Naturally Relieve a Dust Mite Allergy Without Medication

Dust mite allergies are one of the most common chronic conditions in the world. The World Health Organization estimates between 10-40% of people suffer from an allergy – and half of those may be allergic to dust mites. But what causes a dust mite allergy? And can the symptoms be relieved without medication?

What is a Dust Mite Allergy?

Dust mites are tiny creatures that can only be seen under a microscope. Despite their size, mites can cause chronic health problems.

These miniature arachnids thrive in warm and humid environments, such as in beds, carpets, and curtains. A single female mite can lay up to 25 “baby” mites each week – so their population can quickly explode.

While they don’t bite, mite body parts and feces contain proteins that can trigger allergic reactions. These become trapped in mattresses, furniture, or carpets before being pushed into the air as people disturb them.

As there can be over 10,000 mites in a single gram of dust, the typical home contains a huge number of allergens. This results in near-continuous allergy symptoms that can greatly affect your quality of life.

Related: Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease

What are the Symptoms?

Some of the most common symptoms of a dust mite allergy include:

  • Sneezing and coughing
  • Runny and stuffy nose
  • Itchy eyes
  • Increased asthma symptoms such as breathing problems or chest tightness

These symptoms are often referred to as perennial allergic rhinitis. This is because they can be triggered all-year round. While mite numbers peak in the humid summer months, there is enough of them to cause reactions in any season.

Why Traditional Allergy Treatments Often Fail with Dust Mites

The most common advice for treating an allergy is to avoid the triggering allergen. For pet dander or even certain food allergies, this is difficult but not impossible. Dust mites can infest almost everywhere in a home though, so it’s impossible to avoid them.

This leads to a variety of medications being recommended for relieving symptoms. Some of the most common include antihistamines, corticosteroids, and nasal decongestants.

Despite being widely used, even doctors admit these medications rarely provide complete relief. They are often used instead of natural methods that can be more effective. Medication can also discourage people from reducing the quantity of mite allergens in the home.

Natural Treatments for a Dust Allergy

The good news is there are plenty of natural techniques to relieve a dust mite allergy. Some focus on the symptoms and provide instant relief. Others aim to eliminate dust mites and reduce allergenic particles in the home.

Kill Mites with Low Humidity

One of the most effective ways to reduce mite populations is by lowering the humidity in your home. Dust mites can’t survive if the relative humidity falls below 50%, so maintaining a lower humidity is the closest you can get to a “mite free” home.

If you don’t mind spending a bit of money, a dehumidifier is the easiest way to reduce relative humidity. Most dehumidifiers have a humidistat so they only switch on when humidity starts to rise. This saves energy and means you don’t need to manually adjust the settings.

Alternatively, improving ventilation in your home and drying clothes outside can reduce humidity. It’s also a good idea to keep windows open when you’re cooking.

Related: Improve Indoor Air Quality to Promote Health

Take a Teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar

A traditional method for relieving an allergy is to take a teaspoon of unfiltered apple cider vinegar with a glass of water.

Drinking this mixture two or three times each day can help clear nasal passages. It won’t eliminate all symptoms, but can relieve a blocked nose without medication.

Related: Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar & How to Make Your Own

Get Allergen-Proof Bedding

Dust mites love mattresses and bed sheets. This is bad news for people with allergies, as it means symptoms can affect your sleep quality.

Allergen-proof bedding is a potential solution. Unlike regular sheets, this has small pores that prevent mites getting into your bed. Most anti-dust mite bedding is made from plastic sheets, but you can buy fabric versions if you prefer.

While anti-allergen bedding is great for reducing mites in your bed, it still needs to be washed regularly.

Product Recommendation: Mattresses

Vacuum At Least Once a Week

Reducing humidity kills dust mites, but it doesn’t get rid of their body parts. This means there are still millions of allergenic particles waiting to be stirred into the air.

The fastest way to get rid of these is vacuuming – but it’s vital to use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter. There are plenty of powerful vacuums on the market, but many allow dust mites and other allergens to pass straight through the machine. This means vacuuming can temporarily make your symptoms worse.

