Best dust mite cover?

Question:What brand or make of dust mite matress/pillow covers/spring board covers are the best and most economical.

Do they need cleaning(I know pillow covers will need cleaning)

thanks.

Answers:
Hello Johnny B.

The answer to your second question first, is yes, both the mattress pad and pillow cases need to laundered regularly just as normal mattress pads and pillow cases. Due to the regular laundering, over time the pore size of "breathable" fabrics will increase, causing each to become less effective. Therefore, both the mattress pad and pillow cases will need replacing in about a year's time.

As far as which product/manufacturer is "best" that's much more difficult to answer and the old cliche' applies..."you get what you pay for."

Online suppliers, such as National Allergy, AchooAllergy, AlerG, and Allergy Buyers Club, will all have a variety of products to chose from, and an experienced salesperson at a brick and mortar store such as Bed, Bath and Beyond, can assist you to determine what products you should purchase.

Personally, I place dust mite-proof bedding products in the same category as air purifiers, air filters, and duct cleaning...products that may help, but as "passive" products that work individually, they actually do very little as far as providing relief from dust mite allergens (DMA's) and other contaminants. Better results can be obtained by "dynamically" attacking the source(s) of allergens which can only be achieved by removing the contaminants and reducing the dust mite colonies.

Dust mite-proof mattress pads have pore sizes ranging from 2 microns up to 10 microns. In comparison, bed sheets with a 400 thread count have a pore size of about 6.5 microns. While these provide a barrier between you and the dust mites (dust mites are 20 microns at birth and can grow to 380-400 microns) the products still allow allergens to pass. Dust mite fecal pellets are about 15 microns in size but the pellets disintegrate into even much smaller powdery particulates, as do the dust mite molts, dead body pieces and decaying egg sacs. Dust mites are light enough to become airborne for up to 15 minutes but the the DMA's stay airborne for up to 2 hours circulating throughout the entire home before settling atop everything including your dust mite-proof mattress pads.

Consider the following:

95% of the homes in the U.S. have dust mites (where the other 5% are, I have no idea). Of the 95% of homes with dust mites, over 50% are INFESTED with dust mites. Our beds provide an ideal micro-habitat for dust mites and other microbials such as mold, mildew, fungi, spores, bacteria, and viruses. In addition, our mattresses accumulate shed human skin, pet dander, and even pollen transported indoors on our clothes, shoes, hats, coats, and hair.

Humans provide all the moisture and food necessary for dust mites to live, thrive, and breed in the miniature eco-system we create while sleeping comfy and cozy in our beds.

An average queen-sized mattress is host to around 2 million dust mites. A dust mite poops 20 to 30 fecal pellets, 15 microns in size, per day (actually night, as they are nocturnal). So that equates to 40-60 million FRESH fecal pellets in your mattress each morning you awake. Dust mites live for 100 days...so one average-sized colony leaves 40 to 60 TRILLION fecal pellets in your mattress over their lifetime and of course as they die off...many more replace the dead ones.

The digestive system of a dust mite produces a protein called guanine. The guanine breaks down hard to digest foods which also allows dust mites to practice "corphagia" meaning they can survive by eating their own feces just in case you decide to put a mite-proof mattress cover on your mattress.

The fecal pellets dry up and become powdery thus reducing the 15 micron size to an even much smaller size. All the contaminants in your bed become airborne each time you roll over in bed (50 to 60 times per night is average) or each time you fluff your pillow, or of course every time you and your significant other bounce on the bed.

When inhaled, guanine attaches to lung walls and kills healthy lung cells by suffocation.

BTW, the weight of a new pillow can increase 10%-25% in just a couple of years.

Dust mites have been around for about 300 million years, 2 months, and 4 days. They discovered man after man began sleeping on mattresses about 8 to 10 thousand years ago. Man discovered the absolutely healthy need to sleep on hygienic mattresses on, or about April 1st, 5993 B.C. But and for some unproven reason, man then forgot about the healthful benefits of sleeping on clean mattresses and pillows sometime around 1967 (LSD maybe?).

So here's the bottom line...practice mattress hygiene...

it's so easy, even a caveman can do it!

Free info "76 Tips to Reduce Dust Mites and Indoor Allergens" at this link:

http://www.sterilmattress.com/ebook_dust...

Mattress stain removal tips at this link:

http://www.sterilmattress.com/mattress_s...