Salt Therapy—A Breath of Fresh Air

May 31, 2010

The therapy is based on the idea that inhaling microscopic particles of sodium chloride-rich rock salt, 0.5 to 0.3 microns in size, dries up and disinfects mucous membranes in the sinuses and lungs, easing expectoration and allowing the patient to breathe more easily. After just six one-hour sessions at a salt room, Kestenbaum's son showed signs of improvement. By the time he completed the 14-session course, he was cured of his chronic ear infections, claims Kestenbaum. Two years later, he has had only three infections, all of which went away on their own without the aid of antibiotics. Besides sleeping with a salt lamp—a large piece of rock salt with a heating bulb that releases salt particles into the air—next to his bed, his son now leads a normal, healthy life.

Opening Breathewell Clinics

His first order of business was to scope out the Israeli market, learn from it, and then enter the US market—a move that is scheduled for the next 6 to 12 months. In Israel, he found some 12 existing salt rooms. Kestenbaum gathered them together and created a central body. He also opened the first Breathewell clinic in Jerusalem in February. It's the first and only salt room facility in the world with both Speleotherapy and Halotherapy rooms. The former is a room constructed with large blocks of salt that naturally emit salt particles into the air; the latter, a more aggressive form of salt therapy, features salt-coated walls and a machine, called a “salt generator,” that crushes the salt and blows the particles into the air.

The clinic has helped hundreds of people, from those with allergies, chronic ear or sinus infections, to sufferers of severe asthma, bronchitis, and even lung disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Kestenbaum tells the story of one particular 18-year-old patient with Cystic Fibrosis for whom the salt treatments provide significant relief. “He was undergoing two to three hours of hospital treatments a day…” After the first 14 treatments, he signed up for a six-month package.

“We have asthma sufferers who have come in the throws of an asthma attack, and after 20 minutes in the therapy room, they are breathing steadily,” he says. Each treatment runs about an hour, twice a week. The salt used for the treatments is imported from a mine in Ukraine. It has a much higher concentration of sodium chloride than Israel's local sea salt (90+% compared to 16%).

Although salt therapy is popular in Russia and Eastern Europe—where there is a long history of using salt caves and mines for therapeutic purposes—and there are salt rooms in Canada, Australia and Asia, the US remains virtually salt therapy free. Kestenbaum says this is due primarily to a lack of clinical trials on salt therapy. Still, he is confident that the therapy, which in Israel boasts a success rate of 80% among children and elderly with respiratory problems, will have legs in the US market. “Most people walk out and say, ‘Wow, that worked!' We all know, you don't breathe, you don't live.”

Source: Excerpts of an article by Jenny Hazan , www.israel21c.org

Photo Credit: http://www.israel21c.org/201002217711/health/salt-therapy-is-like-a-breath-of-fresh-air

Photo Credit: http://www.breathewell.com/breathewell-salt-rooms/photo-gallery/category/5-jerusalem-opening-event.html