A place where salt is not a four letter word

So you’re the sort who dutifully skips the salt at every meal, regarding it as something to be avoided, even feared.

Andrea Geresdi would like 45 minutes to change your mind.

Inside the cool, dark confines of her new Naples business venture, Salt Cave, you’ll drag your bare toes through up to 8 inches of blush-colored Himalayan crystal salt. It feels like beach sand, but drier: The cave’s humidity is always between 40 to 50 percent.

The cave’s walls and ceiling are covered with more salt. Piled in the corners and center are large, gently lit salt rocks. Exposed wooden beams and a hanging lantern add to the feeling that this 450-square-foot room, located inside a Naples shopping plaza, is actually nestled inside a cave or salt mine.

That’s the idea, Geresdi said.

“That’s how this treatment started,” she said.

The treatment is halotherapy, or salt therapy. Geresdi, who was born in Hungary and now lives in Cape Coral, said the process of taking a salty sojourn into a cave or mine is a long-standing and popular alternative health treatment in certain parts of Eastern Europe.

While she doesn’t suggest salt is a cure-all, she certainly feels that the mineral has been much maligned.

“It’s so vital,” she said. “We so need it.”

Many of the maladies Geresdi believes a salt cave session might improve upon are respiratory and skin-related. Asthma, bronchitis, allergies and psoriasis are just a few she quickly lists. But she also said the salt cave can relieve the symptoms of more serious health issues, such as depression and cystic fibrosis.

The typical session lasts 45 minutes and costs $45, with participants simply sitting in a chair and relaxing or meditating as they breathe in the atmosphere of the salt cave. Soft music is played. Each participant is given a cover for their hair and, if they wish, their feet.

A generator is used to create an aerosol salt spray of one to five micrometers, and the spray fills the room in just a few minutes. As participants breathe, Geresdi said, they absorb all the benefits of the salt, which is effective because it is a natural antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal.

Afterwards, there’s a soft woosh as all the salty air is vented from the sealed room to prepare for the next session.

Naples resident Jackie Wright has visited the Salt Cave several times. Her initial trip was prompted by back pain from an existing medical condition. The pain improved more quickly than expected, she said. After that, she decided to return before taking a flight to Michigan in the hope that she might avoid the respiratory troubles she always seemed to encounter when taking such a trip.

“I can’t prove or disprove, but I do know I didn’t get sick,” Wright said.

Now, in addition to her occasional cave visits, Wright is adding a dash of salt here and there to her daily life. She believes it is giving her more energy – just as Geresdi claimed it would.

But not just any salt will do, Geresdi explained. The salt must be natural, not the processed, table salt most people keep in their cabinets. Any salt with a color to it is her rule, she said. Sea salt, for example, should be gray. If it is white, it has been processed, and has lost its value. The Himalayan salt in the Salt Cave is pink and, she said, is some of the purest on the planet.

“It’s untouched salt,” she said. “They take it, put it in a container and it comes here.”

In building the business, there were some moments Geresdi wasn’t entirely sure if that was the best thing.

Although she was certain she wanted to build a salt cave and offer other holistic treatments and classes in connection with it, finding the space for such a business proved difficult. Potential landlords worried about the salt cave concept, she said.

She forged ahead, ordering the salt before she had a store and hoping a space would materialize. To her dismay, it didn’t.

“You definitely don’t want to have 20 tons of salt lying around,” she said.

But then, in what Geresdi considers a quirk of the universe, she found a suitable spot at Heritage Court, a shopping plaza on U.S. 41 in Naples, just south of Pine Ridge Road. Three days after that, the salt arrived.

Now the Salt Cave is fully operational, offering halotherapy sessions, yoga, tai chi, meditation, crystal bowl sound healing and more within its walls. There are lectures and other classes, too.

While parents soak up the salt, their children can dig for hidden plunder – Geresdi has a children’s area in the cave that she stocks with fake jewels and coins.

There is plenty of that pretty pink salt for sale, too: Bags of it, big and small, neatly stacked in the lobby shelves. Geresdi suggests adding a half-pinch of it to a glass of distilled water.

Do that, she said, and you’ll have the best drinking water in the world.

“Your body would just smile and thank you,” she said.

By ELIZABETH KELLAR

Source: Naplesnews.com

 

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Halotherapy: Aerosol Salt Treatment of Respiratory Diseases

Halotherapy (HT, from Greek halos=salt) uses dry aerosol microparticles of salt and, in one version, minerals to treat respiratory diseases. HT seeks to replicate the conditions of speleotherapy (from Greek speleos=cave), a treatment that has been practiced in old salt mines of Eastern Europe since the early 19th Century.

