Are There Health Issues When You Live In An Older House?
Health Issues in Older Homes
Lack of insulation. On a hot day, heat does its best to get inside the house and on a cold day, it seems to escape from inside the house. A structure that is well-insulated prevents this from happening. Older houses generally have poor insulation or very little which means that they can be much warmer or colder than their newer houses.
In the winter season, cold rooms can give rise to muscular tension and stiffness, especially around the neck and shoulders. You might suffer from pain in the neck, shoulders and back. Cold houses can also make you more susceptible to colds and bronchial infections.
Properly insulating your house can help in combating this problem, but in an older house, this will require some work.
Dampness is prevalent in the kitchen and bathroom areas, but can also be an issue in bedrooms, where they do not get much sunlight. Most newer houses generally have some type of extractor fan installed in the kitchen and bathroom. These fans help to remove the excess humidity. The lack of this type of fan allows the accumulation of moisture and this can cause the dampness to continually damage the structures of the house and cause health problems for the residents.
When there are high moisture levels, this can increase your risk of getting various illnesses. Having a poor quality of indoor air can increase the likely hood of molds and mildews, which can definitely be harmful to your health. Then you have the little dust mite critters who love the high humidity levels in the house and they multiply which can cause allergies to the residents. Young children and the elderly are particularly prone to asthma and flu.
When you have poor circulation, a cold house can exacerbate symptoms. It can contribute to skin lesions and aggravate arthritis. Also, in a cold house, the residents tend to become more sedentary which further adds to the intensity of symptoms.
It is a very important step to take to control the dampness and the humidity if you live in an older house. Open the windows and doors during the day to provide better air circulation and close them in the evening and at night.
In the wintertime, you try to add moisture to the air to keep it from getting to dry and in the summertime, you try to remove the moisture to help cool it down.
