Salt Therapy Rooms May Relieve Asthma, Allergy Symptoms
In Halotherapy: Is Salt Treatment for Real?, Time Healthland discusses a new (in the Western world) therapy for asthma, allergies, allergic skin conditions, and other respiratory ailments. Halotherapy, or salt therapy, provides a salt filled room, often pumped with salty air, for those suffering from such conditions. The environment aims to mimic the naturally occurring salt caves of Eastern Europe, which have been used for therapeutic purposes for centuries.
Ron Rofé, owner of Halo Air/Salt Rooms in New York City explains, "The whole microclimate with the right air quality, humidity and salt particles is effective for cleansing the respiratory tract, the skin and the body as a whole."
There have been no clinical trials in the United States about the effectiveness of salt therapy and owners of halotherapy facilities are careful to point out that their establishments are not medical. However, Time points out that there are studies suggesting that such salt treatment might be effective: "A 2006 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that inhaling hypertonic saline improved lung function in people with cystic fibrosis. Also in 2006, a of cigarette smokers, published in the European Respiratory Journal, found that inhaling aerosolized salt temporarily improved smoking-related symptoms such as coughing and mucus production."
With the benefits that saline nasal irrigation provides, we wouldn't be surprised if salt therapy follows the trajectory of neti pots in terms of gaining acceptance and popularity as people find relief from their allergies and asthma through using the salt rooms. As Etya Novik, who owns salt therapy facility Respira points out, "If you think about chiropractic, acupuncture, even the neti pot, they were all considered out there one time but were slowly accepted in the medical world. I think that a lot of American doctors just aren't familiar with salt therapy."
What do you think? Would you try salt therapy if you had the chance?
Ron Rofé, owner of Halo Air/Salt Rooms in New York City explains, "The whole microclimate with the right air quality, humidity and salt particles is effective for cleansing the respiratory tract, the skin and the body as a whole."
There have been no clinical trials in the United States about the effectiveness of salt therapy and owners of halotherapy facilities are careful to point out that their establishments are not medical. However, Time points out that there are studies suggesting that such salt treatment might be effective: "A 2006 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that inhaling hypertonic saline improved lung function in people with cystic fibrosis. Also in 2006, a of cigarette smokers, published in the European Respiratory Journal, found that inhaling aerosolized salt temporarily improved smoking-related symptoms such as coughing and mucus production."
With the benefits that saline nasal irrigation provides, we wouldn't be surprised if salt therapy follows the trajectory of neti pots in terms of gaining acceptance and popularity as people find relief from their allergies and asthma through using the salt rooms. As Etya Novik, who owns salt therapy facility Respira points out, "If you think about chiropractic, acupuncture, even the neti pot, they were all considered out there one time but were slowly accepted in the medical world. I think that a lot of American doctors just aren't familiar with salt therapy."
What do you think? Would you try salt therapy if you had the chance?
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