It must be said up front that we at Soaring Heart are not physicians and cannot officially prescribe treatments to customers for their ailments. We can, however, pass along things we've learned over the years that have helped people improve the quality of their lives. Sometimes a natural mattress can make all the difference.

People with ailments and health concerns, including multiple chemical sensitivities, allergies, fibromyalgia, arthritis and so forth, this page is for you. We understand how important it is to come home to a bedroom that you know is safe and secure, where you can recuperate and restore your system after a day of navigating through a chemically hazardous world.

Even without taking into consideration chemical sensitivities or allergies, we think it's just counter-intuitive to include potentially toxic materials in beds. But most modern innerspring mattresses - and even modern polyfoam futons - are loaded with them. The most common bedding materials, like polyurethane foam and polyester fibers, constantly offgas the chemicals manufacturers use in producing them. The glues used to laminate fill layers together are often solvent-based and potentially toxic. On top of that, even more chemicals are added to almost all beds to meet federal fire safety laws. While none of these sources necessarily contributes enough to cause significant harm to the average healthy body, they may have a cumulative effect, especially as they become more and more present in our lives, and especially for individuals who are sensitive to certain chemicals.

The toxins from many synthetic products can be taxing on all of our bodies but they are hardest on people with multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS). MCS is a general name for a wide variety of conditions based on the body's negative reactions to various manufactured chemicals. The chemicals that affect MCS sufferers vary from person to person and can be found in just about everything we live with today, from the materials used to construct buildings, furniture, and cars, to air fresheners, perfumes, cleaners, insecticides and pesticides.

While there is no official recognized medical diagnosis for MCS, and though many skeptics will say that the condition is purely psychosomatic, the symptoms exhibited by those people afflicted are very real, and they're only made worse by stress, be it environmental, physiological, or phychological. Regardless of the cause or causes of an individual's MCS, we believe that a natural, healthy, chemical-free bed can absolutely help to relieve all the sources of stress that can exacerbate MCS symptoms. And though we don't promise a cure, by any means, we know we can help provide some comfort and a safe haven in which your body and mind can heal and rest.

Here at Soaring Heart, we offer sample kits that contain small, individually sealed pieces of every material that we use to make our beds. You're welcome to request one--we'll send it to you free of charge. To test the materials, we recommend either sleeping with the sample in question inside your pillowcase overnight, or sealing the sample in a jar overnight and cautiously smelling the air inside the jar in the morning. See how you react to each material. If you have no reactions, congratulations! Chances are that a bed built with that material will be good for you.

Obviously, if you already know you're violently allergic to any of these materials, please exercise common sense when considering exposing yourself to them, and proceed in a manner in which you feel comfortable.

We consider wool, cotton, and latex to be three of the healthiest materials to use in natural beds since they produce little or no toxins as they naturally break down over time. It is only when cotton and wool are treated with chemicals or when chemicals are used in processing these fibers that they become less healthy.

Wool is wonderful. Since it cannot catch fire (it instantly turns to self-extingushing ash when exposed to flame), it doesn't require any flame retardants. In fact, once it is washed, wool should never need any additives of any kind.

Wool can be a very beneficial ingredient for people with fibromyalgia. Wool's lofty, gently springy fibers can help reduce weight on pressure points, allow for improved blood circulation, and evenly support the body so that muscles and joints can relax. We've seen people greatly benefit from our 4" wool topper, in particular.

The qualities that make wool beneficial for fibromyalgia suffers can also help bring relief to people with arthritis. When the body is supported well, joints can relax. And since wool keeps the body warm without overheating, joints do not get as inflamed or achy as when they're pressed into polyester or other synthetics.

People with wool allergies, of course, may opt for another material. But it should be noted that a great majority of people who think they have an allergy to wool are mistaken, and merely have a reaction to the texture of the wool fibers physically rubbing against their skin. This contact irritation is not the same as an allergy, and since all our wool products are inside cotton cases, no skin contact ever takes place. Another good reason for getting a sample kit.

Cotton is a great component in any bed, but standard cotton can have two drawbacks. First, conventional cotton farming uses large quantities of pesticides and herbicides, which infuses the cotton with low levels of toxins. Second, un-spun, raw cotton fibers are extremely flammable. In the quantities required to make a bed, this factor can accelerate the speed with which fire can spread through your home. To be fire-safe (and compliant with Federal fire safety laws), cotton fibers that are used in beds must be treated with some form of flame retardant. We've chosen to use a natural mineral salt powder, boric acid, as a flame retardant in our standard cotton. Though understood to be mostly harmless to humans, it may be a source for irritation in highly sensitive individuals.

For those wanting to avoid chemicals of any kind as well as boric acid, we can make your bed using 100% organic cotton which is grown without pesticides and is boric acid-free. In order to legally circumvent the latest Federal fire safety regulations and use organic cotton for your bed, we require a prescription from your physician stating that you must sleep on a bed that is free of all fire retardants.

We use boric acid as a fire retardant in our products that contain cotton batting. Boric acid, or borate, is a mineral salt with a similar toxicity to humans as common table salt. Though it is also used to control pests (it clogs insects' respiratory systems and fatally dehydrates them), it is generally considered harmless in the amounts used in the cotton batting, and being that its primary toxicity would come as a result of ingestion, you'd pretty much have to eat your bed in order for it to harm you! However, for individuals who are extremely chemically sensitive or unusually allergic, avoiding boric acid may be a good idea just to be on the safe side. You can view the Wikipedia entry for boric acid here.

Latex can be another excellent component in a bed, especially for those with chemical sensitivities. Some people with MCS are surprised to find latex quite tolerable, even blends of natural and synthetic latex.

Sleeping with latex and wool can help allergy sufferers by reducing dust mites, the most common cause of allergies in America. Dust mites cannot thrive in the dryness of wool, and they simply don't prefer to live in latex. Plus, wool and latex are both resistant to mold and mildew, which is always a good thing.

There are a handful of people who have an allergic reaction to the proteins in natural latex (only about 1% to 6% of the general public, and about 8% to 12% of health care workers). In most cases, this allergy is acquired after long-term regular skin contact with dipped latex products like gloves, tubing, and condoms. Fortunately, the foamed latex used in our beds is made using processes that eliminate a significant portion of this protein. Plus, the latex cores of our beds are usually inside layers of wool in addition to their cotton casing, so direct skin contact never occurs. To our knowledge, nobody without previous latex allergies has ever developed a sensitivity to latex because of sleeping on a latex bed.

To learn more about latex allergies, you can visit the CDC site or the Wikipedia entry here and here.

If you're at all uncertain of your status with regard to latex, feel free to contact us and request a sample kit.

The finish used on the Pacific Rim maple furniture we carry is a mixture of 25% beeswax, 25% tung oil, 25% linseed oil, and 25% varathane. For most people, these substances, once dry, are harmless and non-toxic. People with severe nut allergies, however, should avoid tung oil since it is derived from a tree nut. Fortunately, the furniture from Pacific Rim is also available unfinished so those people looking to avoid tung oil (or any of the other components) can easily do so. See the Wikipedia entry for tung oil here.