History Continued...

Upon studying the effects of this phenomena, Dr. Feliks Boczkowski, who was not only a great doctor but also a very smart business man, founded and opened the first health resort facility at the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland in 1839. He offered salt baths by utilizing natural brine sources from underground and mentioned in his book, that staying underground can be even more effective in asthma treatment than inhalations.

In 1949, German physician, Dr. K.H. Spannahel, who had observed during WWII that the people who were hiding in salt mines and caves from the bombs had respiratory health benefits, proposed the creation of the Klyutert cave. This would serve as an inpatient study forum to conduct a systematic approach from the observations of the climatological conditions, and confirm the medical effectiveness of underground environments. The results of these studies, along with the teamwork of the Hungarian geologist, Dr. H. Kessler, laid the foundation of modern Speleotherapy, which is a modality utilizing the environmental benefits occurring underground.

In 1958, Professor Mieczyslaw Skulimowski became the official physician of the "Wieliczka" Salt Mine, and started regular treatment of patients in the salt chambers, initiating a new field of medicine – Subterraneotherapy, also called the Skulimowski method, which refers to underground "salted" environments exclusively.

Having the attention from the medical community, the need for more convenient access became a necessity, in order to conduct specific studies and do more specific research. In 1985 in Odessa, Russia, the Institute of Balneology, in collaboration with the salt cavers from Uzhgorod, developed the first Halotherapy device. This was a device that was replicating the grinding and crushing of salt that would disperse the particles into the air. One could say that Halotherapy was “born” in the medical environment, in former Soviet Union. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the knowledge of the halotechnology and established Halotherapy protocols became accessible to the rest of the world. Soon Halotherapy claimed its place in more commercial and wellness settings outside of the USSR in Eastern and Western Europe, Canada, Australia and finally the United States.