Himalayan Salt Lamps are very popular with many health claims being made... let's hear from someone who is both passionate and knowledgeable on this topic...
The Benefits of Himalayan Salt Lamps
You may already have learned of these peculiar items we call Himalayan salt lamps, or this may be the first time you’ve heard of them. Either way, in this article we will be looking at what exactly is Himalayan salt and salt lamps so that you can become more aware of these products when you come across them – as you are sure to do at some point.
Himalayan salt is a pink coloured salt that originates from the southern foothills of the Himalayan mountain range, and that is the only place in the world where it can be found, hence the name. How was it discovered? Well… 2500 years ago Alexander the great himself was marching through the area with an army when he noticed, to his surprise, that the horses stopped and started licking the ground, he then observed the floor and noticed he was standing on a bed of rock salt!
Pink salt however dates much further back than that. Scientists have shown that this salt, now
buried deep within the Himalayan mountains formed more than 60 million years ago, when an ancient Jurassic sea became land locked, evaporated, and left behind a massive plateau of salt. Within these salts were a pink salt-loving bacteria which became infused with the salt giving it it’s colour. Over the eons this plateau became covered with layers and became what is today the Himalayan mountain range. Fascinating huh?
Pink salt contains around 84 trace minerals, that’s more than any other salt – with nearly 20-30
times the potassium, iron, magnesium and calcium of table salt. Himalayan salt also comes naturally with Iodine, where as table salts and even many sea salts have to have Iodine added through chemical processing. All of these properties are behind it’s rising popularity over the last 10 years as a health food.
So now that we’ve taken a crash course on the history of Himalayan salt, what’s the deal with salt lamps? Salt lamps are essentially a block of natural Himalayan rock salt that has been turned into a lamp. Salt naturally draws moisture from the air, and moisture carries a lot of trapped pollutants, so when you have a salt lamp in the room it draws the moisture in, along with all the pollutants, clearing the air. This effect is however, quite small because most salt lamps are small compared to the room they are in, however many salt lamp owners report notable differences in their breathing after using salt lamps.
It should be noted that some websites claim salt lamps to have miraculous benefits and this is simply not true. We would recommend you take such claims with a grain of salt. The biggest benefit of salt lamps, which is also backed by science, are their chromotherapeutic effects. Chromotherapy essentially means “colour therapy”. It turns out that the orange reddish hue of salt lamps closely matches that of a sunset, which is optimal for reducing eye stress and promoting better sleep. This makes them great as night lights and for producing ambient lighting during massage, spa or yoga sessions.
We hope this article has been informative in your understanding of this popular pink mineral. If you do decide to get a salt lamp or use Himalayan salt in your cooking though, be sure to make sure you are getting authentic salt. Real Himalayan salt products should be made in or sourced from Pakistan.
With these tips and information, you can’t go wrong.
Thanks to Eddie G. from The Salt Lamp Shop for this article
