Vacuuming your bedding

So a friend of mine gave my name as a referral for a sales pitch on a Kirby Sentria. The guy came in, did his demo, and yeah....Beloved and I ended up buying one. Maybe we were suckered, but that's not why I'm posting.

One of the things the guy insisted on demonstrating was vacuuming the bed and pillows. I thought this kind of odd, but hey, whatever...then I saw what was pulled out of the bedding. YIKES! I went online for more information...Did you know that:

* Every person loses an average of 250ml of perspiration every night. If you share your mattress with someone, this increases to around 500ml. Even if the mattress is only five years old, this is equivalent to 900 litres of personal fluids

* Every person sheds and re-grows skin cells every 27 days.

* By the age of 70, the average person will have lost 50kg of skin. (A large portion ends up in our mattresses.)

* Dust mites are microscopic spiders that live in our houses. The main component of dust is shed skin flakes, which is the mite’s preferred food. Areas around the home that are heavily used, such as beds and upholstered furniture, will have much higher mite populations than the rest of the house.

* Dust mites don’t bite. Their bodies, secretions and faeces contain particular proteins that can trigger allergic symptoms in susceptible people. Old mattresses may contain several kilo- grams of dust mite excrement and dust mite carcasses.

* Dust mite secretions and excrement are closely related to asthma and eczema.

* Old mattresses, pillows and quilts also contain high amounts of bacteria and fungi.

* A by-product of bacteria is called an endotoxin, which can bring on asthma attacks. Old Pillows and mattresses also may contain millions of fungi spores.

I NEVER thought about vacuuming a bed or pillows before...I will now!!!