There are many ways to aid one’s blood sugar health, including through lifestyle changes. New research suggests that an air purifier in the bedroom may help keep blood sugar steadier and prevent blood sugar spikes. This comes weeks after we wrote about how air filters may improve cognitive health.
The study used 150 adults with mild blood sugar concerns. They ran air purifiers in their bedrooms for 24 hours a day for four weeks. For a week before and after the air purifiers were running, they wore continuous glucose monitors.
There was a test group and a control group with dummy air purifiers. People didn’t know what group they were in. They were asked not to make any changes ot their normal diet. But their blood sugar had changes.
The air filters lowered harmful particles in the air by 36 percent. The people in the filtered group had an almost eight percent reduction in blood sugar fluctuations and smaller blood sugar spikes after breakfast. The spikes after breakfast were reduced by about 17 percent on average, and peak blood sugar was decreased by about 13 percent on average.
“We’ve seen these associations that when pollution goes up, blood sugar goes up, along with a number of other bad health outcomes,” said lead author Dr. Sharine Wittkopp of NYU Langone Health. “So filtered air then is better and could reverse those changes. And that’s what we were hoping to show. That’s what we did show.”
"Installing HEPA filters offers an easy, low-cost tool to help protect heart and metabolic health along with healthy eating, regular exercise and prescribed medications," said Dr. Wittkopp.
An air filter should not be viewed as an alternative to a healthy diet, exercise, medication or weight loss. And an air filter won’t be helpful for everyone. You may live somewhere very clean. But indoor air quality might be a modifiable health factor that could benefit some people, especially if you live near a large road or in an area with pollution or poor air quality.
Almost half of adults in the U.S. have a mild blood sugar concern despite prevention efforts. While everyone knows that factors like diet, activity levels and smoking can take a toll on blood sugar health, many don’t realize that pollution also plays a role. When pollutants enter the bloodstream, they can lead to illness.
Dr. Wittkopp added that, “There’s no healthy amount of pollution for us to take in, so for my patients, I do recommend this as one more thing they could do to try to improve their health.”
