Buying Guide for Allergy Masks

While you can’t control the environment of the entire world, or even the air you breathe in your own city, town or countryside, you can protect yourself against allergens and pollutants that move through the air and can cause allergies, asthma and other reactions to airborne particulates.

To some people that haven’t tried using allergy masks, they may seem a bit extreme at first. But when you consider the drawbacks of not protecting your allergy-sensitive sinuses and bronchial passages from allergic reactions, the picture looks a little different.

You could rank sensitivity to allergens and pollutants on a simple scale if you wanted.

LEVEL ONE

Annoying: These are levels of reaction that could include stuffy nose and sore throat, and even trouble breathing under certain conditions. Mild reactions to allergies or non-threatening forms of asthma fall into this category.

Some people might resort to an Air Pollution Mask, for example, if the pollution levels in their part of the country include high ozone levels, thick smoke, ash or chemicals. An air pollution mask in hypo-allergenic neoprene fits either men or women and uses a carbon activated filter to protect against sub-micron pollutants. Works for people with or without allergies.

For temporary or dust-related circumstances, a Multi-Purpose Allergy Dust Mask is extremely lightweight and uses multi-layer filtration to reduce exposure to a wide variety of potentially “annoying”  allergy inducing particles ranging from dust to light construction materials. Artists and other craftsman might consider this mask for generalized lung and throat protection.

LEVEL TWO

Troublesome: These include levels of reaction that produce severe congestion and itchy eyes, runny nose, even fever or achiness if allergies are pronounced. For asthmatic people, troublesome can mean actual shortness of breathe and resultant use of an inhaler, depending on what type of atmospheric conditions are being encountered.

When you need (or want) to get a little more serious about allergy and asthma protection, slip into the 3M HEPA mask and be assured that 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns can’t get through. Low profile and lightweight, you can even wear glasses and never worry that this mask will get in the way of visibility, either. You can drive or work around the home and rule out troublesome levels of dust, pollen, molds or other possible irritants that can affect your breathing and your health.

The cold weather allergy mask might seem more like a preventative measure at the “annoying” level, but for those who get asthma in cold weather, the protection this mask can provide by moistening and warming air before you breathe is vital protection.

LEVEL THREE

Threatening: When allergies or asthma become a real health challenge, your breathing can be interrupted or even cease. Severe allergies can cause short term or long term side effects, especially in combination with a cold or possible pneumonia. At LEVEL THREE risk people definitely need to consider using protection against the types of breathing threats they experience most, including cold air, high pollen or mold counts, air pollution or high rates of physical exertion in any of these conditions.

If you are seeking industrial strength protection from allergens, or if you work in areas where industrial pollutants or dust, high pollen or mold counts, or sudden changes in atmospheric condition can be a risk to your health, the 3M 8233 N100 HEPA Mask is a high efficiency filtration mask that comes with an Exclusive Foam Fit face seal to protect you from the finest dust while filtering the very air you breathe, even fumes and high risk materials such as radioactive uranium and plutonium, paint spray gasses or vapors or, if you are highly sensitive to pollens or other airborne particles, the 3M HEPA mask is for you. At only $14.95, this mask is a real lifesaver.

Of course you can also count on the previously mentioned 3M HEPA mask that filters 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns for equal measures of protection at $29.95.

There you have it, protection against annoying, troublesome or threatening allergens and asthma risks.

The Margo Moo Steam Inhaler

Asthma can be a rough deal for persons of any age. So if you’re a little kid who is scared and nervous about not being able to breathe right, it really helps to have a friend on your side.

It really helps when that “friend” works just as well to control and regulate asthma symptoms as “big people” inhalers. Yes, the Margo Moo Steam Inhaler may look like a child’s plaything, but it is anything but.

Margo Moo doesn’t even quit with treating allergies. This steam inhaler provides a fast 6 to 9 minute treatment that can relieve symptoms of allergies, bronchitis, colds, laryngitis, flu and just plain dry throat from forced air heating or other household irritants that lead to breathing difficulties.

Margo Moo is a safe, effective natural therapy for all these symptoms. Of course our little friend Margo Moo was created just for kids. But hey, if you suffer from any of the conditions known to affect your breathing and want a little fun in your treatment, this inhaler could work for you, too.

The soft, flexible mask fits little faces better, of course. You can adjust the rate of steam treatment that reaches deep down into bronchial passages with soothing, relaxing, gentle moisture.

Just fill the Margo Moo with the measuring cup provide, put the mask on with a non-threatening elastic string and your little patient is ready to go.

There’s even an aromatherapy tank, and not because Margo smells like a real cow. Instead you can use the Margo Moo to induce a relaxed mood with a comfortable, familiar aroma chosen by your child.

The great thing about products like the Margo Moo Steam Inhaler is the familiarity and non-medical looking structure. Margo can help any nervous patient have a better experience treating breathing problems. At only $49.95 it comes with a Price Protection Guarantee that says if you find the Margo Moo Steam Inhaler for less anywhere else, you can get a refund of the difference in price from Allergy Asthma Technology. That’s a pretty assuring deal, all around.

Do American Kids Have Higher Rates of Asthma, Allergies?

There aren’t many things as American as hot dogs, baseball and apple pie, but you soon might want to add allergies and asthma to the list.

In a study that checked more than 90,000 kids around the world between 0 and 17 years of age, JAMA Pediatrics learned that American kids have higher incidences of auto-immune diseases and conditions including asthma, eczema, hay fever and allergies to foods.

The rate of incidence in allergy-related disease among American children is nearly 34% while the next highest areas of the world check in at about 20%.

The reasons for this higher allergy rate could be attributed to many factors. But one of the most pressing and interesting ideas is that American kids are simply kept too clean at too young of an age. The seeming obsession with germ prevention in America may be affecting the ability of children to develop natural immunities.

Strangely children who had lived outside America and were brought into the United States after more than 10 years of living in another country saw their allergy risk spike by up to three times the incidence compared to their countries of origin.

That suggests factors other than germs alone may be at work contributing to higher allergy and asthma incidences among children.

The Western diet has been blamed for its ironic dependence on heavy additives and artificial flavorings rather than more organic diets with natural spices to give flavor to foods, and green tea, a natural body cleanser, for beverages.

Climate, higher incidence of obesity, lack of exercise and strains of infections may be affecting children in the states as well.

Technology to Predict Pollen Forecasts

Brace for a possible big change in your local weather forecast. Soon you might hear Pollen Forecasts being read with the same data and predictive factors as weather.

The space agency NASA is contributing its technology to the discovery of ways to identify areas of high pollen risk. So when the wind blows, you’ll soon know when to protect your nose.

It works like this: Weather data is combined with facts about when high concentrations of pollen from plants are likely to occur. Using the same pattern technologies used to predict the weather, forecasters can crunch data to create pollen maps that will show how far and intensely the tiny grains of allergy-creating plant dust will blow.

That may result in being able to give, for example, a 72-hour warning about when pollen is like to be at its highest concentrations in a given area.

Believe it or not, satellites are currently being use to track the pollen of select species of trees such as junipers. These studies are providing a foundation for predicting the movement and density of other plant pollens as well.

Information such as this can give allergy sufferers a needed head start on using medications designed to limit the impact of allergy symptoms.