Vacuums with HEPA filters don’t have this problem. These can filter smaller particles with much higher efficiency. It’s also a good idea to buy a bagged vacuum, as these seal automatically when emptied.

Remember to vacuum every area of the home that dust mites like to live. This includes upholstery, carpets, curtains, stairs, and mattresses.

Recommended: How Himalayan Salt Lamps Work

Wash Bedding and Furniture Covers on a High Heat

A quick way to kill mites in bedding or furniture covers is washing at a temperature of 55 degrees Celsius or above. This doesn’t just get rid of living mites – it also washes away feces and dead mite parts.

Remember to vacuum your mattress when your sheets are washing. This can help reduce symptoms at night.

Related: What’s Ailing You? Could it be Your Mattress?

Think Minimalist

The more furniture, books, soft toys, and pillows you have in your home, the more difficult it is to get rid of mites.

For this reason, you should try to eliminate clutter if you suffer from a dust mite allergy. This makes it much easier to vacuum and steam clean effectively.

If possible, you should also replace carpets with hard floors. Mites thrive in the warm environment provided by carpet fibers, but struggle on hard floors. Even if you don’t like the feel of hardwood or vinyl, you can add a machine-washable rug for a softer floor that’s easy to wash.

Conclusion

If a dust mite allergy is affecting you, medication may not be the most effective answer. Natural methods to relieve allergies and reduce the quantity of mites in your home can quickly eliminate symptoms.

The key is to take action. Most methods for killing dust mites require time and effort, so the sooner you start the faster you’ll see results.

Your first step should be to reduce the relative humidity in your home to below 50%. This is the fastest way to kill mites, as they can’t survive in these conditions. You can then maintain a low mite population by vacuuming, reducing clutter, and washing bedding at a high temperature. Using anti-allergen bedding and removing carpets in your bedroom can also improve sleep quality.

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Tiny Homes — The Biggest Life Hack

8 Reasons You’ll Never Want to Live in a Standard House Again

If you had the freedom to do anything you wanted with your life, what would you do?

Would you quit your job? Maybe buy your first home? Take up a sport? Spend more time with loved ones? Volunteer? Open up a business? Travel the world? Make babies? Go back to school? Become a Buddhist monk?

Mentalize your answer. Okay, next question. What is holding you back?

The three most common factors that keep the majority of us from living the life we desire are money, time, and our own self-imposed limitations. Fortunately, there is one thing that can help free you from these limiting factors — a tiny house.

What Exactly is a Tiny House?

As far as size, there is no official document stating how big or small a tiny house must be, however, it is on average 186 square feet while a standard house in America is around 2,687 square feet. In other words, you can fit 11 tiny houses in one standard American house. To be legally considered a mobile home, it must have wheels.

At this point, you may be thinking how you could possibly live in a human-sized chicken coop! But when you experience what a tiny home is really like you will realize that it provides you with the space that you need without any excess. The reason why having a tiny home seems like a crazy idea at first is because we have forgotten the true purpose of a home. The home should be a place of safety, comfort, joy, and love. Instead, we become prisoners to our own houses — overcome with debt, stress, and chaos.

The Prison That We Built for Ourselves

We have been working 5 out of 7 days, full-time, just so we can pay our bills, instead of investing in a better life. We pay for rent, mortgage, electricity, water, health insurance, car bills, schooling, food and water, taxes, then we (try to) save some money. At the end of all that, we take the small amount of money we have left and (try to) enjoy our one or two days of rest. But the whole time we feel like we are walking a tightrope, ready to plummet into foreclosure with any misstep.

What happens when you don’t have enough money to pay off all your bills? And what about time? Working full-time how can you find a way to go on a nice, relaxing trip, indulge in activities you’re passionate about, or do those things you wrote down on your bucket list? Shouldn’t life be more simple, relaxing, and enjoyable?

It’s Time to Break Out of Prison

In this article, you will discover how you can live a big life in a tiny home, that will allow you to have a dream life that most only achieve, after long years of hard, consistent work and self-sacrifice.
Yes, you can have financial and emotional freedom once and for all. No more worrying about bills, money, time or even your health. So without further ado, here are 8 ways a tiny home is the answer to your prayers.

