Medicine is no stranger to salt. For thousands of years salt caves and mines have been used as sacred healing spaces for treating the sick; and people are still visiting these places today. With the rise of modern medicine, these natural healing centers have been replicated and translated into modern and convenient applications.
This translation started about 100 years ago, when Russian healers and doctors started to take the idea behind these salt caves and mines to a whole new level. This was the birth of halotherapy. The Russian doctors used these “salt facilities” in hospitals and health facilities to treat different respiratory and skin conditions. In the 1990’s, this technology began to travel all over Europe and is currently used in many clinical settings around the continent today.
What are these halotherapy chambers, and why do they work? They are rooms, some small and some large, where pharmaceutical grade salt is pulverized by a machine and then fanned out into the air, which the patients then breathe in as they are relaxing and deep breathing. Breathing in this salt does wonders for your body.
The salt grabs onto the mucus lining your airways, as well as activating the cilia inside of these cavities which are structures that work to move out all of the pollutants and allergens that come into our bodies daily. Many people experience at least a little bit of coughing when they first enter the halobooth - this is proof your body is working with the salt to help clean your respiratory tract.
There are many respiratory and skin conditions which salt therapy has been shown to help. Though halotherapy is not a replacement of medication, it can be a very helpful tool to aid in speeding up overall health and recovery. Though the USA is a little bit behind in appreciating this therapy, we're sure in the next couple of years salt therapy will be more widely used and accepted like it is already all over the world.