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The warmer weather can bring misery for people with various allergies such as asthma due to the high pollen count. Antje Neumann investigates Oulu’s Halotherapy practice, which aims to bring some relief.
 Halotherapy (from Greek halos=salt) uses dry aerosol microparticles of salt to treat respiratory diseases and skin problems. It is an old alternative therapy which has been used in Europe already centuries. Two years ago, halotherapy has also found its way to Oulu.
A spontaneous idea born in a health centre waiting room It was the beginning of 2006 when Marketta Kolehmainen was sitting in the waiting room of a local health centre with a flu and bad sinusitis. Her lungs were weakened by asthma and she had to fight with different respiratory diseases. While waiting for the doctor to call her in she was looking through different magazines. Suddenly, an article with the strange word “halotherapy” caught her interest. Halo – or salt therapy - is a very old treatment form against respiratory problems. In medieval times, monks brought patients like her into salt caves and made them breath salt dust. However, it was only in the 19th century when this alternative therapy started to gain larger popularity. In 1843 the Polish physician F. Bochkowsky found that miners in salt shafts never really suffered from lung related diseases. Cases of pneumonia and asthma did not exist among these workers! After his study, the first underground cure centres were established in the old salt mines of Eastern and Central Europe, especially to cure asthma. Salt dust is said to have antimicrobial effects since it dehydrates microbial cells. It helps to prevent or cure lung related diseases. Also, it soothes irritated skin and mucous membranes which can be a relief for patients suffering from asthma. In Eastern and Central Europe there are several cure centres in old salt mines. However, not everybody interested in halotherapy lives close-by to salt caves. The invention of salt rooms solved this problem: The walls of such a room are coated with salt plates and the floor is covered with coarse salt crystals. This gives the air in the room a negative ionisation which in itself already has a curing effect similar to a salt cave. Additionally to that, salt dust is blown into the air during the treatment. When researching possibilities of taking part in haloterapy, Marketta Kolehmainen found out that there were less than ten salt rooms in Finland at that time. And none of them were in Oulu. Being from a family of entrepreneurs, she did not waste any time but started to look for possible places for the Oulu salt room immediately. Only two days later she made an offer for buying the premises of an old kiosk in Syynimaa. The Salt Room of Oulu  The Salt Room of Oulu was opened in April 2006. When I visited the place it was already evening and the last customer, a mother and her little son were just leaving. Marketta welcomed me and showed me around: A small waiting room, an office, some storage facilities and – of course the most important thing - the salt room itself.
“Please have a seat in the salt room”, she said. “ You can try out the salt treatment on your own.” I put some protective gear on: Some plastic over my feet and hair and a coat over myself to prevent the salt dust getting into my clothes. Then I walked over the coarse salt crystals into the white room with orange stone candles and had a seat on one of the deck chairs. The light was dim and soft music filled the room. Marketta shut the door and turned the salt mill on. Soon salt dust filled the air. It was so fine that I could not really see it but I could taste it a bit.  “It is absolutely pure salt and there are strict controls about the quality and quantity of the salt dust used for halotherapy”, explained Marketta. Soft music, dim light – a very relaxing atmosphere. Actually this is not my first experience with a salt room. A few years ago I got one bronchitis after the other, about five in a row and doctors prescribed me antibiotics each time since by system could not handle the infections anymore. It took months. Then I heard about a salt room and halotherapy in Lahti. There was nothing like that in Oulu at the time. I took some time off and went each day for salt treatment, for about a week. During the rest of the day I went for walks and relaxed. This actually helped me to get out of that cycle.
“Salt therapy has also helped me a lot with my asthma”, says Marketta. “It is not gone away and most possibly never will, but it has become much better. I could reduce medication quite a lot. Furthermore, I have not got flu since I have been working in the salt room and breathing salt dust a lot.” Most of her customers visit the salt room because of asthma or skin problems. Asthma often gets much worse and this time of year when there is pollen the air. Among them there are many children. The youngest customer has been 4 months, the oldest nearly hundred years old. Usually one session takes 40 minutes and they should be repeated every day in 5-10 days. It is recommended to repeat the treatment 2-3 times in a year. Links: Salt room of Oulu:Syynimaantie 4 www.oulunsuolahuone.fi Scientific article on the effect of salt treatment on asthma:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16629791
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