1. Say “Goodbye” to Your Mortgage and “Hello” to Your Dream Home.

Sometimes our budget won’t buy us the home of our dreams or rent us the apartment we wanted, forcing us to turn to banks for a “solution”, while many times, being left in huge debt and distress. Financing your tiny home, however, is much easier.

Statistics show that 68% of tiny house owners have no mortgage compared to 29.3% of all U.S. homeowners. But why is that?

Well, the cost of a tiny home ranges between $30,000-$40,000 when you hire a contractor to build it or if you choose to buy it ready. The cost lowers to $23.000 if you were to buy the materials and build it yourself.

The Standard American home, on the other hand, costs on average $272.000. But that price is only for those who have that full amount in their bank account. If you are like most of us who don’t have all that money saved up, you add $209.704 of interest on a 4.25% 30-year loan and there you have it! $481.704 is the accurate pricing for your average standard home.

So what that means is that by choosing a tiny home you would be saving around $441,704 just on the house itself. That’s without counting the health you will gain along with extra life years if you subtract about 3 decades of mortgage, stress and sleepless nights from that equation.

2. Take Your Tiny House with You While Traveling.

 

Imagine you get offered an incredible job opportunity a few states over, and you need to sell your home fast. How long do you think it would take until you had everything settled for a move with a standard house? Definitely not the next day right?

Let’s face it, with a standard home you’re stuck (literally).

This is why a tiny house is the most practical way of living. You can travel with it at any time. Just hook it up to the back of a truck and drive to your newest adventure.

You mean I won’t have to pay for hotel rooms anymore!?

That’s right. With a tiny home, there is no need to worry about shelter when you are on the road.

If the move is permanent, you would need to rent or buy a piece of land to park it on and that’s it. Could a standard American home provide you with this much freedom?

3.  You Can Have an Organized and Clutter-Free Life.

By ridding your house of all the things that you don’t need, you will have a neat and organized home that you will take pleasure in coming back to. In the tiny house, it’s a lot easier to make this happen since you won’t have that full sized closet space for storage anymore.

So when you hop over to a store like Target to grab that toilet paper, and you start automatically reaching for a pair of Cheetah print shoes, you will think twice about it. (which in this case i really hope you do.) If you live in a standard home, you will probably buy those Cheetah print shoes because it’s easier to justify. I mean, you already have the space and you are already in debt, so why not?
A tiny home really allows you to keep in check with reality. You will have the opportunity to finally donate and sell those extra items, helping more people and getting extra money to spend.

As Elise Boulding, the sociologist and credited author once wisely said:

The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.”

Here is a great “how to” video on de-cluttering to help you:

 

4. Save More and Live Better.

It is by no coincidence that 55% of tiny house people have more savings than the average american, with a median of 10,972 in the bank.Think about it, when you cut down the size of your home, it’s only natural that you cut down the size of your costs. With a tiny house your utility bill, as well as rental of property are symbolic in value compared to bills of a standard house.

If you do take out loans to build it, you will have paid it off in few years max, where with standard homes you spend decades or pretty much your entire life paying mortgage while running the risk of losing everything you’ve invested. With these smaller costs of living, you can use that extra money with things and experiences that will bring you happiness and satisfaction.

I talked with Jon Dandridge, a financial analyst, medical student as well as tiny house owner who says:

It’s really nice to know that our house is paid for you know? We didn’t need to take out any loans for it. This is just unheard of nowadays with traditional houses.”

The savings continue to add up, even after the tiny home is built. For example, Jon recently had a problem with the plumbing in his tiny home and had to redo all of it. In a standard, 2-bathroom home this would cost between $4,000 and $10,000.  But how much did it cost Jon?

It cost us only about a hundred bucks. It’s incredible how we save tons of money just by living simpler.”

While many of us are itching our heads, constantly worried about where we’ll come up with the money to pay for that unexpected bill, tiny house owners are continuously filling up their savings account, going on adventures, and living out their dreams.

5. You can Make it the Most Eco-Friendly Home.

We are facing a serious global crisis in terms of pollution levels, global warming, climate change as well as extinction of wild species, and these little houses are making a huge positive impact.

