About Just Breathe Salt Spa

So why salt? The when's, where's and how's.

History
Salt has been considered precious and equal in value to gold since ancient times and was used as a currency and vehicle of trade. When one considers its importance in preserving food, in the making of gunpowder, in its use for medical purposes, and how it became a part of making Holy Water, we can better understand how it came to be such a valued commodity.

Some Interesting Salt Trivia
1) The word "soldier" may have come from Latin "sal dare" meaning “to give salt” who were “paid in salt”.

2) "Salad" referring to a raw vegetable to which salt was added with "sal" being the root word for salt.

3) Salt is used to preserve food (as well as mummy's) and improve it’s flavor. During the Revolutionary War, Loyalists intercepted the Revolutionists' salt shipments to interfere with their ability to preserve food.

4) Salt is recognized to be necessary for life for all creatures. It is an electrolyte that can’t be produced by the body so is an “essential nutrient”. As such, it was held dear, regulated, and taxed by those in power for their gain. Money from taxes on salt was said to have financed Columbus' voyages, as well as the building of the Erie canal.

5) Hippocrates (460 BC) recommended salt inhalation as an effective treatment for respiratory issues.

6) Cities were built around salt sources. It could be said that salt is responsible for modern civilization as its food preserving quality allowed populations to settle instead of constantly wandering in search of fresh food. Suffix "wich" was added to a name of a town designating it as a salt center. From old English noun "wich" meaning a salt works, pit or source ...Harwich, Sandwich, Ipswich..

So, where did salt therapy come from?

Salt (NaCl) is either collected through evaporation or mined in caves created by long gone receding seas.

“Spelotherapy" (cavetherapy) goes back several centuries. Monks in medieval times would take the sick down into the salt caves where the air was saturated with salt particles created by their crushing up of the stalactites.

Later, in 1843, the physician from the Wieliczka Salt Mine made note of the low incidence of respiratory and pulmonary problems in the miners and opened up salt baths there for the public.

1958 - His successors set up a hospital/spa which is still there today.

1968 - First Spelo hospital opened in Ukraine. Halotherapy (dry salt therapy) from the greek "Halo" wasn't available until 1985 when Russian doctors developed the first Halotherapy devices allowing for treatment rooms above ground

1994 - With the fall of the Soviet Union Halotherapy protocols became available in Europe.

Today - The US is slowly catching on to the benefits of “Dry” Salt Therapy. It has been recognized in much of Eastern and Western Europe, Canada, and Australia for years and is routinely covered by health insurance.

Salt therapy is not new in the US however. “Wet” salt therapy is more commonly used in the form of aerosol inhalers, saline solutions to clean wounds and re hydrate, Netti-pots, and Epsom salts to relieve aches and pains. But, "wet" salt therapy can only go so far and do so much.

Dry "Halo" salt therapy is more highly concentrated and can reach deeper in to the sinus, alveoli, and bronchial pathways. Because of this, clinical trials show that :

Up to 85% of those with mild to moderate asthma, 75% with severe asthma, and up to 97% of those with chronic bronchitis and cystic fibrosis, see improvement.