salt therapy

We all know the beneficial effects of salt, whether as a salt solution applied to an infected wound, or gargled to treat throat and lung infections, or breathed in for respiratory conditions.  Hippocrates (?460-357 BC) recommended salt inhalation, and was backed up by my mother-in-law who strenuously advocated going to the beach and breathing in the sea air to treat any kind of cough or cold.

It was in 1843 that a Polish physician, Dr Felix Boczkowski, noticed that men working in salt mines had fewer respiratory problems than those who didn’t.  In 1949 a German physician, Dr K.H. Spannahel, noticed that people who had taken shelter in salt mines  during bombing raids appeared to find relief from their respiratory problems (as well as the bombs).

In 1980 the Odessa Scientific Research Institute in Ukraine developed a machine (the halogenerator or salt therapy machine) to disperse medical-grade salt particles into the air.  This led to the creation of the salt room (or, in full, the salt therapy room), a room where you sit and relax and breathe the salt.  Salt therapy (or halotherapy,  halo- from the Greek hals meaning ‘salt’) spread from Russian countries through  Europe and has now arrived in Australia.