While each standard home produces on average an absurd amount of 28,000 pounds of CO2 per year for electricity, heating and cooling, uses up 7 full logging trucks of lumber and has 45 light bulbs consuming 639 kWh of electricity per year, a tiny home only produces 2,000 pounds of CO2, uses ½ of a logging truck of lumber and has 6 light bulbs consuming a measly 85.2 kWh of electricity per year.

Pretty incredible, huh?

For those who are passionate about saving the planet (as well as money), there are numerous other ways to do it in a tiny house. Some examples are: utilizing composting toilets, solar panels, rainwater harvesting tool, insulated windows, water-saving shower-heads, eco-kettles, starting your own organic garden and etc. There is a world of opportunities for you beautiful souls.

6. It can be Adapted to Fit Any Lifestyle.

 

A common worry people have is that a tiny house is only meant for one person to live in, which is a false statement. There are many families living comfortably in tiny homes all over the world, in fact, some even prefer it. Let’s take Kim Kasl for example, a tiny housewife and mother of two kids who says that “parenting (in the tiny) is much easier. We’re more connected, cozy, and engaged.”

This means that with a tiny house you are free to raise a family, as you get to design your home as perfectly as you need it as far as size, decoration, the exterior environment and more. Every detail can be well thought out so that it fits your specific needs at a small cost. For example, if you are handicapped, have a special disease, live in severe cold weather or in very hot environment, you will be able to find a creative solution to meet your needs.

Check out this awesome tiny house that is wheelchair friendly:

7. Living In a Tiny Home Promotes Stronger and Healthier Relationships.

Just as having a baby can create a beautiful bond between a man and a woman who love each other, so can a tiny house. You go from planning it out and discussing all the details, to seeing it come true before your own two eyes.

Jon says building a tiny house with his wife Adelle “enhanced his relationship”. They not only designed it together, but built most of it.

I also asked Adelle about how building the tiny house together affected their relationship:

building the tiny house with Jon helped balance out the dynamics of the relationship. It made our respect for each other grow as we learned to give in to each others wishes instead of wanting to control.”

Thank you for the feedback Jon and Adelle, we genuinely wish you both a blessed journey together in your enchanting tiny home.

8. What is Better than Having More Money? Having More Time.

Most of us live a high-maintenance reality where we are forced to run, sweat and work our butts off on a regular basis, otherwise we get run over by “life”. But is life truly forcing us to live a hectic experience, or is it just us being slaves to our illusions? Selling our souls for a job that we hate because it pays well? What is the point in being able to afford all superfluous things in the world if you have to be in a stressful work environment everyday? If you don’t have freedom? If you don’t have time?

Must Read: How To Be Happy

A tiny house cuts down your costs of living, so that you may work way less, if you wish, and have more time to experience life to the fullest, while also increasing your health as a consequence of being more stress-free and purposeful.

Here is a quick, fun little video about time that will change your perception of life.

The Takeaway

Regardless whether you are retired with a fixed income wanting a simpler life, a single college graduate looking to buy your first home, someone who is tired of sharing a house, or a parent with kids to raise, a tiny home is exactly what you are looking for.

You can be one of the 65% of tiny house people with zero credit card debt, you can save and go after that job you know will make you happy, maybe give up that routine and live with audacity, get out there and start dating again, try something new, live an adventure, travel, write a book, start a family etc. The options are endless!

A tiny house gives you the opportunity to start living. This is why they are such a mind blowing life hack. Who thought that you could have the home of your dreams, while saving tons of money, benefiting the environment, growing your relationship, getting rid of debt, and improving your health and life quality with the freedom to go anywhere, at any time? Yes, tiny homes are here to revolutionize.

They are here to ask you one simple question:

Why just get through life, when you can start living?

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Bumblebees Are Now An Endangered Species

The rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis), once such a common site in North America, is now on the endangered species list. This bee species was once abundant and thriving in 28 states and the District of Columbia. They were common in the grasslands and prairies of the East and the Midwest. Now, the bees that are left are mostly confined to small areas within twelve states and the province of Ontario Canada.

