Austria’s Mayr & More clinic is famous for its gut restoration therapy. It re-opened in April after a complete overhaul
forefather of modern medicine, is recorded as saying: “Disease begins in the gut.” In more recent centuries, two pioneers leading research into the complex nature of our digestion and its links with body and mind were the US doctor Byron Robinson, who wrote The Abdominal and Pelvic Brain in 1907, and British medic Johannis Langley, who invented the term the ‘enteric nervous system’ (ENS) around the same period. The ENS, otherwise known as ‘the
second brain’, is so called because our gut contains around half a billion nerve endings – more than in the spinal cord. It also manufactures around 50 per cent of the feelgood hormones serotonin and dopamine in our bodies. The ENS is 9 metres long and runs
from the oesophagus to the anal canal, not only controlling digestion but exerting a powerful effect on hunger and appetite hormones like ghrelin and CCK, as well as our immunity and mood.
How it works As there’s no official definition for gut therapy, treatment protocols are open to interpretation. The FX Mayr cure, devised in 1901
by Dr Franz Xaver Mayr, is a renowned protocol in Austria which focuses
September 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
on digestion. Guests follow a calorie- restricted, low starch regime – in some cases drinking only tea or water – and chew each food morsel dozens of times. They also take Epsom salts as a bowel cleanse and receive regular abdominal massages and a range of other prescribed therapies. Launched more recently, the gut
restoration regime at Grayshott Spa in south England also offers a restricted calorie protocol (no sugar, grains or dairy) with two semi-fasting days each week. The regime is based on the 5:2 intermittent fasting rule, whereby you consume 500 calories a day on two days a week and eat what you want for the other fi ve – although Grayshott still likes to keep calories in check. Guests also take probiotics and cultured foods and have therapeutic abdominal massages and other treatments to further aid their digestive systems.
Training In Austria, the Mayr cure can only be delivered by doctors who have trained for at least three postgraduate years in the FX Mayr technique. The regime at Grayshott has been
devised and is delivered by a team of qualifi ed resident nutritional therapists.
However, just as there’s no offi cial
defi nition for gut therapy, there’s no single designated training programme for practitioners and facilities wishing to offer this type of treatment.
Why offer it? The more light scientists are shedding on how essential gut health is to overall physical and mental wellbeing, the more the general public is starting to take note. Recent documentaries such as the BBC’s Guts: The Strange and Mysterious World of the Human Stomach in the UK – presented by qualified doctor and author of The Fast Diet, Michael Mosley – have served to popularise this knowledge in the public domain. If the theory is sound, and improving
digestion can indeed help address a wide range of health ailments, then such a programme could potentially attract a wide range of clients. And while thus far this sort
of programme has been offered predominantly through spas, there’s no reason why health clubs couldn’t create their own non-residential gut health programmes, featuring structured nutritional advice and diet plans, abdominal massages and a specialised range of supplements.
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 63
PHOTO:
WWW.SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/KEVIN WANG
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