The downside of down comforters

As someone who experienced many migraines throughout my life, one of the first things that I did years ago when they were really bad, was allergy testing.

I came to find out that I was allergic to almost everything environmental (lucky me) and I had to start the process of elimination to find some type of relief.

To be clear, this journey of discovery triggers has allowed me to lessen the amount I have each month, but has made a significant impact on the quantity of headaches.

One of my main issues was waking up with a headache.  Not to discount poor diet, stress, and bad habits as to why these headaches were happening, but identifying all areas of possible triggers. I realized my down comforter was a major issue.

According to an article by woolroom.com, “Experiments have shown that dust mites (and fungal spores which can be similarly problematic) thrive in warm, damp conditions. Unfortunately, this is just the kind of environment synthetic and down comforters create. As you sleep, your temperature rises a little and your body will perspire to cool itself down. This moisture is trapped by the comforter, providing the perfect humid conditions for dust mites to reproduce. Fast. And so, as you snuggle down into your bedcovers you’re placing your face, and more importantly your airways right next to those pesky dust mites. It’s no wonder then that this can make your allergies bad at night in particular.

The bad news is that even regular washing of your comforter can only cause temporary nighttime allergy relief. Tests have shown that after washing, feather, down or synthetic bedding will be completely recolonized within 6 weeks, making those allergies bad at night once more.”

Even if you were to ignore that fact that down feathers are produced in an inhumane way (which they are!), you can see that our bodies do not react well to animal products.

This is just a small piece of the puzzle for me on my own personal health journey, but after removing down from my lifestyle I now have more control on my migraines.

Starting a vegan lifestyle is like pulling back the layers of an onion.  When you start to learn about what is in your products, and realize your body's reactions, you can make honest changes.

https://www.thewoolroom.com/us/blog/nightime-allergies/

And as always, my favorite resource, www.vegandesign.org