Autoimmune Hepatitis: How Can Carpet Steam Cleaning Protect Your Loved One's Immune System?
If you provide home care to a loved one who suffers from autoimmune hepatitis, you may wonder if there's anything you can do to make the home healthier for them. Autoimmune hepatitis develops when the body's immune system becomes overactive and attacks the cells in the liver. Your loved one may take medications to help suppress or calm down their immune system, but the medications can also reduce your loved one's ability to fight off infections over time. Most homes contain allergens that may cause problems in people with weakened immune systems, such as mold, dust mites and bacteria. The allergens can circulate through the home's air until they land on the fibers of home's carpets. The contaminants may place your loved one's suppressed immune at risk for other infections if they inhale, ingest or touch them. Here are things to know about the contaminants found in your loved one's home and how steam cleaning may help protect your loved one's immune system.
What Lurks in Your Loved One's Home?
A number of allergens may lurk in your family member's home, including the fibers of their carpets. The allergens may include common problems, such as dust and pet dander. However, there may be other, more dangerous contaminants you may not know about, which include mold and bacteria.
Mold doesn't always let you know that it's there, especially when it comes in the forms of spores. Mold spores are virtually invisible and can hide beneath the kitchen sink, in the basement or even on the shower curtain. You may pick up the spores on your clothing, hands or shoes and spread them to the carpets of the home. The spores cause asthma and a number of respiratory illnesses when inhaled through the nasal cavity. Your loved one's weakened immune system may try to get rid of the allergens to protect them, which may compromise their medications and health.
Bacteria are another contaminant you can't see in the house. The organisms can hide on hard and soft surfaces, such as the yarn of your loved one's carpets. Carpets can contain as many as 200,000 species of bacteria per square inch. The germs come from pet feces, dirt from the outdoors and even a child's diapers. Your family member can accidentally ingest or inhale the bacteria if they use their hands to pull off their shoes and then eat without washing their hands. Your loved one can become infected by picking up dirty laundry or another item off the floor.
One of the best ways to protect your loved one is to have the carpets steam cleaned.
How Does Steam Cleaning Work?
Steam cleaning is a unique treatment that removes contaminants from the deepest areas of the carpets, including the fibers, without the excessive use of chemicals. The treatment features special equipment that releases heated water or steam onto the fibers of the carpets to break up contaminants. The contaminants push up from the fibers and stick to their surfaces, which may make it easier to remove the contaminants during the extraction process.
Steam cleaning contractors generally use the same equipment to extract the soiled water from the carpets by switching it from "steam" to "extract." The equipment sucks up the dirty water like a vacuum and stores it in a tank or pumps it to a storage truck outside the home.
After the contractors clean the carpets, they may go over a cleaning schedule that keeps your loved one's home clean and healthy. But this is something you must discuss with the contractors when they come out to the home. Not all carpet cleaning companies provide regular cleanings.
For more information about cleaning your family member's carpets to protect their health, contact a carpet steam cleaning provider today.