Indoor Water Features Can Enhance Your Mood
Interior fountains are rapidly gaining popularity in the USA. Today, an impressive array of beautiful models of indoor water fountains are showing up in homes around the country. But appearances are certainly not the exclusive reason for the recent indoor water feature popularity. Interior fountains are also gaining interest for their mood-altering abilities. Interior fountains as a cure for depression? It may not be as implausible as it sounds.
Indoor water features produce airborne particles known as negative ions. You might remember from your high school chemistry class, a negative ion is a molecule that has dropped one or more electrons, and therefore has a negative charge. For water features the negative ions are airborne water molecules produced by the turbulence in an indoor fountain. These negative ions are capable of producing some very favorable effects. Negative ions, as a consequence of their electrical charge, actually adhere to harmful particles in the air, eliminating contaminants like smoke and dust particles. Furthermore many experts now believe that negative ions, like those produced by an indoor water fountain, may possibly also have a strong emotional effect.
A scientific study at Columbia University concluded that inhaling negative ions, like those produced by indoor water features, can increase the production of serotonin, the brain chemical associated with mood. People with clinical depression produce abnormally reduced levels of serotonin. Hence, most antidepressant medications attempt to counter the disorder by raising serotonin levels.
You may visualize serotonin as “joy juice”; the more you have, the happier you may be. More research is necessary, but ion treatments might possibly offer an alternative treatment for depression, by raising serotonin levels without the harmful side effects associated with many anti-depressant medications.
As with many preliminary scientific findings, this one has its limitations. It is unclear what size of an indoor water feature is needed to yield useful levels of negative ions. The research is still in its early stages. What is clear, however, is that no interior water feature will hurt. Even a small-scale interior water feature, with its relaxing white noise, is guaranteed to brighten up your surroundings… and perhaps your mood as well.