Salt Therapy and its European well-known beneficial effects in respiratory diseases

The benefits of salt therapy (also called Halotherapy) or speleotherapy are well known and documented in Europe. Halotherapy uses dry aerosol micro particles of salt and minerals to treat respiratory diseases and seeks to replicate the conditions of speleotherapy (from Greek speleos=cave), a treatment that has been practiced in old salt mines of Eastern Europe since the early 19th century. In the mid 18th Century a Polish health official Felix Botchkowski, noticed that the workers of salt mines did not get ill with lung diseases. He wrote a book about the effects of salt dust in 1843. His successor M. Poljakowski founded a Salt Spa in Velicko near Krakow, which is still in operation. During the Second World War salt mines were often used as bombproof shelters. After spending time there many people who suffered from asthma felt that their health had gotten better! Today there are many salt sanatoriums in Europe (Austria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia