A salty solution

From saline solutions to moving to the seaside for the ocean air, for centuries cultures across the world have used salt to improve wellbeing.

The modern-day take on these age-old salty wellness trends is halotherapy, or salt therapy – a natural therapy where pharmaceutical-grade dry salt is inhaled in a comfortable, controlled environment.

The dry salt particles, which have a negative charge and a high surface energy, are able to penetrate the internal airways deeply, helping to relax internal muscles and balance the nervous system.

At The Wellness Studio in Geelong, owner Rod Barrett said like many modern-day wellness centres, they used a halogenerator to break down pharmaceutical salt into tiny particles that circulate in a salt room and are inhaled.

“Salt is a natural anti-histamine, a natural anti-inflammatory, an anti-fungal, so you breathe it in an it’s good for things like coughs and colds and asthma and hay fever.

“You’re just sitting there and you breath it in, you don’t have to do anything,

“It just helps to clear the airways.”

He said halotherapy was said to have originated from salt caves in Austria, where miners were studied for their unusual respiratory healthy, despite being heavy smokers.

He said the practice was also a great way to relax, and is safe for babies, children, and adults.

“We know how effective it is because of children.

“Because a child isn’t opinionated or indoctrinated, it isn’t placebo for them. When they come in, they will sit on mum’s lap and then the mum will come back and say ‘Well, that’s the best they’ve slept through the night’, or ‘the cold’s stopped’.

“We have people on plans, they’ll come two or three times a week.”

 

In some “passive” salt rooms, there is no machine to break down the salt.

Instead, the room is simply designed like a salt cave, with controlled temperature and humidity and filled with several types of salts, such as Himalayan salt.

Both forms of halotherapy are used to relieve skin, respiratory and lifestyle conditions, including:

Asthma

Eczema and psoriasis

Hay fever

Sinusitis

Cold and flu

Sleep and snoring

Stress, anxiety and fatigue, and

Sports performance

Geelong resident Dianne Lucas uses salt therapy weekly and raves about its benefits.

“I started because I have asthma, but I also had an episode with some severe pneumonia a few years ago and I found that the salt helped with opening up the lungs and so forth,” she said.

“It also helps my sinuses, which is an added bonus that I didn’t realise was going to happen.

“I still take preventative and so forth, but I hardly use my Ventolin now, so I just have to come along here, and it clears out my lungs a little bit.

“I used to come three times a week, but I find once a week is good maintenance.”

Fellow local salt therapy enthusiast Christy Deery said she enjoyed salt therapy herself and also brought her children to the salt room whenever they were recovering from being unwell.

“It just helps with the progression of getting better, and I feel it definitely helps the kids.”

Owner of Ocean Grove’s Pinch Salt and Float Leah Sign said salt therapy was a great treatment for babies and young kids, and especially easy as all it entails is spending time in the salt room.

“With us the room is a private room, it’s great for any type of respiratory illness, it’s great for your immune system.

“It reduces all inflammation right down to your lungs, it’s great for your sinus, and it’s drug-free so it works pretty much straight away.”

 

Sign said the other benefit was the relaxation.

“It’s also extremely relaxing, so we also do meditation in there.

“You sleep really well that night.”

While salt therapy is said to have relatively few side effects, anyone with health issues should first discuss the therapy options with their GP before visiting a salt room.