Take This Therapy With a Grain of Salt

Popular in Poland, "salt therapy" has made its way to Chicago thanks to the enormous Polish population that have immigrated to the city. It's not very complicated -- all one does is sit amongst massive amounts of salt and breathe deeply, and like magic, you'll supposedly find relief for your chronic respiratory and/or skin problems. But while Eastern Europe has the benefit of natural salt caves, Chicagoans have to get more creative. Megi's Spa near O'Hare, for instance, imports salt from a mine near Krakow, scattering the floor with chunks of salt and lining the walls with salt blocks. Galos Cave Spa on Irving Park Road has a similar set up, utilizing Crimean salt instead.

But before you go rolling around at the Morton Salt factory trying to cure your asthma, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that the health improvement claims may just be a big pile of nothing. Dr. Dean Schraufnagel, professor of medicine at the University of Ilinois at Chicago, was quoted as saying, "There haven't been any clinical studies that research this particular therapy method." And despite the anecdotal evidence, he added that while "inhaling salt solutions can help treat common [respiratory ailments]... this does not mean that salt rooms can do the same thing."

So for now, it seems the only thing proven to improve sitting around in a salt room is a really good steak.