We are thrilled to see one of North America’s most endangered species receive the protection it needs. Now that the Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the rusty-patched bumble bee as endangered, it stands a chance of surviving the many threats it faces — from the use of neonicotinoid pesticides to diseases.” – Xerces Society director of endangered species, Sarah Jepsen

The bee’s population is down almost 90 percent since the 1990s. But other pollinators may reap the benefits of protecting the bumblebee as well.

“While this listing clearly supports the rusty patched bumble bee, the entire suite of pollinators that share its habitat, and which are so critical to natural ecosystems and agriculture, will also benefit. This is a positive step towards the conservation of this species, and we now have to roll up our sleeves to begin the actual on-the-ground conservation that will help it move toward recovery.” – Rich Hatfield, Xerces Society senior conservation biologist

It wasn’t easy getting the bee listed, and there is a good chance the designation of bumble bees as an endangered species will face more resistance from several industries and corporations. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized the bumblebee’s listing as an endangered species on January 11th, but it took longer than expected to put the bee on the list of endangered species. The National Cotton Council, the National Association of Home Builders, and the American Petroleum Institute pushed to postpone the decision and Trump’s administration delayed Obama-era regulations that hadn’t yet taken into effect, which delayed the rusty-patched bumblebee from being listed.

The Endangered Species Act was passed by Congress in 1973 and signed into law by President Nixon in December of the same year. The legislation is considered the most significant and powerful wildlife protection act in U.S. history. The Trump administration is interested in gutting or possibly ending the Endangered Species Act.

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Jellyfish Diapers? Not So Crazy…

An ocean filled with venomous jellyfish is hardly something to celebrate. However, for an innovative Israeli company, it’s a crucial part of their solution to combat the overabundance of diapers winding up in landfills every year.

Why Jellyfish?

Thanks to the triple threat of climate change, increasing ocean acidity, and overfishing, jellyfish are steadily taking over the world’s oceans. The decline of global fisheries means that jellyfish encounter fewer predators and competitors for food in their ocean habitat, and jellyfish populations have grown so quickly in recent years that many researchers believe the ocean will soon be dominated by them.

Not only is the rise of jellyfish a depressing threat to diversity in the ocean, they also pose a real problem in the modern world. Besides giving beachgoers painful stings, jellyfish are also capable of harming underwater infrastructure. In 2013, a cluster of jellyfish caused a Swedish nuclear reactor to shut down when they were sucked into the cooling pipe, and their threat is only growing worse. According to the National Science Foundation, colonies of jellyfish in the Gulf of Mexico already can stretch over 100 miles long,

Equally troubling is the increasing amount of diapers, sanitary pads and tampons winding up in landfills every year. These absorbent products are made from synthetic polymers that take hundreds of years to break down, and over 27 billion diapers are tossed in the trash in the United States every year, resulting in over 3.4 million tons of waste.

The Magic of Jellyfish Diapers

Hard as it may seem to see the connection between diapers and jellyfish, one company thinks that their combination can help solve the problems produced by both.

Cine’al Ltd., an Israeli nanotechnology company, has found a way to make biodegradable diapers from jellyfish. Inspired by research from Tel Aviv University about the potential of jellyfish for use as a durable, biodegradable fabric, these diapers are twice as absorbent as regular ones and decompose in less than a month, meaning that fewer diapers are left to rot in waste centers.

The key to the absorbency of these special diapers comes from a patented material called “hydromash”. By breaking down jellyfish flesh and infusing it with antibiotic nanoparticles that remove the sting, hydromash creates a strong, flexible material that’s completely biodegradable in a matter of weeks.

Now, Cine’al Ltd. is using hydromash to develop infant and adult diapers as well as sanitary pads and tampons. Because the global diaper market was worth an estimated $52 billion in 2015, these jellyfish diapers have tremendous potential to make a positive difference for the planet.

Long-Term Benefits of Jellyfish Diapers

While the degradation hitting the world’s oceans today is devastating to diversity, there might be a small silver lining if the increasing numbers of jellyfish can be converted into sustainable alternatives to synthetic plastics. If Cine’al diapers and sanitary products are a success, they might start a trend for using jellyfish in other ways that limit the impact of plastic pollution on the planet’s surface.

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Could Gigafactories Power the Whole World?

