Caving in over salt

Ireland's first salt cave is not what you might expect, writes SYLVIA THOMPSON

SITED IN an empty retail unit in a small shopping centre in Maynooth, Co Kildare, Ireland’s first salt cave is not what you might expect. Firstly, there’s no salt anywhere to be seen by the naked eye. Secondly, it looks rather like a sparsely kept sitting room, with armchairs and footstools and a table and chairs for children to play at. Calm soothing music comes from wall-mounted speakers and the lights are dimmed.

So where’s the salt?

Dr Tamas Bakonyi, the Hungarian GP who set up the salt cave after two years of research, switches on a laser light which shows the tiny salt particles floating in the air.

He goes on to explain how the equipment he uses regulates the temperature and humidity of the air to keep it dry enough for the pharmaceutical grade salt particles to remain separate. The air is also purified, keeping it germ- and allergen-free.

After sitting in the room for almost an hour, I couldn’t even taste the salt on my lips – although I did begin to sneeze (co-incidence or not?) after about 30 minutes.

The aim of what Bakonyi describes as his “climatherapy clinic” is to recreate the atmosphere of underground salt caves, long since known for their therapeutic powers – particularly for respiratory conditions.

“A Polish doctor first discovered the benefits of salt mines when he observed how salt miners didn’t suffer from respiratory disease. They rarely got colds and pneumonia. He started to bring people to the natural salt mines and found that this microclimate was helpful to them,” explains Bakonyi. They became popular in various parts of Eastern Europe, and the Russian government approved salt caves for medical use in 1995.

Living in Ireland for the past four years, Bakonyi and his wife, Orsi Sarkozy, got the idea to set up a salt cave here after seeing how their second child recovered from a persistent cough after spending time in one in their native Hungary.

“We went to Hungary for the Christmas holidays and our second child had a non-stop croupy cough. We took her twice to a salt cave near Budapest and her cough disappeared completely,” explains Sarkozy.

Bakonyi subsequently visited five salt caves in Hungary and one in Holland while researching the subject.

Bakonyi claims that by sitting in this microclimate for an hour, the salt particles can clear the airways in virtually all parts of the lungs – something that many inhalers fail to do.

“Seventy to 75 per cent of medication from steroid inhalers gets trapped in the upper airways and only the rest goes further down into the lungs,” he explains.

“If you are breathing in this salt cave for an hour, the salt will reach the untreated areas of the airways – reaching down into the finer branches of the bronchial tree,” he says.

He believes the salt cave will help many people with respiratory conditions including sinusitis, bronchitis and asthma. Clients’ comments on his website confirm improvement in coughs, colds, sinusitis and various allergies including asthma.

“One session in the salt cave normalises the immuno-regulation of the chest. Basically, the salt cave teaches the immune system not to overreact to harmless allergens,” he explains.

“And after about 20 sessions, children with asthma will have more comfort, control and a better quality of life for nine to 12 months,” he explains.

Bakonyi, who works in a general practice in Co Kildare, believes that in Ireland, anti-biotics, inhalers and over-the-counter medications are overprescribed in the treatment of colds, coughs and chest infections.

“People need to be educated more about how antibiotics are not for viral infections. We want to help to make whole families healthier and help them understand how often problems such as asthma, hay fever and chronic bronchitis are due to the immune system overreacting,” he says.

The Maynooth salt cave opened to the public about six months ago and the staff say that people come from the surrounding counties and as far away as Leitrim and Galway.

Adults just sit there and relax or read (although the lights were dimmed while clients sat) or children play. Clients with acute medical conditions, infections or fevers are not permitted to enter the salt cave. The first treatment is free and then clients are charged on a sliding scale, depending on how many sessions are booked. A single session costs €35.

Whether Ireland’s first salt cave is a success remains to be seen. Bakonyi is quick to dismiss more atmospheric versions of salt caves with salt crystals on the ceiling, walls and floors.

This type of salt cave has been built in cities throughout Germany as an optional therapy at spa clinics, and have also ben set up in Canada. He says that in spite of the appearance of salt in such caves, the salt doesn’t pass into the respiratory tract simply because you’re surrounded by it. “The dry salt aerosol has been proven to work,” he says, pointing to research papers presented at European Respiratory Society congresses.

“It’s a drug-free treatment without any side effects. I’d like to set up more salt caves like this one in Ireland,” he says.