Himalayan Salt FAD May Be a Health Risk

Why Celtic Salt is the salt of choice -

The above graphic posted 6/22/11, from www.celticseasalt.com.  High moisture content is another important factor.

Read more here and here, as well as checking out our other articles on pink salt problems from Natural Health News.

UPDATE: 4/2010 -  As volcanic ash spews from Iceland's erupting volcano a new news report from the UK looks at fluoride poisoning and its effect on livestock.  Farmer's are indeed worried because they know that the natural minerals holding fluoride in the rocks and ash spewing from the volcano contain fluoride, and they know fluoride is a cumulative poison.
The Himalayan salt hucksters offer up the fact that the fluoride in this salt, regardless of the amount won't hurt you because it is a "natural" form.
On this very point they are incorrect, and this salt, with its fluoride and other toxic heavy metals, even though they argue this issue of ocean toxicity, is much more harmful than naturally farmed sea salt.

The fluoride in volcanic ash is the type defended as safe by the hawkers of Himalayan salt.

D. Telegraph 21.4.10 "FALLING ASH MAY BE GOOD FOR GARDENS" 
Volcano ash is full of elements & nutrients but it depends on the chemical make-up of the ash when it falls on the ground.
If it has high levels of fluorine it can be poisonous to humans & plants. Fluorine (fluoride) from volcanoes has killed livestock in the past.

UPDATE: 3/2010 -
I believe in salt therapies for health, using natural salt caves (found in Europe), the Hungarian salt pipes, salt cleansing and balneotherapy treatments, and generally, natural salt for health.

Salt is also something that is necessary for maintaining good blood pressure and adrenal health. This is NOT the kind of salt in convenience and processed food or salt in grocery store boxed containers.

A decade or so ago I was selling a traditional salt collected by many of the Plains tribes during salt and trading journeys away from their usual and accustomed areas. I am in the process of bringing this salt back for my clients and others because of the mineral content and safety.

I recently reviewed the mineral content of Pink Himalayan salt sold by several natural products companies and wholesale suppliers. I became alarmed when I saw the fluoride content at whopping 192 mg.

Relying on my long-standing relationship with PFPC as a medical advisory board member, I have information that supports my belief that that the recent push for Himalayan salt by Mercola and Swanson's and other should be avoided.

Contact us to order our traditional salt for health.

FROM PFPC, the premiere fluoride information site.

Over the last few years a new scam has emerged in Europe which is rapidly spreading across the world.

It involves ordinary rock salt from the “salt range” in Pakistan being marketed as luxurious and healing “Himalaya Salt”.

It is also sold as “Himalayan Crystal Salt”, “Hunza-Kristallsalz” or natural “Kristallsalz”, “VitaSal”, “AromaLife”, etc..

The scam is currently being introduced in India and the United States.

It will result in very high overall fluoride intake in anyone who follows the various “therapy recommendations”.

What happened?

During the late 1990s recordings started to appear in Germany, featuring a monologue by a self-proclaimed “biophysicist” named Peter Ferreira.

The monologue centered around the “marvelous healing energies” of “Himalaya Salt” (Himalaya Salz) and “living waters” (Lebendiges Wasser) -> mineral or springwaters (“Quellwasser”).

This special salt was allegedly coming from the high mountain regions of the Himalayas, “untouched by human contamination”, containing “84 elements essential to human health”. The tape was copied and passed on by thousands.

The salt was sold at a price much higher than ordinary salt, up to 200 times as much. It was common to see it being sold for 24 Euros per kilogram.

Lectures were organized and a video called “Water & Salt” (“Wasser & Salz”) was shown to packed houses (Zeit & Geist, 2002). A book with the title “Water & Salt - Essence of Life” by Peter Ferreira and Dr. med. Barbara Hendel became a runaway bestseller in 2002 - simply by word of mouth, even spawning a glossy magazine with the same title. [The book is currently being translated into English and slated for release in the US.]

Within months “Himalaya Salt” became all the rage in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, quickly spreading to Denmark, Holland and other European countries.

The European alternative health industry was quick to jump on the bandwagon and an article on “Himalaya Salt” praising its superior qualities to conventional salt became the most-read article on the German site of “Alternative Health” (“Alternative Gesundheit).

“Himalaya Salt” sales are consistently in the Top 10 of “alternative health products”.

Originally marketed on the Internet, there are now countless varieties of products containing “Himalaya Salt” available, including herbal salts, bath salts, facial masks, cosmetic lines, as well as salt lamps and tealights.

Many international websites can now be found praising and selling this “Elixir of Live”, “Fountain of Youth”, or “salt of life”.

The salt comes as fine salt to be used for cooking, or as salt crystals or blocks of salt, to be used for daily “sole” drinks and baths, oral rinses, eye baths, and inhalation therapy.

