Last Updated: February 27, 2024
Before we start talking about humidifiers, let’s dive into the basics of humidity. So in this post, you will read about Humidity and its direct relation to human body and health in particular. You will be sailing through the following three major points.
Table of content
1. What is humidity
2. What causes humidity
3. How it affects human body
Without wasting anymore time, let’s get started.
So what exactly is humidity?
In simple words, it’s the amount of water vapor present in the air. That’s it. You can also call it the presence moisture in the atmosphere.
We all know that water vapor represents the gaseous state of water. What humidity indicates is the likelihood of dew, fog, or precipitation.
What causes humidity?
As now you can guess, humidity can vary with the density of water vapors present in the atmosphere, It is also altered with the changes in climate. At the same time, it is affected by rainfall, temperature and wind.
Here’s a quick recap- water vapors, rainfall, wind and temperature.
Considering both the west coast and Eastern seaboard are close to large water sources, you may argue that If humidity is the moisture content of the air then why we say that the west coast less humid than the eastern seaboard?
The reason for this lies in other factors we just mentioned above that causes humidity. One of the explanations to the above argument could be the temperature of the large water source located nearby.
Here the wind also plays its part. Southerly winds bring the warm air. On the other hand, along the west coast, the wind flows west to east bringing cool air from the cool water onshore. Warm air is capable of holding more moisture than cool air, it feels more humid in the eastern seaboard.
How it affects human body
There are two crucial aspects that may be of concern to you.
The first one is high humidity and the other one is low humidity. Your body responds to both. Both high or low humidity affects the human body in one way or the other.
By nature, you start sweating when your body starts to heat up. This sweat helps to cool you off by getting evaporated from the skin.
How your body responds to high humidity?
Higher the amount of water vapor, also known as high humidity reduces the rate of evaporation of moisture from the skin. As a result, it reduces the effectiveness of sweating in cooling the body. This sweat from your body cannot evaporate, leaving your body feeling hot and stickier.
How your body responds to low humidity
On the other hand, Low humidity means dry air. Dry air can lead to dry skin, throat, and even causes itchy eyes.
Over the passage of time, exposure to low humidity can dry out and affect your respiratory tract. It increases the risk of getting cold and flu. Certain viruses may be able to thrive and prosper in low humidity, which further increases the risk of contracting an infection.
This is what you can do.
- Use a vaporizer or humidifier (recommended).
- Breathe in the steam from a hot cup of tea.
- Fill your sink with hot water, place a towel over your head as you lean over the sink. Take a hot steam.
I would go with the first one because of its ability to control the humidity. Moreover humidifiers are used by majority, they are effective and easily affordable. If you are going with the other two options, you should do it after knowing the proper approach.
FYI Relative humidity of 30-50% is recommended for good health.
Related Read: Humidifiers and its types.
Now you know that both high and low concentration of water vapor are not good for you. It hampers the cool-down mechanism of your body. But the good news is that you do not have to compromise your health because of the external climate as you can control the humidity using humidifiers and dehumidifiers.
Next Read
You can read further the reason behind people going for humidifiers and why you should own a humidifier.