Welcome to the Sleep-Safe Products web site!
Add Sleep-Safe to your favourites now, and email this page to someone with epilepsy and to a support group
|
Sleep-Safe Pillows in Asthma Management
Sleep-Safe
Anti-Suffocation Pillows
with 15 years evidence-based effectiveness in
seizures and breathing difficulties…
…ideal in Asthma Management
Why are ordinary pillows risky for people with asthma?
In the UK, asthma affects about 1 in 10 children and 1 in 12 adults and causes about 1 death every 6 hours.
Manchester University researchers have recently analysed old pillows, and found in each of them more than a million fungal spores which could severely aggravate asthma symptoms. Each pillow contained up to 16 different species of fungus, with higher concentrations found in man-made fibre pillows. The microscopic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus was particularly evident.
Professor Ashley Woodcock, who led the research, said: "Pillows are inhabited by house dust mites, which eat fungus. One theory is that, in turn, the fungus eats house dust mite droppings and human skin scales. This means that a 'miniature ecosystem' is at work inside our pillows."
Aspergillus is a very common fungus which causes the disease Invasive Aspergillosis. This occurs mainly in the lungs and sinuses, but can spread to other organs such as the brain. It's becoming increasingly common and is very difficult to treat, with as many as 1 in 25 patients who die in modern European teaching hospitals having the disease.
People at home - where pillows may be old and fungus-infected - could be at greater risk of infection, because of the doubtful effectiveness of putting pillows through a washing machine cycle. Most people know from experience that the fillings of feather, down and hollofibre pillows tend to `lump' and `clump' and that latex pillows are extremely dense. This means that fungus particles and house dust mite droppings are likely to remain even after prolonged laundering.
Aspergillus can worsen asthma and cause allergic sinusitis in patients with allergic tendencies, so constant exposure to fungus while they're in bed could have serious consequences. Professor Woodcock added: "People spend a third of their life sleeping and breathing close to pillows containing a potentially large and varied source of fungus, so these findings certainly have important implications for people who have respiratory disease - especially asthma and sinusitis."
Sleep-Safe Pillows can help prevent worsening
of asthma and allergic sinusitis
Sleep-Safe pillows are made from special soft, highly porous foam with an open cell structure that allows much greater 'breathability' than ordinary pillows. The gentle, rippled surface of Sleep-Safe pillows provides a profusion of air spaces between the surface of the pillow and the permanent net cover, and all this `open space' means that Sleep-Safe pillows 'wash' very efficiently at low temperature. The majority of fungus and house dust mite droppings that worsen asthma and cause allergic reactions and breathing difficulties can be laundered out of the entire pillow in a single washing cycle.
To view an abstract of this scientific paper click here
After viewing, click the 'back' button on your browser to return to this page