'It's not hocus pocus:' Could halotherapy solve your health problems?

There is nothing like a dip in the Dead Sea to make you feel more alive.

The traditional belief that immersion in a salt environment is good for body and soul is being revived in halotherapy, a form of alternative medicine gaining traction in post-COVID times.

Halotherapy involves microscopic particles of medical-grade salt dispersed in a small room. A person sitting in the room will receive the benefits that salt naturally provides, such as clearing out mucus, fighting bacteria and maintaining clear and healthy skin.

Alaina Molesko, owner of The Salty Moon Wellness Center in Hillsborough, began seeking halotherapy for her family, specifically her mother who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). After seeing encouraging results, she went herself and experienced relief for her migraines, and decided that she could provide a service that wasn’t available locally.

“It's good for the community in general,” Molesko said. “I feel like that when COVID hit, that's really what made people say, ‘Okay. Now's the time’.”

Phillip Claremont, owner of Float Into Wellness Salt and Sauna Lounge in Woodbridge, says his clients use halotherapy along with other treatments to achieve overall wellness. He was first introduced to halotherapy through being in a float tank, which is similar to the halotherapy room.

“The float tank mimics the Dead Sea, and that has so many drastic feeling and changes to your body,” Claremont said.

The beneficial properties of salt gained credence in the 1800's when Polish miners noticed that their skin and respiratory health were better than most people. Salt and saline has been in breathing treatments such as nebulizers and other medicine, and this correlates with the old wives' tale telling those with breathing problems to go to the ocean to get better.

Both Molesko and Claremont keep their halotherapy treatment rooms as calm and relaxing as possible. Both use calming music and chromotherapy, which is the use of different colored lights, to trigger certain parts of the mind to relax the body.

Molesko said that she decided to offer halotherapy in addition to her center’s other services because there wasn’t anything like it in the area.

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“It’s beneficial to be in a peaceful room with peaceful music and having that in an enclosed space in a big open room where you can actually bring in up to four people into that room,” Molesko said. “I felt like that was not offered anywhere around here.”

Like Molesko, Claremont offers halotherapy along with other services. He aims for it to be one part in a wellness treatment but recognizes the specific benefits that comes from the properties of salt alone, and has experienced them firsthand.

“I turned to it initially for just relief from allergies and then believing in it helped me put all the pieces together to, to really have it be one functional team,” Claremont said.

Both Molesko and Claremont also recognize that the benefits that come from halotherapy are needed today more than ever before. Claremont specifically pointed to how contemporary diets are affecting health, and how halotherapy can help deal with those effects.

“I think the fact that we have diets with foods like milk, cheese, and all these things that create more mucus, this helps kind of pull you back,” Claremont said.

COVID also caused a spike in interest in halotherapy, according to Molesko.

“During COVID, halotherapy services were actually growing during that time period because people needed it,” Molesko said. “And I think we're coming to a point in society where we're realizing that these things do work. It's not hocus pocus. There is some science behind it. And a lot of people, I feel, tried a lot of pharmaceuticals or over the counter drugs and things are not working.”

Both The Salty Moon and Float Into Wellness have seen all types of customers come in the door for halotherapy, and say that the treatment is for anyone who wishes to improve their wellness.

“The fact that I'll see people come here just for this lets me know that this stands alone,” Claremont said. “Because floating was big on the West Coast and floating had more of a popularity and that would carry the business first, and now this is starting to pick up more and has more attendance.”

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Molesko and Claremont acknowledged that some might be hesitant to try alternative medicine.

“What I have is homeopathic, but there is that ‘science-based’ aspect,” Molesko said. “I don't offer anything here that doesn't have scientific research, and I think that's important to people to know that there is a lot of research backed modalities that I offer.”

Claremont emphasized a similar message, and also discussed that the only way that people will start to accept is by trying it themselves.

“For halotherapy, I think just time and the people that live by it and swear by the results will help grow its popularity more more than anything else,” Claremont said.

The Salty Moon Wellness Center: Amwell Commons, 390 Amwell Road, Building 5, Suite 508, Hillsborough; thesaltymoonspa.com, 908-369-3130.

Float Into Wellness Salt and Sauna Lounge: 94 Green Street, Woodbridge; floatintowellness.com, 732-602-7779.

Sal DiMaggio is an intern reporter at MyCentralJersey.com. He covers features, news and more. Email him at sdimaggio@mycentraljersey.com.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Halotherapy: Here's where to find it in Central NJ