Halotherapy belongs to the category of the physical therapies--non-drug treatments of diseases, many associated with the spa treatments of Eastern Europe. In the former Soviet Union, medical researchers engaged in a concerted effort to develop physical therapies in order to avoid the costs and side effects of drug therapy as well as microbial and tumor resistance. Russia has become the world leader in developing and testing new and increasingly effective physical therapies.

Most of the dozens of clinical trials thus far, mainly reported in Russian-language journals, have focussed on HT as a treatment of asthma and chronic bronchitis. But HT may also be effective as a main or adjuvant therapy across the entire range of upper and lower respiratory tract diseases and potentially against systemic diseases as well. Respiratory diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Asthma has become ever more prevalent in industrialized societies, with special impact on children. Meanwhile, cigarette smoking has spread chronic bronchitis and emphysema everywhere; in developing countries biomass cooking smoke has a similar devastating impact on women and children. The situation in especially bad in China, with its 350 million smokers and terrible air pollution. Most drug therapies of respiratory diseases have only palliative effects, and many have significant side effects. So a physical therapy like HT is much needed.

HT's excellent action and modest cost make it a very attractive kind of medicine.

Speleotherapy

It is likely that miners and others knew about the beneficial health effects of the microclimate of salt mines for centuries before they were first described in a book published by a Polish physician in 1843. Since then, the practice of bringing patients with respiratory diseases down into salt mines for cures gradually spread throughout Eastern Europe, and it has become a standard feature of spa treatment there.

By its very nature, speleotherapy resists scientific norms. The reported healing and invigorating effects of the microclimate of salt mines are variously ascribed to the microparticles of salt floating in the air, the temperature, the relative humidity, the near or total absence of pathogens and allergens, the effects of radiation from minerals, and the tranquillity of the setting. But it is difficult to determine the relative influence of these factors, and presumably some synergy exists. In addition, each chamber in each mine has a distinct microclimate. Conducting clinical trials in such conditions is not easy. Often speleotherapy has been combined with other modalities. And many of the early clinical trial reports lacked scientific rigor. Speleotherapy also makes a great demand on patients' time. The mines are not conveniently located for most people. The total cost is fairly significant. Determining a specific dose and tracking long-term effects of speleotherapy have proven very elusive goals.

Nonetheless, various clinical trial reports and the favorable outcomes for many individual patients have led to growing scientific attention and a devoted following for speleotherapy (for a sample report, see Horvath, 1986). They also gave the Soviet (now Russian) space agency the idea of developing microclimate optimization devices for cosmonauts that would replicate the microclimates of salt mines. Most of this work has been done in St. Petersburg, which is now the location of the leading Russian HT company, Aeromed Ltd, and of the Arsenal Design Bureau, which works on the salt + mineral approach.

HT Devices

In the 1980s the Russians began to build halochambers that recreated in clinics the microclimate of salt mines. These halochambers have floors and walls lined with rock salt (halite). Patients sit in the halochamber for an hour per session while music and pleasant videos are played to create a relaxed mood. Halochambers are certified as medical devices in Russia, are in use in Eastern Europe, and are starting to spread to North America.

Another approach has been the desktop HT device, which has tubes for breathing in the aerosol salt or simply fills the air with microparticles of salt. Thus far no multimineral aerosol appears to have been supplied this way, though halochambers have been lined with silvinite, the rock from potash mines that contains about 60 percent sodium chloride, 35 percent potassium chloride, and 5 percent of other minerals. Pure halite is the precipitate from the shores of ancient seas, while silvinite results from the evaporation of a dead sea. Often a desktop HT device is used in combination with a halochamber.

A ceramic salt pipe from Hungary represents a third approach. The patient breathes in gently through the mouth, then exhales through the nose.

A fourth, popular device is the rock crystal lamp (Pakistan) or salt lamp (Poland), which is comprised of a largish piece of rock salt with an attached light bulb that glows through the salt and whose heat causes microparticles to become airborne.

Serious clinical studies have been done of the first two methods, where the number of microparticles per cubic meter is monitored, permitting accurate dose measurement. The ability to deliver a specified dose represents a major advantage of halotherapy over speleotherapy. Still, speleotherapy retains importance as a source of scientific evidence regarding the as-yet not well-characterized, multiple factors that deliver the therapeutic effect. Depending on the conditions of a certain salt mine or cave, speleotherapy might also prove more effective than halotherapy in a given case.

