Shownotes
Episode 184 of the Fit Father Project Podcast is about salt therapy (halotherapy) and how it can help asthma, bronchitis, cough, and more.
You’ve probably seen those pink Himalayan salt lamps or heard about salt rooms at your spa. I was curious about salt therapy, so we decided to bring on the world's leading expert in halotherapy!
In this episode, you’ll meet Leo Tonkin, the co-founder, principal partner, and CEO of Salt Chamber, LLC, North America's leading salt therapy company, and the co-founder and Chairman of the Salt Therapy Association.
Since 2012, he's been on a mission to bring salt therapy to the world, and he's done this in over 3,000 facilities, including spas, wellness centers, and the homes of many celebrities.
His company, Salt Therapy Home, makes the SALT FX home halogenerator. This device creates and disperses micron-sized dry salt particles for respiratory and skin conditions and overall wellness.
In this episode, Leo provides solutions and great information on why salt therapy is a powerful way to improve your respiratory health and immune system and exercise performance by having greater oxygenation.
If you have any history of respiratory issues or are just looking to optimize your health and take things to the next level with a new biohack, salt therapy is something you want to look into.
Do you know how you feel good by the water and breathing in that salty air? You can get that feeling at home, any time!
In this episode, you’ll learn about:
- Salt therapy (halotherapy) and its many benefits.
- How to get started.
- What you need to know before getting started.
- The history of salt therapy.
- The future of salt therapy.
- And more!
So, to get the most from your health and fitness efforts, listen to this episode on salt therapy, take some notes, and check out FF30X!
More From Leo:
What is FF30X?
FF30X is a simple, sustainable, and specific weight loss program designed especially for busy men over 40. With short metabolic training workouts, an easy-to-follow meal plan, and an accountability team there for you at every step, FF30X can help you lose 30, 40, or even 50+ lbs — even if you’ve never picked up a weight in your life.
Click here to see what you get when you join the FF30X program today!
If you loved what you heard on the Fit Father Project Podcast, please follow, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts.
You can also listen to the show on:
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube Channel and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!
Transcripts
[00:00:34] Anthony: Hey there, my friend is Dr. Anthony Balduzzi. And I want to welcome you back to another awesome episode here on the fit father and fit mother project podcast. Have you ever seen those salt lamps, those pink Himalayan salt lamps that looks like a big brick of salt and sometimes it lights up? Or have you ever seen a spa that advertises that they have these salt rooms that you can go into and you get health benefits from breathing in this air that has this dry [00:01:00] salt?
[:[00:01:21] And he has a lot of great solutions and a lot of great information on why actually breathing in salt in these salt rooms is a really powerful way to improve our respiratory health, to improve our immune system. To improve exercise performance by having greater oxygenation. And I was just super interested in this.
[:[00:01:56] Halo therapy might be something you want to look into. I know it's something that I'm going to be doing here [00:02:00] in 2024. Um, and Leo has a great website as well. If you're inspired as you go through this, he's got a promo and a discount code for all of us in our fit father and fit mother communities. His website is, uh, salt therapy, home.
[:[00:02:29] So. That is wonderful news, but either way, whether or not you choose to incorporate this, I think you're going to find it very interesting to learn again why there's so many benefits of things like salt and we can breathe it in. It's just, I have a great understanding of why I feel good when I get by the ocean and get some of that salt air and stuff like this, although Leo makes a really interesting point that it's the dry salt.
[:[00:03:05] I'm so happy to have you here today. Uh,
[:[00:03:09] Anthony: Me too. And I, this is going to be an interesting conversation because I think a lot of people have heard of salt therapy and they know this idea of salt rooms and maybe they've seen someone who has a salt lamp. And what my intention is in this conversation today is to kind of like demystify why people do that, what some of the benefits are.
