Salt in History

In the Beginning

Salt Therapy can be traced back as far as the Grecian age, when Hippocrates recommended salt inhalation as an effective treatment for respiratory issues.

European monks also found when they treated respiratory ailments in natural salt caverns, their patients healed faster than those treated elsewhere.

The monks produced salt dust by grinding salt rocks against each other, which the patients then inhaled.

The last 150 years

Salt as a therapy formally began in 1843, when Polish physician Felix Boczkowski studied workers from a salt mine. Boczkowski found the workers had fewer respiratory problems than others mine workers due to their inhalation of salt dust.

His findings led to the development of the first Salt Therapy Clinic near Krakow in Poland. The health spa is still in operation today, and is included on the UNESCO’s World Cultural and Natural Heritage List.

By the 1950s, scientific studies were proving the effectiveness of salt therapy and salt therapy chambers began to open throughout Europe.

Halotherapy today

Until 1987 underground caves and mines were the only available method of Salt Therapy. In 1987 a new system was developed to replicate the environment of the Salt mines.

Since then Halotherapy (from “halo”, the Greek word for salt) has grown in popularity as more people discover the benefits for respiratory, health and beauty treatments.

Countless halotherapy wellness centres have opened across Europe, Scandanavia, North America, and now Australia.

If you have thought about salt therapy but wondered how it came about, now you know – it is a non invasive natural treatment that people have been using, to great effect, for centuries upon centuries.