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The beguiling mysteries at the 'House of Health'

Salt caves provide alternative ways to improve breathing

By Hela Balinova
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 2nd, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
A few hours in a Prague salt cave will having you breathing and feeling healthier.
Ludmila Maříková spent almost half her life working in the field of health care. As a longtime nurse at the Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion in Prague, she tended to the sick day in and day out. But after her own weak immune system and spine problems forced her into an early retirement, Maříková went in search of a new way to help others.
After visiting a salt cave in Františkovy Lázně, a small west Bohemian spa town, Maříková found her calling. She wanted to build a salt cave of her very own in Prague.
Solná jeskyne Praha

Václavkova 28
Prague 6
Tel.: 233 311 853
Email: lida@solnajeskynepraha.cz
www.solnajeskynepraha.cz

“When I told my friends about the plan,” she says with a laugh, “they just thought I had gone completely crazy.”
Health advocates have long believed that trip to a salt cave can act as a supplemental treatment for various respiratory diseases and allergies. The vapors from salt minerals help open up strained breathing passages, experts say.
Jiří Homolka, chief of Charles University’s clinic for tuberculosis and respiratory disease, says even those who feel completely healthy would find salt-mine therapy beneficial.
“A 50-minute relaxation period surrounded with salt is suitable for all people,” Homolka says. “You can use it as a preventive [measure], mainly before the flu season or just to get rid of tension or negative emotions.” Homolka notes that one quick stop at a salt cave has the same affect as a three-day stay at the seaside.
Since ancient times, the shores of the Dead Sea have served as a rehabilitation and health-resort hotspot. In fact, according to legend, even Cleopatra herself was a big fan and would often send her assistants to retrieve the healing sea crystals.
While that all may seem like a bit of a journey for an alternative health procedure, never fear. You can find the same options in Prague 6, where Maříková has her salt cave up and running.
When she started a year ago, Maříková says, her service was one of a kind. “But nowadays, every major Czech city has at least one salt cave.”
Hana Zelenková, the president of Slovak Society of Esthetical Dermatology and Cosmetics, points out that even in Central Europe, salt caves are nothing new.
“The first salt cave was made in the Polish village of Velička in 1843,” she says.
The salt mine there, which is still in business, now provides the material for many artificial salt caves, according to Zelenková.
Maříková admits that her 4 meter-by-5 meter “Solná jeskyně” or “House of Health,” as it’s called by loyal customers, was created mainly from Polish pink salt. Zelenková says 55 percent of this salt is minerals such as calcium, magnesium and potassium, and she recommends regular visits to this type of center for people suffering from asthma, chronic angina or psoriasis.
“Sometimes, I have to laugh when I see ads for newly opened salt caves saying they are made only from Dead Sea salt,” Maříková says. “The owner wouldn’t be able to pay it off.” A 25-kilogram (55-pound) sack of Dead Sea salt costs roughly 2,500 Kč ($120), according to Maříková.
Some competitors also promise “a waterfall of salt water running in the cave.” If that’s true, she says, it means the cave is wet, of course.
The bricks covering the walls of Maříková’s House of Health are made from mineral salt. Dead Sea crystals lie on the floor and when you are walking there you have the feeling of strolling in the sand. The floor salt is replenished every month, according to Maříková.
Heating under the floor helps keep the cave between 20 and 22 degrees Celsius and warms the Dead Sea crystals so that their 21 healing minerals can easily vaporize into the air.
Hana Němečková, a retired elementary-school teacher and regular visitor to the cave, notes that “after my first visit, I had to make a huge effort not to start crying, I felt such relief.”
Marie Maisnerová, also a former teacher, found her experience there pacifying.
“You are there on your own, listening to the birds singing, meditating,” she says. “I got the feeling that all the problems I had are not mine, but somebody else’s whom I don’t like very much.”
Maisnerová first discovered the Prague 6 cave last November, and now she can’t stay away.
“This 50 minutes here is the only time I am mute,” laughs Maisnerová, who had surgery three years ago for respiratory problems. After coming out of the hospital, Maisnerová says she was still experiencing shortness of breath. She found relief in the salt caves.
“After 10 visits, I started to feel the first signs of relief,” she says. “The problems are not gone completely, but they are much reduced.”
Some, upon descending the stairs through the dark, cold corridor of the Prague 6 cave where Maříková’s clinic is based, might be anxious at first. But that all fades fast. Painted in a warm, soft orange, the reception room offers a pleasant introduction to the therapy. Salt lamps shine and there are sacks of Israeli salt lying about.
For those not interested in spending 50 minutes lying in the adjustable armchair and listening to sounds of nature culminating in a storm, there’s also a huge offer of cosmetics containing Dead Sea minerals or mud.
For those allergic to dampness or with hip problems, as Maříková herself has, she says a dry cave is more beneficial.
The dress code is come as you are — no need for a swimsuit or tracksuit. Grab some plastic shoe protectors in the basket next to the entrance, turn off your mobile phone and make yourself comfortable in the chair. Take deep breaths and concentrate only on yourself. Close your eyes and let your mind wander, or keep them open and take in the soothing, soft lights on the ceiling, decorated with stalagmites.
Němečková, also a longtime mine devotee, had a constantly running nose — “some kind of allergy that really bothered me a lot” — but after couple visits to the cave, her allergy suddenly disappeared.
“I can’t imagine I would relax better somewhere else,” she says.
And children’s plastic buckets with scoops standing next to one of the armchairs indicate that grownups aren’t the only beneficiaries here.
“Kids usually go together because their view of relaxation is slightly different from the adults’,” says Maříková. Small visitors can even build salt castles.
Others who advocate salt-cave treatment include even patients with terminal illnesses. “Sometimes people take alternative medicine as their last chance,” Maříková says. A visit to the House of Health is not recommended, however, for people fighting colds, and cancer patients should inform their doctor before going.
As Homolka points out: “The effects are very individual and they take a different period of time.”

Hela Balinova can be reached at hbalinova@praguepost.com


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