Stay Salty!

Hopewell Family Care now offers a salt therapy room! To learn about our salt room and how it will benefit you, keep reading.

What is salt therapy?

There are two types of salt therapy (also known as halotherapy): active and passive. Active salt therapy features a machine that breaks salt apart into tiny (micro) particles, allowing them to be breathed into the respiratory and ENT systems and absorbed into the skin. The salt acts like a tiny scrub brush, breaking down biofilms and unwanted particles, foreign elements that get into our respiratory system and ears, noses, and throat, and loosens them so they can be expelled. Passive salt therapy rooms are filled with large amounts of salt, typically a salt wall or floor filled with salt. This typically provides a more meditative quality to the room, which helps the immune and nervous systems. Our salt room is active and passive!

What are the benefits of halotherapy?

Easier breathing

Salt rooms can benefit people with difficulty breathing due to chronic respiratory conditions, such as asthma, allergies, COPD, and chronic cough. As mentioned above, the salt particles are so tiny that they can get into the respiratory system and break down phlegm, allowing it to move out easier.

Infection treatment

Salt rooms can benefit people with ENT/respiratory-related infections, such as the common cold (adenovirus, rhinovirus, RSV, parainfluenza), sinusitis, ear infections, bronchitis, and pneumonia. Using saline (which is also salt, mixed with water) in our ears/nose/throat isn’t a new idea! But for children and babies especially, halotherapy is a much gentler approach than a saline rinse. Halotherapy accomplishes a rinse of the nose and sinuses, moving infection out easier.

Healthier skin

Salt therapy can benefit people with dermatitis, urticaria (repetitive hives), psoriasis, eczema, post-operative wounds, cellulite, dark spots, and acne. Microscopic salt particles touch the exposed skin and activate the body electrophysiologically to create skin protection, pH balance, and an anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial environment on the skin.

Stress reduction

Salt rooms can benefit people with anxiety, increased heart rate, feelings of fight-or-flight, high-stress levels, and cortisol dysregulation. A calm, dimly lit therapy room is an ideal setting for the nervous system to relax and reduce its stress load. When the nervous system functions properly, all other systems work better! While deep breathing in a normal environment is a really good practice to bring down your sympathetic nervous system response (fight-or-flight), halotherapy is excellent for reaching furthest into the respiratory system.

Lymph support

Salt therapy can benefit people with enlarged lymph nodes, edema (swelling), puffy face, muscle soreness/stiffness, and a sluggish lymphatic system. Halotherapy supports the lymphatic system by being anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-microbial. By nature, salt aids in lymphatic drainage, thins mucus, and clears pathogens, detoxifying the body.

Who can (and cannot) use the salt room?

Any age can do halotherapy! Newborns to seniors can all benefits. Although it’s considered safe for all stages of pregnancy, if you’d like to use absolute caution, begin after 12 weeks gestation.

Do not use halotherapy if you have open wounds, cancer, severe hypertension, mental disorders, or active tuberculosis.

How often should I use the salt room?

Sessions at Hopewell Family Care last 20 minutes, and you may schedule as frequently as you wish. There are no specific ‘rules,’ only that the more regularly you use it, the more benefits you’ll experience.

How do I book a session at Hopewell Family Care’s halotherapy room?

You can call Hopewell Family Care at (615) 933-3633 to schedule an appointment. You can also book on the MindBody app (the same app used by Soma Wellness at NCIH, instructions here). 

We look forward to seeing you access the halotherapy room at our wellness suite!

Jaimeé Arroyo, FNP