STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – Salt rooms and spas have been a growing trend around the world and now in the United States.
Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, even Sterling Heights, Mich. has a salt room spa.
Salt room owners claim they can help a wide range of ailments from asthma and allergies to stress and snoring.
Salt room treatment is also known as halotherapy. It is especially popular in eastern Europe. It has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration or approved to treat any medical condition.
A Rochester Hills mother tried out a salt room because her son Ben had asthma. He was diagnosed with asthma when he was nine months old. Michelle Ruprecht said it's not a good feeling watching her son deal with asthma.
VIDEO: The salt room experience
"Horrible, stressful, I don't get much sleep because I'm constantly checking to make sure that we're doing the breathing treatments as much as we should," said Michelle Ruprecht.
Ruprecht said she was willing to try anything to keep her son's asthma under control. So when she spotted an ad for a salt room in Metro Parent, she thought she would give it a try.
"It seemed wild, you know, when you saw the pictures and what not," said Ruprecht. "I'd try it, for sure in a second, you know, if we thought it was something that was going to help him, even a little bit."
Ben liked the salt room experience.
"It was a nice environment, you know, it was dark and quiet and, you know, lots of stuff for the kids to do, he loved it," said Ruprecht.
As for whether it worked, she said: "I'm up in the air."
Doctors say salt rooms are not proven
Henry Ford Hospital Dr. Christian Nageotte treats Ben for his asthma. He said there are reasons to think salt rooms can have an effect.
"The theoretic reason is that salt attracts moisture and in the lungs of asthmatics and certain chronic lung conditions mucous plugs can form it may be difficult to cough up," said Nageotte.
Basically, the salt in the air acts like many of the remedies already prescribed like salt gargles for a sore throat or salt rinses for sinus problems, it just does it in the lungs. The treatment is simple, just enter the room, relax and breathe.
The rooms have salt everywhere, including on the walls and the floor, but that is done largely to replicate the old salt mine feel. The air also tastes salty, and that's because of a machine that generates fine salt particles and blows them into the air. Its those particles that make it into the lungs that are claimed to have the effect.
Carrie Campbell was skeptical at first, but used the salt room after suffering breathing problems following an episode of pneumonia.
"After the 12th visit, because I was coming in about three times a week, after the 12th week, I started to realize I was doing things that I couldn't do before," said Campbell.
While there are many believers, does the science back up the claims?
"I haven't seen any well done clinical studies in the United States investigating this therapy for asthma," said Nageotte. "And these have to be done before we can really expand on this and make it a recommendation or a form of therapy to our patients."
Dr. Nageotte offers this advice to people interested in trying salt room treatments.
"I think if it's not causing any harm, if the patient is perceiving some benefit, and it's not too costly it might be considered as something complementary to traditional medication," said Nageotte.
The cost for salt room treatment is $45 for a single 45 minute session. Package deals can bring that price down as low as $20 a session.
To more information about Salinair, a salt room in metro Detroit, click here.
