Sea salt for healthy lungs and skin

Salt from the Dead Sea is a unique mixture of minerals and salinity that give it antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.

by Pavel Gershkovich — 

The Phoenix area could be considered something of a modern-day, natural dust bowl, and this summer’s dust storms have made the Valley’s air quality much worse than usual. When dust gets into the lungs, the body uses mucus to catch it and move it out. But when there is a lot of dust, the body’s elimination mechanisms get overloaded. Drugs are not particularly helpful at this point, but salt is.

Salt from the Dead Sea is a unique mixture of minerals and salinity that give it antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. No other salt has these curative capabilities. For centuries, people have traveled to the shores of the Dead Sea, adjacent to Israel, to cure all manner of respiratory and skin problems.

When this salt air is deeply inhaled into the lungs, it works in a way that no antibiotic can. It kills harmful bacteria in the lungs, clears mucus buildup, opens air passages and boosts the immune system.

Scottsdale, Ariz., is one of a handful of locations in the United States where you can find a therapeutic salt room covered from floor to ceiling in layers of pure, natural salt from the Dead Sea. During therapy sessions, a fine mist of salt is blown into the room. Patients breathe deeply, so that the salt absorbs bacteria and clears away mucus that would otherwise block the airways.

Some people use the salt to work its healing magic in other ways. Our skin expands and cracks when it gets hot, especially in the desert’s dry heat. Additionally, summer temperatures make skin conditions, such as psoriasis and eczema, much worse. Salt room therapy naturally disinfects bacteria that cause dry skin to itch. Some people like to follow up with a mudpack to restore minerals to the skin.

The smell of a salt room is similar to that of ocean air. The fine salt mist charges the air with negative ions, much like what is experienced at the seaside. It is a therapeutic microclimate made from multiple layers of pure, untreated, Dead Sea salt.

Salt rooms are very common in Europe and the Middle East. They have been used for decades to treat cold and flu, allergy, asthma, bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, sinus infection, sinusitis, rhinitis, hay fever and emphysema. Salt therapy is now making its way into the U.S. as more and more people seek natural methods for healing.

Pavel Gershkovich, C.H.P., C.R.P., is the director of Arizona Leech Therapy and Salt Chalet Arizona in Scottsdale, Ariz. www.arizonaleechtherapy.com, www.saltchaletarizona.com and 480-621-6041.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 30, Number 4, Aug/Sept 2011.