The health benefits of Salt Therapy were first discovered by European monks centuries ago. They noticed that their patients improved from respiratory ailments more quickly when treated in natural salt caverns. As such, the monks began to rub salt rocks together to produce a fine salt dust for their patients to inhale.

In the 1840s, Dr. Felix Bochkowsky, the state authority for occupational health in Poland, noticed similar effects with miners: while metal and coal miners battled relentless, deadly respiratory ailments, workers in salt mines were healthier than average people, let alone other miners. In 1843, Dr. Bochkowsky published a book about the health benefits of salt dust. His successor, Mstislav Poljakowski, followed by establishing the first salt clinic near Krakow, Poland, which is still in operation today.

During World War II, salt mines in Germany were used as bomb shelters. During bombings, people often had to remain in the mines for extended periods of time, breathing in the salt dust. Upon leaving, many asthmatics were able to breathe much easier. By the 1950s, scientific studies (primarily in the USSR) were proving how effective salt therapy is in treating respiratory ailments. Manmade, above-ground salt rooms provided a controlled environment, and Halotherapy (from “halo,” Greek for salt) became a new option for respiratory treatment.

The first public halotherapy salt chambers opened in the 1960s in Eastern Europe. These initial salt rooms were destination health sanatoriums and respiratory hospitals. As halotherapy grew more popular in the 1980s and 1990s, health and beauty resorts throughout Europe and Scandinavia began to install salt rooms and offer halotherapy as one of their restorative treatments. Salt Therapy is now very popular throughout the United States.