You don’t need brain-boosting supplements. You need fresh air.
A friend came over for dinner carrying this monitor with him:
“Oh boy, you need to open your windows right now.”
“Why, what happened?” I asked.
He pointed to the carbon dioxide monitor which read 1,032.
“The carbon dioxide buildup in your house is making us dumber.”
Clearly, he isn’t your typical dinner guest. But his advice helped. I bought the same Co2 monitor that night and started opening windows.
Co2 buildup kills work performance and impairs sleep:
Decision making: Impaired by up to 50% in office workers with high Co2 levels.1
Sleep quality: High Co2 ruins sleep2 and work performance the following day. Sleeping with no ventilation unwittingly destroys our rest.
Headaches: High Co2 levels can cause headaches and raise blood pressure.3
Children’s learning: High Co2 levels impairs their ability to learn4 and makes them sleepy. They are more vulnerable given their high metabolic rate.
What Co2 levels should you aim for?
I aim for Co2 levels below 600ppm5 in the house.
Protocols for managing high Co2 levels:
Ventilate well: Open doors and windows.
Monitor Co2 levels indoors: I frequently check my Co2 monitor and if the levels are higher than 600ppm, I open another window or my backyard door.
Use exhaust fans: Turn on kitchen and bathroom exhausts to pull out indoor air.
Air filters vs Ventilation: Air filters don’t reduce Co2. Only ventilation works. Worried about outdoor pollution? Use an air filter for that.
See my exact Clean Air setup for Health on Easy Mode. Inclusion is 100% merit-based. Brands do not pay to place.
99% of human life was spent breathing outside, not in locked boxes.
We evolved breathing fresh outdoor air in constant motion. Now we’re sealed in boxes re-breathing our own Co2. Open your windows and stop making yourself dumber.
This is Health on Easy Mode. No grinding. No pills. Fix your environment.
Environment over effort,
Aastha
Browse my Health on Easy Mode setup across 15+ categories (non-toxic kitchen, clean water, skincare, diagnostics, lighting).
Follow me on X @aasthajs & Instagram @aasthajs as I parse through the snake-oil in longevity.
Related Post:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3548274/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ina.12254
https://www.saxhoffondenbyg.dk/-/media/sites/saxhoffondenbyg/projekter/igangvaerende_projekter/zhang-et-al-2016-building-and-environment-human-responses-to-carbon-dioxide-a-follow-up-study-at-rec.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360132320301074
PPM (Parts Per Million) measures concentration. It measures how many molecules of CO2 exist for every one million molecules of air. Fresh outdoor air is naturally around 420 ppm. When indoor levels reach 1,000 ppm, we are breathing air that contains more than double the normal amount of CO2.





Environment over effort!