What Is Salt Chalet?

By tolucantimes on March 31st, 2011 Printer-Friendly

Children can play in their own salt room, equipped with toys, games, books and cable TV.

Salt Chalet is a wellness center that offers salt room therapy, a treatment that occurs in a unique microclimate that mimics the salt mines found throughout Eastern Europe. The therapeutic nature of these mines was first discovered many years ago when miners reported significant improvement in respiratory conditions after having spent hours below ground in salt mines. The air in salt mines is filled with salt particles and permeated with negative ions, which clears breathing passages and lungs and has a host of other effects that, according to studies conducted in Russia and Poland, dramatically improve ailments such as asthma, bronchitis, chronic ENT (ear-nose-throat) illnesses, eczema, and psoriasis. Recent medical studies in Europe and Canada have shown that salt rooms can also benefit other conditions such as snoring, colds, allergies, wheezing, smoker’s cough, influenza and chest tightness. This therapy, called Speleo-therapy (treatment in a natural salt cave) or Halotherapy (treatment in a simulated salt environment), is widely acclaimed and has been used since the 19th century.

The husband and wife duo, owners David Mashiah and Dikla Kadosh came into the salt room profession purely by chance. Almost three years ago, Dikla’s father sent her an article from an Israeli magazine. It concerned a family whose children suffered from severe and chronic respiratory problems. They were in and out of emergency rooms, had trouble sleeping and could rarely ever just enjoy being kids. The mother was running out of options, but like most mothers, had a whole lot of fight left in her. While researching alternative methods of treatment, she came across a salt room in Israel. She put her children in treatment and was amazed by the life-changing results. Her children finally had a chance to live normal, healthy lives. The mother immediately built a salt room in her house.

Dikla found this article to be an inspiring human interest piece concerning the lengths a mother will go to for her children. When she showed it to David, he saw it as a unique business opportunity beneficial to everyone. They researched it online and realized there was nothing like it on the West Coast. And from that, their journey began.

Since then, Dikla posits that the biggest challenge has been to get the word out about Salt Chalet.

A second adult room offers relaxing massages to complement the salt therapy.

“It’s not so simple to explain. Particularly here in America people have been skeptical, but if you ask anyone with respiratory problems, it’s extremely common for more traditional remedies to contain salt of some kind. Take doctor prescribed saline rinses, for example. While they work somewhat, the rinses don’t get to the lungs where the problem starts. In our Halotherapy rooms, the salt is in such tiny particles that actually reach your inner respiratory system and heal you from within.

“It hasn’t been so hard to convince people of Salt Chalet’s legitimacy. Once we get a chance to explain our method, people realize that it’s not a leap of faith at all.”

When asked about her personal experience with the salt rooms, Dikla answers without hesitation:

“When our son was three months old, he had a nasty cold. Naturally, he was a feisty baby and it was difficult trying to get saline drops in his nose to clear his congestion, as the pediatrician had suggested.

“After conferring with our pediatrician, we decided to try taking him in there for 15 minutes. Within a day, our baby was completely cleaned out and back to normal. And that made me one happy mother!”

One treatment session lasts 45 minutes, and depending on the extent of the condition, 12-15 sessions are recommended. There are no limits on the number of sessions one can take, as Halotherapy is a gentle, natural treatment with no side effects. There is also no age restriction. Very small children have shorter sessions with lower salt concentration. The patients sit in relaxed positions on the comfortable lounge chairs. Kids can play in the large children’s room or saltbox, where sand is substituted by fine grain salt. During the session, in an entirely benign way, a small amount of dry salt aerosol is filtered into the salt room.

At Salt Chalet, their mission is to improve the quality of life for people who have resigned themselves to living with daily discomfort, pain, uneasiness and hardship. Salt Chalet offers a healthy, natural and safe alternative to steroids, drugs and other invasive medicines.

Dikla and David welcome your questions and look forward to becoming your oasis for healthy breathing. Salt Chalet is located at 17401 Ventura Blvd. Suite B17 in Encino. For more information, call (818) 907-9512, visit www.SaltChalet.com or email your questions to Info@SaltChalet.com.

The New Medicine built on Ancient Salt Room Therapy Principles

We’ve all done it.

We get to the beach and we take a deep, deep breath.

It’s a reflex. It’s instinctual.

The body knows to breath this air in before the mind realizes it’s even out of the car.

Here’s what our bodies know and what our minds need to be reminded of:

Breathing dry, aerosolized salt air (tiny salt particles suspended in air) can provide broad health benefits. Allergies, chronic respiratory illnesses, skin disorders, infections and problems sleeping can all be improved by simply breathing while relaxing in the wonderful healing microclimate of a salt room.

Like many natural approaches to healing, Salt Room Therapy is relatively new in the United States, but not so in the rest of the world. The therapeutic benefits of spending time in a ‘salt room’ were rediscovered in Eastern Europe during the 19^th century. Dr. Felix Bochkowsky was responsible for occupational health in Poland in the 1840s and as with all good Public Health experts he was trained to study his surroundings. Since his responsibilities also included the mines he noticed that while metal and coal miners battled relentless, deadly respiratory ailments the workers in salt mines were healthier. In fact they were much healthier than most people in the community.

The story doesn’t start there though.

