A cave in Hungary seems to help people with respiratory diseases, reportsSarah Marriott
The cave is dim and chilly. It feels eerie and is deathly silent apart from a few whispers echoing through the limestone passages. Like subterranean sunbathers or living mummies, figures wrapped in blankets lie on white plastic sunloungers dotted about under arches and in narrow tunnels.
These huddled shapes are people suffering from asthma, bronchitis, allergies or other respiratory conditions. Sent by their doctors, patients spend four hours a day in this underground chamber because the air is believed to alleviate the symptoms of respiratory illnesses.
The cave was discovered in 1903 in the small town of Tapolca, near the popular tourist resort of Lake Balaton in south-west Hungary. Although some of the 20 kilometre network has long been used as wine cellars, in 1981 the ministry of health declared it had medicinal properties - and made treatment there free for Hungarians.
The cave's microclimate is constant: the temperature is always 14-16 degrees, it contains no pollen or dust and humidity is almost 100 per cent.
"When I arrived I couldn't stop coughing and I couldn't walk," says Dr Iren Kraft, a retired nuclear chemist and university lecturer who lives in Germany and has therefore paid to be underground. After spending four mornings in the cave, snugly enveloped in her red tartan blanket, the 77-year-old Hungarian is walking and talking as if she has never suffered from asthma; she happily waves her electronic monitor, which measures humidity, temperature and concentrations of dust and pollen. Dr Kraft accepts that the air in the cave doesn't provide a permanent cure, but she believes its effects can last up to 12 months.
This subterranean therapy is known as speleotherapy, from the Greek for cave. Although the Romans apparently used it for "wheezy attacks", speleotherapy is virtually unheard of in this part of Europe. It is, however, popular in eastern Europe, particularly Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
Some cave therapy takes place in working salt mines; more than 5,000 people a year visit the Troilus mine in Romania. According to Sylvia Beamon, an Englishwoman whose asthma improved after a week of daily visits to the salina, "the reasons given for the improved health, rise in immunity and cures in some cases of patients is that the air contains no allergens \ the temperature and humidity \ constant, but the most important factor is that the salt gives off negative ions".
A lack of rigorous research into speleotherapy means it is unlikely an Irish doctor would prescribe it for asthma sufferers. A research review published by the Cochrane Library earlier this year concluded that although two trials found speleotherapy had benefited lung function in the short term, there was not enough evidence to prove its effectiveness for chronic asthma.
Frances Guiney of the Asthma Society of Ireland says: "It's difficult to say if this would help, as the studies are inconclusive. We'd gladly welcome anything that would help with the management of asthma but await further research."
Hotel Pelion, a four-star spa hotel, has direct access to the Tapolca cave. A one-week package with half-board, a medical consultation, six cave sessions, dental examination, use of the thermal pools and two massages starts at €497. More details from www.hunguesthotels.hu. The Asthma Society of Ireland is at 1850-445464