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If you listen to the hype, then you might think that a Himalayan salt lamp can offer all kinds of health benefits. They seem to be mandatory in every spa waiting room, and it seems like they should give you a similar spa-like boost at home.
But do these lamps actually do anything?
As of this writing, there are almost 500 different salt lamp products to choose from on Amazon. The top result–with about 9,500 glowing reviews–claims that the $13 lamp does some impressive things.
“The best gift to all the people you deeply love, soft light to help create a comfortable environment, to clean the air, to help them relieve mental pressure,” the product’s description reads.
Other than the obvious “I ran this through Google Translate” English, those are some bold claims. The most common benefits listed by sellers of these lamps is that they:
Some sellers may also make claims about treating specific conditions, such as seasonal allergies or even PTSD. Legally, that’s an issue. Once you say that a product can treat a disease, you have to go through carefully monitored clinical trials to prove it.
However, advocates of salt lamps may argue that “traditional medicine” just doesn’t get it–or that they’re trying to shut down alternative health practices in order to promote expensive drugs. That’s a whole big mess that we aren’t getting into today.
“They’re pretty. It would be an attractive thing to have on your mantle or your bedside,” said John Malin, a retired chemist formerly with the American Chemical Society told LiveScience.
What Malin is clearly not saying is that the lamps offer no benefit other than their looks.
Many salt lamp fans claim that the combination of salt, heat from the lightbulb, and moisture in the air creates an ionizing effect. The idea is that these negative ions can clear so-called toxins by binding them within their molecular structure. Scientists don’t agree on whether ions work that way–let alone if salt lamps produce them.
A good-quality pink salt lamp won’t hurt you even if it doesn’t offer all those (literally) unbelievable benefits. A warm, amber light can be soothing, especially if you’ve been staring at a screen that emits blue light.
It’s likely that the cheaper versions out there probably aren’t mined in Pakistan, so keep that in mind. They might be made from sodium chloride, but it would be hard to prove that the lamp is really “Himalayan pink salt” and not just salt with a bit of pink colorant.
If you plan to use the lamp as a nightlight, look for one with an automatic shutoff feature. Cheaper electronics won’t necessarily be faulty, but the chances go up as the price goes down. As ever, buyer beware–and don’t believe everything you read online.
