Medical research has found that inhaling too many positive ions can be harmful. When breathed into your lungs, positive ions are taken into your bloodstream, where they can trigger various harmful responses such as the release of excess serotonin and histamine.
What is Seratonin?
An overabundance of positive ions increases the body's level of serotonin, which can cause the whole system to be thrown out of balance. It may also reduce the body's ability to absorb oxygen by cutting down lung capacity.
This powerful substance is found in many parts of your body, although even today, the full extent of serotonin's many functions are not known, In the brain it acts as a messenger or 'neuro-transmitter'. Serotonin causes a particular group of muscles in your body, called 'smooth muscles' to contract. Examples of smooth muscles affected in this way are: Vascular (relating to blood vessels), Bronchial, and Intestinal.
HISTAMINE is another powerful substance your body produces naturally and is found in many areas of the body. Its main role is to produce gastric juices for digestion of food. The presence of too much histamine may also cause many adverse reactions. The most common are similar to those associated with excess serotonin including headaches, allergies, hay fever, nausea and insomnia.
So if you suspect the air in your office or home is undermining your well-being, you're probably right. Several factors could be at work, including:
- The grounded steel structure of buildings remove negative ions.
- Central heating and air conditioning strip the air of negative ions.
- Synthetic carpets, drapes and upholstery carry a high positive charge and neutralise negative ions.
This chart shows the approximate level of negative ions in various environments.
The ion concentration depends on the geographical, geological, metrological and time conditions in each case.
