Question about negative ions

[Rextos]

Hey guys, I just joined this forum today but i have been wanting to for a while. A brief summary of my belief life - I mostly mostly grew up in texas but never really bothered a lot with religions except in high school i started suffering from depression really bad and then decided to join a friend in church and started going hoping it would help - led me to about 5 years of even more misery and it was actually just this year that i learned for myself that a ton of things in this life are complete BS.

So now I guess I am more science/logic rather than mass produced bad information, and I really hate that not just with religion but also when people say things like "oh if you turn your car off during a train crossing you actually waste more fuel turning it back on" - when thats only true maybe if you just turn it off for 4 seconds then turn it back on, and when you ask where they heard that? just friends of family of friends of family... I really how bad information gets spread like wildfire just from hearsay.

Also I got really fed up with "holistic" and "natural" remedies because seems like for every phsyical illness I had the "natural remedies" didn't do jack and I was much better off going to the doctor...And I see holistic people take all kinds of supplements from random plans that nobodies even heard of, becaise it supposedly works! (maybe it does, but the ones I tried didn't help me any)

Though at the same time I do not support the mental health industry at all. I hope you guys don't hate me for this because I know we should be on the side of logic and science, but my experience with the mental health system has been a living hell for 10 years going in circles as a drugged up cash cow who couldn't talk or think clearly at the mercy of condescending doctors and nurses at 3 different hospitals across the country - but I've actually turned my life around the best when I was lucky enough to break free from it and honestly I felt like the medicines always did more harm than good for me and lotta times even made more depressed/crazy. Though they may help some people, it just didn't work out for me and honestly the people I've met in real life and got to know, they also agree that the mental health system didn't become a 88 billion industry by helping people.

But anyways I kinda got off track, but I wanted to ask if anyone has tried those "himalayan plugin salt lamps" ? I found em while looking for a new lamp and they supposedly release 'negative ions" which make us happy and can fight depression and allergies and all kinds of stuff. Looking at all the reviews online they all got like 4.5/5 stars, though i know lotta times companies make their own fake reviews and lotta the people buying them are probably just having a placebo effect. is there any real information about negative ions? because even in the non holistic section i find products that "release negative ions" - i cant really find anything reliable about them though. do any of you guys know much about them?

[Cato]

They make nice paper weights.

[Mister Agenda]

Welcome to the forum, Rextos. Negative ions can help clear the air in your home of harmful particles like pollen. I would be surprised if anything that can be described as a 'lamp' would release negative ions in sufficient quantities to do the job.

[Faith No More]

Welcome.

If you're looking for a lamp to help with depression, UV lamps actually have science to back them up. I know you don't like mental health workers, but you can get a prescription from a psychiatrist for one. That should make it free.

I keep meaning to get one, but I never remember to when I have time.

[houseofcantor]

Welcome n00b. Here's a link for ya - http://physics.stackexchange.com/questio...ative-ions

[TheRealJoeFish]

RationalWiki's article on Himalayan Salt Lamps

Negative ionic goodness

The problem with the claim that these lamps release negative ions is that electric lights and candle flames aren't nearly hot enough to break apart the ionic bonds between sodium and chlorine. As one university physics professor puts it, "If that were true, we'd have chlorine gas coming out our salt shakers." The electrostatic attraction between even two ions is so large that chloride cannot be released in significant amounts. The orange color that they emit is from the excitation of electrons to higher energy levels. They are orange because of impurities in the salt, especially iron oxide (rust). If burning fire can't make these lamps release negative ions, it's not likely slightly warm electric lights could.

Perhaps these lamps don't ionize the sodium or chlorine in the salt, but the molecules in the air around the lamp. "Negative ions" have been a buzzword used by various woo machines for decades, and there do exist air ionization machines that can indeed negatively ionize air molecules. The only problem is, negatively ionized air molecules don't really cure anything. (If you have a lot of ions in the air, we call it "lightning.")

[Alex K]

If something purports to release ions into the room air, I would seriously worry about Ozone levels...

[robvalue]

Hello, welcome!

I'm sorry to hear of your negative experience with the mental health profession. There will always be those who abuse the system and perform bad practice. It's a shame you had to be a victim of this.

I hope you enjoy the forum

[AFTT47]

Like Mr. Agenda said upthread, negative ions can help remove particulates from the air. In sufficient quantities, they can give the air a nice, fresh aroma - a better alternative to masking air fresheners which turn air which smells like shit to air that smells like shit in a rain forest.

Like others have said, make sure a device which claims to emit negative ions really does that and in sufficient quantities. Google research should give your answer there.

Finally, there isn't a lot special about negative ions. They have properties which make them useful for air purification and probably some other things as well but they sure as hell aren't going to cure depression. They might make your environment more pleasant but don't expect anything beyond that.

[LastPoet]

Ions are simply natural elements that gain/lose electrons due to some energy input or being put in a sollution. Eg, salt into water ionizes as Na+ and CL-

I am not aware of any use they have against depression or any mental ailment. Have you thorougly search for the sources of these 'ions' you speak of?

The brain relies a lot in chemistry, our nerv signals are generated by the difference in potencial between ions, as much as our self produced drugs, aka, neurotransmitters.

Lamps offer nothing more than photons, that in our body, generates vitamin D, or skin cancer if too much UV, but those are not ions.

Have I landed in the land of Woo?