Salt therapy: how it helps breathing

Salt therapy, that is inhalation of saline vapor

Salt therapy is nothing other than inhaling air vapor rich in salt, i.e. inhalation of saline vapor. Salt particles that reach the lungs adhere to the walls of the airways and exert their beneficial effects there in a natural way.

In European medicine, the healing effect of the air in salt mine caves has been known and used since the 1800s. Many people “make a pilgrimage” to salt mines in Transylvania, Poland, Slovakia, etc., for saline vapor inhalation. Seaside holidays are also recommended for lung diseases, allergies and certain skin conditions because of the high salt content of the air. These options are less accessible today, since few can travel to such places and high prices mean most cannot afford a minimum week-long course.

Far from salt caves and seashores, similar conditions are attempted by creating artificial salt caves and salt rooms. Walls are covered with salt bricks and humidity is regulated. Salt grains released from the bricks create conditions almost identical to natural ones.

You do not have to miss out on the beneficial effects of salt therapy even if there is no natural or built salt room in your area. Today you can already buy various salt therapy devices.

A salt cave in your home?

Yes! Today you no longer need to travel or spend a lot to enjoy the beneficial air of salt caves. You can generate it at home with the SaltDome salt therapy device.

This way you can stay in salty air for as long as is necessary to ensure beneficial effects. Therefore, effective salt therapy can now be carried out in the comfort of your home.

The beneficial effects of salt therapy

In the lungs, salt particles attract water by osmotic action. As a result, mucus viscosity decreases, that is, it becomes less sticky. Its removal becomes easier and lung self-cleaning improves. Deposited pollutants and pathogens are also carried away with the mucus.

Mucosal swelling also decreases, so congestion is relieved or disappears, breathing becomes easier and symptoms ease.

Salt has a natural antihistamine effect (reducing allergic reactions), meaning it reduces inflammation.

In upper respiratory diseases (colds, bronchitis, sinusitis, etc.), dissolving and helping to clear secretions accelerates recovery.

Natural salt has a disinfectant effect.

Our grandparents exploited this, for example, when curing ham and bacon. Meats were brined for a few weeks. Salt prevented decay by killing bacteria. Only a few very aggressive and extremely rare pathogens can survive in saline solution.

These are all the beneficial effects of salt therapy.

Watch my video about salt therapy and its applications.

Can salt therapy have risks?

NO. This is a 100% natural remedy that has NO risk for adults, children, infants, and even pets.

Salt therapy has no contraindications! It is also completely false to assume that inhaling salty air raises blood pressure. If that were true, everyone living near the sea would have high blood pressure.

Think about it!

If salt therapy had harmful effects, seaside areas would be deserted. But that is not the case! Billions of people live along seashores breathing salty air, so salt therapy has no dangers.

When can you expect beneficial effects?

Salt particles reach different depths in the lungs depending on their size. Particles larger than 8 micrometers stop already in the mouth and throat, those between 5 and 8 micrometers deposit in the large airways. Only salt particles smaller than 5 micrometers can penetrate deep enough into the lungs to have a meaningful effect. From a therapeutic point of view, therefore, smaller salt particle size is more effective.

The longer the salt therapy—i.e. the longer you are in salty air—the more salt reaches your airways and the stronger the effect. One or two treatments per month are fine as a break, but you should not expect significant effects from such short and rare salt treatments.

This is also the drawback of built salt rooms. Although they would offer excellent opportunities, you have to travel to them and pay, so they cannot be used as long as would be necessary. Medical device manufacturers have created devices that allow you to generate therapeutic salty air at home.

You can expect the best effect if you spend several hours a day in the salt vapor. Nighttime, during sleep, is the best period for this. A salt therapy device quietly operating on your bedside table envelops you in a beneficial “salt cloud” and enough reaches your airways. A similar situation applies at your workplace. If your job ties you to a desk, a device placed on the desk is also an excellent solution.

For which conditions does salt therapy help?

Because of its mucus-thinning, disinfecting and anti-inflammatory effects, salt therapy can alone be sufficient to eliminate symptoms in mild cases of colds and allergies.

Used as prevention, salt therapy can help you avoid many illnesses and reduce the frequency of infections or flare-ups. According to a 2012 study carried out by the ENT clinic of Semmelweis University, treating healthy children with salt therapy can reduce the incidence of upper respiratory illnesses (colds, croup, sinusitis, etc.).

In acute and chronic illnesses, apply salt therapy as a complement to medical treatment in the conditions detailed below. It strengthens the effect of medical treatment and speeds up the healing process.

Effective in both children and adults! It can be used without risk.

Do not use salt therapy in the first few days of pneumonia accompanied by fever.

Prevention and treatment of upper airway allergy

If you have been to the seaside, you may have noticed that hay fever (or even eczema) that is raging at home suddenly “disappears” at the seaside or itchy eczema subsides. All this happens unnoticed! Symptoms significantly eased or disappeared within 2–3 days, and you did nothing but breathe the salty sea air.

In some diseases, airway secretions accumulate, stick, and are hard or nearly impossible to cough up, which leads to flare-ups of infections. Salt therapy greatly helps dissolve mucus (it attracts water) and thus facilitates the clearance of secretions. This helps prevent flare-ups (disease worsening).

It can be used to prevent hay fever, pollen allergy, allergic rhinitis, airway allergies and croup attacks—starting a few weeks before the “season”.

