Dry Indoor Air

Epistemic status: I tried to find scientific studies which backed this up. They mostly pointed towards my hypothesis being false.

I’m convinced that (forced air) central heating causes dry air, which causes dry skin, which causes eczema. I also suspect that dry air causes dry airways which causes respiratory illness. It’s no coincidence these two illnesses peak in the winter.

Replace ‘dry air’ with ‘dusty air’ anywhere in the previous paragraph and it all stays similarly plausible.

Being exposed to the cold is good for you: you burn more calories, exercise your vasculature, and stimulate your nervous system.

A hot yoga class in London made it apparent to me how important this is. Capitalism isn’t as strong there as it is in New York, where I was introduced to hot yoga. In New York, studios use infrared heat and are humidity controlled. In London, they just cranked the usual forced air thermostat up to 100°.

I foolishly placed my mat right under a vent. My nose instantly became a dry wasteland of boogers. My throat was sticky, my voice raspy, my skin itchy.

Half of my brain takes the outside view, reads this post, and screams “typical mind fallacy! typical body fallacy!” But the other half won out today and decided to post this anyway.

This post was originally titled “I Hate Central Heating.” But that’s not true: I would not be productive in a 30 degree home all winter, and central heating certainly beats wood stoves. Air humidity inside in winter is not thought about enough.