Archived Newsletter #6: Healthier Home Heating

Well, Fall's definitely here in the Ozarks. The trees are turning brilliant colors and the nights are cool. One night of frost and my impatiens are just a pretty memory until next Spring. What do I think of when Fall comes? I'll tell you my story which has a great deal to do with Fall.

Every year, from the time I was a very little girl, I became very sick in the Fall. I was born and grew up in Milwaukee, WI on the East Side near Lake Michigan. We had warm, humid Summers, beautiful Falls, long, cold, dark, snowy Winters and late-arriving, pretty, green Springs. I'd feel good in the Summer. I loved to be outside in our backyard, playing with my friends and my dollies, hunting for four-leaved clovers in the grass.

But when the first frost hit Milwaukee in early September, we'd close the doors and windows at night and turn up the heat. We had a reliable, old gas furnace in our basement. It was huge, not like today's sleek models, and it faithfully cranked out lovely heated air into our little Turn-of-the-Century-era home my grandfather had built. I really loved "The Heat," as I used to call it. We had big, decorative cast iron vents from the furnace in every room of the house. I was always cold, so I could always be found sitting in front of the vent in the dining room, reading, drawing or doing homework. That was my spot.

However, as much as I loved "The Heat" I was always sick from the first week in September through the end of May. I had chronic bronchitis. I'd never get over it. I'd hack and cough uncontrollably until tears ran down my face and I'd pull muscles in my chest. My throat would bleed and be so hideously sore I couldn't swallow anything or talk for days at a time. I'd have raging fevers, pneumonia and strep throat. These illnesses would never stop until the first warm weather in May, when we'd open the doors and windows and let the fresh air in! This pattern of illness went on every year from September through May my entire life from earliest childhood until I sold our house and moved to Illinois at age 26.

These bouts of illness would cause me to miss between forty and fifty days of school each semester. I loved school and excelled in my studies. Although I always had straight A's in every class, year after year, it was mostly due to my brother faithfully bringing my homework home to me to do in bed so I could keep up with the class work. My mother didn't know what to think. The doctor could only say I had chronic bronchitis and he hoped I would grow out of it someday. The school would call my mother and threaten her because I was considered truant. Frightened, she'd bundle me up and send me back to school the next day. I'd be miserable, hacking and coughing, my throat bleeding. I was obviously too ill to be in school.

I struggled along like this my entire school career. Then I started my working life. It was the same thing. I loved working. I enjoyed challenges. I'd learn anything. As far as my attendance record at work, I'd do fine in the summer. Then Fall would hit and I'd immediately get sick. I'd miss weeks of work, home with the usual bronchitis, strep throat, pneumonia. Then I'd drag myself back to work because I was needed. I had a job to do. But I was SO SICK.

I was trying to lead a normal life, working hard, having friends, socializing, but I was basically a semi-invalid. My health made it impossible for me to have a normal life. But I tried. I put such a good face on it, too. Always cheerful, always efficient, helpful, cooperative. I have also been blessed with a happy personality. I used to say I had two moods: happy and happier. My illness never depressed me. I was so accustomed to it and resigned to it. Nevertheless, I couldn't deny that I was nearly always sick.

It seems everyone had his or her pet theory on what was really wrong with me. The school officials thought I was just frightened of school. My employers thought I was unhappy at work. Some of my friends thought I was just trying to duck out of social obligations. Almost everybody thought I was the biggest hypochondriac around.

When I moved to Illinois, I lived two years in an apartment. For the first time in my life, I got through the winter without a cold, a sniffle, nothing. I couldn't believe it. I figured I had outgrown my illnesses. It was wonderful. In that time I met and married my wonderful husband, Terry. Naturally we thought of buying our first house. We found a cute, little starter home and bought it. We moved in September 1986. Within days I had bronchitis again! This time it was so bad I had to sleep for months sitting up on our sofa. Anytime I'd lie down normally, I'd be overcome with uncontrollable, earthshaking coughing. Not a lot of fun for a newly married couple!

Well, to end the mystery, years later I learned from my first Environmental Medicine doctor, Theron Randolph, M.D., that I was reacting to natural gas. Yes, "The Heat" was making me very ill. The only relief I ever had was during my two years in the apartment, which was all electrically heated. As soon as we moved into our little house in Illinois, I became ill again. The house was heated with natural gas.

Dr. Randolph told us we needed to move out of our home. We found a house heated with steam heat. Our current home is heated with an electric heat pump and a pellet stove. From the time we moved out of our gas-heated home 10 years ago, I haven't suffered a cold, a sore throat, even a sniffle. I admit I wasn't much of a detective, to make the obvious connection between my illness and the heat in our home. But then, who knew a person could be allergic to natural gas?

Do you see yourself or your children in this story? Do you heat your home with natural gas or propane? If so, you may have to do as we did: sell your home and move. It made a tremendous difference in my health. As an alternative to moving, could you consider installing a heat pump, electric baseboards, solar panels, an electric furnace, a pellet stove or any combination of these alternatives? Do not buy a wood stove as it gives off formaldehyde fumes from the burning wood. But the clean-burning pellets from a pellet stove give off a very efficient heat which is economical and nontoxic. Do not turn to using kerosene heaters in your home. The kerosene is horribly toxic.

If you must heat with natural gas or propane, one suggestion is this: be sure to air your house out daily, even in the coldest weather. Install a whole house fan, if possible, and open doors and windows every day to air out your house. That will help remove the toxins that build up from indoor air pollution which is far worse than any outdoor air pollution! If you cook with natural gas or propane, be certain to have your stove properly vented to the outside of the house. Ditto for your furnace, clothes dryer and any other gas- or propane-powered appliances in your home.

I hope this story might help you understand the health consequences of the simplest, most natural things in a person's life -- like how you heat your home. Yes, you really have to be a detective sometimes to track down the causes of your allergic reactions. The good news is that some simple changes may make a world of difference in improving your health.

Good health to you,

Corinne Simpson
Homespun Naturals