So, here I am walking round in a circle imitating a stork, picking up a knee before replacing a foot so I’m calf deep in icy water. I complete three circuits – always anticlockwise – and go back to my place where I plunge my feet into thankfully hot water for five minutes until the timer bleeps and it’s back to the ice.
Now, this may sound like a demented kind of torture. It is, in fact, Kneipp Therapy and it is surprisingly pleasant. Certainly, all of the guests at Parkhotel Igls, just outside Innsbruck, flock to the Bath Department, as it’s known, from first thing in the morning until the it closes at lunchtime. It may be that they are enticed by the relaxation that follows where you’re wrapped up in layers of blankets with a liver compress (it entails a hot water bottle in various wet and dry coverings and lying for a blissful half hour on the world’s most comfortable lounger).
Sebastian Kneipp was a German Catholic priest who, in the 19th century, became one of the founders of the naturopathic (or nature cure) movement. His contribution was – and this is putting it very simply – that short doses of cold water were hugely beneficial and alternating cold and hot water would boost the immune system.
Parkhotel Igls does not rely on Kneipp alone for its treatments. First and foremost, this is a Mayr clinic based on the medical philosophy of Franz Xaver Mayr, an Austrian doctor who, around 100 years ago, became the first medic to recognise that the gut is the root of all health – a belief now widespread. Mayr argued that a poorly functioning digestive system impacts every aspect of our health.
So, when the gut doesn’t work properly, the body accumulates toxins, becoming over-acidic and resulting in such common diseases as diabetes, gall and kidney stones, osteoarthritis, organ failure, even cancer. Mayr’s method was, first detoxification, then a re-education of how to eat properly. This entailed not just what you ate but how you ate it. By chewing on hard bread (with an occasional teaspoonful of milk) you stimulated the digestive juices so that food would break down and be absorbed and eliminated correctly.
Nowadays, Park Igls practises Modern Mayr Medicine and, while the underlying principles are the same, the food is delicious (if minimal) and there are a whole plethora of other treatments and diagnostic tools. What you have while you’re here – in terms of diet and treatments – is down to your doctor and that’s your first appointment. In my case, it was with the lovely Dr Sybille Matzenauer who, by the end of my session, already felt like an old friend. Because I wanted to lose weight she put me on level 2 of the diet spectrum (it runs from 0 to 7) explaining that she wanted a small amount of protein in my diet.
But if all this makes you think Park Igls is only about a traditional naturopathic approach to health, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Where do I begin? Well, maybe with IHHT (Interval Hypoxie Hyperoxie Training) akacell training. This is where you get to climb Mont Blanc lying down. Let me explain. Varying levels of oxygen are fed through a breathing mask imitating the air at different altitudes. At high altitudes, the air has less oxygen and that activates and regenerates the mitrochondria in our cells, weeding out old, exhausted mitochondria and helping new, healthier ones to generate. (I got to 4,500m, so almost the summit.)
Then there’s cranio-sacral therapy. This one is really hard to explain because, for much of the time, it seems like not much is happening. The craniosacral system runs from the skull (cranium) down the spine all the way to the sacrum. The surrounding membranes contain the cerebrospinal fluid that protects the brain and gentle rhythmic movement has an effect on this system and the therapist’s light touch on the head, sacrum and coccyx encourages the body’s self-healing. It’s good for neck and back pain, migraines and headaches but also for stress and emotional problems – several people told me they wept throughout.
There’s a whole range of massages but these are essentially medical. So when I first met my therapist for the week, Elmar, he first inspected my posture and mobility and then made his recommendations. So, we focused on lymphatic drainage (which is the best for detox), Shiatsu and one regular oily full body massage just because it’s nice.
There were wraps and compresses, each with their own focus: hay flowers or moor mud are anti-inflammatory and analgesic; the lavender chest compress is for lung problems and also helps you sleep; the Swiss pine pack slows down the heartrate and improves concentration; the beeswax compress is good for detoxing the liver and takes place on a warm water bed, the most relaxing thing you’ll ever experience.
This is very much a medical spa so it is, of course, run by doctors and this means there are many other services here that you wouldn’t expect in the average spa. These include diagnostics – everything from food allergy tests to ECGs, dermatology to dentistry – infusions (intravenous drip therapy), a psychology department that offers talking therapies and relaxation techniques, and all kinds of sports therapy (gait training, pelvic floor classes, therapeutic climbing).
There’s more obvious exercise, too. Because you’re in such a beautiful natural area, all mountain and forest, a lot of this takes place outside. So there are morning and evening walks, bikes and something called natureletics (nature + athletics). Indoors, there’s a lovely pool and lots of saunas and steam, as well as lots of exercise classes and a gym with not just state of the art equipment but a magnificent view. The doctors give talks on their specialist areas – everything from how to improve your sleep to the principles of Mayr nutrition.
Now, although this wasn’t the main aim, I lost 1.5kg over the course of five days, and quite effortlessly, too (by the time I got home it was 2kg). More importantly, I left feeling really well, less stressed and determined to carry on improving my nutrition and general health with all this new knowledge. This is a place where you tend to get pretty fired up. Oh, yes, and did I mention that Park Igls was recently recognised (by Conde Nast Traveller, no less) as the best medical spa in the world?
For more information about Park Igls Medical Spa, including details of made-t0-measure programmes, detox short breaks, Feldenkrais week, as well as details on healthier living, please visit www.park-igls.at.
