Salt air helps patients with asthma

NEW YORK, May 25 (Reuters) Breathing salt dust in a chamber coated with salt for 40 minutes a day seems to improve the airway tightening experienced by people with asthma, according to a report in the journal Allergy.

Natural salt caves and salt mines have been used for years as complementary medicine for treating asthmatic patients in various parts of Europe and Asia, the authors explain, but data are still lacking regarding the benefits of salt chamber treatment for chronic asthma.

To investigate, Dr J Hedman from South Karelia Central Hospital, Lappeenranta, Finland and colleagues constructed a ''halo chamber'' to simulate the microclimate of salt mines. Its surfaces were covered with rock salt, and pulverized salt was blown into the chamber during active treatment at a rate of 3 grams every 4 minutes.

The researchers evaluated the effects of salt chamber treatment in 32 patients with persistent asthma. They were randomly assigned to two weeks of treatment in the salt chamber -- daily 40-minute sessions for 5 days per week -- with the salt generator either blowing salt dust into the chamber or running but without salt being fed in.

The patients treated with the salt chamber showed less airway tightening than did comparison subjects. However, use of the chamber did not improve asthma symptoms or reduce the need for asthma medications.

''The idea that salt chamber treatment could serve as a complementary therapy to conventional medication cannot be ruled out,'' the authors conclude.

''Salt chamber treatment is, however, neither simple nor cost-free,'' they say. ''In future studies, the cost benefit should be compared with other treatment modalities, including the improvement of existing drug treatment.'' Reuters DKS GC0907