Finding Relief From Allergies Might Be Easier Than You Think

Allergy season is in full swing with flowers blooming and trees starting to leaf. But for some residents, nature’s beauty comes with a price—dust and pollen allergies that cause pressure, sneezing and itchy skin.

While some sufferers grab their Claritin, Dikla Kadosh and her husband, David Mashiah, believe they’ve found an alternative treatment.

The Israeli couple owns Salt Chalet, a wellness center in Encino with therapy rooms that are designed to feel like natural salt caves. The walls and floor are covered with sea salt to absorb any impurities or moisture in the air. A small amount of Dead Sea salt is pumped into the room, which the couple say can improve a variety of health conditions, including sleeping problems, asthma and even digestive troubles.

Kadosh and Mashiah first read about salt-room therapy in an Israeli magazine article about a mother who used it to treat her children’s respiratory problems when conventional medicine failed. They consulted with somebody in Canada who manufactures the halotherapy machines and learned how to build the business.

“We weren’t sure if Americans were going to take this in a positive way or just dismiss it as another fad,” Kadosh said. “But we’ve gotten amazing responses. It reduces the symptoms significantly, but it’s not a cure-all.”

The possible health benefits of a salt-infused environment were discovered in the late 1800s in Eastern Europe when patients with respiratory illnesses such as asthma or bronchitis were prescribed visits to natural salt caves and mines. Salt Chalet attempts to replicate what’s found and felt in those caves.

“People have learned over the centuries that salt has health benefits,” said Dr. Thom Lobe, a local pediatric surgeon and family practitioner. “It’s no coincidence that people go to the beach to feel better. At the beach you fall asleep in the sun, the salt, the air, and it clears the lungs and makes you feel better.”

Salt Chalet was the first halotherapy center on the West Coast when it opened in November 2009 on the second floor of Encino Commons. And when Lobe heard about the business, he asked Kadosh and Mashiah to build a salt room in his Beneveda Medical Spa in Beverly Hills.

“Respiratory conditions, frequent colds and immune deficiencies can get a boost from halotherapy,” Lobe said. “And there are people with sleep disorders and skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis that also benefit.”

Salt is known to have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Though there has been no clinical study of halotherapy in the United States, some doctors say that when breathed in, the salt particles can imbed deeply into the lower lungs. Once in the body, the salt purportedly absorbs bacteria and clears away mucous, which would otherwise block the airways.

Lobe says halotherapy is completely safe for children and adults, but he doesn’t recommend it for patients in an advanced state of pregnancy.

At Salt Chalet, there is an adult therapy room that fits four to six people at a time, a kids' room filled with toys and shovels, and a private room for one or two people. Patients who suffer from skin conditions can request the private room so that they can take off their clothes and expose their body to the salt.

All the rooms have flat-screen televisions, stereo systems, lounge chairs and hand-molded plaster icicles that hang from the ceiling. Mashiah spent nearly two weeks applying layers of sea salt to the walls by hand and shoveling three inches of salt on the floor.

“The salt on the walls and everything is sea salt. The only salt from the Dead Sea is the salt that we’re using in the machine,” Mashiah said. “The salt that you see is for two reasons. One, for decoration to make it like a cave. And second, it keeps the room very sterile. No bacteria can live in salt, so it’s very clean.”

The Salt Chalet has patients ranging from infants to seniors. The cost for a 45-minute sitting is about $55, and depending on the severity of one's condition, 10 to 15 sessions are recommended.

“It’s a treatment that you have to keep up with two or three times a week,” Kadosh said. “And we don’t recommend people stop taking medication before talking to their doctors.”

When patients walk in, microscopic particles of the pure Dead Sea Salt are blown into the room from a generator. You can’t see or taste anything in the air, but patients say the effects are apparent after a couple of sessions.

“My allergies would hit me and I was waking up three or four times a night coughing and it was hard to breathe,” said Danny Haft, a Salt Chalet patient. “So I came here and I feel much better. I noticed a positive effect after the third or fourth treatment. It’s really a big improvement.”