Negative Ions When certain kinds of winds begin to blow throughout the world, hospital admissions, suicides, and crime rates skyrocket. One country-Switzerland- even accepts the blowing of the "Foehn" during the commission of a crime as mitigating evidence in court. These "notorious" desert and sea winds are also linked to minor illnesses and malaise epidemics. Victims' claims range from sleeplessness, irritability, tension, migraines, nausea, palpitations and hot flashes with sweating o shills to tremor, vertigo, swelling, breathing difficulty, and frequent intestinal movement. In addition, elderly persons are affected with depression, apathy, and fatigue.
What causes these "witches' winds," as they are often called, to differ from others? What do they posses or lack that make them a dread to the lands or oceans they blow across? Positive ions. According to the experts, positive ions rob us of our good senses and dispositions, while their counterpart, negative ions, enhance them, stimulating everything from plant growth to the human sex drive..
OF MAJOR SIGNIFICANCE TO YOUR HEALTH IS THE AIR YOU BREATHE Negative ions can have a positive effect on people. An atom that has one of its normal orbiting electrons removed is called
a positive ion. (Doesn't "positive" imply that something has
been added?) So you see, it's really kind of backwards; the terms Negative and Positive are actually reversed, in this context. It's a misnomer that we can blame on Benjamin Franklin (so we hear) who lived in the 1700's. Back in his time, electrons (with a "negative" charge) and atoms were not understood correctly. But the word negative is still being used this way; to this day, an atom with an extra electron is still called a negative ion. So, we're all still stuck with this 18th century terminology, and that's why they're called "negative ions". "Remember that feeling you've experienced near a waterfall or high
in the mountains? Those are two places that thousands of negative ions
occur. They create an effect on human biochemistry." Depression and mood- Negative ions also have been shown to help lift mood, alleviate depression and seasonal affective disorder (winter depression or SAD). There is even a patent by a prominent researcher and institution for the treatment of depression with negative ions. HUMIDIFIER FEVER is a respiratory disease caused by an immune reaction to inhaling
aerosols containing various organic materials. It can occur as
an acute problem
and symptoms of fever, chills, coughing, myalgia, shortness of breath,
lethargy and malaise begin some 4 to 6 hours after breathing the contaminated
aerosol. These symptoms can persist for another 18 to 24 hours unless
re exposure occurs. With repeated exposures, symptoms become increasingly
severe and eventually lung damage can occur." HUMIDIFIER FEVER "
Molds, mildews, fungi, bacteria, viruses and dust mites need moisture
to thrive. Your humidifier may be providing the perfect environment for
them. Humidifier fever is a respiratory illness caused by exposure to
toxins from microorganisms found in wet or moist areas in humidifiers
and air conditioners. These biological contaminants leave a humidifier
in the form of fine water droplets and are inhaled. In addition, exposure
may cause allergies, respiratory irritation, infectious diseases and
eye, nose, and throat irritation. Symptoms of "humidifier fever" range
from mild fever with headache malaise and muscle ache to acute illness
with high fever cough, chest tightness and breathlessness on exertion.
Children, elderly, and people with pre-existing conditions involving
their respiratory or immune systems are more susceptible to biological
contaminants in the air. The following detailed article about negative ions Ions Can Do Strange Things To You Researchers believe that through control of the electrical charges in the air we breathe, our moods, energy and health can be markedly improved. One sweltering day in Philadelphia this summer a man sat before a small
metal box resting atop a hospital file cabinet. It was plugged into an
ordinary wall socket. A doctor flipped a switch. Inside the box a small
fan whirred; the box hummed distantly, like a high-tension wire, and
gave off a faint, sweetish odor. Soon the man felt alert, magical, refreshed,
as though he had been taking deep gulps of sparkling October air. The
doctor turned the machine off, switched on another that looked just like
it. The air grew quickly stale. The man's head felt stuffy. His eyes
smarted. His head began to ache. He felt vaguely depressed and tired. Falling barometric pressure and hot, dry, seasonal winds, such as the Alpine Fohn and the Rocky Mountain Chinook, for example, pack the air with an excess of positive ions. Not everyone is affected; healthy young people swiftly adapt to the change. But countless others are distressed. The aged come down with respiratory complaints, aching joints; asthma sufferers wheeze and gasp; children grow cranky and perverse; crime and suicide rates climb. On the other hand, a preponderance of negative ions spices the air with exhilarating freshness. We feel on top of the world. Dr. C. W. Hansell, research fellow at RCA Laboratories and an international authority on ionization, illustrates the effect with a story about his ten-year-old daughter. "We were outside, watching the approach of a thunderstorm. I knew that clouds of negative ions were filling the air. Suddenly my daughter began to dance across the grass, a radiant look in her face. She leaped up on a low boulder, threw her arms wide to the dark sky, and cried. 'Oh, I feel wonderful!'" Negative ions "cure" nothing that we know of, at most afford relief only so long as one inhales them. Many doctors doubt their therapeutic effects. But there is a growing army of people who swear by them. At the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate Hospital and at Northeastern and Frankford hospitals in Philadelphia, Dr. Kornblueh and his associates have administered negative-ion treatments to hundreds of patients suffering from hay fever or bronchial asthma. Of the total, 63 percent have experienced partial to total relief. "They come in sneezing, eyes watering, noses itching, worn out from lack of sleep, so miserable they can hardly walk," one doctor told me. "Fifteen minutes in front of the negative-ion machine and they feel so much better they don't want to leave." It was RCA's Dr. Hansell who, in 1932, stumbled upon the behavioral effects of artificially generated ions. He notice a startling swing in the moods of a fellow RCA scientist who worked beside an electrostatic generator. Some days the scientist finished work alert and in bubbling good spirits. On other days he was rude, ill-tempered, depressed. Dr. Hansell investigated found that the scientist was happy when the generator was adjusted to produce negative ions, morose when it was producing positive ions. A few months later, reports of ionization research in Europe confirmed the strange experience. A few years ago atmospheric ions became suddenly important to military, researchers in environmental medicine. How would they affect men locked in submarines? In space ships? What were the possibilities of ions therapy? Research programs multiplied, with fantastic results. In Philadelphia Dr. Kornblueh studied brain-wave patterns and found evidence that negative ions tranquilized persons in severe pain. In one dramatic test he held a negative ionizer to the nose and mouth of a factory worker who had been rushed to Northeastern Hospital with second-degree steam burns on his back and legs. In minutes the pain was gone. Morphine, customarily administered in such cases, was never necessary. Today all burn cases at Northeastern are immediately put in a windowless,
ion conditioned room. In ten minutes, usually, the pain has gone. Patients
are left in the room for 30 minutes. The treatment is repeated three
times every 24 hours. In 85 percents of the cases no pain-deadening narcotics
are needed. Says Northeastern's Dr. Robert McGowan, "Negative ions
make burns dry out faster, heal faster and with less scarring. They also
reduce the need for skin-grafting. They make the patient more optimistic.
He sleeps better. "All types of electronic gadgets, from high tension power lines
to microwave ovens, hair dryers, air conditioners, furnaces, and so forth,
almost always emit positive ions. Then there are the vehicles we drive
and ride in - - the exhaust fumes from cars, trucks, buses, subways,
and airplanes generate unbelievable tons of positive ions which poison
the very air we breathe." Clean air…" If you Can't Breathe, Nothing Else Matters"-- American Lung Association Tiny Air Pollutants Linked To Heart Attack |