[:[00:03:46] Leo: Yeah. Great question. Well, I don't think salt is a stranger to people in understanding certain things. People, I remember as a kid gargling with salt water, uh, we put saline solutions in our eyes, in our [00:04:00] veins, um, neti pots and such, uh, people know what it's like to be by the ocean and being, uh, You know, by the, the salt air.
[:[00:04:32] You know, they had their version of the flu and the plague and things going on, yet people that worked in the salt mine stayed healthy. So the doctors of the time We're researching it, and sure enough, they were bringing patients down in these hollowed out areas to actually stay for days in that environment.
[:[00:05:19] And when you breathe that in, it has three qualities for people to understand. One, it's super absorbent. So when you put dry salt on a piece of eggplant, right, it pulls out the moisture. Well, when you breathe this in, it's pulling out the, the mucus and the pathogens, the dander, the dust. We breathe 20, 000 breaths a day and the air quality indoors and outdoors.
[:[00:06:13] The, I think one of the most important pieces is is that it's anti inflammatory. So when you breathe in tri salt, it's as if it's a natural steroid. So people that have asthma, allergies, children that are pre asthmatic, you look at colds and flus, when you start to look at the amount of respiratory disease that we have, now you got RSV out there, you had COVID, SARS, MERS, allergies, COPD, cyanitis, the list goes on.
[:[00:07:11] You know, if you're not breathing well, it's a struggle. So, as somebody who has four grandkids, I want to be able to lift them up and play and do things and not worry about my breath. You know, athletes love doing this. So those that are working out, you know, recovery. lung volume and function, you know, a lot of work.
[:[00:07:54] Um, people, there's ways to do it at home. Uh, there's a pop up salt booth that we have [00:08:00] to market that we came up with last year. But there's a lot of just interesting things that can be done. And it's really safe. Safe for children, six months old. Like I said, my grandkids, uh, they often go to school and it's the germ warfare, basically.
[:[00:08:21] Anthony: it does for people. That's awesome. I'm excited about that. And I, I mean, I, I am definitely the kind of guy that has all of my health protocols rooted in natural sources. And I don't think there's many things more fundamental than salt and sodium chloride on this planet for health.
[:[00:08:54] Um, what's the protocol like? How long are you breathing salt in? Just what device is used? [00:09:00] Please demystify that for us.
[:[00:09:25] There's also salt booths. Think of a phone booth. Well, I don't know if some of your listeners know what a phone booth is, um, not to age myself, but you get the concept of sitting in a small space, almost like a small sauna, if you will. Um, and basically a session is only 10 minutes, uh, because the valley.
[:[00:10:09] A micron, your hair, if you've measured the diameter, is about 70 microns. Well, less than one micron is very small. Yeah. So it gets deep. It also is great for the skin, so it penetrates the epidurus. So people that have eczema and psoriasis and have inflammation breakouts, exposing your skin to the salt, to dry salt, tremendous.
[:[00:10:58] I travel with it. When I go to [00:11:00] hotels, I go into the shower stall. I don't need to be completely enclosed at the top of it, uh, and I just sit there for ten minutes and get salted. Um, and so, it's very easy to do, uh, it's just basically putting salt in a, in a feeder and hitting a button. And bingo, you're getting salted.
[:[00:11:40] You have to be careful not to do it in humidity because. Humidity and dry salt don't go well together. It's really important that the salt stays dry. That's where all the efficacy is. Okay,
[:[00:12:03] And if moisture is in there, it changes the dynamic of how the salt's interacting with the body.
[:[00:12:30] And that's what makes a dry salt room a halo therapies. You know, room that's really what it comes from. Halo is the Greek word for salt.
[:[00:12:52] Is it a, is it a salt that's powdered in there? Is it like something I'm pouring into a container? Like, what does it look like? Or is it all enclosed?
[:[00:13:10] It's about nine inches tall and it's a stainless steel cylinder. And basically it comes with packets of salt already pre measured. So it's like a sugar packet. And basically you take that and empty it into the canister. It's got a remote control. You hit it and bingo, you're off. There's four. preset programs.
