Salt grotto

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Salt grottos , also called salt chambers, salt rooms or salt spas , are rooms whose walls are clad with salt . They are used for halotherapy by creating the microclimate of a natural salt cave . There are more than 300 salt caves across Germany.

They are not to be confused with brine grottos .

history

In the 19th century it was observed in Polish salt mines that salt miners suffered from diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract less than members of other professions. The Polish doctor Feliks Boczkowski, who was in charge of the Wieliczka Salt Mine , first documented this phenomenon in 1843, after which the first spa facilities were built on site.

In those Eastern European regions where there are natural karst caves as well as numerous salt tunnels and salt mines, therapy centers for asthmatics have been established since the 1950s, except in Poland and especially in Slovakia, Romania and the Ukraine.

In German-speaking countries around 1950, the doctor Karl-Hermann Spannagel had already noticed the health-promoting effects of the Klutert Cave on his patients, to which the population had withdrawn in the Second World War to protect them from bomb attacks. But only since the turn of the millennium has halotherapy spread in spas, thermal baths and wellness facilities of all kinds, and there are also grottos operated by private operators. Unlike in Eastern Europe, artificial salt caves are built in Germany due to the lack of natural geological formations that would be suitable for therapeutic purposes.

Investments

Bad Soden salt cave (Kinzigtal)

Salt caves are built from tons of rock or sea ​​salt . Some have salt from the Dead Sea , many so-called Himalayan salt (which in reality mostly comes from the salt mountains in Pakistan), others regional rock salt, which is applied directly to the walls and floor (Saltero method). Some grottos are reminiscent of stalactite caves with stalactites from the ceiling; colored illuminations from salt lamps and soft music can accompany the stay.

In such caves, the temperature is usually kept between 20 and 22 ° C and the humidity at around 40 to 50%. The salt climate is created by means of watercourses, smaller graduation works or brine nebulizers, or salt generators are used that grind the salt and blow it into the room in the smallest particles (dry salt aerosols).

application

The grotto is entered in street clothes, but without shoes (instead with plastic covers or white socks to keep the salt floor clean); A stay of around 45 minutes in a deck chair (often wrapped in a blanket) is usually provided.

Therapeutic benefit

According to the prevailing view in western medicine, a therapeutic benefit has not yet been proven. It is likely to depend on whether the air in the salt cave is actually actively enriched with respirable salt particles or not. In the latter case, it is obvious that a therapeutic effect is difficult to imagine. In the first case, the situation is not so clear: In Russia, for example, halotherapy or salt air therapy has been officially recognized by the Ministry of Health for the treatment of respiratory diseases since 1995 and is practiced there in hundreds of medical institutions. Scientific studies in Eastern Europe - especially in Russia, Ukraine and Poland - try to prove the benefits of salt air therapy (halotherapy, dry salt inhalation) as a medically effective treatment method. However, there are doubts about the validity of these studies. Inhalation of the salt and the accompanying minerals and trace elements - iodine , calcium , magnesium , bromine - is recommended by the operators of these systems for chronic respiratory infections, allergies and psoriasis , but also for general relaxation and strengthening of the immune system.

literature

  • Coast right on your doorstep. In Rhein-Zeitung, Koblenz, February 24, 2007, p. 14.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Stiftung Warentest: Salt caves - relaxation yes, medical effect questionable In: test 12/2014, pages 92–93 and test.de from December 2, 2014
  2. ^ Directory of salt caves in Germany. In: www.salzgrotte.com.de. Retrieved November 28, 2016 .
  3. ^ Archives for physical therapy, balneology and climatology, German Society for Physical Medicine, 1965
  4. ^ Caves offer asthma relief for tourists , April 30, 2007
  5. ↑ Ukrainian mine helps asthmatics , January 3, 2006
  6. ↑ Ludmilla Tüting: esoteric rip-off: The "fountain of youth" Himalayan salt
  7. ↑ OLG Cologne: Himalaya Salt - misleading about the geographical origin of a product, judgment of October 1, 2010 , markenmagazin.de
  8. ↑ a b Chervinskaya, Alina: Halotherapy for Respiratory Diseases. Chervinskaya, Alina, accessed July 11, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Medical studies on salt air therapy (Halotherapy) | Salin MedicAir . In: Salin MedicAir . ( salin-medicair.de [accessed on July 11, 2018]).
  10. ↑ L. Endre: [Theoretical basis and clinical benefits of dry salt inhalation therapy]. In: Orvosi hetilap. Volume 156, number 41, October 2015, pp. 1643-1652, doi : 10.1556 / 650.2015.30267 , PMID 26551167 (review).
  11. ^ R. Rashleigh, SM Smith, NJ Roberts: A review of halotherapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In: International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Volume 9, 2014, pp. 239-246, doi : 10.2147 / COPD.S57511 , PMID 24591823 , PMC 3937102 (free full text) (review).