We salt our food when we cook, we salt our sidewalks before it snows, but have you salted your children lately? A TikTok mom's viral video proclaiming the benefits of doing exactly that has people trying to figure out what in the alternative medicine she's on about.
"I salt my kiddos and you should too," a voice says at the start of a recent TikTok from Caney Salt + Wellness Studio (@caneysalt).
The video itself, which has been viewed nearly a million times since going up mid-February, shows Laura, the entrepreneur and mother behind Caney and Saltbox at Home, playing with a young boy in an otherwise normal-looking room filled up with salt.
The voiceover goes on to claim that people focused on boosting immune systems are wrong, and that what's actually needed, especially for children, is immune regulation.
"An immune system on overdrive isn't strong, it's stressed," the narration says. "What our kiddos actually need is balance. When their airways are constantly irritated by dust, allergens, pollution, their bodies can stay on alert. Halotherapy helps to clear that out so their immune system can settle, respond when it needs to, rest when it doesn't. So, I'm not trying to boost anything. I'm trying to support what's already there. And that starts with how they breathe."
What is halotherapy aka salt therapy?
If both the video and the idea of hanging out in a room that looks like a glorified indoor sandbox swapped out for salt have you totally confused, you're not alone. Laura's comment section was soon swarmed with people trying to figure out what halotherapy even is.
Believe it or not, halotherapy, aka salt therapy, is actually a real thing. The idea is that you sit in a room that's either filled with salt or has a machine that essentially pumps smaller-than-normal salt particles into the air. This is believed to help with both respiratory and skin issues, including asthma, allergies, eczema, psoriasis, pneumonia, and cystic fibrosis.
According to the American Lung Association, this type of therapy has been around for a surprisingly long time and was even used among 19th-century coal miners to protect against lung disease. However, it does seem that the scientific research into these treatments and their usefulness has a long way to go.
Social media reactions
Whether you believe in the validity of salt therapy or not, it's hard to deny that the video itself is more than a little strange. From the saltbox to the slightly off-voiceover, it was easy to find things to poke at. And this is the internet, so we all know people immediately did just that.
"Hey, so this is insane," one viewer commented bluntly.
"Socks in the salt room is crazier than having a salt room," @nxtman96 chimed in.
"Can you imagine growing up a salt kid and then having to integrate into a non-salt life," mused @richard_cranium3. "The beach probably feels like home."
"When my kids are bad, they get 10 minutes in the wasabi room," another user joked.
To her credit, Laura (or whoever runs her social media) responded to a number of the comments with complete sincerity, mentioning that these types of places are much more common in Europe than the U.S. and correcting the many people who assumed this was literally a room in her house rather than a section of a spa.
"When your salt shaker runs out do you just grab some from the salt room," asked @what.the.hails, to which @caneysalt replied: "No that would not be ideal, this room is for clients to experience the benefits of salt therapy. This salt is not for eating."
"You had one heck of a salt salesman," one viewer wrote. "Dude earned his commission mark for his entire lifetime."
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