Can Negative Ions Help With Asthma and Allergies?

Negative ions improve asthma and other respiratory conditions.

“There is nothing subjective about a bawling baby”
Brazilian hospitals now commonly use negative ion generators to treat breathing problems, after a test involving 36 children with asthmatic allergies. In each case, the problem was consistent or crippling. During the treatment, only one of them suffered an asthma attack. Afterward, no attacks were suffered by any of the children that sustained regular negative ion therapy (Soyka, 1991).

In 1966, a hospital in Jerusalem conducted a study involving 38 babies, between the ages of two and twelve months, with about the same degree of respiratory problems. The babies were separated into two groups of nineteen. One group was treated with nothing but a negative ion electronic air cleaner, while the second group was administered the standard treatment, which included drugs and antibiotics with side effects. The babies in the group treated with the negative ion air purifier were cured of asthma and bronchitis much more quickly than those in the control group. The babies in the negative ion group were also found to be less prone to rebound attacks. Less scientifically, doctors found that the babies treated by negative ion-enriched air didn’t cry as often or as loudly. But as Fred Soyka, the author of The Ion Effect puts it, “there is nothing subjective about a bawling baby” (Soyka, 1991).

“Monotonous Regularity”
In 1975, an East German doctor, who had by then treated more than 11,000 individuals with various respiratory conditions with a negative ion electronic air cleaner, said that his patients reported with “monotonous regularity” that the therapy had worked (Soyka, 1991).

You gotta like these odds
In the early 1960s, Dr. A. P. Wehner used negative ion generators to treat over 1,000 patients in the U. S. suffering from various respiratory ills, such as bronchial asthma, pulmunary emphysema, laryngitis, bronchitis, dry hacking cough, upper respiratory tract infection, and allergies. He reported that the symptoms completely disappeared in 30.3% of the cases, improved significantly in 42.3% of the cases, showed some improvement in 20% of the cases, and showed no signs of improvement in 7.4% of the cases (Wehner, 1962).

It’s all in the numbers
In Britain, two Oxford University statisticians conducted a study among victims of asthma, bronchitis, and hay fever. The sample was randomly selected from a list of people who had purchased a negative ion air purifier. Through interviews, they found that 18 of 24 asthmatics, 13 of 17 bronchitis sufferers, 11 of 12 hay fever victims, and 6 of 10 suffering from nasal catarrh, reported that the product had noticeably improved their condition. A few even reported that it cured their condition (Soyka, 1991).

When a negative is better than a positive
Postive ions, which occur in high levels in many indoor environments, inhibit the body’s ability to prevent pollutants and contaminates from entering the vulnerable areas of the respiratory tract. However, an overdose of negative ions has proven to provide counteraction to this effect (Kreuger, 1974; Soyka, 1991; Tchijewski, 1960).