Industry News

Research and studies have demonstrated the beneficial value of the micro climate of salt caves in shielding our bodies against viral infections, in balancing our immune system, in the enhancement of sport performance & in the following disorders:

Respiratory infections, Cardiovascular diseases, Immune system diseases, Gastrointestinal diseases, Skin diseases, Nervous system disorders, Disorders of metabolism and as a drug-free treatment for asthma, bronchitis, Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and sinusitis

The health conscious are embracing the latest trend in pampering — salt spas. Rather than ingesting salt, spa patrons relax in rooms made of it, breathing in misty salty vapors in hopes of clearing their lungs and purifying their skin. It’s a treatment known as halotherapy after the Greek word halo, meaning salt. Besides the thousands of years of use throughout Europe and the Middle East, there’s some science to back up these claims.

A few weeks ago I went to a healing conference and experienced some new therapies. One of these is salt therapy, excellent for those with allergies, asthma and other ailments such as stress. I went for a session at Breathe Easy and was most impressed—I took my boys there as well as they suffer from seasonal allergies and we all benefited.

Several mornings a week, Mercedes Costa sinks back in a chair, closes her eyes and breathes in the cool salt air. Costa isn’t at the beach. She’s in a softly lit treatment room at Salt Spa Walnut Creek. A thick layer of salt crystals lines the walls, and the coarse-ground mineral carpets the floor like sand. A machine known as a halogenerator gives off a soothing hum as it blows microscopic particles of high-grade sodium chloride into the air.

As the owner of Raffa Yoga in Cranston, Christine Raffa has made a career out of caring for the body and soul. But about five years ago, Raffa suffered a bout of pneumonia that she could not shake. In what she calls a “Hail Mary attempt” to heal holistically, she ordered a salt tent and set it up in her bathroom. “I was better in 48 hours,” Raffa said.

[Video] Most of us eat too much salt, but what about breathing salt? Can that be good for you? The owners of the metro’s first salt therapy business claim it is. At Kansas City Salt Mine in Lee’s Summit, there’s no hard labor. Instead, there are customers like Becca Herzog who are mining for better breathing. “To avoid taking all the pills and what not. I don’t like taking medicine,” said Herzog. So she turned to salt therapy or halotherapy for her fall allergies.

Have you ever vacationed on a beach near the ocean, and breathed in the salty air? Some say that air from the ocean can actually help you breathe easier. Jake Moran never takes breathing easy for granted. He’s battled Cystic Fibrosis – a genetic and potentially deadly respiratory condition – since he was a kid. He spends hours every day on a number of treatments to help keep his lungs clear. “It takes hours of therapy daily,” Moran said. “Brocho-dialators, to expectorants, to anti-inflammatory, to antibiotics, and of course saline.

Despite decades of progress on the management of asthma, millions of sufferers still have symptoms, leaving many looking for alternative ways to help their condition. A small, but apparently increasing number of people are turning to a little-known method: breathing in a fine salt mist in man-made salt caves.

[Video] Halotherapy [“halos” in Greek means salt] is drug-free and completely natural. It occurs in a controlled air environment that simulates a natural salt cave microclimate. Halotherapy stems from the even older “Speleotherapy” [“speleo” means cave] that historically utilized actual salt mines as the venue for the therapy. Salt mines and their therapeutic properties have been noted since Hippocrates. According to the old facts, the medieval monks took the sick to the salt caves and let them breathe in the salt particles, which were created while the monks were crushing the stalactites.

[Video] Salt Chalet, the first salt room on the West Coast, is featured on a segment of the nationally-syndicated health talk show, The Doctors. The four MDs discuss the benefits of Dead Sea salt for skin ailments, and how the salt is being used in salt therapy to treat symptoms of asthma, allergies, sinus infections, bronchitis and other respiratory problems.