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"Both sea salt and rock salt were well known to the ancient Greeks who noted 
that eating salty food affected basic body functions such as digestion and 
excretion (urine and stools). This led to salt being used medically. The 
healing methods of Hippocrates (460 BC) especially made frequent use of 
salt. Salt-based remedies were thought to have expectorant powers. A mixture 
of water, salt, and vinegar was employed as an emetic. Drinking a mixture of 
two-thirds cow's milk and one-third salt-water, in the mornings, on an empty 
stomach was recommended as a cure for diseases of the spleen. A mixture of 
salt and honey was applied topically to clean bad ulcers and salt-water was 
used externally against skin diseases and freckles. Hippocrates also 
mentions inhalation of steam from salt-water. We know today that the 
antiinflammatory effects of inhaled salt provide relief from respiratory 
symptoms (c). Thus, 2000 years ago, Greek medicine had already discovered 
topical use of salt for skin lesions, drinking salty or mineralized waters 
for digestive troubles and inhaling salt for respiratory diseases!<br><br>

The doctor and alchemist Paracelsus (1493–1541 A.D.) introduced an entirely 
new medical concept. He believed that external factors create disease and 
conceived a chemically oriented medical system which contrasted with the 
prevalent herbal medicine. Only salted food could be digested properly: "The 
human being must have salt, he cannot be without salt. Where there is no 
salt, nothing will remain, but everything will tend to rot." He recommended 
salt water for the treatment of wounds and for use against intestinal worms. 
A hip-bath in salt water was a superb remedy for skin diseases and itching: 
"This brine - he said - is better than all the health spas arising out of 
nature." He described the diuretic effect of salt consumption and prescribed 
salt preparations of different strengths that were used for instance against 
constipation.<br>
"In recent years there has been much publicity about the need to reduce salt 
consumption in societies where salt is added to many processed foods (Denton 
1984, 584-7).  It has tended to be forgotten that some salt intake is 
absolutely necessary; that people need salt, sodium chloride, to survive: 
The chemical requirements of the human body demand that the salt 
concentration in the blood be kept constant. If the body does not get enough 
salt, a hormonal mechanism compensates by reducing the excretion of salt in 
the urine and sweat. But it cannot reduce this output to zero. On a 
completely salt-free diet the body steadily loses small amounts of salt via 
the kidneys and sweat glands. It then attempts to adjust this by 
accelerating its secretion of water, so that the blood’s salt concentration 
can be maintained at the vital level. The result is a gradual desiccation of 
the body and finally death."

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