Parameters

Aerosolized microparticles larger than 10 microns in diameter are caught in the upper airways and transported up and out of the respiratory tract by the mucociliary system. In the range of 5-10 microns, they penetrate into the trachea and central bronchial area, but no farther. Only below 5 microns do the microparticles penetrate deep into the lungs, though the larger microparticles have useful effects in the upper respiratory tract. In the range of 0.1-2.5 microns--the same size as the most damaging microparticles from auto and industrial pollution, and invisible to the human eye--the microparticles of salt penetrate into every corner of the bronchi, bronchioles, and alveoli and deposit upon the surface. Even though the salt microparticles spread over an area in the alveoli roughly the size of a tennis court, only a few milligrams of salt are needed. So there need be no concern about the possibility of excessive salt intake from halotherapy in the case of hypertensive patients. The extremely small size, relatively low amount, and slow dosing of the microparticles also make them much less likely to provoke a hyperreactive response in asthma patients than moist hypertonic saline.

The hygroscopic characteristics of moist particles make them grow significantly during transit and therefore to deposit mainly in the upper respiratory tract and in the central area of the trachea and bronchi. Still, studies have shown that moist particles of salt from hypertonic saline have beneficial effects in cystic fibrosis, for instance, at least in the short term (Wark and McDonald, 2004). A significant parameter for HT devices, therefore, is the fraction of the microparticles produced that is below 2.5 microns.

According to many authors, maintaining a room temperature in the vicinity of 18-24° C and a relative humidity around 50% can conduce to better treatment outcomes. Devices can be set to emit different amounts of salt microparticles-e.g., four levels from 1 to 16 mg/m³, monitored by a microparticle counting device. Another parameter of note is the negative electrical charge on the particles, which has been measured at 6-10 nK/m³ (Chervinskaya, 2002).

For further information, see the chapter on Halotherapy and other chapters on respiratory therapies in. See also

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References

Borisenko, L.V. et al. (1994) , "The Use of Halotherapy in the Rehabilitation of Patients with Acute Bronchitis of a Protracted and Recurrent Course," Vopr Kurortol Fizioter Lech Fiz Kult, Jan-Feb;(1) , 11-15 [Russian].

Chervinskaya, A.V. et al. (2002) , "Effects of Haloaerosol Therapy on Defense Characteristics of the Respiratory Tract," Terapevticheskii Arkhiv 3, 48-52 [Russian].

Chervinskaya, Alina V. and Nora A. Zilber (1995) , "Halotherapy for Treatment of Respiratory Diseases," Journal of Aerosol Medicine 8(3) , 221-232

Horvath, Tibor (1986) , "Speleotherapy: A Special Kind of Climatotherapy, Its Role in Respiratory Rehabilitation," Int Rehabil Med 8, 90-92

Krasnoshtein, A.E. et al. (1999) , "Above-ground Speleoclimatic Chambers and Experience in Their Use in Bronchial Asthma," Vopr Kurortol Fizioter Lech Fiz Kult, May-June; 3, 25-28 [Russian].

Rassulova, M.A. et al. (2000) , "The Use of the Microclimate of Artificial Sylvinite Speleoclimatic Chambers in Treating Patients with Chronic Obstructive Bronchitis," Vopr Kurortol Fizioter Lech Fiz Kult, Jan-Feb; (1) , 17-21 [Russian].

Rein, M.F. and G.Z. Mandell (1973) , "Bacterial Killing by Bacteriostatic Saline Solutions: Potential for Diagnostic Error," New England Journal of Medicine 289(15) , 794-795

Speleotherapy Clinic (2004) , www.halotherapy.com (as of August 3, 2004)

Wark, P.A.B. and V. McDonald (2004) , "Nebulised Hypertonic Saline for Cystic Fibrosis," Cochrane Review (abstract), www.update-software.com/abstracts/AB001506.htm (as of August 3, 2004).

Taking a Mound of Salt for What Ails You

Comments

Sink into a chair, relax and breathe in the salt air. You aren't at the beach, but rather in one of a growing number of indoor salt roomswhose owners say small salt particles can soothe respiratory and skin conditions. Scientific evidence in English-language publications is scant and some doctors urge caution for asthmatics.

Across the U.S., salt rooms have been popping up in cities such as New York, Orlando, Naples, Fla., Boulder, Colo., Chicago and Los Angeles.

While most of us associate salt air with the beach, from a medical standpoint, the experience is designed to mimic salt caves, which have long been considered therapeutic in Eastern Europe. Salt room owners say salt can help skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema and a range of respiratory ailments, including colds, asthma, allergies and bronchitis.

Sometimes called halotherapy chambers, the rooms are designed to provide a relaxing and unusual experience. The walls and ceilings are salt-coated, and grains are often scattered a few inches deep on the floor. Children are often allowed to play in it, as in a sandbox. Some places have cave-like decor, complete with salt-coated stalactites.

Indoor salt rooms have been popping up in cities across the U.S. as marketers tout salty air as a remedy for allergies, asthma, colds and even skin problems.

