Dr. Robert Whitfield explains why Austin's warm climate creates year-round allergy problems, with pollen blooming longer than elsewhere. He recommends HEPA air purifiers, frequent filter changes, and keeping windows closed to reduce indoor pollutants like mold and pet dander.
Questions this video answers
2012.
0.3 microns or larger.
May 7 (after his father's death on May 4).
Austin Air HealthMate Plus.
Chapters
Your environment is our environment, which is everyone's environment. Hi, I'm Dr. Robert Whitfield. I'm a board certified plastic surgeon in Austin, Texas, where we achieve natural results through art, science and innovation. Today I'm going to bring you an unusually interesting topic. When I moved to Austin in 2012, I developed severe allergies and I had no idea what was going on. And most of it has to do with the air quality. Wherever you live in the world, you have to deal with the air quality. In Austin, because of its very temperate climate, we have oak, cedar mold, and several other environmental pollutants that lead to a variety of reactive airway issues. Both, you know, frank allergy and I've driven around Austin and allergists, as you imagine, are plentiful in this city. So I get asked all the time by clients and friends, like, is it really, really important to a stable environment for your recovery and how important is it and how can we improve it? And of course the environment is very important, so we encourage improvement in the air quality, which I think at first, by interpretation, clients find that unusual that I say that. But at our homes, common indoor pollutants are carbon monoxide, radon, nitrogen, and of course, if someone's smoking secondhand smoke, lead particles, asbestos, and mold. Some of these things are taken, you know, kind of for granted. You can't see them, can't smell them, can't taste them. Things that really then bother us, that we, we know about are the pollens from cedar mold and, and different spore formers and, and pet pollution from their dander and their hair and tracking things in and out of the homes. So, you know, what can we do to create a better environment for recovery? So really in Texas, where I live in Austin especially, has one of the worst climates for allergies because it's so warm all the time, because there are no freezing temperatures or snow or prolonged period of cold. Everything is just allowed to bloom and release pollen essentially all the time. The only respite we've had is recently temperatures in Texas got so low it froze. And as everyone knows in the United States, we had difficulty with our electrical grid and we lost power and we lost water in areas and everybody's allergies improved and you know, through those unfortunate events. So, you know, for us and in Texas, at Lord's, Austin, more importantly, where I practice, how do we improve our air quality? Well, at home you have to make changes. You have to make sure your, your normal air filters are changed frequently. My recommendation too is don't leave doors and windows open just because you can't see what's going on, you're allowing more and more pollen to come into your home. And you can increase the level of your air filtration both at home and at work with acquisition of freestanding HEPA filters. So, you know, what are, what are freeze filters? So this is example, the one I have in my office. It's an Austin Health Mate Plus. So HEPA for short is high efficiency particulate arrestants. So basically, it grabs everything out of the air that's 0.3 microns or larger. A thousand millimeters. I'm sorry, a thousand microns make up a millimeter. So just imagine how small it has to be. Now, this can arrest COVID 19. So when we first returned to the office in Austin May 7, after my father's death, May 4, I brought in several HealthMate plus air filters. And my thought process was if we wear masks, if we wear gloves, if we have these HealthMate plus air filters, that we would really increase our chances of having better air quality and decrease our chances of acquisition of COVID while we waited for what's now become the largest vaccination program the world has ever seen. So, you know, from our standpoint, we're very, very concerned about recovery and both how your experience is before your treatments, after your treatments, and we want you to improve the quality of your environment. So for all of my folks in Austin and Texas at large, you know, we have more allergies because of the weather. My recommendation is to filter your air just like you drink filtered water. I don't get an endorsement from Austin Air, but I use Austin Air Health Mate plus. And you can, you know, learn more. You can start a chat with us on our website at www.drrobertwhitfield.com. if you just want to purchase an Austin Air Health Mate plus from us, just go to our store. It's linked to my website under the Shop function and it's DrRobertsWitfield GetHealthy store. Thank you very much. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
