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  The Salt Cave Kochi gets about 300 customers a month.Photograph courtesy Salt Cave Kochi.

Is this the latest miracle cure or should it be taken with a handful — or much more — of salt? It's called halotherapy and it's all about sitting and breathing the air in rooms where the walls have been covered with a thick layer of rock or sea salt and where the floors are carpeted with larger salt granules.

Walk into the recently opened The Salt Spa in Calcutta and the soft music and mellow lighting are calculated to have an instantly calming effect. The ivory-coloured room has six comfy cane chairs and the walls and floors are covered in pristine white salt. But the most important feature is the small vent in a wall through which a piece of equipment called a Dry Saline Aerosol Diffuser or halo generator pumps tiny salt particles into the room.

Salt therapy is the latest treatment that's advertised as being beneficial for respiratory problems and also skin ailments like eczema and even psoriasis. Says Arjun Sarna of New Delhi's Salt Room Therapy: 'It was found that miners who worked in natural salt caves in Europe did not suffer from respiratory or skin problems. Research showed that they inhaled salt particles, and this kept respiratory and skin problems at bay due to salt's anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.'

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  The children's room at Salt Room Therapy centre in Delhi has toys and tiny play tents. Pic by Jagan Negi

Salt rooms like the one at The Salt Spa aim to simulate the conditions of a natural salt cave. And all you need to do is ease into one of the chairs and relax for a specific number of sessions, each lasting for approximately an hour. Most people are recommended 10-20 sessions, each of which may cost between Rs 500 and Rs 2,000, depending on the centre.

'The salt particles pumped by the halo generator enter the respiratory systems of the people in the room, dissolve and attract impurities that are then coughed up or eliminated through the metabolic process,' says Priyanka Shah, a director of The Salt Spa. The spa also sells 'salt lamps' that emit saline vapours when lit and can be used at home. Shah uses Himalayan salt at The Salt Spa, but Sarna uses only pharmaceutical salt.

Moreover, patients with similar problems are clubbed together because the amount of salt pumped into the room per session is regulated according to the age of the occupants and the seriousness of their ailments.

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  Salt lamps that emit saline vapours can be used at home to neutralise impurities in the air. Pic by Rashbehari Das.

Ami Mehta, 38, who suffers from asthma, took complimentary sessions at The Salt Spa soon after it opened, and says she's feeling better after it.

Delhi's Salt Room Therapy has two general physicians to whom patients are referred. Says Sarna: 'We treat skin problems like eczema and psoriasis, which are linked to internal problems. Salt therapy cleanses the system and also removes skin inflammations due to salt's anti-inflammatory properties.'

Certainly salt therapy is catching on quickly. Salt Room Therapy has already teamed up with three franchisees in Chandigarh, Noida and Ludhiana in the last year. Sarna says each centre gets 400-450 clients a month.

Head to Kochi where a company, Euro Oxycare, has opened Salt Cave Kochi. 'We hit the advertising trail to spread awareness about salt therapy in the city, and now get about 300 patients per month,' says Euro Oxycare's Satheesh Kumar. The company represents an Estonian company, Indium Top, which makes salt therapy equipment that it has supplied to Calcutta's The Salt Spa and for salt rooms in Kochi, Pune, Gurgaon and Bangalore.

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  The salt room in Calcutta's The Salt Spa. Pic by Soumik Bag.

Then, there's Salt Therapy from London — the salt room in Calcutta's Thai Refresh Spa — that opened in May. Two more of these opened around the same time in Ahmedabad and Jaipur.

The owners of the salt rooms insist that salt therapy is suitable even for children. So, Salt Room Therapy centres have either a separate room or section for kids fitted out with colourful toys and even tiny tents.

'Salt therapy's new in this county and it's likely to benefit a person with respiratory problems like asthma or bronchitis, though its long-term benefits have yet to be seen' says Calcutta-based general physician Dr P.R. Kamdar. He adds that people with cardiac problems or high blood pressure should consult a physician before trying salt therapy. Similarly, anyone planning to take children for salt therapy should consult a paediatrician or a pulmonologist.

Extensive research has been done into salt therapy though there's no conclusive proof of its beneficial effects. But if you want to try it out, remember all you have to do is sit down and breathe deeply.