Lexey Swall for the Wall Street Journal

Some facilities just pile up salt in the room, while others use special "salt generators," machines that grind the salt into very tiny breathable particles and blow it into the air. Orlando's Salt Room uses a generator sold by Indium Top LLC of Tallinn, Estonia. Halo Air LLC of New York, which recently opened a Halo/Air salt room in Manhattan, uses a generator from Halomed UAB, of Vilnius, Lithuania. Halo Air hopes to open dozens more locations in the U.S.

Generally, pure salt from natural sources is used; Halo Air uses rock salt from a cave in Ukraine. The smell of a salt room is a little like ocean air and visitors experience a salty taste on the lips, says Richard Zagrobelny, owner of Iris Salt Rooms LLC, a Kitchener, Ontario, firm that builds salt rooms using Indium Top's Iiris machine. Costs for a session vary, depending on location and privacy; some rooms offer discounts for multiple sessions. A one-hour adult session in a communal room at the Salt Room in Orlando costs $45. Halo Air says a private room with a personal television costs $100 for an hour. If you like you can wear nothing but a thin robe and booties on your feet.

So far the Iiris machine hasn't been studied clinically. The Halomed device has been shown effective for respiratory and skin conditions in Russian-language research publications, says Russian pulmonologist Alina Chervinskaya, a minority owner of Halomed. The machine is set to different levels of salt concentration depending on the condition being treated, she says. Halo Air says concentrations in its salt rooms range from five to 10 milligrams per cubic meter of air for adults.

Salt helps respiratory conditions by drawing water into airways, thinning mucus and improving the function of cilia, or small hairs that help move mucus out of the lungs, Dr. Chervinskaya says. In higher concentrations, salt therapy also can help skin conditions such as acne and psoriasis, she says.

 

Salt inhalation therapy, an alternative form of medicine believed to help with skin conditions and respiratory ailments, is making its way to the U.S. The Wall Street Journal visits a salt cave in Florida to find out more.

And a 160-person study Dr. Chervinskaya presented last year at a Vienna medical conference found that a tabletop salt generator, not available in the U.S., helped prevent colds. Dr. Chervinskaya says the tabletop unit produces a dry salt aerosol comparable to the Halomed generator used in salt rooms.

English-language studies on salt rooms are rare. Often quoted by salt rooms as evidence of their efficacy is a landmark New England Journal of Medicine study that found improvement in cystic-fibrosis symptoms from salt therapy. But the study used a handheld nebulizer twice daily to deliver a concentrated salt mist into the mouth, and the results don't apply to salt rooms, says Australian scientist Mark R. Elkins, the lead author of the 2006 paper.

Orlando pulmonologist Daniel Layish says rigorous studies are lacking on salt rooms, but he has found cystic-fibrosis patients he has referred to the Orlando Salt Room are experiencing "less shortness of breath, less coughing and decreased sinus pressure."

Springfield, N.J., allergist Leonard Bielory, chairman of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology's integrative-medicine committee, says it's logical that salt rooms could help a variety of respiratory conditions—but probably only in the short term. "It's like a massage," he says. "Great while you get it but after that [the benefit is] gone."

Dr. Bielory and others caution that asthma could potentially be worsened. Salt is an irritant that could cause airways to constrict, posing a serious danger to asthmatics, says allergist Alvin M. Sanico, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Salt, by stimulating nerves in the nasal passages, may worsen allergy symptoms, he adds.

Dr. Chervinskaya says that 10 to 20 sessions in salt rooms using the Halomed machine can have long-term benefits of up to six months or a year. Generators should be set to a lower dose for asthma patients to minimize irritation, she adds, and patients with any serious lung issues should consult their doctors before using a salt room. Halo Air says it follows Dr. Chervinskaya's recommendations. Salt rooms in rare cases can cause mild irritation to the skin and eyes, and a scratchiness in the throat that goes away after drinking water.

Write to Laura Johannes

 

 

 

 

 

"The 13 Amazing Health Benefits of Himalayan Crystal Salt, the Purest Salt on Earth"

(and Why You Want to Avoid Conventional Salt)

Salt is essential for life -- you cannot live without it. However, most people simply don't realize that there are enormous differences between the standard, refined table and cooking salt most of you are accustomed to using and natural health-promoting salt.

These differences can have a major impact on your staying healthy.

If you want your body to function properly, you need holistic salt complete with all-natural elements. Today's common table salt has nothing in common with natural salt.

Your table salt is actually 97.5% sodium chloride and 2.5% chemicals such as moisture absorbents, and iodine. Dried at over 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, the excessive heat alters the natural chemical structure of the salt.

This Salt Is Over 250 Million Years Old

This is by far the purest salt available on earth and is absolutely uncontaminated with any toxins or pollutants.

Once I learned about it and how beneficial it can be for you, my team and I literally spent nearly the last two years working on having it brought over to the U.S. from Nepal.

