Knowledge is power. Embarking on a toxin-free life can be an overwhelming and transformative experience. To help navigate this road, I have found in-depth documentaries to be particularly helpful to understand how these pollutants affect us, including: Documentary films, EMF Health and Safety videos, and EMF related eBooks.
Read MoreToxic chemicals are commonly found in common toiletries and may affect your hormones. Studies found that people who avoided products with common chemicals such as parabens, triclosan, and fragrances were twice as likely to be in the group with the lowest chemicals in the body.
Read MoreLife can be hectic, and your interior space should be a sanctuary providing a calm environment so that you can rest, recharge and be ready to do what you need to do. Whether it is a work space, bedroom, or a play area for children, an indoor space should prioritise elements that can help one renew and recharge, instead of depleting or distracting you.
Building Biology principles guide how we can make healthy interior spaces. This article highlights principles from Building Biology that you can apply easily to help enliven a space. I also share examples from IKEA that show how this can be in very easy and practical ways.
Being a mother, I love my strolls with the children, and I also love my indoor strolls through IKEA (or any interior-ware store). Their many room ideas are great for inspiration.
Calm isn’t a trend or a style. Any design can be calming, and any design, done badly, can be chaotic instead.
Common factors of calm spaces may be material and visual. They share these common principles that are important for biological health:
(1) Balanced natural light and illumination
(2) Access to a view and/or perspective free of pollutants, with access to fresh natural elements
(3) Similarly, a connection to Nature, with access to fresh air, sunshine, and nature
(4) Natural and unadulterated furnishings and materials
Part of a calm environment is knowing your items and furniture are working to help you create, instead of taking up space. Another reason why IKEA is popular is how they try to have their products pull double-duty and be highly functional.
IKEA products are usually well-made, so you add a sense of proportion and order to your space, if placed well. Here are some options so easily found at the nearest IKEA for calm, enlivening space.
The easiest way to enliven a space to include Nature or parts of it directly, in appropriate areas.
We are a part of Nature, and proximity to friendly plants help improve concentration and creativity. Plants are a natural option to calm and enliven a space as they are living things that offer air exchange, trap dust and toxins, and release oxygen into the air. If you are unsure of a green thumb, try plants that are low maintenance such as snake plants or money plants that do not add too much to an already humid environment (like ours in the tropics). Or cut flowers, stems help add connection to Nature.
Natural materials can seem like a cliche or an obvious choice. But not considering its impact (whether it can be a focal point in a space) is a common mistake, as a lack of natural material, even if only perceived, can be uncomfortable to the body for extended periods.
Elements that are representative of Nature also help breathe a sense of fresh air into a space. Materials such as seagrass, wood, and ceramic add an organic feel. The natural roundness and soft textures in seagrass help balance the hard lines and flat surfaces that often make up indoor spaces.
Seagrass also evokes the senses of touch and smell, that is calming to our nervous system.
IKEA has had stunning ranges on seagrass the last few seasons. This is a plant growing naturally in South-East Asian coastal areas, so I’m always excited to see how IKEA re-imagines the simple material in various ways for different functions.
Calm lighting is also crucial for enjoying a calm space. Ideally, you have full-spectrum natural lightning from the Sun, rather than relying on artificial light even during daylight hours. This ensures basic health, and that your circadian rhythm can be in sync with natural day-night cycles, which is crucial for optimal performance and wellbeing.
Lighting affects our circadian rhythm, which governs every function in our body. LED lighting is probably the most problematic thing indoors in recent years. LEDs are extremely problematic sources of light indoors, as their light is distorted . You want your light indoors to work with your circadian rhythm, not against it.
You want to choose lighting very carefully. IKEA only sells LED lights, so if we do buy those, select its placement and daily use thoughtfully. It pays off in in alertness, jet lag, performance (especially if you are an athlete or a shift worker), twilight, seasonality, skin response, photoreception, and more.
At the least, I would not choose open-style bulbs. Lampshades help diffuse the glare and flicker. The Molnart bulb from IKEA tries to augment this in a warmer LED and double smoke-colored glass. From their website:
This LED light bulb spreads the same warm light as a traditional 14W light bulb – without flickering or emitting any sound. This particular light bulb emits the same warm glow as candlelight (1,800 Kelvin).
The view you have is another essential consideration for a calm space.
A view of the outdoors offer a perspective to Nature, or the world at large. The broader range and distance are very calming for the eyes, and help avoid myopia.
Window curtains in 100% natural materials allow this light to filter into a room while reducing harsh tropical heat. The all- linen or cotton options from IKEA are a beautiful way to frame your view of the outdoors.
Finally, good storage is an important component of any calm space.
