Trivia: Dust Mites in Your Mattress

• jenny
  January 24th, 2008 at 3:58 am

  well, i know it may sound gross, but i think a bed covered in microscopic mites isn’t as bad as a bed covered in dead skin cells..
  i mean, think of what it would be like if they werent there, kind of gross haha

• Miss Cellania
  January 24th, 2008 at 6:21 am

  That’s why I buy the impervious mattress and pillow covers, then use washable pads and sheets on top. I have a kid who is allergic to dust mites. That will improve your housecleaning habits like nothing else!

• Clinton Labombard
  January 24th, 2008 at 6:36 am

  Dead human skin cells? Well, as long as it’s a dead human.

• ChrisW
  January 24th, 2008 at 6:56 am

  That explains why my ten year old pillow weighs so much. Still comfy though. I wonder if I could claim the live ones as dependents.

• Sid Morrison
  January 24th, 2008 at 9:40 am

  Ya know, I’ve seen the quip about the 2 year old pillow before and frankly, I don’t buy it. Does anyone have a link to somebody who actually (in a lab) dissected a pillow then sorted & weighed all the bits? If I saw some original lab results, I might buy it, but I just keep seeing the same “inside the Snapple lid” trivia repeated. I’m sure there are zillions of dust mites, but a 10% mass fraction is huge. Where is the data?

• Ali S.
  January 24th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

  Ahhhhh! Unclean! :p

• Christophe
  January 24th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

  When I wake up hungry in the middle of the night, I just lick my pillow. Mmmmm… Proteins….

• Dim67
  January 24th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

  I guess the only way to keep their numbers down is to wash and replace your bedsheets every day, wash your comforter or blanket every month and use a steamcleaner to clean the top of your matress. Oh and using a vacuum cleaner is a bad idea…:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_mite

• VonSkippy
  January 24th, 2008 at 3:52 pm

  I with Sid on this one - 10% seems pretty fluffy without any hard data to back it up.

• Reechard
  January 24th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

  I’ve heard that this is in fact a myth and I just found this article. Certainly it’s not definitive but i think it makes the case
  http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000407.html

• THE BED MED
  January 31st, 2008 at 10:37 am

  Exactly how dangerous are indoor allergens?

  A: Without regularly scheduled allergen cleaning, you are inviting, into your living environment, a host of permanent medical problems, including respiratory problems such as asthma and bronchitis as well as other medical problems including: Eczema, dermatitis, perennial rhinitis, sinusitis, and more. Dust mites are the main trigger to stimute asthma, and asthma is rapidly increasing in the United States. You probably do not fear them for the simple fact that they are so small that you cannot see them with the human eye. They may be microscopic, but they are VERY hazardous to your heath.

  *Everyday symptoms include: itchy skin (little bumps and rashes), stuffed up nasal cavities, sneezing, puffy eyes, wheezing, tight chest, head or sinus ache, raspy voice, coughing, lethargy, mental fatigue, and even depression!

  Q: What are the health benefits of a clean mattress?

  A: Everything from a better night’s sleep to disease prevention! For a complete list, visit our Health Benefits page.

  http://WWW.THEBEDMED.COM

• THE BED MED
  February 10th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

  The New England journal of medicine has done studies on mattress covers and says in Conclusion Allergen-impermeable covers, as a single intervention for the avoidance of exposure to dust-mite allergen, seem clinically ineffective in adults with asthma. Volume 349:225-236 July 17, 2003 Number 3

• ali
  March 7th, 2008 at 8:22 pm

  I’m allergic to dust mites, it took me months to figure out that my bed was making me sneeze, itch and just feel crappy overall. I went out and bought casings for my bed and pillows and treated my bed with called Anti-Allergy Solution and since them my symptoms have subsided. If you want any more info about dust mites and how they affect you check out http://www.ecologyworks.com

• The bed med of sioux falls
  March 8th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

  Dust mites can be a serious problem to your health. Did you know these disgusting bugs are actually apart of the arachnid family? This is the same family as spiders and scorpions! Their allergenic by-products are produced from their saliva, feces, sticky egg secretions, and decaying body parts. Dust mites and indoor allergens cause air pollution. The EPA has deemed indoor air pollution as America’s number one health concern!
  •The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology suggest that almost half of all illnesses may be the result of unhealthy mattresses

• The bed med of Sioux falls
  March 8th, 2008 at 4:30 pm

  First of all, you will also need to purchase special sheets, pillow cases, vacuums, filters, beds, ect…which will cost a lot of money (thousands). These items combined will not give you the cleanliness of one of our cleanings. The problem is in the tiny particles from the dust mites that are extremely light-weight and the act of simply “fluffing” a pillow, or rolling over at night while sleeping (this occurs on average 50-60 times per night) cause the particles to become airborne and remain airborne for up to 2 hours while circulating throughout a home and settling on ALL furnishings. This negates the usefulness of dust mite-proof mattress covers and bedding. Also, dust mites and other dangers lurk in your carpet, curtains, furniture, and many other places. In fact, protective sheets, and pillow cases have been proven ineffective by leading scientists, as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine!
  Don’t just cover up the problem get to the source. Check out the website for more health benefits at http://www.thebedmed.com

• The bed med of Sioux falls
  March 21st, 2008 at 5:29 pm

  No matter how clean the home, all mattresses are prone to the same problem. When we sleep, we produce up to half a liter of sweat every night & shed about a gram of skin each day and although we wear night clothes, which we wash regularly, together with our bed linen, this is no protection against what happens to the mattress.
  Very quickly the mattress will become host to a multitude of horrors, from bacteria to fungal spores and microscopic house dust mites which feed off dead flakes of skin. Is it any wonder that without cleaning a mattress, it could be the dirtiest item in your home? It is estimated that there are up to 2 million house dust mites living in a mattress and in an average pillow, 10% of its weight is made up of dead skin and dust mites.
  House dust mites find a mattress the perfect breeding ground. With warmth and moisture and no natural enemies, they will establish in a mattress within several months and it is their droppings which cause most problems. These have been medically proven to trigger a whole host of allergic reactions, from Asthma, Eczema and Bronchitis, to Itchy Eyes and Sneezing.
  Even protective bedding sheets may be largely ineffective in reducing problems like asthma, when they are the only measure taken to combat an allergy (source: New England Journal of Medicine).
  The idea of mattress cleaning isn’t a new one. In other European countries and the United States, it has been performed for years. It’s chemical-free, dry and all performed on site using specially designed state of the art equipment.
  The current view of many experts is that dust mites are impossible to totally remove. This is true, it would be very expensive and almost impossible, but by knowing a little about them it is very feasible to make a dramatic impact on them and improve your dust mite allergy.
  Therefore, if a combination of measures are undertaken, then the likelihood of someone’s dust mite allergy improving will increase drastically.
  Most suggestions will be to remove carpets and replace with hardwood floor, buy a good protective mattress cover, wash at 130+ degrees and clean regularly. However, while this may help, this is not the right answer for everybody and that is why when we come to you to clean your mattress, we can help in many other ways as well.
  http://WWW.THEBEDMED.COM

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