I thought I would be able to provide this salt last year but to say obtaining this salt is difficult would be an enormous understatement. You see, the suppliers of this salt have no standard infrastructure available and we have to work through people that have no idea of how normal business operates.

The shipment had to go through a number of different countries before we were finally able to import it into the US so you can use it.

Quite truthfully, all the bugs are not worked out in the supply system, and we may sell out of this salt very quickly because of all its incredible benefits -- that's why, if you are interested I encourage you to place your order as soon as possible! If we do sell out this supply early, if our past experience is any predictor of the future it may be 6 months to a year before we are able to have more to sell to you. I have never in my life seen a product that has been this challenging to obtain.

This salt from the Himalayas is known as "white gold." Together with pure spring water, Himalayan Crystal Salt offers all the natural elements exactly identical to the elements in your body -- the very same elements originally found existing in the "primal sea."

Containing all of the 84 elements found in your body, the benefits of natural Himalayan Crystal Salt include:

1. Regulating the water content throughout your body.
2. Promoting a healthy pH balance in your cells, particularly your brain cells.
3. Promoting blood sugar health and helping to reduce the signs of aging.
4. Assisting in the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in your body.
5. Absorption of food particles through your intestinal tract.
6. Supporting respiratory health.
7. Promoting sinus health.
8. Prevention of muscle cramps.
9. Promoting bone strength.
10. Regulating your sleep -- it naturally promotes sleep.
11. Supporting your libido.
12. Promoting vascular health.
13. In conjunction with water it is actually essential for the regulation of your blood pressure.

 

 

The Typical Table And Cooking Salt In Your
Grocery Store Has Been "Chemically Cleaned"

What remains after typical salt is "chemically cleaned" is sodium chloride -- an unnatural chemical form of salt that your body recognizes as something completely foreign. This form of salt is in almost every preserved product that you eat. Therefore, when you add more salt to your already salted food, your body receives more salt than it can dispose of.

This is important as over 90% of the money that people spend on food is for processed food.

Typical table salt crystals are totally isolated from each other. In order for your body to try to metabolize table salt crystals, it must sacrifice tremendous amounts of energy.

Inorganic sodium chloride can keep you from an ideal fluid balance and can overburden your elimination systems.

When your body tries to isolate the excess salt you typically expose it to, water molecules must surround the sodium chloride to break them up into sodium and chloride ions in order to help your body neutralize them. To accomplish this, water is taken from your cells in order to neutralize the unnatural sodium chloride.

This results in a less-than-ideal fluid balance in the cells.

You Are Losing Precious Intracellular Water When You Eat Normal Table Salt

For every gram of sodium chloride that your body cannot get rid of, your body uses 23 times the amount of cell water to neutralize the salt. Eating common table salt causes excess fluid in your body tissue, which can contribute to:

• Unsightly cellulite
• Rheumatism, arthritis and gout
• Kidney and gall bladder stones

When you consider that the average person consumes 4,000 to 6,000 mg of sodium chloride each day, and heavy users can ingest as much as 10,000 mg in a day, it is clear that this is a serious and pervasive issue.

So Why Are Many People Still Using Table Salt?

Because well over 90% of the world's salt is being used directly for industrial purposes that require pure sodium chloride. The remaining percentage is used for preserving processes and ends up on your kitchen table.

With the use of rigorous advertising, the salt industry is successful in convincing you there are actually health advantages to adding potentially toxic iodine and fluoride to salt. In addition, your table salt very often contains potentially dangerous preservatives. Calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, and aluminum hydroxide are often added to improve the ability of table salt to pour. Aluminum is a light alloy that deposits into your brain -- a potential cause of Alzheimer's disease.

Get Salt as Nature Intended It -- Pure Himalayan Crystal Salt

Today's table and cooking salt is void of the vital trace minerals that make this Himalayan crystal salt so precious. Crystal salt has spent over 250 million years maturing under extreme tectonic pressure, far away from exposure to impurities.

The salt's unique structure also stores vibrational energy. All of the crystal salt's inherent minerals and trace elements are available in colloidal form -- meaning they are so small your cells can readily absorb them.

The Crystal Salt from the Himalayas does not burden your body as other salts do. It is very difficult for your body to absorb too much crystal salt since there are powerful and effective feedback loops that regulate this process. Natural crystal salt always promotes a healthy balance and does not contribute to high blood pressure like typical table salt.

Crystal Salt's array of elements forms a compound in which each molecule is inter-connected. The connectedness allows the vibrational component of the 84 trace elements present in the salt to be in harmony with each other and adds to the ability to promote a healthy balance. When it comes to the power of natural salt, nothing compares to Himalayan Crystal Salt. Here's why:

• It is the highest grade of natural salt.
• Under an electron microscope, crystal salt has a perfect crystalline structure.
• It is mined by hand and hand-washed.
• Crystal salt is immune to electromagnetic fields
• Crystal Salt contains no environmental pollutants.
• There is no limited shelf life and no need for silica packets to prevent clumping.

