier do all the work. This can be a lifesaver when it comes to people with sensitive respiratory systems.
With a filter change indicator light, it will even alert you via an app that your filters are in need of a change. We have really hit the peak of technological innovation.
With 3 fan speeds, A 1-12 hour timer and several cleaning modes, the lv-pur131 can accommodate almost any space you throw at it and you most certainly won’t find a better purifier for the price anywhere else.
For the complete review head on over to our in-depth article on the LV-Pur131 Large Room Purifier!
Extra Air Purifier Tips for Respiratory Relief
Stay Away from the Ozone
As I alluded to above, ozone-emitting air purifiers are BAD NEWS. Ozone purifiers emit tiny particles of ozone, like the name suggests, that react with almost anything they come into contact with.
This is great for eliminating odors and smells as well as eliminating a few airborne particles along the way, however the same property that makes ozone purifiers effective, also makes them extremely harmful to any one when inhaled.
The ozone reacts with your lungs and skin causing irritation, redness and burning. As a general safety rule, don't buy a purifier if it has the capabilities of emitting ozone, even if you have the option not to use that feature.
Bedroom Purifier Placement and Run Time
Where you place your air purifier at night can have a pretty big impact on not only the quality of your sleep but also can affect how you wake up in the morning. Placing a purifier close to your head and face can cause your skin to become super dry and uncomfortable.
This can lead to nosebleeds, chapped lips, dry throat and mouth as well as dry eyes. The good news is that preventing this is rather simple.
If your purifier directs airflow in any one direction, make sure it's not aimed directly at your face. Aim for above your head and you'll receive the small cooling benefits without any of the chapped lips.
Should you run your purifier all night?
As long as you aren't blowing it directly on your face, there's almost no downside to running your purifier all night. Except for maybe a few more dollars on your electricity bill each month. For more on how much it costs to run your purifier all night, check out our electricity cost rundown here!
Related Questions
Do air purifiers help with bronchitis?
Are air purifiers the cure for bronchitis? No, but they will improve the overall condition of the air, reducing the effects the air has on your bronchitis which should ease your overall symptoms. This is not a treatment for bronchitis rather, it removes particles from the air which would react with your lungs worsening your symptoms. So Yes, an air purifier helps with bronchitis, but it won't cure it.
Do humidifiers help with respiratory issues?
Generally, respiratory issues don't stem from the lack of moisture in an area. However, if a room gets super dry it can lead to the irritation and aggravation of your respiratory issues. In this case, yes, a humidifier would help even out the moisture levels in your home and would help with the irritation to your respiratory issues brought on by dry air. If you suffer from nosebleeds a humidifier can be a lifesaver.
Don't go too overboard tho, too high of a humidity level in an area and your space can become sticky and uncomfortable to be in. Finding the right balance between purifier and humidity levels is key to creating the perfect atmosphere/environment in your home.
Can air purifiers make the air dry?
Given the right circumstances and improper ventilation, an air purifier can cause the air to become dry. Air purifiers themselves aren't designed to remove moisture from the air like a dehumidifier would, however a passive attribute of passing air through a HEPA filter results in a small fraction of moisture being lost.
Normally this isn't an issue as the moisture lost is so minimal that proper ventilation would replenish the moisture lost before it became noticeable.
When you leave a purifier on for too long in a room without ventilation the air has nowhere to go, so the same air gets recycled over and over again, losing trace amounts of moisture each time until the room becomes over dry. Something as simple as leaving the door open or cracking a window would prevent this entirely.
If you sleep with your air purifier on, consider setting an auto-shutdown timer so it doesn't run through the night, if your room is becoming too dry. Also, check the direction of the airflow on the purifier. If it's blowing directly on your face you could wake up with a dry mouth, eyes, face and skin or even a bloody nose.