[:[00:13:56] And that's a big cause of a lot of [00:14:00] sleep apnea and dental and other work that needs to be done. But for example, like Tony Robbins, he does it because he gets, uh, inflammation up here, which is part of where my voice is right now. But, uh, When you can open up because of the inflammation and you can, this is anti inflammatory.
[:[00:14:54] A lot of people go to these, uh, spas and they see a sauna with a pink Himalayan wall or they [00:15:00] have the, Lamps around and people bought them and put them on their nightstand and there used to be these claims that it absorbs the air around it and gives off negative ions. Well, that is not true. Um, there is actually a class action lawsuit against a company that was making claims and the physics, chemists and biologists disproved that it's impossible to really happen.
[:[00:15:44] There is sound baths, Tibetan bowl and crystal. There's guided meditation, breath work. We don't realize intentional breathing and purposeful breathing that we can be doing. And what it does for the mind, body and [00:16:00] breath is pretty phenomenal. So it's really great. Hey,
[:[00:16:09] I am just blown away at how amazing this podcast has become. I had no idea when I started FFP around 10 years ago that it would grow into such an impactful mission. And I want to let you know that I am so grateful to be connected to you in this lifetime. And on behalf of me and my entire team, we are so grateful to be in your life, helping you get and stay healthier for your family.
[:[00:16:50] It's not even really considered a halo generator, is that's what I'm kind of gathering here, correct?
[:[00:17:13] So if you have a room full of Himalayan salt, it does alter the room in that regard. But in terms of negative ions or cleaning the air or anything. No. Now what's also true is nothing can grow on salt and salt as a surface is the cleanest environment. Back when COVID and the pandemic broke out, a lot of facilities wanted to know, do we have to do anything?
[:[00:18:09] Mm
[:[00:18:26] And just like, what's the whole scenario look like when designing one of those
[:[00:18:46] Tony's is his whole, you can imagine all his walls are covered in the brick walls and beautiful chairs in there. You just sit there, uh, and you can do other things, but, uh, that's just part of the experience, if you will. But in [00:19:00] terms of efficacy, if you don't have a halo generator, you don't have halo therapy.
[:[00:19:06] Anthony: Yeah. Okay. So where do you, where do you see this, this industry going? You've been in the game for a long time and as one of the pioneers of doing this, like, where does it go next over the next 10 years?
[:[00:19:24] You know, you don't have salt facilities at every corner like you do. Uh, yoga, fitness, chiropractors, you know, the awareness level is not there yet. So it's going to continue to grow. From a consumer perspective, I think people are taking more responsibility for their own healthcare. Self care is vital.
[:[00:20:17] COPD, allergies, eczema, psoriasis, they're spending big money, 50 billion a year just in asthma inhalers. So our healthcare system is designed to diagnose and prescribe a drug and keep you on that drug. Um, salt therapy is not yet. In the medical world, because as you probably know, going through FDA approval and doing this and that is a long road ahead, and being natural, it really doesn't need to be.
[:[00:21:20] You look at the fires that happen worldwide. You look at the quality of the air. You're looking at the amount of brake dust and rubber that is in the air. You look at the methane. There was just an article last week or two weeks ago in the New York Post how humans breathing. contribute to some of the air pollution, because we, you know, dispel carbon monoxide, dioxide, we have methane that comes out of our system.
[:[00:22:07] What are the chemicals that we're using in spring on our cabinets, on our counters, on our floors, what kind of detergent, the smells that are around us that get into our respiratory, we're not paying attention to. Our HVAC filters, you know, I live in Florida, and we're supposed to change our filters every month.
[:[00:22:33] Anthony: it's a long time.