This is probably what drives many to a store like IKEA in the first place—the relentless search to finally have an organised space. IKEA has chock loads of organisation options. And they don’t have to be plastic boxes! Their options in natural materials help add to a calm space, and dial down the internal clutter (pun intended) that can come through a space. Decluttering and organisation helps us remove items from a space that are past its use or not appropriate anymore. These include things that are degrading.
Decluttering helps clear out potential moldy items and dust collectors. Less discussed but perhaps even more important is that removing excess and worn-out items helps reduces stress and releases energy for other tasks instead.This is especially important for children and their developing brains. Your brain is continually filtering information from its environment. More about tidying in another post...
Whether you’re an athlete wanting to improve your game, a stay-at-home mother, or suffering with chronic dis-ease, you can start creating space for life, right now. Get my free checklist and begin looking at your home with Building Biology! To get checklist, just fill out the form below.
Read MoreThe water you drink and bathe in in your house affects your health.
The chlorine with which almost all municipal water is treated reacts with naturally occurring organic materials, creating harmful trihalomethanes.
This is in addition to the chlorine itself which is a microbial poison.
The paper review focuses on water management and usage practices in Malaysia. But it yields astonishing insights into the quality of water declining tremendously in the nation.
While the beautiful tropical country of Malaysia is blessed with the abundant resource, multiple municipal weakness mean the tap water can often be dangerously polluted.
A basic good practice is to install the best personal water filter you can at home to prevent heavy metal contamination.
Insights from the paper:
Aluminium contamination is higher recorded more than the standard limit set by the Ministry of Health guidelines for drinking water. Based on a 2011 study , from two housing areas with a total of 100 respondents, the mean value of daily chronic aluminum intake (CDI) in PR drinking water (0.00707 mg / kg / day) is much higher than MPL (0.00164 mg / kg / day)!
Half (49.5%) of all water supply problems in Malaysia were reported in — a densely populated state that houses the main city and urban areas. That increased in 2017 to 62.4% (Malay Mail, 2019).
Nowadays, water shortage is no longer considered a natural disaster that must be borne and accepted but instead is a human-made cause that can be dealt with and solved by humans.
mining, industrial, and agricultural activities also contribute to the contamination of heavy metals in the body of water due to improper management of wastewater and discharge from fertilisers (Karavoltsos, 2008). However, most heavy metals from surface water and groundwater are usually removing during the water treatment process (Kioko & Obiri, 2012). Furthermore, corrosion of water pipes, faucets, and water fixtures can cause contaminated water supply for daily use. Unclean practices at home, such as improper drinking water storage containers and unclean operators, also contribute to this. This exposes consumers to the dangers of excess copper ions in drinking water, which can lead to acute poisoning and lead to diseases and ailments, such as liver damage, heart and kidney failure, and brain disease.
the cost of treating polluted water is high and reduces the overall water availability. In the year 2019, toxic chemical pollution in the Kim River in Pasir Gudang (Johor), which disrupts the water supply to around 20,000 households, is an example. Furthermore, there were 160 cases of river pollution reported in which enforcement was taken during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period from March 18 to May 4, 2020 (Malay Mail, 2019).
How polluted are the rivers? The Malaysian Environmental Quality Report 2017 shows that the percentage of clean rivers has decreased since 2015, while the rate of polluted rivers has increased.
…(out of 89 river basins in Peninsular Malaysia) 25 ‘dead’ rivers in Malaysia. Sixteen rivers were found in Johor, five in Selangor, three in Penang, and one in Melaka. These rivers were categorised under Classes 4 and 5, which are reserved for highly polluted rivers and where aquatic life cannot survive (The Sunday Daily, 2019).
Many factories operate illegally along the banks of the Semenyih River. This adds to pollution to a source that serves several areas around the country’s capital such as Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat, Sepang and Petaling.
This fact tells us about the possible integrity of pipes channelling water produced by treatment plants to consumer homes. Water wastage could be due to pipe leaks, inaccuracies of customer meters, and unauthorised use. The amount of water wasted in Malaysia is too high, with a national average of 35%. This rate is equivalent to losing 35 liters from every 100 liters of treated water (The Star, 2020).
You can take steps to ensure that your own water system is carefully and periodically maintained.
Typically, purification systems for large municipal water systems can be standard off the shelf systems.
In building biology, the focus is to create a space to help the body grow and function optimally—as Nature’s laws dictate, not just function. As a building biologist and mother, I have become increasingly impressed and fascinated by the role of vitamin D in creating optimal health.
I decided to write this article to share how we can increase your Vitamin D levels despite many of us living indoor lifestyles, essentially having to be indoors much of the time. You will see how your home or work environment can be changed to naturally raise Vitamin D levels.
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