Does Salt Therapy Raise Blood Pressure?
If you have high blood pressure, you may have been told to reduce your salt intake. So it’s completely reasonable to wonder:
If eating too much salt can raise blood pressure, can breathing salt during halotherapy do the same thing?
The short answer is that dietary salt and halotherapy are two very different forms of salt exposure. There is strong evidence connecting excessive dietary sodium with increased blood pressure, but there is currently insufficient evidence to say that a standard halotherapy session raises blood pressure in the same way.
Why Does Eating Salt Affect Blood Pressure?
Salt contains sodium. When we consume excessive amounts of sodium through our diet, it can affect fluid balance and contribute to higher blood pressure.
The World Health Organization identifies raised blood pressure as the primary health effect associated with diets high in sodium and recommends that adults consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium per day, equivalent to less than 5 g of salt.
NICE also recommends keeping dietary sodium intake low as part of the management of high blood pressure.
But notice the important word here:
Dietary.
These recommendations concern the salt and sodium that we eat and drink.
Is Breathing Salt the Same as Eating Salt?
No.
During dry salt therapy, a halogenerator grinds pharmaceutical-grade salt into microscopic particles and disperses a controlled aerosol into the salt room.
The purpose is for these particles to be present in the air and inhaled during the session.
This is fundamentally different from consuming grams of salt through food.
That distinction matters because the strong evidence connecting salt with high blood pressure concerns sodium intake through the diet. It should not automatically be extrapolated to mean that any exposure to sodium chloride—including a salt-room aerosol—has the same cardiovascular effect.
So, Does Halotherapy Raise Blood Pressure?
At present, there isn’t strong clinical evidence demonstrating that standard halotherapy causes blood pressure to rise.
However, there is also limited high-quality research specifically studying blood-pressure changes during halotherapy.
For that reason, we don’t think it is responsible to make either of these claims:
“Salt therapy raises blood pressure.”
or
“Salt therapy lowers blood pressure.”
Halotherapy should not be promoted as a treatment for hypertension.
What we can say is that the established relationship between salt and hypertension relates primarily to excess dietary sodium intake.
Can I Use a Salt Cave If I Have High Blood Pressure?
Having high blood pressure doesn’t mean that the salt you breathe in a salt room should automatically be treated as equivalent to eating a high-salt diet.
Nevertheless, hypertension is a medical condition, and its severity varies considerably between individuals.
If your blood pressure is poorly controlled, very high, or you have cardiovascular disease or another significant medical condition, speak with your GP or healthcare professional before beginning halotherapy.
And importantly, never stop or alter prescribed blood-pressure medication because you are using a complementary therapy.
What Happens During a Salt Therapy Session?
At Crystal Salt Cave in Borehamwood, an adult halotherapy session lasts approximately 50 minutes.
You simply sit back in one of our massage chairs while the salt treatment takes place.
There are no exercises to perform and you don’t need to deliberately take unusually deep breaths. You simply breathe normally and relax.
For many visitors, the experience is as much about taking 50 minutes away from everyday noise and stress as it is about experiencing the salt-room environment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does inhaling salt increase sodium levels in the body?
There isn’t sufficient clinical evidence to treat the small airborne salt exposure used during halotherapy as equivalent to consuming dietary sodium. The established blood-pressure recommendations concern sodium consumed through food and drink.
Can I have halotherapy if I take blood-pressure medication?
Don’t stop or change prescribed medication for halotherapy. If you have hypertension or cardiovascular disease and are unsure whether a salt-room session is appropriate for you, check with your GP or healthcare professional.
Can salt therapy lower blood pressure?
Halotherapy should not be considered a treatment for hypertension. Evidence is currently insufficient to claim that it lowers blood pressure.
Is a salt cave the same as eating salty food?
No. Eating salt introduces sodium through the digestive system in dietary quantities. Halotherapy involves exposure to an airborne salt aerosol. They should not be treated as equivalent exposures.
Does salt therapy raise blood pressure?
Current evidence does not establish that standard halotherapy raises blood pressure in the way that excessive dietary sodium can.
The confusion comes from putting two very different things under the same word: salt.
Eating excessive amounts of salt and spending 50 minutes breathing air containing a controlled concentration of microscopic salt particles are not equivalent exposures.
At the same time, research specifically examining halotherapy and hypertension remains limited. Anyone with uncontrolled hypertension or significant cardiovascular disease should discuss complementary therapies with their healthcare professional.
Crystal Salt Cave — Borehamwood, North London
Come for your breathing. Stay for the calm.