[:[00:22:48] It's true. We have people, um, that have kids with cystic fibrosis be doing salt therapy and staying out of the hospital. We have elderly seniors [00:23:00] aging with COPD. that don't need their oxygen tank as much. Um, you have people that are sleeping better, you have people breathing better. So I think it's more of an awareness, leveling it up.
[:[00:23:36] Look at your, you know, your air volume is up. What, what are you doing? So the numbers are there, but I do think we need to really focus on the source, which is the quality of the air indoor and outdoor. There's a lot that we can be doing with. air filters, air purifiers in our home, the things that are causing the respiratory disease.
[:[00:24:19] I remember living in Colorado in the eighties and remembering the, the brown cloud that would hang over downtown, uh, Colorado at times. Um, but because it's invisible and we don't see it, we don't really notice it. So we have to make the invisible. More visible and we have to realize we are what we breathe and so we got to take that to heart.
[:[00:24:53] Leo: Yeah. Yeah, I've experimented with a lot of things. I use a molecule You know, as a product that's [00:25:00] out there, there's an interesting product that for when I clean, it is a hydrochloric acid, which is interesting.
[:[00:25:33] The higher the rating, the more it's going to trap the finer particles. So there are things of that nature to be looking at in terms of products. Simple as one, one's called force of nature. It's that hydrochloric acid stuff that's very cheap that you put into a spray bottle. I have a little one right here, you know, here, and it's just.
[:[00:26:24] You know, you think of your HVAC system in your home or office as the lungs of your space. Well, the lungs of our planet are hurting. And we need to start, start paying attention to that.
[:[00:26:49] Like, how affordable is it to get going? Because I'm sure you could spend lots of money, but like, what's the low end accessibility to get something that actually works and is quality?
[:[00:27:12] For the home, uh, maintaining the same integrity of the medical grade quality of everything is just under 2, 000 and there's payment plans that people can do. And if you know those that are listening, we're going to give them a special discount for paying attention to the show, uh, with you. That's what you're looking at.
[:[00:27:54] Mm-Hmm. , you know, how much do you spend on over the counter, you know, Claritin or drugs or when you have a cold, [00:28:00] or every time you go to a doctor visit. You know, with your kid, or what you might have, or are they pre prismatic? I speak to so many moms that worry so much about their children, especially when they come home from school sick, germs that are spread.
[:[00:28:33] That's moist salt. And think about it. That's salt. That's evaporating. That's from dirty water, you know? Uh, the ocean water is not so clean. So you, you want to look to see where you get the advantage. I mean, we have a money back guarantee and I'll be very proud of our team for 2023 was really the first full year we'd launched that product.
[:[00:29:12] Anthony: And the most affordable way, and we will have unique codes for our fit father and fit mother communities all over this description on the article, um, for all that, it, the, um, the, the best thing would be to, for someone to get, is it the salt booth or the pop up salt booth?
[:[00:29:28] Leo: Yeah, the, the, the pop up kit to salt, you know, it's salt therapy home. com. They'll see the halo generator and a pop up. Now, some people might have a sauna at home. Yeah. Well, we have a sauna conversion kit where you don't need the pop up. You could easily take the halo generator comes with a special mount and you can put it right in your sauna.
[:[00:30:06] Anthony: That's awesome. Well, I'm excited for this.
[:[00:30:33] And, and, uh, Leo, I want to say any final thoughts in closing that you want to give to our audience today?
[:[00:31:03] Anthony: Nice. I love it. I think it's, it's, I love that. There's the salt angle, but it's really just about this breath and this clean air angle that we need to, we need to hear about right now. So Leo, thank you for being a champion for this work and for coming on today on the podcast. Thanks for
[:[00:31:20] Anthony: Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the fit father project podcast.
[:[00:31:40] It's free and everything's made for busy guys who are 40. Like you visit youtube. com forward slash fit father project to get access to our entire video library. And finally, if you or someone in your life is interested in becoming a fit father or needs help losing weight, building muscle and living healthier, after age 40.
[:
