Think about how you feel after spending a day at the beach. Utterly relaxed, right? Now, there’s a way to reap that same bliss factor—even if you’re nowhere near the coast.
It’s called dry salt therapy, or halotherapy, and it’s popping up in cities throughout the U.S. Already a popular spa treatment in Europe (the miners who worked in Polish salt caves sparked the trend back in the 1800s), it involves sitting in a room made of Himalayan salt as microscopic particles of pharmaceutical-grade salt (so, not the kind sitting on your table in a shaker) are circulated into the air. All you have to do is sit back, relax, and breathe, says Gary Patrick, co-founder of Breathe Easy a dry salt therapy treatment center with various locations in New York.
“Dry salt air has anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fungal properties,†says Patrick. (It’s similar to wet salt treatments you may already be familiar with, such as saline solutions.)
For the average person, one 45-minute session in Breathe Easy’s salt room (or for a more private experience, a 15-minute session in an enclosed salt bed—ooh la la!) may help improve breathing, reduce stress, enhance skin, and promote more restful sleep, says Patrick. Depending on how often you go, it might even help with issues such as bronchitis, allergies, asthma, cystic fibrosis, sinus infections, eczema, psoriasis, snoring, and sleep apnea. Besides a possible runny nose or slight cough post-treatment, there aren’t any known side affects (and no, your blood pressure won’t be affected).
Even cooler: In the very near future, yoga enthusiasts will be able to take classes inside Breathe Easy’s salt rooms! Genius, right? For more info and to book a treatment, check out BreatheEasyUSA.com.
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