Nothing is more essential to life than salt. (Well, maybe water.) An electrolyte, salt enables the nerves to send and receive electrical impulses, maintains muscle strength and keeps cells working smoothly. It is necessary for the digestion of proteins, and the absorption of nutrients in the small intestine. Salt also detoxifies and replenishes minerals in the body.
Perhaps there is no bigger advocate than Ann Brown, a 25-year spa veteran and founder of Saltability, a line of pure Himalayan salt products. In fact, Brown is so passionate about the lovely, pink-hued compound that she keeps reinventing ways for us to use it. In 2017, she cofounded Himalayan Source, to design salt rooms and salt saunas for spas.
From heated salt lamps to salt stones, salt soaks to salt caves and salt rooms (outfitted with walls or “bricks” made of salt), “halotherapy” or “salt therapy” (“halo” means “salt” in Greek) has become extremely popular, and for good reason. Dispersing salt particles in the air can help ease respiratory conditions like asthma, chronic bronchitis and allergies, and relieve smoking- related symptoms like a cough, shortness of breath, and wheezing. Salt rooms can also help improve quality of sleep, and may ease skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis and rosacea.
“When salt is heated, it attracts moisture,” says Brown. “Salt rooms infuse salt in your lungs. The negative ions attract free radicals in the body and neutralize them—to a very positive effect.” Sit in a salt room for 20 to 30 minutes, and you will feel a deep sense of relaxation. “Vibrationally, we get overstimulated by cell towers and electromagnetic fields,” she says. “Just holding a salt stone (used for reflexology massage, on hands and feet) reduces the electromagnetic field in the body, and gives a real sense of grounding.”
But not just any salt will do. It has to be authentic Himalayan sea salt, mined from the Himalayan Mountains in Pakistan. “When the primordial sea evaporated—the place where scientists and scholars believe all life originated—a perfect, pure source of salt was left,” says Brown. “It contains a lot of iron and minerals that are hued to those pink colors.” Himalayan salt is considered the purest and most beneficial on earth, containing 84 naturally occurring minerals and salts, including magnesium, potassium, calcium. It is also naturally antibacterial, antifungal, and antimicrobial, requiring no disinfectant, which makes it perfect for spa. Saltability features 100 percent pure pink Himalayan salt mined in Pakistan through socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing.
“We’re so mineral-deficient, and Himalayan salt is full of minerals,” she says. “They’re electrolytes that fire the cells and ground you just like walking barefoot on the earth.” Or, if you’re lucky, hiking in the Himalayas.