SMS HOLISTIC CHIROPRACTIC OFFICE
14 Glen Cove Road
Roslyn Heights, N.Y. 11577
523 Townline Road
Hauppauge, N.Y. 111788

(516) 484-0776
SMS Holistic Chiropractic Office

What Exactly is in Every Breath You Take?
Pieces of Bugs, Stars and Much More

© 2018 Health Realizations, Inc. Update


You take an average of 24,000 breaths every day. This amounts to about 2 gallons of air taken into your body every minute, and almost 3,000 gallons every day.

breathing air

There are cockroach parts, fungal spores, and byproducts of human flatulence in your breathing air, but there's no need to hold your breath. Keep reading to find out why one expert says these extra particles may be beneficial.

While you may typically think of "air" as oxygen, this vital gas makes up only a small portion of the gaseous mix you inhale. In fact, air is made up of:

  • 78 percent nitrogen

  • 21 percent oxygen

  • Less than 1 percent carbon dioxide

  • Trace amounts of other gases

Of course, there are also contaminants in our air, more commonly called air pollution, that come from various human activities. This includes particle pollution, the kind that comes from diesel exhaust fumes, power plant and factory smoke and soot from wood burning and ozone pollution (also known as smog).

Just what types of contaminants are released into the air? Cancer-causing formaldehyde (to the tune of 250,000 tons a year), benzene (about 375,000 tons a year) and ammonia from agricultural operations (2 million tons year), to name a few.

But while you may expect some of these environmental pollutants to be lurking in the air you breathe, there are other, quite shocking, things -- from underground, outer space and more -- in there as well.

Your Air Travels Around the World

Molecules in air ricochet off one another at hundreds of miles per hour. In just weeks, any given volume of air molecules will have traveled around the world. In a few years, those same molecules will be evenly spread throughout the entire lower atmosphere of the planet, according to DISCOVER Magazine.

What does this mean to you? In short, that any and every particle that's released into the air will eventually make it to your neck of the woods, and very likely into your lungs.

breaths per day

The average adult takes in 24,000 breaths in a day, but when you exercise you may take in much more than that.

Certain pollutants ARE exempt from this rotating process because they're broken down before they travel too far, yet many chemicals do travel thousands upon thousands of miles.

Take, for instance, cosmic dust. This once belonged to huge space rocks that, fortunately, were broken down by the Earth's atmosphere. Still, the particles trickle down and move through the air, and we all reportedly inhale three particles from a meteoroid every year, according to DISCOVER.

The Air in Your Home

While your outdoor air may be ripe with chemicals, your indoor air is an entirely different animal. DISCOVER has pinpointed the numerous sundries in your home and office environments. Consider that in your home you're breathing in:

  • Chlorine gas from your cleaning products

  • Pieces of cockroaches and other bugs

  • Microscopic dust mites

Meanwhile, at work, a cubic meter of air in your office contains:

  • Several hundred fungal spores

  • 89 micrograms of ethanol

  • 42 micrograms of acetone

  • 16 micrograms of formaldehyde

  • 1/2 microgram of chloroform

  • Byproducts of your coworkers' flatulence

But that's not all. Every time you change your clothes, you jostle up 1 million microbes into the air every minute.

And if you've ever experienced flooding in your home, indoor mold is most assuredly also in your air.

Is all of this random "stuff" in your air harmful? Quite the contrary.

The low levels of bacteria and other microbes in your air may help to boost your immune system, according to Eoin Brodie, a microbiologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

"It may actually be protecting us," he says in DISCOVER.

Of course, the idea of breathing in cockroach bits is not pleasant. Household dust alone contains not only insect parts (including ant heads and more) but also:

  • Shed human skin cells

  • Flame retardants like polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)

  • Paint particles

  • Cigarette smoke (and its toxic byproducts)

  • Pesticides

  • PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls)

  • PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons)

  • Fabric fibers from your clothes, carpets, upholstery, etc.

  • Sand and soil particles

To help keep your home, and your home's air, at least partially free of insect parts and chemicals, dust your home often.

Of course, it's impossible to remove EVERY particle from your air, and, as Brodie pointed out, you wouldn't want to. Simply using commonsense in regard to the toxins (pesticides, cleaning products, etc.) you release into your home, and dusting your home regularly to keep it clean, will go a long way toward keeping your and your family's indoor air safe and sound.


Sources

DISCOVER Magazine

Air Info Now


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Address : 14 Glen Cove Road
Roslyn Heights, N.Y. 11577

523 Townline Road
Hauppauge, N.Y. 111788

Phone : (516) 484-0776
Fax : 516-484-0795
Email Address(s) : Drsmsilverman@aol.com
Website : www.drstevensilverman.com
 
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The information and statements contained in this eMagazine article by Health Realizations or any added comments herein have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The contents of this eMagazine article or additional comments are for informational purposes only are is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Your reliance on any information provided by Health Realizations, its affiliates, content providers, member physicians or employees or comment contributors is solely at your own risk. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice, or delay seeking medical advice or treatment, because of information contained in a Health Realizations eMagazine. Health Realizations does not, and cannot, recommend or endorse any specific products, treatments, procedures, tests, physicians or other information that may be mentioned in a Health Realizations eMagazine.

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