Salt is an essential ingredient to all living creatures on Earth. It has a long history, where it has played a role: as currency, in religious rituals, as a preservative and for health and wellness. Many people are familiar with salt’s health uses in baths, as a saline solution, in neti pots, for gargling, and for cleaning and exfoliating the skin.
Dry salt therapy, or halotherapy, is being embraced across the United States as a modern modality for health and wellness, but this practice started a long time ago—in Eastern Europe’s salt mines.
In the early 1800s, workers were deep underground mining, grinding and cultivating. Small salt particles were being inhaled and landing on these miners’ skin. It was not long before physicians began noticing how healthy the miners were and conveying those findings to the rest of the population. The doctors discovered that dry salt has unique properties that differ from the ocean’s wet or moist salt. Soon, medical clinics were being established deep underground to care for patients that would benefit from dry salt therapy.1
In the mid 1900s, Russian researchers began working on technology to bring the effects of dry salt therapy to ground level and make it available to the greater population that were not able to travel to the mines. The first halogenerator was developed in Odessa, Ukraine.1 Halo is derived from the Greek word halos, which means salt. A halogenerator crushes and grinds dry salt into specific micronized particles and disperses the salt into a room or chamber. Thus, halotherapy was born and soon spread throughout Eastern Europe, where there are thousands of facilities with salt therapy—from resort spas and fitness centers to day care centers and clinics.
Dry salt therapy is a natural, complimentary method for providing wellness. When pure, dry sodium chloride (NaCl) is crushed into micronized particles and dispersed into a room or chamber, it can be inhaled into the respiratory system. It not only absorbs foreign particles there, but it also serves antibacterial and anti-inflammatory roles.
Dry salt acts like a sponge as it traverses down the respiratory tract, where it absorbs excess mucus and foreign elements, removing them of the system. Dry salt is antibacterial, allowing it to target viruses and other bacteria in the system. It is also anti-inflammatory, which helps open restricted airways to provide relief for those with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, allergies and other respiratory conditions.
Interestingly, athletes have begun using dry salt therapy to maintain their respiratory hygiene. In addition, the treatment helps support faster recovery time.
While halotherapy provides great benefits for those with respiratory conditions, its unique properties also promote healthy skin. When the skin is exposed to dry salt microparticles, they penetrate deep into the epidermal layers to draw out excess fluid and oils, kill bacteria and increase skin cell microcirculation.
Dry salt also helps maintaining skin rigidity. Halotherapy has been known to reduce skin swelling and inflammation to help relieve conditions such as psoriasis, eczema and acne.