Elon Musk, the visionary billionaire CEO of Tesla and SolarCity, says that the revolutionary new “Gigafactory” now under construction can serve as a model for transitioning the world to sustainable energy. In an interview in the short film, Before the Flood, he states:

“We actually did the calculations to figure out what it would take to transition the whole world to sustainable energy… and you’d need 100 Giga factories.”

For utilities and grid operators, the technology is designed to enable remote-aggregated control of solar battery systems. I urge anyone reading this who is responsible for managing grid operations, and who is interested in procuring capacity, reactive power, or voltage management services deep in the distribution system to contact us.”

Tesla’s batteries also give energy users the ability to go completely off the grid using clean renewable energy.

With the goal of reducing dependence on fossil fuels and halting climate change, Musk’s company, SolarCity, has revolutionized the rooftop solar industry. It has become the largest supplier of solar power for homes and businesses in the United States. Just a month after Google invested $300 million in the company, SolarCity activated a fund that included an investment from Credit Suisse, which is expected to finance more than $1 billion in commercial solar energy projects.

Businesses and government organizations are able to access SolarCity’s DemandLogic energy storage system. That access enables them to reduce their energy costs by using stored electricity during times of peak demand. Remote communities that are vulnerable to frequent power outages that result in higher energy costs can also access the company’s GridLogic micro-grid service.

Musk is urging other large companies worldwide to invest in building Giga factories of their own. “If the big industrial companies in China, the U.S., and Europe…do this then collectively we can accelerate the transition to sustainable energy. And if the government sets the rules to favor sustainable energy, we can get there really quickly.”

There are a number of things about Tesla’s Gigafactory that are well worth emulating.

The Model

Located in Sparks, Nevada, on Electric Avenue, Tesla’s Gigafactory is one of the largest structures ever built. At approximately 6 million square feet, it covers 126 acres. Multiple levels could expand its square footage to up to 15 million square feet. Employees there call it the “alien dreadnaught.” Musk estimates that by 2020, the factory will house 6,500 employees.

The good news for those employees is that the heavy lifting and transport will be done by mobile robots called automated guided vehicles (AGVs). They navigate by following magnetic tape on the ground and are equipped with sensors and a laser guidance system. Much of the repetitive motion work of battery building will be assisted by robotic arms.

To reduce the environmental impact of excavation and building, the factory is diamond-shaped. It is also aligned with true north to allow daily operations to take full advantage of solar panels and GPS capabilities. The design allows it to be powered entirely by sustainable energy sources. For the first time, all the processes required to build batteries will be in a single factory. Rail cars will transport raw materials straight into one end of the factory, and finished batteries will emerge at the other end.

Musk estimates that by 2020, the factory will be able to produce more lithium-ion batteries than all of the worldwide battery makers combined were able to produce in 2013. Further, he estimates that the price of those batteries will be reduced by approximately 30%. In practical terms, that means that the cost of the eco-friendly Tesla Model 3 will be priced at just $35,000.

In an effort to further encourage the use of solar energy worldwide, in 2015, SolarCity purchased ILIOSS, a company in Mexico that specializes in solar installation for commercial and industrial projects. According to research data, demand for solar power by commercial and industrial interests in Mexico are expected to increase over 1000% by 2020. According to a company spokesperson, “Mexico’s combination of high electricity rates, favorable solar economics, and massive solar resources makes it one of the most promising solar markets in the world.”

South Australian companies have been promised governmental support in transforming the country’s energy infrastructure to include solar energy. Energy storage capability is essential for replacing aging coal and gas plants. Towards that end, Musk recently issued a promise of his own via Twitter, namely that he could build a battery storage farm there within 100 days – or it would be free.

Global Solar Expansion

While the world’s first Gigafactory will be in the United States, there are a number of other countries leading the way in making the transition to solar energy. In 2016, Portugal was the first country to be completely powered by sun, wind, and rain for 107 hours.  Coopérnico has already installed its seventh photovoltaic facility on Portugal’s southern coast.

Germany ranks first in renewable energy, leading the world in solar PV capacity. It has met as much as 78 percent of its daily demand for electricity from renewable energy sources.

