4 COVER STORY
Taken with Salt therapy is taking off as an alternative remedy for everything from allergies to asthma. But not everyone is convinced of its healing properties, writes Richard Lord
A
s I lie back on a lounger in a slightly weird but very comfortable salt-lined grotto, a magazine perched on my lap and soothing nature documentaries on the giant television in front of me, it strikes me that this is the least unpleasant medical treatment I’ve ever had. The experience is marred only by the deeply unattractive blue plastic shoe-covering booties on my feet, to protect the salt that covers the floor. The slight tang of salt in the air gives away what the treatment is: salt therapy. Also known as halotherapy and speleotherapy, it involves breathing in the tiny particles of salt that are being pumped into the air around me. There are various supposed benefits, most of them lung related. The therapy has its roots in naturally occurring salt caves in eastern Europe. But I’m a bit nearer home, in Central, at the newly opened Inhalo, which houses Hong Kong’s first so-called salt caves.
The simplicity of the treatment – there really is nothing to it except lying back in a room and breathing – along with a shortage of credible clinical studies, can make it hard to swallow (or indeed, to inhale) some of the claims. Like most people, I’m accustomed to thinking of salt as essentially bad for me, but according to the halotherapists, it’s the method of ingestion that counts. If salt is inhaled rather than eaten, proponents of the therapy claim that it is effective against a range of conditions. These include asthma, cystic fibrosis, emphysema, psoriasis, ear infections, allergies, bronchitis, colds and even snoring. Salt therapy emerged in the 19th century when doctors in Poland noticed that salt miners didn’t seem to suffer from respiratory conditions. But it took off in the past decade, with spas like Inhalo that recreate salt cave conditions mushrooming around the world. It has spread, in particular, to western Europe, North America,
Australia and, thanks to the many people with eastern European heritage there, Israel. It was there that Inhalo CEO Omri Shamir, an asthmatic, became convinced of its benefits. “After a few sessions, I felt better. Not completely better – you never get completely better with asthma – but I only had to use my inhaler occasionally, when I’d been using it every day before.” He and his wife, marketing director Caroline GoldsmithShamir, gave up their jobs in academia and marketing and moved to Hong Kong to set up the spa. “We think Hong Kong is perfect for this,” explains Caroline, saying that because of the city’s wealth, there is an openness to alternative therapies. There are also a host of respiratory problems, most caused by cramped living conditions and air pollution. Sessions at Inhalo last for 50 minutes – 30 minutes for children – and a minimum of 10 to 15 sessions are recommended,
This is definitely non-evidence-based, and would not be approved by any sensible, normal person PROFESSOR KENNETH TSANG