Could salt be the cure for the common cold, bronchitis or even acne?

You use it to season your food, but it's also a new kind of medicine being used here in the U.S.

Now, one of the first salt rooms has opened up in Orlando.

When you walk through the door, the sounds are spa-like and you're asked to sit back and breathe it all in.

Ashley Lewless is the owner of the Salt Room off Mills Avenue.

"This is all natural sea salt," Lewless said while giving us a tour. "It's all hand thrown on the walls, so the entire room is coated with natural sea salt."

What is it about being completely surrounded in salt that makes this work?

"It's the microscopic particles that you're inhaling that works," Lewless said. "But the beauty of it is you're getting the sinus cavity and the lower respiratory system at one time."

The rooms are set up for adults and children.

For the parents, it's much different than dragging their children to a doctor's office.

"They think we are coming to the beach. That's their, 'oh we are coming to play with the sand.' So for them it's just a playroom," said Alicja Founier, a mother of two.

But instead of sand, it's salt and it's been a savior for Founier whose daughter was diagnosed with asthma at 18 months old.

Doctors had her on steroids and breathing treatments. Since she started at the Salt Room, Founier has stopped all medications.

"I would say within a few weeks she did not have terrible coughs anymore, her nose dried up," said Founier.

Teena McCane was in search of alternative medicine for her mother's COPD, one of the most common lung diseases.

"I found the Salt Room around November 2010 and have been coming here ever since with her, and she's had really, really substantial improvements," McCane said.

The patients have a range of ailments from allergies, cystic fibrosis, bronchitis and even snoring.

However, insurance won't cover the costs.

An adult session will run you $45. There is also the option of a year membership at a discounted rate.

"To me, it's well worth it to spend the money", said Founier, "(I) come here knowing I don't give her any steroids to get better."

It all comes down to something as simple as a little salt, but to the patients, it opens up the possibility to breathe easy.

Research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine stating that salt inhalation was a highly effective treatment for cystic fibrosis.

Observations were done on surfers as part of a clinical trial.