This week, we want to discuss the health benefits of Himalayan salt. Himalayan salt is a rock salt found in the Punjab region of Pakistan and is known for its rich mineral content. The crystals have a pink, reddish, or beet red color. This pinkish hue is due to the presence of trace minerals. Try some of our suggestions for incorporating the use of Himalayan salt both internally and externally. Also, try this week's tasty holiday-themed recipes and check out our current office happenings!
 

Seasoning Your Food

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Himalayan salt has been found to be the purest salt available on the planet. Some believe it to be composed of dried remnants of the original, primal sea. Himalayan Salt contains 84 trace minerals and elements that are found in the human body. A few of these minerals include: sodium chloride, sulphate, calcium, potassium, and magnesium. Because of the strong mineral content, regularly eating Himalayan salt can help with preventing muscle cramps, promoting vascular health, regulating the water content in the body, promoting healthy pH balance, sleep regulation, respiratory health, bone health etc. Himalayan sea salt also contains trace minerals required for proper adrenal, immune and thyroid function as well as digestive enzyme enhancers. This helps the body to absorb more nutrients from the foods that we eat.

Consuming sea salt, or Himalayan salt is vastly superior to table salt. Commercial table salt is completely stripped of the majority of its minerals with the exception of sodium and chloride. It is bleached, 'cleaned' with chemicals, and heated at extremely high temperatures. The iodine that is added to table salt is almost always synthetic, which is difficult for our bodies absorb properly. It is also treated with anti-caking agents. One of the most commonly used is E554 sodium aluminosilicate, which comes with possible unpleasant side effects such as constipation. Side effects can be more severe in those suffering from liver or kidney disease. 

 

Halotherapy

Halotherapy comes from the Greek term 'halo,' meaning salt. Halotherapy is defined as the use of salt to treat respiratory ailments, skin irritations, and combat mental lethargy.

There are several forms of halotherapy including saline solution inhalations, dry salt aerosol inhalations, irrigation, and lavage. You can use a salt lamp or spend time in a salt room. More on those options below. 

Inhaling hypertonic saline is a treatment used in patients with cystic fibrosis. This involves inhaling a saline solution to re-hydrate the airways. It has also been found to improve pulmonary function and respiratory conditions.  We've linked a couple of studies below which are addressing halotherapy in patients with cystic fibrosis as well as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3937102/
http://clinmedjournals.org/articles/ijrpm/ijrpm-2-009.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4153239/

 

Himalayan Salt Lamps

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Himalayan salt lamps purify air through the power of hygroscopy. This means that they attract water molecules from the air and absorb those molecules, as well as any foreign particles they may be carrying, into the salt crystal. Because Himalayan salt lamps remove microscopic particles of dust, pet dander, mold, mildew and the like from the surrounding air, placing a lamp or two in the rooms where you spend the most time will help cut back on allergy symptoms. Even people who suffer from asthma should notice a difference within a couple of weeks. 

Himalayan salt lamps emit negative ions (electrons) into the air. These negative ions can combat the positive ions emitted by computers, televisions, cell phones etc. The premise is that injured and diseased cells are electron-deficient. By submitting the body to an electron-rich environment, the electrical charge in the cells comes back into balance. These negative ions have been found to combat stress, headaches, lethargy, and depression. Place your salt lamps near your electronic devices to maximize their impact.

If you are interested in having salt lamps in your home, we do carry them in the office and in our online store. What a great holiday gift idea!

 


Himalayan Salt Rooms

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Salt rooms date back to the 11th or 12th centuries, when people would visit Eastern Europe’s natural salt caves to heal their ailments. In the 1840s, Dr. Feliks Boczkowski, a Polish doctor who was treating miners, started to study salt’s medicinal properties. He had noticed that while coal miners were plagued with all kinds of respiratory problems, salt miners were free from health complaints relating to respiratory health. He published a book on his findings and a few years later, one of his pupils founded the first salt clinic near Krakow, Poland.

Today, man-made salt rooms recreate salt caverns, with one great improvement: in a Halotherapy room, a salt vaporizer pumps dry aerosol salt vapor into the air, so you can breathe it deep into your lungs.

In recent years, these salt rooms have been popping up across the country. Typically, you will enter barefoot, walking on the salt floor. The walls are comprised of bricks of the beautiful pink salt. Sessions are usually 45 minutes long, and some of these businesses offer guided meditations during your session, or you can just spend 45 minutes in silence breathing in the dry salt air. Sounds pretty great to us!

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