Indoor Water Features Can Improve Your Mood
Interior water fountains are quickly increasing in popularity in the United States. Today, an impressive variety of captivating designs of interior water features are finding their way into homes throughout the country. But appearances are certainly not the exclusive reason for the recent interior fountain popularity. Indoor fountains are also gaining attention for their mood-changing qualities. Indoor fountains to overcome depression? It might not be as outlandish as it sounds.
Indoor water features give off airborne particles called negative ions. As you might remember from your high school chemistry class, a negative ion is a molecule that has lost one or more electrons, and therefore has a negative charge. For water fountains the negative ions are airborne water molecules created by the turbulence in an interior water feature. The negative ions provide some very advantageous effects. Negative ions, as a consequence of their electrical charge, actually adhere to impurities in the air, removing things like dust and smoke particles. Even more amazing, many scientists now believe that negative ions, like those released by an indoor water fountain, could also have a powerful effect on mood.
A research project at Columbia University confirmed that inhaling negative ions, like those generated by indoor water features, can increase the production of serotonin, a brain chemical associated with feelings. Those with clinical depression suffer from abnormally reduced levels of serotonin. Therefore, most antidepressant remedies counteract the condition by increasing serotonin levels.
You can easily visualize serotonin as “happy juice”; the more you have, the happier you may be. Further analysis is needed, but ion therapy might possibly provide an alternative treatment for depression, by increasing serotonin levels without the hazardous side effects associated with many anti-depressant medications.
As with most early research findings, this one has its limitations. It has not yet been determined what size of an indoor fountain would be necessary to produce useful levels of negative ions. The research remains continuing. What is clear, however, is that no indoor fountain will hurt. Even a small indoor water feature, with its calming white noise, is guaranteed to enhance your surroundings… and perhaps your mood as well.
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