The Science Behind Salt Room Therapy
It seems like it’s built into our consciousness without even understanding why. It seems we’ve always known.
It’s part of what draws us to cool ocean breezes, not just the crashing of the waves, but the air itself as it comes off the ocean.
It’s why doctors recommend seaside vacations (or even permanent moves) for some of their patients with respiratory problems, even though they can’t necessarily write a prescription for it.
We don’t always understand why we love it, or why we feel better when we’re around it. We just know that we do.
I’m talking, of course, about salt air.
Somehow, even before we had the science to prove it, we instinctively knew salt air was good for us, and we could experience health benefits when we breathed it in. It’s why Catholic monks in the Middle Ages would lead the sick into salt caves and smash the stalactites and stalagmites to release the salt. It’s also why even the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians each had forms of salt treatments in their medical practices.
It’s not just a feeling, either. It turns out there is scientific evidence that salt-infused air offers a plethora of health benefits, from improved moods to asthma relief. This is the foundation underneath a growing trend known as salt room therapy — the practice of sitting in a room with walls made of salt (and often with loose salt strewn on the floor), breathing the air for its therapeutic benefits.
The Science: It’s the Ions, Actually
Other than the fact that it can preserve meat and add flavor to food, salt itself is actually a fairly neutral substance. The benefit isn’t from “snorting” salt the way you’d do with other, um, white substances. Even with the “neti-pots” many people use to clear their sinuses, by the time the salty water enters their nostrils, it’s not technically “salt” anymore. The water breaks up the molecules into negative chloride ions and positive sodium ions.
When it comes to salt air, it’s these ions that give us the health benefit — specifically, the negative ions which naturally get released into the air whenever salt comes in contact with moisture. While modern “conventional” medicine still seems to cast doubt on these health benefits, a growing number of studies are producing a bank of scientific evidence that is getting more difficult to ignore. Just to name a few examples, studies show that negative ions from salt can:
· Treat sinus-related symptoms of cystic fibrosis
· Provide relief from asthma
· Lower blood pressure and treat COPD
· Calm the symptoms of eczema
· …and more!
The Emergence of Salt Room Therapy
When you combine this evidence with what we already understood instinctively, it makes perfect sense that the salt product industry has exploded in recent years, finding an eager following among the health conscious and those who seek holistic treatment alternatives. People began mining pink Himalayan salt because it was pure and pollutant-free, turning it into salt lamps to clean the air in our homes and create a sense of calm. For heavier doses of negative ions, people began traveling many miles and paying big bucks to sit in salt caves, many claiming remarkable relief from their respiratory symptoms.
Nowadays, this therapy has taken a new turn as a growing number of people are opting to create dedicated salt rooms in their own homes, constructing walls made of Himalayan salt bricks so they can enjoy the health and psychological benefits of ion-infused air whenever they feel the need.
Why this obsession? Simply put, the richer the concentration of negative ions in the air, the more pronounced the benefits. As salt room expert Richard Ori of Spiritual Quest explains, spending as little as one hour in a salt room or salt cave can mimic 2–3 days by the ocean.
“Salt walls are significant negative ion generators,” says Richard. “Salt walls are generally larger than any salt lamp and thus provide ample exposure to the healing properties of negative ions.”
The idea of salt room therapy, and salt benefits in general, is not without controversy. Critics claim that the scientific evidence isn’t strong enough to support the notion, that those claiming relief are experiencing the “placebo effect.” Proponents suggest the medical community resists salt therapy because it may lesson people’s dependency on expensive prescription drugs. However, for the majority of those who believe in salt room therapy, their evidence is more personal, in the form of the relief they themselves have experienced. They don’t need to read scientific studies in multiple languages to believe it works; they feel it when their asthma subsides, or when their depression fades, or when their eczema stops itching.
Slowly but surely, it appears the body of scientific evidence is catching up. But that’s neither here nor there for those who are enjoying their salt rooms. After all, it seems they’ve known all along.