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How Your House and Office Makes or Breaks Your Health

Vicki Warren is the program director for the International Institute for Bau-Biologie & Ecology (IBE).

Have you ever spent time in an environment that invigorated your body and mind, calmed your nerves and inspired you to think clearly and creatively? Chances are high that this place was in nature.

In contrast, how do you feel when you spend hours inside a cubicle in an office building, or surrounded by fluorescent lighting, wall-to-wall carpeting and artificial paint? Dull, down and dreary may come to mind.
The 2008 Building Biology Conference: Building the Way Nature Intended

Join the international movement of individuals who are rebuilding the built environment into one that nurtures and restores human life.


Bau-biologie is a term from Germany that means “building biology,” and it is at the forefront of intertwining the nurturing feelings of nature with the places in which you live and work. This is the holistic approach to the “built environment.”

Building biology describes a movement that promotes “the use of healthy building principles as a means to improve living and work spaces and the health of people who occupy them.”

Building “ecology” can then be defined as the relationship between the building and the environment.

Among the 25 principles of bau-biologie are:

1. A building site shall be geologically undisturbed.

2. Residential homes are best located away from industrial centers and main traffic routes.

3. Housing shall be developed in a decentralized and loose manner interlaced with sufficient green space.

4. Housing and developments shall be personalized, in harmony with nature, fit for human habitation and family oriented.

5. Natural and unadulterated building materials shall be used.

At the International Institute for Bau-Biologie and Ecology, a non-profit organization, work is underway to educate people about the health hazards that may exist in typical living spaces, and to raise awareness that homes and workplaces can be created to bring the benefits of both health and aesthetics into your living environment.

They view buildings not just as shelter, but as a third skin (the first skin being your body, the second your clothes).

You can experience an embracing, nurturing feeling in your home and office, such as what you might feel when you are in a forest with the sun shining gently on your face, if it was built in accordance with the laws of nature.

Whereas a home or office built from artificial materials will gradually deplete you, a home made from nature will nourish you.

Sources:

Dr. Mercola''s Comments Dr. Mercola's Comments:

How much time do you spend in your home and office? If you’re like most people, it’s the vast majority of your life. So the materials used in these spaces -- and the overall feeling you get when you’re in them -- can and does have a huge impact on your physical health and mental well-being.

This is a major reason why I am building a new office building for my practice and Web team (which we hope to move into in the spring of this year). This building has the highest possible LEED certification, but we are going beyond LEED and applying the Bau Biology principles.

LEED focuses on ecology or environmental issues but Bau Biology focuses on biology and the notion that if a material or approach is good for your body it will also be good for the environment. So it is a much higher standard. This is in many ways similar to the use of the term organic, which although well intentioned, has frequently been perverted and does not always mean the food is good for you.

The Hazards of Typical Buildings

Walking into an office building or typical home will probably not make you immediately sick, but over time your body will absorb any number of potentially toxic substances that exist freely around us in our daily lives. For instance:
  • Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are toxic gases emitted from paints, cleansers, air fresheners, vinyl floors, carpets, upholstery fabrics, and much more, can cause cancer and damage to your liver, kidney and central nervous system. VOCs in the indoor air of new buildings have been found to average 20 to 40 mg per m3. Adverse health effects may begin with exposure at just 10 mg per m3.
  • Engineered wood products commonly used to make cabinets, furniture, wall paneling and more emit pollutants such as formaldehyde into your home’s air.
This is truly only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the chemicals floating around most homes and office buildings. And it doesn’t even touch on the mental impact.

The environment in which you live and work very dramatically impacts your state of mind. If your living space is cluttered, for instance, it’s proven to bring you down. Meanwhile, if you feel trapped or closed in (in a cubicle for instance), your thinking will not be at its best (the height of your ceiling can actually impact the way you think!).

To be truly happy, not to mention productive and at your “top game” emotionally and physically, you must immerse yourself in an inspiring environment, and for most of us this does not include four walls, a desk, and a fluorescent light buzzing overhead.