Adjunct therapy for lung diseases

Salt therapy can be used in the treatment of numerous respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, COPD, cystic fibrosis, colds, and influenza. It complements and enhances medical treatment.
Salty air helps destroy pathogens. Its greatest help, however, is in dissolving mucus. It neutralizes foreign substances (dust, pollen, allergy-causing particles).

Diseases and conditions in which salty air may have a beneficial effect

• COPD, cystic fibrosis, acute bronchitis
• chronic sinus and frontal sinus inflammation
• hay fever, allergic rhinitis, airway allergies
• acute tonsillitis, mucous membrane inflammations
• colds, influenza and other respiratory viral infections
• smokers’ cough, shortness of breath
• pneumonia (start salt therapy only a few days after onset)
• snoring
• allergies caused by industrial allergens, household dust, mites
• eczema, psoriasis, neurodermatitis

Acute lung disease and salt therapy

Salt therapy is not a medicine, nor a miracle cure for acute symptoms!

If you have a 40°C fever due to pneumonia or you have been barely able to breathe for days because of an exacerbation of chronic bronchitis, do not expect that a few inhalations of salty air will set you right instantly. Salt therapy can be used alongside medical treatment: it supports that treatment and accelerates recovery.

Skin conditions

• allergies caused by industrial and household allergens
• eczema
• psoriasis
• neurodermatitis

Which device do I recommend?

I consider the SaltDome ultrasonic salt therapy device the most effective. It ensures that you can enjoy the beneficial effects of salt therapy in the comfort of your home, at any time and for the required duration. The SaltDome device emits salty air into the room that you inhale. The microscopic salt particles reach the deepest parts of your lungs and exert their beneficial effects.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

Dissolving stuck mucus at home

One of the most significant effects of salt therapy can be exploited in mucus-producing lung diseases (for example COPD, i.e. chronic obstructive bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, smoker’s lung, asthma, etc.).

A salt particle inhaled into the lung adheres to the mucus, attracts water and liquefies the mucus. After that it is easier to cough up. Airways clear and within a few days the previously persistent cough noticeably decreases.

For people suffering from such conditions, the SaltDome device is excellent for dissolving stuck mucus and secretions at home.

How often should salt therapy be applied?

If you go to a salt room and spend an hour there, that has no substantial health effect.

To achieve beneficial effects, salty air must be inhaled for extended periods and regularly. The ideal method is 2–6 hours a day in salty air.

Home devices, such as the SaltDome, can be set to operate for 1–3–6 hours. Therefore, for example, you can use it at night while sleeping. Since you remain in one place then, you spend enough time in the salt vapor.

During the day it does not help that the air at home is good if you are not at home.

How often should you visit a salt room?

Look around and check the prices. One hour in a salt room is available for around 1000–1500 HUF—so for a family of four one visit costs 4–6 thousand HUF. Plus travel, which is an extra cost.

As I already said, one hour in salty air has no meaningful effect. You would need 2–3 hours daily for at least 7–10 days. The cost of that approaches 100,000 HUF.

Meanwhile, for example, the SaltDome device costs 19,900 HUF. You use it when and as much as needed, and in the comfort of your home.

Salt therapy for children — is it allowed?

Salt therapy is especially recommended for young children. As I mentioned earlier, doctors at Semmelweis University have demonstrated its benefits in young children.

There is no difference in treatment frequency and duration between children and adults. The more time a child spends in salty air, the stronger the expected effect. Since the method is completely free of side effects, there is no need to fear anything harmful.

Not even for infants. If a newborn has older (kindergarten or school-age) siblings, it can be particularly useful because the older ones bring pathogens home from the community that can make the baby ill. Salt therapy can help reduce that risk.

How long can salt therapy be given?

Salt therapy can be used daily, even continuously.

Think about it: people living near the seashore live in such salty air continuously and have no problems. So you can safely remain in the salt vapor long-term.

Salt therapy for joint wear?

Salt therapy has no meaningful effect on joint complaints.

Salt therapy on the thyroid?

Salt therapy has no meaningful effect on the thyroid and its diseases.

Salt therapy for the ear?

Salt therapy (inhaling salty air) has no direct effect on ear diseases.

Indirectly, however, it can help relieve symptoms. Salty air reduces mucosal swelling, including in the tube that connects the throat and middle ear. If tube blockage decreases, ear clearance speeds up.

A few decades ago there was another “salt” remedy. For ear infections, salt was filled into a cloth bag, warmed in an oven to 40–45°C and this warm bag was placed on the ear. The heat helped the inflammation “soften”, so the inflamed secretions drained more easily, healing accelerated and symptoms eased.

Why can coughing increase with salt therapy?

In asthma or severe COPD with a lot of secretions, prolonged salt therapy over several hours can increase coughing!
This is because salt dissolves airway secretions, which the lungs then want to remove by coughing as a natural defense. This is completely normal, but it can alarm anxious relatives who may think salt therapy is worsening the condition. When there is more mucus, more secretion must be expelled. Coughing therefore intensifies for that purpose.

Of course this is a phenomenon of the first days! After a few days the increased secretions are gradually cleared and the symptoms ease.

Salt therapy or steroids?

Salt therapy acts much more slowly than steroid nasal sprays or medications.

But while regular steroid use can cause side effects, salt is completely harmless!

If you spend enough time in the salt vapor, within a few days your symptoms will noticeably ease or disappear almost unnoticed. Mucosal swelling decreases, runny nose and itching stop, and breathing becomes easier.