Key Minerals in Himalayan Crystal Salt Promote a Healthy Balance in Your Body

Himalayan Crystal Salt is salt in its native form, with all its vibrational energy intact and it helps promote a healthy balance in your body. Promoting balanced electrolytes helps to keep your body in homeostasis -- the balance of chemicals that is conducive to the body's function.

The renowned Frezenius Institute in Europe analyzed the Himalayan Crystal Salt and proved that it has an amazing array of important trace minerals and elements including potassium, calcium and magnesium that help promote a healthy balance by maintaining fluids and replenishing your supply of electrolytes whenever you sweat heavily. (This salt does not supply iodide, a necessary nutrient.)

Himalayan Salt vs. Sea Salt and Rock Salt: A Crystal Comparison

Many people believe sea salt is a healthy alternative to table salt, but this is no longer the case. The oceans are being used as dumping grounds for harmful toxic poisons like mercury, PCBs and dioxin. Reports of oil spills polluting the sea are becoming more frequent. With some 89% of all the sea salt producers now refining their salt, today's sea salt simply isn't as healthy as it used to be.

If you were to look into a microscope at sea salt (pictured left) you would see it has irregular and isolated crystalline structures disconnected from the natural elements surrounding them. Thus, however many vital minerals it may contain, they cannot be absorbed by your body unless the body expends tremendous energy to vitalize them. Your body's net gain is small compared to the great loss of energy.

Because the crystalline structure of crystal salt is balanced (pictured right), it is not isolated from the 84 inherent mineral elements, but is connected to them in a harmonious state. This means the energy content in the form of minerals can be easily metabolized by your body. When you use this salt it has a vital energetic effect. Your body gets an ample net gain with little energy loss.

Mined salt, or rock salt, is also a poor substitute for Himalayan Crystal Salt. While natural rock salt comes close to being intact and is more valuable than industrial table salt, from a biophysical as well as bio-chemical perspective, it holds little value.

The elements contained in rock salt lack sufficient compression to be included in the crystal web, but are only attached to the surface and in the gaps of the crystalline structure. It is the considerable pressure that brings the elements to a colloidal state - where your cells can readily absorb them. The valuable elements found in rock salt are useless because your body cannot absorb and metabolize them.

A New and Different Way to Experience
the Salty-Sweet Goodness of Himalayan Crystal Salt

Not only is Himalayan Crystal Salt far healthier for your body than commercial salt, its taste is unforgettable. Once you try Himalayan salt, I can promise you that you'll never want to use commercial salt again – I know I don't.

And here's a unique way to enjoy Himalayan salt's slightly sweet-salty goodness with your food…

Featured on several top cooking shows, Himalayan Salt kitchen slabs have become the newest sensation for extraordinary food preparation and presentation.

Measuring a generous 16-1/2 inches by 8 inches, and a full 1-3/4 inch thick, this beautiful translucent pink crystal salt slab serves as a cooking and curing surface, and a lovely way to present chilled foods.

To grill or sauté with your Himalayan Salt Kitchen Slab, simply preheat your slab over a grill or stove and toss on your favorite sliced meats, seafood, vegetables or eggs. The Himalayan crystal salt sears your food to perfection, with a just a light touch of heavenly salty flavor.    

You'll Stop Conversations in Their Tracks
When You Bring Out This Eye-Catching Platter…

The Himalayan Salt Kitchen Slab is perfect for cold foods, too. Chill slab in the refrigerator and then load with sushi, hors d’oeuvres, cheeses and slices of fruit. You’ll love the delicate saltiness imparted to your food and the beautiful salt serving platter will become an instant conversation stopper.

Other ideas for your Himalayan Salt Kitchen Slab…

• Arrange thin strips of raw grass-fed organic beef on your chilled slab and watch as the salt cures the edges. Or try your hand at curing a batch of wild Salmon Gravlax.

• Chill slab in the freezer overnight and serve ice cream on top for a beautiful presentation and delicate salty-sweet goodness.

• Transfer the preheated slab to your dining table and grill fresh seafood or sliced free-range organic chicken breasts right in front of your dinner guests (be sure to use a heavy trivet as the slab retains its heat for an hour or longer).

Cleanup is a breeze – lightly scrub off any remaining food particles with a dry brush and store for next use. Avoid contact with water or other liquids.

Please note that when used for cooking, the translucent appearance of your salt slab may change and small fissures in the crystal may appear. This is normal and does not affect the performance of your salt slab.

To preserve its luminescent beauty as a chilled serving platter, I recommend you reserve one slab for cooking and use another for serving only chilled foods.