“Greening” Your Living Environment

You may not be able to build a new natural home or office for yourself, but you can make small changes to bring more natural, aesthetically pleasing and healthy materials into your living spaces by:
  • Redoing a portion of your home with a natural material, such as bamboo flooring.
  • Avoiding all chemical cleansers, air fresheners and detergents, and switching to natural varieties instead.
  • Installing full-spectrum lighting to bring the benefits of natural sunlight indoors.
  • Adding houseplants to your home and office.
  • Getting outside to spend some time in a natural environment as often as possible.


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Comment on This Article Community Comments (16)
 
 
Posted On Jan 03, 2008
logical and reasonable.  I always try to make my surroundings as personal and comfortable as possible.  I think one of those desert tents of silk and hemp rugs from the mid-century technicolor movies.....

Kel

 
Kissamee
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 12/2007
Kissamee  
 
 
 
Posted On Jan 02, 2008
I can understand this principle. My passive solar house has...

...a slate floor
...walls of old barnboard
...a massive chimneypiece/heat sink made of fieldstone from stone walls
...windows all along the south side that bring the outside in
...and lots of houseplants, and oh, how could I forget?
...three singing, talking birds!


 
Islander
Moderator User Moderator User, Joined On 3/2007
Islander  
Replied

Rawmaste
Novice User Novice User Joined On 1/2008
Rawmaste  
 
Posted On Jan 19, 2008

Your house sounds devine Islander. I aspire to manifest the same for my family one day.  (=^_^=)


 
 
 
Posted On Jan 02, 2008
We are what we eat, as well as where, and how, we live.

May Your Health Be GREAT, In 2008!

;-)

Uncle Russ

 
Russ Bianchi
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 9/2006
Russ Bianchi  
 
 
 
Posted On Jan 02, 2008
Very true, I have a friend whose house is build with natural products, and I find visiting them very relaxing and energizing at the same time.  I also have friend who live in trailers and they tend to have more health problems than those who live in the natural house.

Mary

 
mmc88121
Moderator User Moderator User, Joined On 11/2006
mmc88121  
Replied

EQ
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 3/2007
EQ  
 
Posted On Jan 03, 2008
I have been living in my RV (travel trailer) for several years now.  I am constantly looking for ways to make it healthier.  If I ever get the funds, I'd love to install a bamboo floor.  There are some things that are easier with an RV in terms of environmentalism.  First, I don't vacation or travel with it.  It remains parked where I live.  It seems like the footprint would be smaller in general because the space is small & it doesn't require clearing earth to live in it.  Everything is made for conservation, the lighting, the water.  It is easy to filter all the water in the house.  It's also easy to run a hepa filter in a small place.  Plants also help a great deal.  Solar & wind options are easily available for the RV since it's already wired with batteries.  Since rent is low, I'm financially able to live in a place with clean air, water, and plenty of organic farms.  When it's cold, I put on more clothes, throw down natural rugs & blankets on the walls.  When it's hot, my space has a shade tree & I have an awning.  The park I'm renting from has a composting toilet, and the sewer system chemicals for the RVs are almost all biodegradable.  Also, I live out of my house, not in it.  I am an avid outdoors person.  There are ways to do RVs healthfully.  It probably helps to buy used so that everything has finished outgassing too.  I love my RV.  I love the simplicity of it.  I love the freedom of it.  I own it, and if I wanted to, I could paint it pink paisley (don't think I will, but it's nice to know I could).  This is a great way to live fully as a single, highly independent person.  It would take a major miracle to get me to live in another fashion.

 
 
 
Posted On Jan 06, 2008
I love this video.

I hope we all get back into AromaTherapy.  It is one way to clean and refresh the air and us.

NieeMA

 
NieeMA
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 6/2006
NieeMA  
Replied

Magnolia
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2006
Magnolia  
 
Posted On Jan 22, 2008

NieeMA, you are so right! Our olfactory sense is there for a reason! And there's more to it than meets the nose.


 
 
 
 
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