In addition, the salt is marketed extensively for other uses, and there are now tealights or “salt lamps” (used as natural “ionizers”), a complete cosmetic line including soaps, facial sprays, body lotions, “peeling” lotions, hand creams, steam bath aids, sauna aids, bath salts with rose petals, and shower gels.

Fluoride & Iodine

Ironically, “Water & Salt” proclaimed that iodine and fluoride are “highly toxic” and should never be added to cooking salt (August 4, 2002). This statement immediately seemed odd to a sceptic, as both “toxins”, fluoride and iodine, were also listed among the salt’s “84 natural elements essential for the body”. LINK

The fluoride/iodine issue nevertheless became a cornerstone in the promotional campaign. Valuable books on the un-wanted effects of fluoride (Ziegelbecker) and iodine supplementation (Braunschweig-Pauli) were found in the on-line bookstore of “Wasser & Salz”.

However, W&S failed to inform the public that this very same “Himalaya Salt” may easily possess more fluoride than conventional, artificially fluoridated salt.

Numerous analyses which had been posted on the web by AromaLife AG itself (Switzerland’s biggest distributor of “Himalaya Salt”) - to show that it complied with CODEX regulations - showed this clearly. Click here.

Fluoride in Mineral Water

In addition, the “Water & Salt” people also started to recommend mineral waters which qualified as “living waters”, and handed out “Seals of Quality”.

One such water, Artesia received this recommendation, although containing 1.02 ppm of fluoride - a fact which is aggressively marketed by the company which firmly believes in the proclaimed “fluoride benefits”.

Origin of “Himalaya Salt”

It is claimed that the “magic salt” is coming from the Karakorum (Ferreira, 2002). However, as pointed out by the group TourismWatch (No.28 and No.30) there is no salt mine to be found anywhere in this Himalayan region. Most of the salt was coming from the second largest salt mine in the world, in Pakistan.

After the boom began, it was found that even ordinary road salt was being sold as “Himalaya Salt” by ruthless opportunists.

Public Health Response

The responses by the Public Health Departments in Switzerland and Germany have been on the verge of the comical.

The Swiss “Fluor-und Jodkommission” warned the public against the scam and issued statements of concern about the influx of imported specialty salts such as “Himalaya Salt”.

In 2001, the SEV warned that under no circumstances could this salt “without fluoride and iodine” ever substitute for the Swiss salt.

At no point did it apparently occur to the health agencies to conduct their own analyses on the product!

Applications:

Cooking/Baking

Not only is “Himalaya Salt” marketed as the best alternative to conventional cooking salt - and to be used in all cooking and baking as well as table use - it is also to be sprinkled onto already prepared foods.

New varieties of herbal salts are also now available.

Every morning a teaspoon - sometimes more - of a 26% “sole” solution is added to a glass of mineral water and routinely drunk by millions.

Topical Applications

Salt - Baths

As one of the “best applications” people are advised to bath with this salt once a week, or with “moon baths” during new and full moons. 1 to 1.5 kg is added to 80 - 100 liters of water. Temperature is to be between 35 and 37 degrees celsius for a length of a minumum of 15 to 20 minutes (up to 2 - 3 hours!). At 1 kg in 100 liters, and at a fluoride content of 300 ppm, this is the same as bathing in water fluoridated at 3 ppm.

Not much different than the fluoridated baths which were used with great success by Gorlitzer von Mundy in the treatment of iodine-induced hyperthyroidism (Jod Basedow) for over 30 years!

In addition, people are advised to bath their feet in a 10% salt/water solution, which results bathing the feet in water with a fluoride content of 30 ppm.

Personal Care Products

Daily topical fluoride intake is assured by use of the cosmetic line which includes soaps, facial sprays, body lotions, hand creams, shampoos, steam bath aids, sauna aids, bath salts with rose petals, and shower gels. Complete cosmetic lines are now offered by Aromalife, as well as “Wasser und Salz”.

Inhalation

People with asthma and like-conditions are advised by “health trainers” to add a little “Himalaya Salt” (10%!) to hot water and to inhale this concoction for 10 to 15 minutes with a covered head, three times a day.

Oral Health

People are advised to use this salt for toothbrushing.

One will get “white teeth” and the “dental enamel gets dissolved”, it is claimed...!

Of course it is also advised to rinse the mouth with the same sole which is drunk in the morning.

One is reminded of the incredible feat by Mr. “Dead Doctors Don’t Lie” Dr. Wallach and associated independent distributors who have managed to con people into believing that the “All Natural Tooth Gel” is a “safe natural alternative to fluoride toothpaste”, although the actual label on the toothpaste specifies sodium fluoride as ingredient!

Rainer Neuhaus
PFPC Germany