How Do Dust Mites Affect Your Skin?

How Do Dust Mites Affect Your Skin? Dust mites are tiny creatures that live in your home and feed on the dead skin cells from humans. Dust mites have been found to cause allergic reactions, asthma, eczema, and other skin issues in sensitive people.

What do dust mites look like?

Dust mites are very tiny, typically measuring 1/16th of an inch or smaller. They are pretty flat, with their stomachs being shaped like a horseshoe. Their colors can range from white to tan depending on where they were raised or what food source is available.

How do dust mites affect our skin?

There are several ways that dust mites can affect your skin. First of all, if you have allergies, you may already be allergic to dust mites. Some people are more sensitive to the dead skin cells from dust mites than they are to pet dander or pollen!

Dust mites will attack your body as soon as it dies. They release digestive enzymes that break down the proteins in your skin cells and essentially digest them until all leaves are amino acids used for their purposes.

Dust Mite Allergy Symptoms

Some other symptoms associated with a dust mite allergy include sneezing, itching of the nose, throat, eyes, ears, and even inside the mouth. Respiratory issues can also come on suddenly if you have an allergy to dust mites. There may be coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and even an asthma attack.

Skin Symptoms Associated with Dust Mites

You may have already noticed that dust mites can cause your skin to itch. The more severe your allergy is, the worse the itching will be. This will often result in a red, bumpy rash that can cover large portions of your body, or it may just be isolated to specific areas such as on the hands and face.

If you scratch these bumps long enough, they can crack and bleed, which is very painful and not good for your skin at all.

Dust Mite Allergy Treatments

If you think you suffer from dust mite allergies, there are several things you should do:

• Vacuum your floors and furniture at least twice a week
• Wash all sheets and bedding in hot water at least once a week
• Keep humidity levels down in the house (around 30% or less) by using a dehumidifier when needed.

If you have carpeting, consider removing it and replacing it with tile or wood flooring, which is much easier to clean. By dust mites love carpets! Be sure to keep all pets out of the room that has had the carpets removed, as they can carry these allergens with them for several months after their removal.

Dust Mite and Skin Medications

There are some over-the-counter medications available such as antihistamines which will reduce allergy symptoms. Still, prescription medications can be much more effective in reducing the amount of dermatitis that you experience.

Prevents Dust Mites

Dust mites live in the dust in our homes and are a significant trigger for asthma. Dust mites produce waste products, called allergen or antigen when they feed on human skin scales that we shed every day. Exposure to these antigens causes a significant increase in people who have an allergic reaction to house dust.

Most people don’t think much about dust mites because they’re microscopic and can’t be seen without a microscope. But many allergy sufferers know just what it’s like to wake up with scratchy eyes, nosebleeds, sneezing fits, or persistent coughing-all because of allergies triggered by microscopic house dust mites that are hitching rides on their pillows, blankets, and mattresses.

Dust mites live in excessive warmth and moisture, so we can often see them in places where we sleep and play: carpets, upholstery fabrics, and mattresses. Each of us sheds an average of 40 pounds of skin a year. A cubic yard of air may contain as many as 1 million dust mites.

That means there are likely 100 times that many dust mites living on the furniture around your home, especially if you own pets or suffer from asthma or allergies to house dust mite antigens (allergens). These tiny creatures feed on the dead human skin cells found in household dust and dirt; they also prefer humidity levels higher than 50 percent.

All it takes is for you to roll around under the covers, and your allergy symptoms will be immediate.

The dust mite is a microscopic creature that lives on the dead skin cells we shed every day. Dust mites live anywhere there is dirt or dust: carpets, bedding, sofas and chairs, pillows, and stuffed animals. Allergic reactions are common; people with asthma may become very ill from exposure to dust mites since their lung disease already weakens their immune system.

A person can either be allergic to the body of the dust mite (arachnid) or its waste (both types present as dander). The anger contains excretions from the insect’s digestive tract; some allergic people only show symptoms when they come into contact with the dander.

People who are allergic to dust mites may experience many types of reactions, including:

• Excessive coughing. These symptoms can be quite severe and interfere with sleep or cause other health problems.

To avoid these effects, make sure your bedroom is as dust-free as possible by doing regular house cleaning, including vacuuming carpets and upholstery, washing bedding weekly in hot water, removing stuffed animals from the room, using allergen-proof mattress encasements on mattresses, box springs, and pillows.

Dust is often around the home to prevent an accumulation of allergens that will affect sensitive ones. Remove carpets if possible since they provide a suitable environment for dust mites to thrive.

If you don’t own a home or can’t remove carpets, keep them vacuumed and as clean as possible using the proper tools (a good quality vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter will pick up 98% of the dust mites and their allergens).

Dust mite control involves:

• Limiting exposure to dirt and dust by keeping furniture dusted and washed.
• Washing sheets weekly in hot water (or dry cleaned).
• Removing stuffed animals from bedrooms.
• Shampooing mattresses to remove dead skin cells.
• Other particles attract dust mites.

How Do Dust Mites Affect Your Skin? – Conclusion

Vacuum regularly, preferably with a good quality HEPA filter machine, so that 99% of allergen particles are removed from the air. Wash curtains at least twice a year, and keep carpets vacuumed.