Healthful Living

General Statements

Air is the free blessing of heaven, calculated to electrify the whole system.—Testimonies for the Church 1:701.

Air must be in constant circulation to be kept pure.—Testimonies for the Church 1:702.

Ventilation of the Sleeping-Room

Sleeping-rooms especially should be well ventilated, and the atmosphere made healthy by light and air. Blinds should be left open several hours each day, the curtains put aside, and the room thoroughly aired.—How to Live, 62.

Sleeping apartments should be large, and so arranged as to have a circulation of air through them day and night. Those who have excluded the air from their sleeping-rooms should commence to change their course immediately. They should let in air by degrees, and increase its circulation until they can bear it winter and summer, with no danger of taking cold. The lungs, in order to be healthy, must have pure air.—How to Live, 63.

Ventilation in the Sick-Room

The sick-room, if possible, should have a draught of air through it day and night, The draught should not come directly upon the invalid. While burning fevers are raging, there is but little danger of taking cold.... The sick must have pure, invigorating air. If no other way can be devised, the sick, if possible, should be removed to another room, and another bed, while the sick-room, the bed, and bedding are being purified by ventilation.—How to Live, 60.

Every breath of vital air in the sick-room is of the greatest value, although many of the sick are very ignorant on this point. They feel much depressed, and do not know what the matter is. A draught of pure air through their room would have a happy, invigorating influence upon them.—How to Live, 59.

Benefits of Pure Air

Air, air, the precious boon of heaven, which all may have, will bless you with its invigorating influence if you will not refuse it entrance. Welcome it, cultivate a love for it, and it will prove a precious soother of the nerves.... The influence of pure, fresh air is to cause the blood to circulate healthfully through the system. It refreshes the body, and tends to render it strong and healthy, while at the same time its influence is decidedly felt upon the mind, imparting a degree of composure and serenity. It excites the appetite, and renders the digestion of food more perfect, and induces sound, sweet sleep.—Testimonies for the Church 1:702.

Harmful Effects of Impure Air

The harmful effects of living in close, ill-ventilated rooms are these: The system becomes weak and unhealthy; the circulation is depressed; the blood moves sluggishly through the system, because it is not purified and vitalized by the pure, invigorating air of heaven; the mind becomes depressed and gloomy, while the whole system is enervated, and fevers and other acute diseases are liable to be generated.—Testimonies for the Church 1:702.

Many young children have passed five hours each day in schoolrooms not properly ventilated, nor sufficiently large for the healthful accommodation of the scholars. The air of such rooms soon becomes poison to the lungs that inhale it.—Testimonies for the Church 3:135.

Many families suffer with sore throat, lung diseases, and liver complaint, brought upon them by their own course of action. Their sleeping-rooms are small, unfit to sleep in for one night, but they occupy the small apartments for weeks, and months, and years.... They breathe the same air over and over, until it becomes impregnated with the poisonous impurities and waste matter thrown off from their bodies through the lungs and the pores of the skin.... Those who thus abuse their health must suffer with disease.—How to Live, 63.