Asthma and Air Filtering devices

[ChadTower]

My wife has asthma... my older son is developing it now.  I most definitely do NOT have asthma (I can bounce the flow meter off the max reading and half way back) so I'm not that familiar with management of asthma.

I know some people with asthma have air filtering devices.  A friend of mine (who has since moved to NC, so no contact there) had a couple of them... they looked like humidifiers.  Does anyone here have experience with using them to help asthma?  I could use some experienced advice with this as I'd like to do everything and anything I can to lessen my son's potential asthma.

[GGKoul]

A friend of mine moved to a house with baseboard heaters because of his asthma.  As the heat ducts and furance were very bad for him.

[ChadTower]

Yeah, we do have forced hot air.  I will look into higher quality air filters for the heating system, good point.  The ones we use now are middle of the road, nonallergen blocking I think.  Selling our house, though, would obviously only be considered if the situation were far more serious than it is now.

[Stingray]

I don't have asthma, but regarding the filters in your furnace, there's a spray that you can buy, it's usually right next to the filters. Buy some of it and give your new filter a good soaking with it. It really seems to help the filter trap more crap out of the air.

-S

[shmokes]

My chiropracter claims that he can cure asthma, LOL.

[shmokes]

He also believes that when Jesus used the "laying on of hands" to heal people, he was doing chiropractic work. 

I wonder why these people are called "quacks" so often...

[GGKoul]

He also believes that when Jesus used the "laying on of hands" to heal people, he was doing chiropractic work.

[Stingray]

In my experience, chiropracters think they can cure everything.

-S

[RecycledPast]

I don't know much about asthma but I have looked into air purifiers a little.  My wife is allergic our cats.
Most allergens come from outside the house.

Get a higher quality air filter for your furnace and you should change them more frequently (monthly instead of every 3 months). 

Vaccum frequently, get a vaccum with a HEPA filter.

The air purifiers your asking about are HEPA air filters.  You buy them based on the size of the room.  They cost about $100-$500 depending on room size and they have two filters in them.  The charcol prefilter needs to be changed about every 3 months and the HEPA filter needs to be changed every 1-3 years.
There are whole house HEPA filters you can buy that attach to your furnace but I'm not sure if they can only be attached to new furnaces.

Wrap pillows, mattress in a special cover that keeps dust mites out.

You can get most of these things at Target or there are places like http://www.priorities.com/

It gets costly very fast, but it's difficult to put a price on good health.  Start your focus on the rooms they spend most of their time in like bedroom, living room etc...

[shmokes]

Your the one that has a chiropracticer...

Actually I don't.  I've only been to the guy twice and that was a few years ago.  But I would if money were no object.  I can't vouch one way or the other for long term health benefits or anything, but I feel like a million bucks when I get home after getting adjusted by him.  It's similar to getting a massage.

Plus I get the bonus of listening to all the truly bizarre things that come out of his mouth like the Jesus and Asthma stuff.