With this year likely to be a serious flu season in Frederick, it’s important to take all the precautions you can to keep you and your family safe. Although eating a balanced diet is one of the most important steps you can take, there are other things you can do as well. A humidifier is can help you protect yourself from catching the flu, and it can also help soothe the symptoms if you do catch it. Here are a few reasons Weather Masters Corp. recommends using a humidifier all season long.
1. A Humidifier Protects Your Nasal Passages
Throughout history, countless children have been told to bundle up before they go outside so they don’t catch a cold. While cold air isn’t any more germ-filled than warm air, cold air can put your body at a higher risk of catching various illnesses. One of the biggest reasons for this is that cold air is less humid than warm air.
When exposed to lower humidity for a long period of time, your nasal passages tend to dry out, causing them to shrink. Fortunately, nasal passages are one of your body’s most effective methods for keeping germs out. Therefore, if your nasal passages are dry, you could be at a higher risk of catching the flu. A humidifier helps restore some of the humidity that’s lost to the cooler air. This ensures your nasal passages remain moist so they can continue to protect you.
2. A Humidifier Can Help Soothe Symptoms
If you do catch the flu, controlling the symptoms is one of the best ways to make the illness bearable. While oral pain killers and decongestants can help some, you may still experience quite a bit of discomfort using these methods. Fortunately, most humidifiers offer a way to dispense aerosolized medicine into the air in your home so you can experience more immediate relief from your symptoms.
After all, if you’re experiencing respiratory discomfort, it makes sense to use any medicines that target your respiratory system for the fastest results. By placing a small amount of liquid decongestant into a tray on your humidifier, you can experience both the therapeutic effects of steam and the soothing effects of the medicine.
3. A Humidifier Can Help You Recover More Quickly
A cough and sore throat are two of the most common symptoms of the flu. If you have a severe case of the flu, these symptoms can be serious enough that they inhibit your normal sleeping patterns. Fortunately, sleep is exactly what you need to recover from the flu as quickly as possible.
If you can soothe your throat with steam from a humidifier, though, you may be able to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer so your body has a chance to repair itself. This means you’ll be able to recover from the flu more quickly with fewer side effects.
Cleaning Is Key
When using a humidifier, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. Most importantly, you’ll want to make sure to clean the humidifier regularly. That’s because the warm, moist environment in a humidifier is a perfect breeding ground for mold.
Once the mold grows, it can easily be dispersed into the room where you’re using the humidifier. Since mold is a respiratory irritant, you can make the symptoms of the flu worse every time you use a dirty humidifier. Therefore, you’ll want to thoroughly clean your humidifier with bleach at least once a week.
In addition, you’ll need to make sure to keep the humidifier away from the walls while it’s operating. If you don’t, the excess moisture produced by the humidifier could linger on the walls, ultimately resulting in mold growth that could make your recovery more difficult.
We Can Help Your Family Stay Healthy This Flu Season
While our technicians at Weather Masters Corp. aren’t medical doctors, they can still do a lot to keep you healthy. By installing a whole-home humidifier, for example, you can precisely control the humidity levels in your home to help protect everyone from the flu.
Weather Masters Corp. can keep help you maintain a comfortable environment in your home. Since our founding, our customer-first service has made us one of the top-rated contractors on HomeAdvisor. Some of the other services we provide include air conditioning, boiler, and furnace installation. Please contact us at Weather Masters Corp. today for more information about how we can serve you.