Order one or more Himalayan Salt Kitchen Slabs today and introduce a little fun into your cooking routine!

You Can Also Use Himalayan Crystal Salt as a Bath Soak

Besides using this salt on your food and to cook with, it has multiple other exciting benefits as well.

I highly recommend you regularly use the Himalayan Bath Salt, because when you take a "brine bath," the Himalyan salt's healthy minerals are stored in the form of ions. This stimulation rejuvenates your skin, which is beneficial for everyone. Read More about the Himalayan Bath Salt.

Learn More About the Many Benefits to You of a "Brine Bath" with Himalayan Bath Salts

Himalayan salt has multiple other uses for your skin as well, which you can tap by integrating it with other natural approaches. It really has an amazing untapped potential that has not yet been recognized.

Salt Intake is Vital

Salt is a vital substance for the survival of all living creatures, particularly humans. Water and salt regulate the water content of the body. Water itself regulates the water content of the interior of the cell by working its way into all of the cells it reaches. It has to get there to cleanse and extract the toxic wastes of cell metabolisms. Salt forces some water to stay outside the cells. It balances the amount of water that stays outside the cells. There are two oceans of water in the body; one ocean is held inside the cells of the body, and the other ocean is held outside the cells. Good health depends on a most delicate balance between the volume of these oceans, and this balance is achieved by salt - unrefined salt. See number 21 below.

When water is available to get inside the cells freely, it is filtered from the outside salty ocean and injected into the cells that are being overworked despite their water shortage. This is the reason why in severe dehydration we develop an edema and retain water. The design of our bodies is such that the extent of the ocean of water outside the cells is expanded to have the extra water available for filtration and emergency injection into vital cells. The brain commands an increase in salt and water retention by the kidneys. This is how we get an edema when we don't drink enough water.

Initially, the process of water filtration and its delivery into the cells is more efficient at night when the body is horizontal. The collected water, that mostly pools in the legs, does not have to fight the force of gravity to get onto the blood circulation. If reliance of this process of emergency hydration of some cells continues for long, the lungs begin to get waterlogged at night, and breathing becomes difficult. The person needs more pillows to sit upright to sleep. This condition is the consequence of dehydration. However, you might overload the system by drinking too much water at the beginning. Increases in water intake must be slow and spread out until urine production begins to increase at the same rate that you drink water.

When we drink enough water to pass clear urine, we also pass out a lot of the salt that was held back. This is how we can get rid of edema fluid in the body; by drinking more water. Not diuretics, but more water!! In people who have an extensive edema and show signs of their heart beginning to have irregular or very rapid beats with least effort, the increase in water intake should be gradual and spaced out, but not withheld from the body. Naturally, salt intake should be limited for two or three days because the body is still in an overdrive mode to retain it. Once the edema has cleared up, salt should not be withheld from the body.

Salt has many other functions than just regulating the water content of the body. Here are some of the more vital functions of salt in the body:

1. Salt is most effective in stabilizing irregular heartbeats and, contrary to the misconception that it causes high blood pressure, it is actually essential for the regulation of blood pressure - in conjunction with water. Naturally the proportions are critical.    

2. Salt is vital to the extraction of excess acidity from the cells in the body, particularly the brain cells.

3. Salt is vital for balancing the sugar levels in the blood; a needed element in diabetics.

4. Salt is vital for the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in the body. It is used for local power generation at the sites of energy need by the cells.

5. Salt is vital to the nerve cells' communication and information processing all the time that the brain cells work, from the moment of conception to death.

6. Salt is vital for absorption of food particles through the intestinal tract.

7. Salt is vital for the clearance of the lungs of mucus plugs and sticky phlegm, particularly in asthma and cystic fibrosis.

8. Salt is vital for clearing up catarrh and congestion of the sinuses.

9. Salt is a strong natural antihistamine.

10. Salt is essential for the prevention of muscle cramps.

11. Salt is vital to prevent excess saliva production to the point that it flows out of the mouth during sleep. Needing to constantly mop up excess saliva indicates salt shortage.

12. Salt is absolutely vital to making the structure of bones firm. Osteoporosis, in a major way, is a result of salt and water shortage in the body.

13. Salt is vital for sleep regulation. It is a natural hypnotic. 

14. Salt is a vitally needed element in the treatment of diabetics.

15. Salt on the tongue will stop persistent dry coughs.

16. Salt is vital for the prevention of gout and gouty arthritis.

17. Salt is vital for maintaining sexuality and libido.

18. Salt is vital for preventing varicose veins and spider veins on the legs and thighs.

19. Salt is vital to the communication and information processing nerve cells the entire time that the brain cells work - from the moment of conception to death.

