ST. CLOUD — At 8, Christina Piecek dreamed of owning a spa.
As an adult, she took the first step toward that dream by going to massage school, but she eventually ended up working in an auto body shop.
Then a few years ago, her father — a veteran who adopted Piecek — died by suicide after struggling with pain medication and its side effects for years.
“He was taking a bunch of pills every single day, and I saw him deteriorate from this big-muscled burly Marine to a shriveled-up person in a very short period of time,” Piecek said. “He was prescribed pills, and he was prescribed pills for the side effects.”
Piecek, 39, said she started researching alternative medicines after her father’s death. She stumbled upon salt therapy by happenstance.
“I found a salt cave on Groupon,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’m going to try that.’ I did
