Grandma's Moistening Kettle May Have Held Off Flu.

Source: NYT/AP

"Grandma may have been right about keeping a teakettle warming on the stove in winter to moisten the air. Studies of seasonal influenza have long found indications that flu spreads better in dry air. Now, new research being published Tuesday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, indicates that the key is the absolute humidity -- which measures the amount of water present in the air, regardless of temperature -- not the more commonly reported relative humidity.

Relative humidity varies depending on air temperature; absolute humidity doesn't."




Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/09/science/AP-SCI-Flu-Humidity.html

you knew what you were doing.

was "good medicine." Works for me now! :evilgrin:





Insert mandatory disclaimer here....;)

:spray:

suddenly our clothes didn't pick up static anymore.

had a kettle of water on top of it. And the first thing she did every morning was to put fresh water in that kettle, with a few fresh mint leaves or cloves.

We made sure we had a humidifier installed on our new furnace. It helps with sinus, skin and general comfort in the house.

No itchy skin this winter.

I always thought grandmas had very dry kettles rusting on the stove.

Also, you can't run the oven for heat without a pan of water on the stove.

Have you tried Grandma tea? Milk, honey, and boiling water?

She did not know about the flu, but did know that wood stove heat dried out the sinus/skin, so always had a tea kettle of water on the wood stove, and many years later when I had occasion to use a wod stove, I did the same. It helps to have a very heavy type of kettle, btw.
Now we have gas heat, it dries out the winter humidity. which is good for feeling warmer, but I still put a tea kettle on when we get stuffy.

inside your house, regardless of your heat source.

I have a vent on my dryer that flips to inside/outside. I use it in the winter to provide the moist heat inside, and love its saunal effect.

dp

I hope you use that sparingly. There's a reason most code calls for dryers to be vented outside, mildew and rot coming to mind immediately.

A little goes a long way there. That said, good, cheap humidifier plan.

Our primary heat source is a wood stove, so the humidity is appreciated, as is the extra heat/energy that would have been wasted had it been vented outside. We have a good lint filter over the (electric) dryer exhaust which we clean after each use. Our cabin is mostly one large room with ceiling fans, so the water vapor gets quickly distributed throughout the whole cabin. The water vapor DOES condense on the cold window glass adjacent to the dryer, and I watch this area for any signs of problems.

We use our Solar Dryer (clothesline) whenever possible, and there is only the two of us, so actually drying clothes in the dryer during Winter may happen once or twice/week.

On very cold mornings when we have let the fire burn out during the night, we sometimes run the dryer empty for 15 minutes just to knock the edge off the cold until we can get a fire going.

We have been doing this for two years without any problems.

WE burn Oak and Hickory (plentiful) which we cut ourselves from our land, or our neighbors land...mostly still standing damaged or dying trees, or recent deadfalls. We DO use chainsaws for this, but we split by hand with an axe, or sledge hammer & wedges.

Our Heating Bill for the Winter was maybe $40.00 (small electric heater in the bathroom), and this includes the gas for the chainsaws and pickup.

Never, EVER, vent the exhaust from a GAS dryer inside your house. The risk from Carbon Monoxide is very HIGH.

There are kits available for about $10, but we use the FREE manual method.

Solar Clothes Dryer

Carbon Footprint = 0
Energy Cost = 0
Toxic emissions = 0
Money sent to Corporate America = 0

:P

and I've only had the flu once since I've been here. At the time, I had the kettle and pots of soup and stew going on the woodstove.

It wasn't humidity or lack of it. It was lack of access to a flu shot that year and a blonde cashier coughing right into my face.

I still haven't forgiven the little twit. If I ever find her again, I'll return the favor.

vaporizer. i boiled some water today.

likely.

We had pot bellied stoves in our house and so did my great grandmother and there was a kettle of water on top of all of them

Still have a stove with pilot lights. The one burner is about the same output as the stove's four pilots.

I always have ready hot water for tea. It's on right now, as usual. Takes a couple of hours to become nicely hot on the lowest setting.

}(

so I hung the clothes on a line upstairs in the hall between the stairs and their bedroom. I could hang 4 loads on it overlapping the clothes and they'd be dry by morning..we had a forced air furnace which dried out the air. The kids very rarely ever had a cold or the sniffles even.

style potpourri cookers years ago. I used to use it all the time until this year. I forgot about it, until this past week and what a difference it made. I can breath a bit better and the upshot is the house smells better too. I add water to the scent oil.

huh

:thumbsup:

I did a lot of research, and came to the same conclusion. I decided to improve humidity in my house. So, now I have one of these in every radiator:

http://www.kilianhardware.com/radhum.html



I really notice the difference in my skin and sinuses. And the cats like that there are water dishes in every room!

Had that radiator in 'old' house, just sold (damn). now have 'hot' air blowing up from floors. Have to find a solution. Never can brush my hair; electricity all over.

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sure could look like a place to drain the brain after a 6-pack or so

just sayin'

Makes such a difference in winter. When I'm at work my skin dries out but at home it recovers.

kept a cast iron pot filled with water on top of it during the winter. We were rarely sick. I don't know if that's the reason why. I suspect for us there were other contributing factors. Almost all of our food was organic, my parents swapped veggies for other items such as fresh milk, and the pig we got every year too. No soda, no chips. Basically no crap.

she is to blame? Fair enough, I guess. I love my Grandma but this flu is freaking miserable and I can't figure out where it came from.

we've had no snow and my sinuses are screaming. The steam really helps.

When I lived in my old apt. I used to put a pan of water on the radiators - worked like a charm.