Speleotherapy, or treatments in a natural salt caves, began in ancient times. From Neolithic Italy and the priest-healers of Greece to the Indian epic ‘Ramayana” and Hungarian manuscripts from the Middle Ages we find reference after reference touting the benefits of time spent in natural salt cave microclimates. Speleotherapy is still common in parts of the world but in modern times and urban locations we more commonly refer to Halotherapy or treatment in a simulated salt environments. These simulated microclimates are obviously more convenient especially when you consider that multiple sessions are best but I won’t talk anyone out of a trip to Speleotherapy centers in Israel, Hungary or Russia. Fortunately, none of the benefits of salt room therapy are lost on Wilshire Boulevard.

The air in salt mines and simulated salt therapy rooms is permeated with negative ions, which help clear breathing passages and provide for a host of other effects. Studies have documented improvements in asthma, bronchitis, chronic ear-nose-throat conditions such as allergies and sinusitis and insomnia. Recent medical studies from Europe and Canada have shown that time spent in salt rooms can benefit other conditions such as snoring, colds, smoker’s cough and influenza. Salt room air is believed to have anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory effects.

Time spent in salt rooms benefits the skin as well. This shouldn’t be a surprise. The skin is the largest organ and shares with the lungs the important role of interfacing with the environment every second of every day. This exposes the skin to a constant barrage of toxins. A natural way to counteract this is to expose the skin to the healing power of salt room air on a consistent basis. Studies have shown that skin disorders such as eczema, psoriasis and rashes can improve but normal dry, greasy or aging skin may benefit in appearance as well.

A series of sessions is required to maximize the benefits. I recommend starting with 10-12 sessions. Some patients expand their treatments to 30 or more sessions and others have gone so far as to install salt rooms in their own homes after having experienced the transformative power of this microclimate on so many aspects of their health and wellness.

When I consider the broad benefits and the fact that so many people suffer from ailments that improve in the salt room microclimate I find myself asking everyone I meet, from patients to friends and family to commit to learning more and trying Salt Room Therapy in 2011. Read up on it. Start asking your friends and relatives about it. I’m sure you’ll find many have tried it already or are thinking about doing so. Stop by Beneveda to take a tour and chat with our staff about it. I look forward to seeing you there.

Thom E.Lobe MD

F.A.C.S., F.A.A.P., is the founder and medical director of Beneveda Medical Group in Beverly Hills, and medical director of Salt Chalet in Encino, California

PS. Is there a better time to feel better than today?

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INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ON SPELEOTHERAPY AND HALOTHERAPY.

CHAPTER 2

Halo Therapy is the method of natural therapy, which takes from Speleotherapy the main healing factor - aero dispersed environment saturated with dry sodium chloride aerosol.

Halotherapy (HT) is a mode of treatment in a controlled air medium that simulates the natural salt cave microclimate. HT is performed in a special room with salt-coated walls and floor - the Halochamber.
Dry sodium chloride aerosol containing particles of 1-5um in size is produced by a special nebulizer and released into the Halochamber. The effect of HT was evaluated in 124 patients with various types of respiratory diseases (bronchial asthma, chronic obstructive and non-obstructive bronchitis, bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis) in a placebo-controlled clinical trial.
HT resulted in significant clinical improvements as measured by various lung function tests (flow-volume loop parameters, body plethysmography, bronchial resistance) compared to placebo(1). Other studies have reported similar benefits in patients with chronic pulmonary disease(2)(3)(4).
The Russian Ministry of Health approved the Halocomplex Chamber as a medical device in 1995. Most of the published work on Halotherapy has appeared in Russian journals and publications. Summaries and abstracts in English are contained in the additional information package.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ON SPELEOTHERAPY AND HALOTHERAPY.

CHAPTER 1
Nowadays powerful development of pharmacology and industrial production of medicines encouraged growth of treatment by medication. Simplicity of application, availability and rapid effect provided priority of pharmacotherapy. However, together with therapeutic effect, medicines can cause pathologic conditions that are connected with side effects.

Many allergic conditions and autoimmunal processes are caused by medicines. Furthermore treatment by medication does not restore the own defense mechanisms of the body. This point of view makes physicians turn back to the experience of natural healing factors and carry out investigations in order to find medication-free treatment methods.

Halotherapy ("halos" in Greek means salt) is one of such methods. Halotherapy is the mode of treatments in a controlled air medium that simulates a natural salt cave microclimate.

Treatment in natural salt cave (speleotherapy) has been known for a long time. The efficacy of speleotherapy is associated with the unique cave microclimate. The natural dry sodium chloride aerosol is the major curative factor of the cave microclimate. It is formed by the convective diffusion from salt walls. Other factors such as comfortable temperature and humidity regime, the hypobacterial and allergen-free air environment saturated with aero ions enhance the therapeutic effect.

A suggestion that it is the air saturated with saline dust that causes the main curative effect in the speleotherapy of patients with respiratory diseases was first formulated by a Polish physician F.Bochkowsky in 1843. Salt mines are known to be used for therapeutic purposes in many countries, such as Austria (Solzbad-Salzeman), Rumania (Sieged), Poland (Wieliczka), Azerbaijan (Nakhichevan), Kirgizia (Chon-Tous), the Ukraine: Solotvino, (Carpathians); Artiomovsk (Donietsk region) and others.

Speleotherapy has been acknowledged as a highly effective medication-free treatment method. It is assumed that during the treatment, the organism adapts to the specific features of the microclimate and alters all its functional systems.

However adaptation of the patients who came from different climate areas, travel and transport problems, and limited number of beds kept back its wide spreading. So HT has been worked out.