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Language: en
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good for you normally I dismiss such a
question out of hand in fact that's
exactly what I did when a friend brought
it up about a month ago but he was
insistent he said no this is for real
there's science behind it and so I
looked into it and I found this there
are literally hundreds of published
peer-reviewed scientific studies on the
biological effects of ions it's a body
of research that begins about a century
ago and continues to the present day and
this is just a fraction of it now these
studies aren't just about any old ions
they're about atmospheric ions or air
ions and although the results are not
uniform they all begin with the premise
that positive ions make us feel bad and
negative ions make us feel good so in
this video I want to get to the bottom
of this these are Himalayan salt lamps
with the heat from the light bulb it
releases negative ions in the air and of
course negative ions are what you
breathe in and produce the serotonin in
the body and in serotonin is like the
primary neurotransmitter in your whole
body and all living things and that's
what makes you feel good
awesome can I jump in here for a second
when I first heard all this business
about atmospheric ions my first thought
was why should we expect there to be
many ions in the atmosphere at all I
mean to recap an ion is just an atom or
a molecule that has gained or lost an
electron if it loses an electron it's a
positive ion if it gains an electron it
becomes a negative ion but here's the
thing unlike charges attract
so moving about in the atmosphere I'd
expect the positive and negative ions to
find each other and then BOOM they're
back to being neutral however as it
turns out there are some processes that
are constantly generating atmospheric
ions for example cosmic rays these are
highly energetic particles from across
the universe that slam into our
atmosphere and transfer their energy to
the air creating ions in the
process cosmic rays are thought to
create around 500 ions per cubic
centimeter at ground level in fact
they're the most significant source of
ions generated over the oceans but here
on land there are other sources of
ionization things like natural
radioactivity there are these long-lived
isotopes of uranium and thorium and
their decay products that can spit out
highly energetic particles in the form
of alpha beta and gamma rays these
ionize the air and they vary widely from
place to place but they can contribute
hundreds up to many thousands of ions
per cubic centimeter if you were to
recommend one of these to me that like
has the most negative ions or which one
do you think I would just go for which
one's hottest yeah because it's the heat
from the lightbulb that creates the heat
which makes the reaction in the salt got
out Wow this one's great
yeah this would just be perfect
and then you have thunderstorms if each
lightning strike generates copious
amounts of ions perhaps one of the more
surprising sources of negative ions is
water falls as water droplets collide
with each other or with wetted surfaces
with high velocity the water molecules
create this electrified spray with
negative ions that can be transferred to
the air around it depending on your
distance from the waterfall ion levels
can reach tens of thousands of ions per
cubic centimeter and the same effect
occurs with ocean waves crashing on
shore
hello hi Derek I'm good can I give you
that sure so what I want to know is how
many negative ions are there coming off
that lamp when it's on we have a
technique involving mass spectrometry
that measures negative ions coming off
of solids and so we can give it a try
are you an ion expert I've been studying
ions for 55 years whoa and they've
written hundreds of papers on all
aspects of ions so this is my salt lamp
it's meant to give us lots of negative
ions can you tell me whether it's giving
us some negative ions we're gonna have a
look and the thing we're utilizing here
is that the inlet to this mass
spectrometer is at atmospheric pressure
and if there's ions there we'll be able
to detect them so this is like is it is
it kind of like an electronic nose or
something for ions of those Brian sniffs
the audience okay
the lamp is next to the I on sampling
cone I mean it's not on yet but we see
if there's any ions coming from it yeah
so this display here this would be this
is our master charge axis here so how
how heavy they are and in molecular
weight essentially and if there's ions
being formed we're gonna see some signal
on this previously like some Peaks some
Peaks yeah now does it need to warm up
or I think that's the idea yeah now
there are some places that do naturally
have lower concentrations of ions namely
the interiors of houses and businesses
because these structures provide some
shielding from the cosmic rays and from
the natural radioactivity plus if you
have metal ducting and the air
conditioning well some of those charged
ions will get stuck in the ducts
so typically levels inside homes and
businesses can be as low as around 100
or 200 ions per cubic centimeter ion
concentrations are also typically lower
in polluted areas in big cities or
around factories and that's because the
ions actually cling to those
pollutants or the aerosols and so they
don't live as long in the atmosphere so
the assertion that we live in
environments with fewer ions than our
ancestors is true if you're thinking
that you feel better
around waterfalls and oceans and after
thunderstorms than you do in polluted
cities or around big factories well
maybe that's the reason why scientists
have been studying the effects of
negative ions on human health for nearly
a century so let's consider the evidence
in one study people suffering from
seasonal affective disorder were
randomly assigned to one of three
treatment groups bright light therapy
high concentrations of negative ions or
low concentrations of negative ions they
found that both bright light therapy and
high-density negative ions independently
produced antidepressant effects but not
load into the ions in another study
participants in a high-density negative
ion environment had significantly faster
reaction times and reported being more
energetic than those in an ambient air
control now if all this sounds too
subjective EEG experiments showed people
exposed to high-density negative ions
had a slower alpha wave frequency with
higher amplitude participants also
reported increased relaxation alertness
