Speleotherapy and Halotherapy for Healing Lungs and Skin

As we are increasingly exposed to pollutants in the air that we breathe and the water that we bathe in, it makes sense that respiratory and skin problems are on the rise. These health issues take the form of asthma, seasonal allergies, breathing difficulties, skin rashes, and countless other modern maladies.

Medical researchers are still discovering new ways in which humans are adversely affected by airborne and waterborne pollutants. Some people think that their primary exposure to the outside environment is through the food and drink they consume. But actually, your skin and lungs are your main interface to the outside world. In fact, your skin is your body’s largest organ, and it plays a crucial role in regulating your body’s temperature and keeping the outside, outside! Your lungs and skin can easily absorb toxins for which they were never intended.

What are the most effective and healthy ways to reduce or completely eliminate these ailments that afflict our lungs and skin? Conventional Western medicine typically turns to prescription drugs to try to cure the problems or mask the symptoms. But these unnatural chemicals often do more harm than good. Consequently, people interested in more natural solutions are getting terrific results from speleotherapy and halotherapy. Speleotherapy is essentially the treatment of respiratory diseases using the air found in underground caves. When people hear this for the first time, they usually wonder if we are kidding, or just plain crazy. But scientific studies have demonstrated that such air is typically bacteria-free and is rich in healthy ions and salt microns, which have been found quite effective in reducing asthma, allergies, and other breathing problems, in addition to soothing irritated skin and restoring ionic balance within the body.

Speleotherapy is most popular in former Soviet Bloc areas, such as east Germany, Romania, Armenia, and the Ukraine, for several reasons. Initially, eastern European health practitioners and medical clinics did not have the financial resources for purchasing expensive Western pharmaceuticals, and so they turned to more traditional and lower-cost methods, including speleotherapy. The mountainous regions of Europe and Asia are well known for having the best mines for ancient salt as well as being the primary source for crystal salts. These natural crystals, formed countless millennia ago, are also handcrafted into beautiful lamps that give off healthy negative ions, which have unique healing properties.

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There are numerous medical modalities used by speleotherapy practitioners. For example, at the world-renowned Ukrainian Allergologic Hospital (UAH) located in the foothills of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains, three major types of treatment are offered: the healthy microclimate deep in their salt mines, water from those salt mines, and brine and mud from a nearby salt lake. UAH utilizes speleotherapy to treat patients with bronchial asthma, psoriasis, neurodermitis, allergic dermatitis, postburn conditions, nervous system dysfunction, sex disorders, and chronic nonspecific lung diseases (CNLD). During more than thirty years, an estimated sixty thousand patients are reported to have been cured of their maladies.

As a result of people all over the world learning the benefits of speleotherapy, clinics outside of eastern Europe are simulating the deep cave microenvironments, offering halotherapy in specially constructed rooms, halochambers, whose surfaces are coated with medicinal salt. Natural ionization of the air is supplemented with a dry sodium chloride aerosol to maximize the health potential of the treatment while the patient is there. Halotherapy clinics have the advantage that they are more accessible to people living outside of eastern Europe. Yet patients only get exposure to the healthy ions while they are at the clinic, which might be for only a few days or weeks per year.

That is why the most cost-effective solution by far is to create your own mini halotherapy environment in your own home and/or office. Thus you derive the health benefits of this remarkable therapy any day you choose, without having to travel anywhere. With the right products, creating your own halotherapy environment in your home or office is simple.

Here are some ways you can get started in creating your own halotherapy environment. Many experts consider one device, the Salin device, to be the best air purifier/salinizer, partly because it is so effective at creating a halotherapy microenvironment, and also because it is quiet and well made. In fact, Canada considers the Salin device to be a Medical Device Class I, just as various clinical studies have demonstrated its value in alleviating respiratory diseases. The Salin device emits tiny microns of salt crystals into the air, almost like salt dust found in salt caves. The salt microcrystals are one to five micrometers in diameter and are able to penetrate deep into the lungs. Leave the machine on for at least eight to ten hours a day in the room you are in. Within hours, you will notice the air quality difference with it being easier to breathe, nasal passages opening, and decongestion clearing. Use the Salin device every day.

Using salt crystal lamps hand carved from the salt mines is another option. The beautiful crystalline structure of ancient salt deposits is a result of their constituent minerals drying under intense pressure, not unlike diamonds. But salt crystals are far more colorful, ranging from light shades of pink, yellow, and orange to the more intense hues of dark red, deep blue, and lavender. Not only do people find the light of natural salt lamps to be quite soothing, but the negative ions given off by the lamps are the wonderful ions we smell in the air after a thunderstorm. These ions have a refreshing and energizing effect, helping to purify the air and thereby benefit the people and pets breathing that air. Salt lamps are being used worldwide in holistic spas and medical treatment centers. The most common types of disorders treated are breathing problems such as asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, and various allergies. Place several salt lamps throughout your house to experience clean, healthful, energized air.

And when you are at work, on the road, or traveling out of state, keep enjoying the benefits of salty air halotherapy with the portable salt pipe, which is made of porcelain and whose daily use helps flush away impurities from the nasal passages as well as helping to heal and calm inflamed lungs and airways.

All three products are complementary to each other and can help create a mini halotherapy environment in your home or office. When you are ready, you can add a natural salt floor or salt box and even add salt tiles or salt rocks to your existing sauna to enhance the concentration of natural salt ions for an even greater health effect.

** This article is one of 101 great articles that were published in 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health. To get complete details on “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health”, visit http://selfgrowth.com/healthbook3.html