China is also a world leader in renewable energy. In 2014, China had the highest installed wind energy capacity and the second highest installed solar PV capacity. These efforts demonstrate China’s commitment to reducing dependence on coal and improving air quality. Sun-drenched Morocco holds the title for the largest solar power plant in the world.

Critics of solar energy point to higher unemployment rates caused by the closure of coal plants. However, with a few economic adjustments, the global transition to sustainable energy, coupled with technological advances such as robotics, may well result in everyone being able to work less and enjoy life more.

Sources & Further Reading:


Horseshoe Crabs: The Blue Blood That’s Fueling the Medical Industry

Anyone who has ever benefited from an injection, a pacemaker, or a joint replacement, has the humble horseshoe crab to thank. In fact, all FDA approved vaccines, injectable drugs, and implanted medical devices owe their effectiveness to the blood of horseshoe crabs.

Why Horseshoe Crab Blood?

Horseshoe crabs are some of the oldest animals on the planet. At least 200 million years older than dinosaurs, these crustaceans have survived multiple mass extinctions that doomed millions of their companions. Yet, crabs today are experiencing an unprecedented threat to their existence- and your medical history is most likely contributing to the problem.

Four hundred and fifty million years of existence has led to a lot of evolutionary advantages for the horseshoe crab, specifically in their blood. This cerulean-hued substance is filled with antibacterial properties that make it incredibly valuable for medical procedures. The coloring comes from copper, which interacts with crab blood like iron does in ours. Rather than looking red, however, copper turns crab blood blue.

In many ways, the crab’s circulatory system has little in common with our own. When pathogens enter a crab’s body, their blue blood cells release a chemical called amoebocyte lysate (LAL) that thickens on contact with the invading substance and acts as a physical barrier against it, preventing it from spreading throughout the body.

While many animals have similar blood mechanisms for keeping out intruders, few do it as well as the horseshoe crab. Crab blood amebocytes can coagulate around as little as one part in a trillion of bacteria (the equivalent of a grain of sand in a pool), and the reaction takes less than an hour, in contrast to more than two days for mammal blood.

Must Read: How to Kill Fungal Infections

Crab Blood Use in Human Medicine

The unique properties of crab blood make it incredibly useful in medicine today. Pharmaceutical companies rely on LAL to test their equipment, medical implants, and more for any trace of invading toxins.

This means that crab blood is used in labs, as individual cells are burst to gain access to the coagulogen inside. Contamination can then be detected in any substance that comes into contact with this blood, and any dangerous bacteria that’s present will quickly become encapsulated in a highly obvious gel. If no gel is formed, then the likelihood of bacterial contamination is so low that the substance is considered safe for human use.

LAL tests are a quick, simple, and highly accurate way to seek out contamination in human medical supplies. Every drug certified by the FDA requires LAL testing, meaning that the demand for crab blood is sky-high. In short, everyone in the United States that has had a medical injection in some form has directly benefited from crab blood, and without crab blood, more people would die from preventable infections.

Rising Demand

As demand for crab blood continues to grow, so do the number of crabs caught every year. Roughly 200,000 crabs were harvested for their blood in the 1990s, and that number had risen to over 600,000 by 2012. At present, over three-quarters of a million crabs are harvested every year for medical use. These crabs are caught directly from the ocean, strapped into trays in mobile laboratories and bled for up to three days. Quart bottles are quickly filled with their highly-valued blood, which can sell for $60,000 a gallon. Each crab caught is expected to “donate” a full third of his blood for an industry that rakes in over $50 million a year.

Must Read: Heal Gum Disease and Cavities Naturally – Step by Step

The Costs for Crabs

The climbing demand for crab blood has a tremendous cost for horseshoe crab populations. After the bloodletting, crabs are returned to the ocean far away from where they were harvested in order to prevent them from getting picked up again. According to the industry, less than a quarter of bled crabs die from the procedure, but recent evidence is beginning to challenge those claims.

Studies have shown that removing a third of a crab’s blood leaves them disorientated and disabled once they get back into the ocean, which significantly impacts a female’s ability to breed. Making matters worse, most crabs are harvested in shallow water, which is the preferred place for females to lay their eggs. The impacts of bloodletting on nesting crabs is unknown, but it’s unlikely that females produce many viable offspring after the process.

