Spring is just around the corner! Yay! Those of us with seasonal allergies are spending our remaining winter season beefing up our immune systems and arming our homes with every allergy fighting mechanism known to man.

I’m feeling particularly giddy this year, because on my recent journey toward a natural living lifestyle, I’ve discovered beeswax candles. Just making the switch from paraffin candles to beeswax candles is a plus in that I’ll no longer be pumping allergy-triggering toxins into my indoor air.

As I stated in an earlier blog post:

Paraffin candles are one of the absolute WORST offenders to indoor air quality. Not only do paraffin candles emit verifiably harmful levels of carcinogens with each burn, but they launch toxic microscopic black soot into the air that wreaks havoc on upper respiratory systems. Needless to say, this isn’t exactly ideal conditions for allergen-free indoor air!

100% beeswax candles are far superior in that:

– They have a natural honey scent, without the use of chemical additives.

– They emit a brighter flame and have the longest, cleanest burn of any candle on the market.

– They are completely non-toxic, non-allergenic, non-carcinogenic and all-natural!

While all of these go a long way toward making your environment a healthy one for allergy and asthma sufferers, the real appeal of beeswax candles that makes them a veritable weapon in the war on allergies is their ability to actually purify indoor air.

How 100% Beeswax Candles Purify Indoor Air

According to science, air contains billions upon billions of electrically charged particles called ions. Some ions are positive, some are negative. On a microscopic level, anything floating in the air – in your home or outdoors – is doing so because it has become positively charged.

Positive Ions – (The Bad Guys)

Positively charged ions hold onto everything from dust, pollen, toxic residues, viruses, bacteria and germs and float them around in the air you breathe. Even odors such as food smells from cooking, household pets, and mold and mildew all remain smelly because they are positively charged.

Indoor air tends to have a far higher concentration of positively charged ions than outdoor air. Positive charges are constantly being generated by static electricity through friction from walking across carpets or from dry recycled air being produced by indoor heating and cooling systems. Not to mention the positive charges generated by the flow of electricity from all of our appliances, computers, TVs, etc.

Negative Ions – (The Good Guys)

When it comes to fighting allergens, negative ions are the good guys. The scientific principle at work here is that the negative ions attract the positive ions. The positive ions are all like, “Oh my goodness, I’m so attracted to you! I LOVE YOU! Let’s embrace! You complete me!” The two ions then bind together, creating one complete molecule. (Awwww!) This complete molecule (with all the nasty allergens trapped inside) now has a heavier weight mass and a balanced charge.

So our positively charged floating toxin is now no longer suspended, because after bonding with the negative ion, it has changed its molecular state and is much heavier, so it simply falls out of the air. The result? An indoor living space that not only provides cleaner air for you and your loved ones to breathe, but is also more balanced and relaxing overall.

Health Benefits of Negative Ions in Your Environment

You cannot get away from ions – both positive and negative. They are everywhere. They act upon our capacity to absorb and utilize oxygen, and therefore cause powerful effects on our lives and well-being. The quality of ions in the air you breathe can and will affect your mood, your energy and your health.

Did you ever wonder why people feel better when they go to the ocean and breathe in the sea air? In old timey novels, you always hear about, “invalid Auntie Whatsherface is spending a summer by the sea.. doctor prescribed!”

Or ever wonder why meditation usually takes place by running streams, waterfalls and forests or woods? Or how about that fresh, renewed feeling you get when it rains (especially after a thunderstorm)?

These amazing natural settings are God’s version of our countertop air purifiers. Only, ya know, on a really grand cosmic scale. Waterfalls, rain, towering forests, rolling clouds – these all pump out an abundance of negative ions into the air, leaving the great outdoors fresh, clean and balanced in such a way that we can both smell and feel the difference.

Not only are negative ions a HUGE part of managing allergies and asthma, but they are essential for overall health and wellness. Air charged with negative ions is clean air that is pollution and allergen free. Once they reach our bloodstream, negative ions are believed to produce biochemical reactions that increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy. Negative ions actually FEEL good.

How To Use Beeswax Candles for Allergy Relief

While you can’t bring a waterfall or towering redwood into your living room, burning beeswax candles is a simple and natural way to introduce negative ions into your indoor air.

Beeswax is the only fuel that produces negative ions. To get the negative ionic effect, it is vitally important that you make sure to only burn 100% pure beeswax candles. If there are any fillers or chemical additives, you are defeating the whole purpose of the candle!

When used properly, beeswax candles have been proven to effectively reduce asthma, allergies, and hay fever by drawing pollutants out of the air. Aside from the obvious “no pollutants in the air = good” aspect, beeswax candles also help your body resist allergens on a biological level. Here’s how:

The trachea (your windpipe) is the passage through which air travels into your lungs. Along the trachea are cilia, tiny organelles which keep airborne particles from passing into the lungs. If cilial activity is inhibited, as it is in positively charged environments, then more foreign particles are introduced into the lungs.

However if cilial activity is uninhibited, as it is in a negatively charged environment, then more contaminants are kept out of the lungs and what does get through, is easily discharged later via saliva and mucus. Research has proven that negative ion exposure increases cilial activity in the trachea of humans and animals, while positive ion exposure inhibits it.

Another study in asthmatic children found that exposure to positively ionized air brought on asthma attacks in response to exercise, while negatively ionized air greatly decreased the asthmatic response in these same children.

Here’s How You Do It:

To clean up your indoor air, trim your candles wick to 1/4 of an inch. This ensures a big, bright burn. Let the candle burn for about 30 minutes to one hour – the idea is to burn one candle per 200 square feet of indoor air. Make sure the room is draft free, this helps the ionic charge naturally distribute and helps you candle burn evenly and last longer.

While the candle is still burning, vacuum each room (preferably with a hypoallergenic HEPA filter) and dust. It is important to vacuum and dust after each burn, as the negative charge doesn’t make the pollutants disappear, it just drops them to the floor, where they can (and will) regain a positive charge and take flight again once you walk over them!

To increase the effects of the negative ionic charge, burn your beeswax candles in a Himalayan salt rock candle holder! (More on THAT natural allergy fighting tool later!) 😉

Do you use beeswax candles for allergy and asthma relief? Are you interested in trying?

Be sure to stop by and enter to win some 100% Pure Beeswax Candles from Mohawk Valley Trading Company! Raffle ends February 26, 2014!

(Can’t wait to win? Mohawk Valley Trading Company is offering my readers a 20% discount on all 100% beeswax candles  from now till 2/26/14 with the Promo Code “Domestic Geek Girl”! Tweet your Mohawk Valley beeswax candle pictures to _domestic_geek_ to get a retweet and share the love!)