NORTHVILLE, Mich. – Dr. Ryan Gauthier uses Himalayan salt lamps in his healing rooms to help create a relaxing environment for patients receiving massages or acupuncture.
"The light makes a nice, dim, warm light that brings a calming environment to the patient," Gauthier said.
Gauthier, a doctor of acupuncture and oriental medicine, works at the Henry Ford Medical Center in Northville. While he likes how the lamp's pink-orange light helps calm patients, he cautioned about whether it does anything more.
"There is a lot of claims that they help with anxiety, depression, asthma, but the current medical research doesn't really seem to support that," Gauthier said.
He said he does have patients who like the lamps on during their treatments.
"One day, I actually had the lamp off while doing an acupuncture treatment and the patient was like, 'Where is the pretty light? That's part of my whole treatment.' And so she said she has them at her house as well," Gauthier said.
The lamps are supposed to produce negative ions to help clean and purify the air, but Gauthier said they don't know if the negative ions are doing anything to benefit health. He said he has a salt lamp in his home, and that if you want to have a nice lamp in your house, these might be an alternative.
"If you're creating a space where you want to meditate or relax or unwind from work and de-stress, these lamps may help with that," Gauthier said. "We know that stress causes a huge percentage of disease in the body, so just creating that space where you could de-stress could help overall with preventative medicine."
If someone decides to buy a salt lamp, remember that one brand was just recalled. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled three rock salt lamps sold under the Lumiere brand lamps. They were sold at Michaels between July 2016 and November 2016. The dimmer switch on the lamp or the outlet plug can overheat and ignite, posing shock and fire hazards.
For more information on the recall, click here.
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