Discover the remarkable benefits of Himalayan salt therapy
By Patricia Nugent
I am, by nature, a skeptic.
When a friend bought me a salt lamp a few months ago, it never made it out of the box. But I am also an asthma sufferer, and after sitting down with Debbie Greenhouse and hearing how salt therapy has helped her breathing, I decided to give it a whirl.
Late last year, she was looking to get off some of her asthma meds and researched the healing power of salt therapy. She and her husband visited a salt cave in Youngstown. After several sessions, she was feeling wonderful—and breathing better.
“At that point, we began to explore building a salt booth in our home,” she says. “And the more we got into it, the more I wanted to share the therapy with folks in the area and start a business.”
The Himalayan Cave, A Salt Therapy Spa opened in August and has been a smashing success.
Centuries-Old Therapy Treats Modern Ailments
“Although salt therapy is fairly new to the United States, in Europe, people have been going to salt spas for centuries,” says Debbie.
It is said to improve an array of chronic respiratory ailments and skin conditions, from allergies and asthma to bronchitis, colds, flu, congestion, emphysema, sinusitis, snoring, acne, eczema and psoriasis, as well as anxiety, depression, exhaustion and headaches.
Lean Back and Say Aaahh
The cave itself looks just like a cave, but carved from salt rather than earth, with glowing floors and walls of salt, and stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
People relax wrapped in blankets in zero-gravity seating. Barely audible spa music pipes in.
While you are snuggled in, a machine called a halo generator grinds Himalayan salt into super fine micro particles and wafts them into the air.
In addition to the salt cave, there is a smaller salt booth. Housed within a spa treatment suite, it looks very much like a Scandinavian sauna, with pale wood slats, upper and lower wood benches and a glass wall.
After Debbie and I commiserated about how hard the first week of cold weather was on our breathing, she was gracious enough to offer me a 15-minute session in the booth to see if it would help.
As I wrapped up in a fleece blanket, she filled the halo generator with salt, darkened the room and stepped out.
Looking above me, tiny lights slowly changed colors. Like viewing a sunset, they morphed from yellow to red to orange. After about five minutes into the session, I began to notice a milky fog envelop me. Ten minutes in and my nose started to tingle. I could begin to taste salt in the back of my throat. By the end of my 15-minute session, I was taking full, clear breaths and felt about as relaxed as I am after an hour massage.
The scientific explanation for how I felt is salt molecules are comprised of a positive sodium ion and a negative chloride ion bound together that break down when exposed to heat and moisture. When you breathe in the salty air of the therapy room, salt molecules enter the moist airways of your lungs and stimulate the respiratory and skin systems.
All I know is how rejuvenated I felt afterward.
In addition to the salt cave and booth, you can shop from a retail area offering salt lamps and sculptures, as well as edible gourmet Himalayan salts. Within another spa suite, you can enjoy Crystal Reiki Healings. And, there are two different foot sessions including a Vitaflex Foot Massage with young living oils and a Himalayan Salt Foot Scrub with hemp lotion.
The Himalayan Cave, A Salt Therapy Spa is conveniently located within an industrial plaza at 9130 Tyler Boulevard in Mentor. Packages and gift certificates are available. Hours are Tuesday-Friday, 11:45 a.m.-7:00 p.m.; Saturday, 9:45 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For more information, visit TheHimalayanCave.com or call 440-290-0999.