Salt Therapy Becoming Mainstream

Posted in Company News | 09.19.14

Even those without respiratory difficulties are finding the healing properties of salt. A recent story by ABC News talks about how ‘salt spas’ are becoming the newest trend in luxury pampering. Read more about this new trend at ABCNews.com.

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 New England Journal of Medicine study in 2006 found that inhaling salt-infused vapor improved breathing for 24 patients with the chronic endocrine and lung condition, cystic fibrosis. In another small 2006 study, in the European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, subjects with asthma reported breathing easier after several weeks of regular halotherapy treatments.

Spas like the Salt Sanctuary in Johnson City, New York, feature two salt rooms. One is fabricated entirely from pink, Himalayan salt to resemble a cave. The other, a smaller space lined with salt bricks, was specifically built for children, according to co-owner Matt Walsh.

“Breathing in salt can help cure a lot of modern ailments that come from pollution and stress,” Walsh said. “It is especially good for helping chronic respiratory illnesses like asthma, allergies and bronchitis.”

Janine Narayadu, owner of the Bethesda Salt Cave in Maryland, explained why many people believe in salt’s healing properties.

“If [someone] has sinus issues, sinus headaches, the best way to get the sinuses clear is to put salt in, because salt draws out water,” Narayadu told ABC affiliate, WJLA-TV. “So, if there’s fluid in the nose or the sinus cavity, the salt is going to draw it out, dry it up; it’s going to crystallize, and you’re going to be able to get rid of it. And when the fluid comes out, it reduces pressure on the sinuses.”