Enjoy a Salt Room to Beat the Valley’s Summer Air: Salt therapy can provide relief when clean, fresh air is hard to find, says Pavel Gershkovich

The American Lung Association's annual air quality report card ranked metro Phoenix as having the second-dirtiest air in the nation. Phoenix also received a failing grade for ozone, formed when heat and sunlight react with nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOC). The most-common VOC sources are vehicle exhaust, gasoline fumes, power plant emissions and chemicals such as paint.

Clean, fresh air is hard to find in the Valley in the summertime. The Salt Chalet, however, is an oasis of fresh, healthy, salt-infused air in the heart of a polluted city. Its unique environment is created by filling a room with salt from the Dead Sea of Isreal, which is naturally anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory. The room is coated from floor to ceiling with this salt, and it is also misted into the room, mimicking the microenvironment of a salt cave.

Long-term treatment in a salt room has a positive impact on lung function, proven in clinical studies to alleviate respiratory and skin ailments ranging from asthma to allergies and eczema. The salt kills harmful bacteria in the lungs, clears mucus buildup, opens air passages and boosts the immune system naturally, with no side effects.

In ancient times, people traveled great distances to the Dead Sea for its healing properties. The water is much saltier than the ocean, so that fish and other aquatic life forms cannot live in it. As a result, the Dead Sea is much more saturated with minerals than the ocean. Specifically, sodium, potassium and magnesium have been proven to help detoxify the body, stimulate blood circulation and relieve tension and muscle aches.

Salt therapy has been used medicinally across Europe and Asia for decades, recently spreading to Canada and the United States. There are just eight such facilities in the U.S. so far. Growing numbers of people are seeking to reduce asthma attacks, allergies, COPD and a host of breathing issues. People with asthma, for example, have been able to reduce the use of their inhaler from several times a day to once in a while after a few treatments. Many people feel lethargic in the summer because their immune system is so busy trying to detoxify the air they breathe, but they find great relief in a salt room environment.

Pavel Gershkovich opened Salt Chalet Arizona, the only facility in the state with two salt rooms, at 5011 N. Granite Reef Rd., in Scottsdale. For more information, call 480-621-6041 or visit SaltChaletArizona.com.