People have been using salt lamps for many years, both for health, emotional and even spiritual reasons. Simply put, a salt lamp is a large salt crystal with a place hollowed out for a candle or light bulb to burn inside. The use of salt lamps has been linked to a calming of the nerves, a more peaceful state of mind, and even improving one’s attitude for times of meditation and prayer.
The effects of salt lamps, however, aren’t as magical or mystical as they are scientific. Studies have shown that the ions in the air we breathe have an effect on our emotional state and our mood. Salt has a tendency to increase the negative ions in the air, making us more positive and calm. (A day at the beach doesn’t improve our temperament just by the scenery or the surf; the salty air helps, too!) A contrasting example is the famed Santa Ana winds—the hot dry winds that often affect southern California. Studies have shown that these winds are concentrated with positive ions, quite probably contributing to the increase in irritability in people, increases in crime, etc. when those winds are blowing!
Thus, the benefit from salt lamps is that the warming of the salt sends negative ions into the air, counteracting the positive ions that our electronics often emit, neutralizing our airspace and affecting the air we breathe, making us calmer, happier, more peaceful.
It almost goes without saying that this negative ionization can make us healthier overall—if only for the fact that a calmer, less stressful state of mind has a positive effect on our physical health. However, the cleaner, ionized air has also been linked at times to having a positive effect on people with allergies or asthma, who often find the air easier to breath and find their symptoms alleviated. Plus, perhaps less scientifically provable, the light in a salt lamp creates a beautiful glow against the salt crystal, which can also be soothing and calming to us, not unlike the effect of a candlelit room.
Many claim that when fashioning salt lamps, the salt crystals from the Himalayas are preferable to salt deposits elsewhere in the world. Possible reasons for this are that this region of the world has been largely untouched and unpolluted, making the salt crystals more pure, and even easier on the eyes to look at. Plus, care is taken when mining Himalayan salt not to use things like dynamite which can pollute the salt.
The point is, the benefit of salt lamps is more than just their beauty, and the calming effect they have is neither mystical nor magical. You might be more inclined toward prayer and reflection by burning one, but that is likely because it is improving the air you breathe, and improving your emotional state in the process.
This article was added on Monday 26 April, 2010.
