Do Ioniser/dehumidifiers help??

I was on the phone to my aunty yesterday and she said her friend has had bad asthma all her life and swears by ionisers in her bedroom/living etc. Basically it can just be plugged into a socket and clears allergens/smoke out of air. Not really sure if there is a difference between dehumidifiers and ionisers....

I don't want to waste my money if they aren't effective and I realise everyone will probably have diff experiences of them but I do have allergies to dust/cat and smoke sets me off too so wondering if its worth investing for one to put in my bedroom at uni

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I got one as I have allergies and it has made no difference at all. I later spoke to specialists at Papworth about it and they said their is no evidence that they are useful, despite what the websites selling them will tell you...

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ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/1...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...

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Don't know anything about ionisers but do have a dehumidifier. I got it cos my house was very damp and prone to mildew and it has improved this massively (it collects the moisture from the air as it passes through the machine).

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My asthma nurse and GP recommended looking into it when my hayfever was really bad on loads of meds in the view of it may not working but nothing ventured! I did a bit of research and tried an air purifier (I wished I could rent one for a while and try all the options for a while as they are rather expensive). Even though the air purifier made sense, I can't say I noticed a difference but my allergies are rather severe and I do quite a lot to reduce allergens anyway.

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lou, where did you get yours from and how much?

I think I will see how my house next year at uni is and consider whether it is worth spending money because if it works then it'll be a dream come true.....

I am sceptical tho, espesh after reading nurse furbys links

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Hi Unigirl2, I too am sceptical about ionisers and wouldn't consider getting one myself. The dehumidifier reduces humidity/moisture content of the air and doesn't do anything about allergens in the air so I don't see it making a difference to allergic asthma. Nothing to do with the dehumidifier but my asthma is worse now than when I bought it, but my house is less damp. I think it was 60 quid about 9 years ago and extracts 12 litres a day max, I think the same sort of machine today is about £100/£120.

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I don't think I will invest. I reckon if I happened to feel better then I would put it down to that too but would be wrong.

[yaf_user681_51802]

I have a dehumidifier and its great, but my asthma is due to cold air and is also affected by humidity too. It makes such a difference, Auckland can have high humidity at times. X Sue

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don't know about ionisers, personally think they're a waste of time, even if they did work, you clean your home air, but what happens when you go out, you're more vulnerable than before because you've not become accustomed to being in a natural air environment. On the subject of dehumidifiers, I'm the opposite and find that a warm mist humidifier can help my lungs, the airways can become too dry and irritated and ,my doc says not surprised and why he's always told people to steam up the bathroom, and why they say do that for kids with croup etc.