No Quotas for the Medical Community

Strange as it may sound, regulations surrounding the harvesting of horseshoe crabs are surprisingly scant. While the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has harvest quotas in place for fishermen that catch horseshoe crabs to use as bait, laboratory companies are exempt from these quotas. Arguing that the value of their product should exempt them from regulation, the medical industry is instead required to follow voluntary, open-ended “best management” practices for crab harvesting.

A Critical Dip in Crab Populations

Today, scientists are starting to notice the impacts of the crab blood industry. Fewer crabs are spotted along the Atlantic coast each year, and concern is growing that the biomedical industry is critically endangering one of the oldest surviving species on earth. Smaller numbers of females are spawning each year, and the evidence is increasingly clear that blood harvesting is having a bigger impact on the overall population than previously believed. Post bleeding, crabs are lethargic, slow and less likely to look for food or a mate, which threatens their populations even when the procedure doesn’t immediately kill them.

There’s much that’s still unknown about the lives of horseshoe crabs, but the evidence is clear that the biomedical industry is taking a tremendous toll on their populations. Dwindling of this ancient species isn’t just a concern for conservationists, it’s an issue for everyone who relies on modern medical services.

Every one of us is connected to the horseshoe crab, but we are quickly losing the power to save it.

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Microplastics in Sea Salt – A Growing Concern

When it comes to long-term thinking for the health of the planet, humans often fall short of common sense. Plastic, one of the most durable products in the world, is consistently used for products no one actually wants to last forever, like single-use grocery bags and cheap children’s toys. The ever-increasing amounts of plastics glutting the planet today are leading to dire consequences for many natural spaces, especially the ocean. Worst of all, the overabundance of plastic particles is starting to make it into our diet in the unlikeliest of ways- sea salt.

Related: How to Detox From Plastics and Other Endocrine Disruptors

The Rise of Plastic in the Ocean

Every year, roughly 13 million metric tons of plastic finds its way into the ocean. A study from 2014 found that there are more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean, and over 90 percent of them are less than a quarter inch long. Called microplastics, these tiny pieces tend to pose the biggest threat because they are often eaten by plankton and other small creatures and quickly make their way through the food chain to larger fish, birds, and other species.

Previous research on the levels of microplastics in the ocean has revealed that the quantities are unexpectedly high in seafood like fish and clams. However, recent research has discovered that microplastics are also detectable in sea salt.

Contamination in Sea Salt

A survey of 16 brands of sea salt from eight countries revealed to researchers that microplastics were present in all but one brand. Published in Scientific Reports, this research team found trace amounts of the plastic polymers polypropylene and polyethylene. In all, the research revealed that the tested salt contained about 1,200 plastic particles per pound. Most of these particles were found to be fragments of old plastic products, fibers, and paints that were broken down to their small size in the ocean, which ruled out the possibility that the sea salt packaging itself was to blame.

The Impacts for Human Health

In general, sea salt is considered a healthier alternative to regular table salt. Found to strengthen the immune system, improve heart health, and decrease the symptoms of asthma, many people believe that using sea salt is better for their bodies than other, refined varieties of salt. However, the prevalence of plastic in many sea salt brands might be a reason to be concerned.

Microplastics are a threat to organisms because their small size makes it easy for them to absorb organic pollutants and store them in the bodies of those that eat them. Yet there’s little reason for you to worry about the negative health effects of plastic- tainted sea salt, as the amounts of microplastics found in salt are so low that they are not considered a health risk. Researchers estimate that most people swallow fewer than 40 particles of plastic in sea salt every year, compared to the estimated 11,000 particles that shellfish lovers likely consume each year. Somewhat reassuringly, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies polypropylene and polyethylene- based plastic polymers as safe for human consumption at these levels.

The Overall Damage for the Environment

In many ways, the danger of microplastics in sea salt doesn’t come from the risk for your body, but from what they mean for the rest of the planet. Plastic has become so prevalent in the world today that it’s hard to find places without it. From the ocean floor to the ice in Antarctica, microplastics are increasingly polluting natural spaces, and their long-term impacts on the world are still far from understood. If plastic particles can wind up in your salt shaker, there’s no telling where else it will soon be found.

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