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5 Ways to Improve your Health with Indoor Plants

5 Ways to Improve your Health with Indoor Plants

Indoor plants not only look great but they also improve your indoor environmental quality. 

If you live in an apartment or a place with limited plant life, or work in an office with a heap of partitions and synthetic flooring, then you can easily improve the quality of your air with indoor plants.

NUMEROUS STUDIES BY NASA SHOW THAT PLANTS PLAY A KEY ROLE IN REMOVING TRACE LEVELS OF CARBON MONOXIDE, BENZENE, TOLUENE, XYLENE AND VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS LIKE FORMALDEHYDE FROM THE AIR. MANY OF THESE ARE COMMON HOUSEHOLD & OFFICE CHEMICALS FOUND IN FURNITURE, FURNISHING, FLOOR COVERINGS, CLEANERS & CAR FUMES.

The bonus of course is that plants not only remove toxins from the air, but they also produce oxygen and are visually beautiful. And it's not just NASA who are promoting plants for physical health. A medical practice in Manchester, UK are part of a scheme that prescribes plants to patients to help them relax, manage anxiety and depression. 

Research has consistently shown that plants will do a number of things for you:


  1. Increase the quality of the air by absorbing chemicals or emitting oxygen
  2. Lower stress and negativity
  3. Boost healing
  4. Increase memory retention and concentration
  5. Flowers boost creativity - so make sure you team with someone who gives you plenty of them!

To achieve consistent results, keep your plants clean of dust and pests by giving them a good wash from time to time. (They also work best when alive!)

Always buy local plants in the right season as they will have a far greater chance of survival. Do your research on the plants you buy as some, like cyclamens or orchids flower in winter and give you bonus beauty. While the flowers will last you all winter and you can then plant them in the garden or on the balcony for the rest of the year. 

You probably know most of these great indoor plants: Palms, Aspidistra, Peace Lily, Ivy, Weeping Fig, Zanzibar Gem. Or in smaller pots: Cyclamens, Gerberas & Orchids - all of which flower. 

Peace Lilies help reduce the amount of benzene, acetone and ammonia in the air as well as acetone. Gerberas remove benzene and formaldehyde. Goldon Pothos (common Ivy) removes ozone. 

There are so many beautiful indoor plants in all kinds of incredible designs available. You can find some to get started with in Indoor Gardens

Pot plants also make excellent gifts - for house warming gifts, as an alternative to cut flowers or anytime really. They truly are the gift the keeps on giving. 




Images in order: Unsplash - Toa Heftiba, Crown Agency, Idan Arid | Peace Lily = Pro Flowers
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Science Notes

Plants have been known to be air purifiers for a long time and many studies of environments (especially offices and apartments) as well as the plants themselves continue to bear out the truth in their validity as a very cheap air cleaner. 

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) are well researched areas in offices as more focus shifts to greening our living environments. IEQ measures:

  • Ventilation Effectiveness
  • Lighting Quality
  • Low Emitting Materials
  • Views and Scenery (calming, un-stressful and quiet)
  • Amount of Noise Present
  • Air Pollution Mitigation – reducing all types of urban air pollution
  • Controlability of Systems
  • Thermal Comfort

Related Tip

Indoor plants need to be living to give you any benefit other than visual appreciation.  Don’t cheat and buy fake indoor plants which are often made from synthetics - introducing, not taking chemicals from the air! They are also brilliant dust collectors.