20. Salt is vital for reducing a double chin. When the body is short of salt, it means the body really is short of water. The salivary glands sense the salt shortage and are obliged to produce more saliva to lubricate the act of chewing and swallowing and also to supply the stomach with water that it needs for breaking down foods. Circulation to the salivary glands increases and the blood vessels become "leaky" in order to supply the glands with water to manufacture saliva. The "leakiness" spills beyond the area of the glands themselves, causing increased bulk under the skin of the chin, the cheeks and into the neck.

21. Sea salt contains about 80 mineral elements that the body needs. Some of these elements are needed in trace amounts. Unrefined sea salt is a better choice of salt than other types of salt on the market. Ordinary table salt that is bought in the super markets has been stripped of its companion elements and contains additive elements such as aluminum silicate to keep it powdery and porous. Aluminum is a very toxic element in our nervous system. It is implicated as one of the primary causes of Alzheimer's disease.

22. Twenty-seven percent of the body's salt is in the bones. Osteoporosis results when the body needs more salt and takes it from the body. Bones are twenty-two percent water. Is it not obvious what happens to the bones when we're deficient in salt or water or both.

* The information on salt intake is taken from Dr. Batmanghelidj's book, "Water: Rx for a Healthier Pain-Free Life".

 

Breathe easy: the salt cave in Wandsworth is designed to recreate the conditions in a salt mine and help ease respiratory problems

Salt cave that 'treats asthma'

Sophie Goodchild, Health Editor
17 Mar 2009

 

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A London clinic has become the first in Britain to offer asthma and allergy sufferers salt therapy.

Patients will be treated at a "salt cave" in a former church in Wandsworth.

The therapy is being piloted by the Allergy and Asthma Drug Free Treatment Centre and is already widely used in countries including Poland, which has 200 clinics.

Experts including Asthma UK are backing the treatment, called Halotherapy, which is expected to become available on the NHS.

One in three people in London have an allergy and one out of 13 have asthma. Treatments include steroids but these can cause side-effects such as a sore mouth, or can affect hormone levels.

Salt therapy claims to work by clearing the airways of mucus and reducing inflammation triggered by allergies to dust, pollen or pollution.

Sufferers sit in a chamber which has its own micro-climate and is coated with salt. Particles of dry rock salt are ground up by a special machine and circulated around the chamber.

These particles, invisible to the naked eye, penetrate deep into the respiratory system. Minerals including potassium and magnesium are said to help reduce inflammation and clean out mucus blocking the airways.

Those who have tried the treatment include four-year-old Toby Johnson from south-west London, who was diagnosed with asthma last year.

His mother Hannah, 36, said that sessions at the salt cave, which uses salt imported from Lithuania, have helped his breathing.

She said: "Toby was constantly ill and on antibiotics so the doctor put him on a Ventolin inhaler and a heavy dose of steroids. Then I heard about salt therapy through his nursery.

"It's really improved his breathing and means he takes less drugs at night."

Experts have already found that asthmatics can breathe easier if they are sent down salt mines.

The popularity of salt treatment was inspired by 19th century findings that Polish salt miners had fewer pulmonary problems than other people. Then, in the Nineties, scientists started to explore recreating similar conditions above ground.

A Finnish study found that sufferers' lungs were less likely to show allergic "hyper-responsiveness" to their environment.

It concluded that a salt chamber could prove a useful addition to conventional medicine. Allergy expert Dr Robert Boyle from Imperial College said saline - a solution of salt and water - was already used in treating cystic fibrosis patients. He said: "Concentrated or hypertonic saline is used for children with cystic fibrosis to thin mucus. When it's inhaled, it helps to thin the secretions."

But Asthma UK said the evidence was inconclusive about the benefits of salt therapy for asthma. A spokeswoman for the charity said: "There is evidence that it can have a benefit but we just don't know enough about it. We would advise people to continue taking their normal prescribed medicine."

The treatment costs £35 for an hour and patients are advised to have between 10 and 20 sessions depending on the severity of their condition.

 

Article

 

“Salt is born of the purest parents:
the sun and the sea.”  

 

 

– Pythagoras

"When you come to
the end of your hope,
tie a knot and hang
on."-Franklin D.
Roosevelt

"Shoot for the moon.
Even if you miss,
you'll land among the
stars."
-Les Brown

"In each of us there
is a little of all of us."
- Georg Christoph
Lichtenberg

"If you want the
rainbow, you gotta
put up with the rain."
-Dolly Parton

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.


The health information contained on this website is provided for informational and educational
purposes only; it is the opinion of the author. Salt Cave Inc. makes no claims regarding this
information. We recommend that all medical conditions should be treated by a physician
competent in treating that particular condition. Salt Cave Inc. takes no responsibility for customers
choosing to treat themselves. All products and services by Salt Cave Inc., including written
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health concerns, please consult an appropriately licensed healthcare practitioner.

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