Thoroughly Cleaning Your Bedroom Reduces Your Toxic Load

Was reading about microscopic bugs that eat your dead skin and have toxic poop on your to-do list today? Prolly not. But you should read this post anyway; it has some necessary info.

There is a tendency to think that toxins come only from industrial chemicals and that home dirt is inert, as in: “God made dirt and dirt don’t hurt.” This maxim holds true when we’re talking about the beautiful black loam of an organic garden. Getting our hands and feet in that is truly therapeutic.

But the dust lurking in our bedrooms tells a completely different story. For many people, the bedroom gets cleaned the most infrequently of any room because guests don’t see it. However, that is the room we spend at least one-third of our lives, so keeping the air pure should be a top priority in our cleaning routines.

Dust mites and their toxic droppings are what make bedroom dirt detrimental to health. Dust mites are microscopic eight-legged creatures that eat the dead skin that flakes off our bodies. Humans lose about 1/5 of an ounce of skin a week. This might not sound like a lot, but to microscopic organisms, it’s a feast.

Since we spend about 1/3 of our lives in our bedrooms, dead skin tends to accumulate in the bedroom more than anywhere else.

We’ll never be able to eliminate dust mites completely but it’s optimal for health to keep them at a minimum.

A few weeks ago, I did a post called Having Trouble Losing Weight? Toxins May Be Your Problem. In it, I explained how the body locks toxins away in fat cells as a way to protect the rest of the body.

However, this type of fat gain only happens when the toxic load exceeds the body’s ability to detox. Therefore, if you can keep your body from being overwhelmed by toxins, you can keep it from creating extra fat as a protective mechanism.

This means that any reduction in toxins will push you in a healthier direction, and can make losing weight easier.

Many toxins are out of our control, such as smog or fumes in the air we breathe while outside. However, if we eliminate the ones we can control, that will allow our body the bandwidth to detox from the ones out of our control.

One of the most overlooked areas when it comes to toxins is the simple idea of keeping the bedroom very clean. It rarely occurs to people when they begin on the journey of eliminating toxins from their lives.

The main problem with bedroom dust is that it is filled with dust mites whose feces is a known human irritant. There are over 20 allergens in a single dust mite dropping, and they enter the human bloodstream when inhaled.

Although a negative reaction is most pronounced in those with asthma and allergies, breathing dust mite feces is bad for everyone.

One of the worst offenders in dust mite feces is an enzyme called Der p1.

Consider a quote from this article:

The house dust mite allergen (Der p1) is an active digestive enzyme that can cause cell death in the lungs, nose, eyes or on skin. It does this by 'melting' the glue-like substance that binds cells together. The cell's death in turn gives the enzyme access to the body risking an immune reaction.

The enzyme Der p1 is made in the gut of the house dust mite and then excreted into its dropping. The droppings are small enough to be breathed in and dissolve in moist conditions. In these conditions, and in a concentrated form, Der p1 rapidly escapes for dispersal. In the environment the majority of the fragmented enzyme will attach to large particles. However, Der p1 has been found on tiny fragments of fibers and various flakes, all of which can be inhaled more readily.

Some studies show that dust mites and the allergic reactions they provoke are a root cause of asthma in children and can actually cause lung cell death. Prolonged exposure to dust mite allergens can also lead to eczema, gut issues, ear problems, conjunctivitis, and hay fever.

The Journal of Learning Disabilities says:

Removing dust mites to reduce allergic response in sensitive children may enhance their personal development and improve learning, memory, attendance, concentration and academic performance.

The New England Journal of Medicine published this year-long study where researchers studied the effects of various triggers on children with asthma. They found that giving children beds with dust mite protectors and regularly washing sheets greatly reduced asthma symptoms.

I know that thinking about dust mites is not something you’re overly excited about.

But in keeping with the theme of this stack, that information is motivation, I’m going to accost your senses now by showing you a picture of a dust mite because if this doesn’t motivate you to keep your bedroom clean, I don’t know what will:

Yuck!

But the good news is that giving your bedroom a thorough cleaning is one of the easiest and cheapest things you can do to reduce your toxic load. You can start right now after you finish reading this post. Many of these steps are completely free while others may require some purchases.