Sabrina Gibson and her daughter, Journey, spend time in the children’s salt room. Sabrina Gibson and her daughter, Journey, spend time in the children’s salt room.[/caption]

Sabrina Gibson’s son Kalob was diagnosed with eczema, asthma and severe allergies as a baby. The concerned mother said she asked her son’s pulmonologist about salt rooms, or halotherapy, as a possible treatment.

After getting the OK from the pulmonologist, she took her son to a salt room near their former home in Denver. His skin cleared, his allergy attacks lessened and all his symptoms became less severe, she said.

“Now, you can’t even tell he’s got asthma,” said Gibson, who now owns Breathe It In Salt Rooms in Northwest Austin.

Clients can visit for a single 45-minute session ($45) or opt for a membership ($100-$200). Clients can visit for a single 45-minute session ($45) or opt for a membership ($100-$200).[/caption]

Two years ago, Gibson and her family moved to Austin when Kalob was 5 years old.

“Within the first month, we were in the [hospital] because his allergies were so bad,” she said.

Gibson said she worked as a nurse in Denver and planned to continue nursing school in Texas, but with no salt room available in the city, she decided to open Breathe It In in February 2015.

Salt lamps and other retail items are for sale at Breathe It In Salt Rooms. Salt lamps and other retail items are for sale at Breathe It In Salt Rooms.[/caption]

“People just loved the idea,” she said.
Halotherapy is the inhalation of micronized dry salt within a chamber that mimics a salt cave environment. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Medicine and Life found halotherapy triggered an anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic mechanism in study subjects with asthma and chronic bronchitis.

Breathe It In offers two rooms—one with toys for children and one containing lounge chairs for adults—covered floor to ceiling in dry salt.

Customers enter the room and stay for 45 minutes. Gibson said microscopic salt particles expand the lungs, get rid of inflammation and bacteria, and clear the sinuses. She said the therapy is safe for any age, and the salt is antimicrobial, antifungal and antibacterial.

How salt helpsShe tells clients it is important to drink water after the therapy to flush out the salt particles.

Gibson said many clients first come in suffering from cedar fever, some with their eyes swollen shut. After a 45-minute session, she said they leave in a better mood because they are able to breathe and see normally.

Most clients undergo two to three sessions per week, and it takes three to five sessions to see regular improvement, Gibson said.

Breathe It In has been so popular that Gibson’s siblings are latching on to the idea. She said her sister opened a second location in November in North Little Rock, Arkansas. She has three other sisters with similar plans.

“The goal is to all have our own,” Gibson said.



Breathe It In Salt Rooms


13205 N. US 183, Ste. B
512-645-0405
www.breatheitinsaltrooms.com
Hours: Mon.-Tue. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Wed. 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Thu. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Sun. noon-4 p.m.