and improved working capacity and
opposite results have been found with
positive ions in one study volunteers
were exposed to high concentrations of
positive ions for two hours symptoms of
anxiety and excitement significantly
increased during the time of exposure
serum serotonin levels also increased
significantly this has even been taken
into real-world work environments and
air ionizer was fitted to the
air-conditioning unit in an office
building and periodically turned on and
off over 12 weeks when the ionizer was
pumping out negative ions workers
reported 50% fewer headaches they also
reported increased alertness perceived
atmospheric freshness and environmental
and personal warmth it's feeling it's
feeling pretty hot it's been on for an
hour yeah so the question is can assault
lamp generate negative ions let's check
for negative
let's look again doesn't look like it
but I mean there's not even like a
background no there's not it's just like
it's not even sitting there see your
conclusion after testing this device is
that it's producing no negative ions
we're certainly not able to detect any
negative ions the idea for how these
salt lamps are meant to create negative
ions is that water molecules are meant
to land on the surface and liberate
chloride ions from the lattice but ask
any chemist worth their salt and they'll
tell you the energy required to do this
is way too high so it just doesn't
happen what I find ironic is that there
are crystals which when heated will
produce ions
it's just that salt doesn't have the
right crystal structure to make this
work the gemstone tourmaline does those
samples are worth many thousands of
dollars tourmaline
has a structure such that if you heat it
it caused it to expand it will actually
develop an electric charge on the faces
of the of the crystal you have
discharges between those faces break
down in air and forming ions and that
charge then can get transferred to any
organic molecule that's present in the
year five degree change is enough to
generate ions I just find this
extraordinary that there is a crystal
there is a material that you could heat
up and create negative ions so the
reason people wouldn't have tourmaline
lamps is because tourmaline is just
really expensive okay so we didn't get
any ions off of the salt lamp but I
brought something along that I think
might give us some ions this is an ionic
air purifier when this product was first
launched it sold a two million units it
works by using high voltage to ionize
the air and accelerate those ions to
produce the light breeze you can feel
without any moving parts okay I feel a
breeze coming out of it
and that should be going into the nozzle
we've got it pointed right at our ion
Inlet so that's good we seem to be
seeing some ions at the moment and we
have the ionic breeze right up next to
the source so these are negative ions
these are negative ions so if you want
negative ions what you need in your
house is not a salt lamp it's an ionic
air purifier before you rush out to buy
one I should warn you that generating
these ions produces an unfortunate
by-product ozone so right now we're
measuring about 17 parts per billion
actually of old zone so let's put this
up to the front and see whether or not
we see an increase in the amount of
ozone it's up over 80 so now I think
we're actually at the level of a smart
alert so you're saying that this device
is creating air that would be considered
smog in a city I believe so yeah it's
kind of ridiculous for something that's
meant to purify the air can you smell
the ozone yeah whoa does it trouble you
oh it doesn't bother me I know it and I
want to either leave the lab or turn it
off what am i smelling for here well I
should oh yeah
the sweet smell oh yeah that's smell a
little sweet yeah yeah I people like
that smell but if you smell that it's
not good so perhaps we should shut this
off before I really as fixed to plate
ourselves so generating clean negative
ions is challenging but is it even worth
the effort the research is inconsistent
no significant difference evidence for
beneficial effects of negative ions on
mood and performance could not be
demonstrated and the studies that report
significant results
many have methodological problems in
some participants weren't blinded to the
treatment they were receiving when they
were blinded they may still have known
when negative ions were present by the
faint smell of ozone most of the studies
have very small sample sizes plus they
surveyed participants
of measures increasing the likelihood
that at least one would show a
significant difference just due to
random chance ion levels were typically
measured at the source and the distance
to subjects was not tightly controlled
nor were the other components of the air
so there's no guarantee that
participants were even receiving the
expected levels of ions a meta-analysis
from 2013 reviewing all the prior human
ion studies concluded there was quote no
consistent influence of positive or
negative air ionization on anxiety mood
relaxation sleep and personal comfort
measures the only link they found was
between negative air ionization and
lower depression scores the author's
caution future research is needed to
evaluate the biological plausibility of
this association because fundamentally
the idea that ions have any biological
effect is implausible consider that in a
cubic centimeter of air there are 10 to
the 19 air molecules so even with tens
of thousands of ions the amount is
insignificant not even one part per
billion we're talking parts per million
billion and there's no reason to suspect
the extra electrons would do anything
anyway I mean in your daily life
you are constantly building up charge on
your skin and discharging it through
little zaps
say when you touch a doorknob what what
the few more stray electrons
extracellular do yeah probably not much
so if ions do anything it would likely
be indirectly say by removing pollutants
and odors from the air the ions would
cling to the chemicals and then they
would say get attracted to surfaces
surfaces and stick to the surface the
chemicals stay on the surface so I think
ultimately if you are looking for a way
to improve your mental and physical
health that is backed by strong
scientific evidence then you should take
a walk outside I mean you can walk near
a waterfall or near the ocean if you
like but the thing that is proven to
boost your mood is the exercise
and as an added bonus you're guaranteed
to get some fresh air
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