Focus on
Gut restoration
With more scientific research revealing how our digestion can have a powerful effect on anything from immunity to mood, is now the right time for spas to be offering guests specialised digestion programmes?
The theory
While a gastroenterologist treats a range of acute complaints related to the digestive tract, such as peptic ulcer disease and colitis, there’s a growing number of experts who believe that the gut holds the key to wider health benefits. There’s no official term to describe this therapy – it’s known by various monikers including gut restoration or digestive rejuvenation. The theory is that establishing a healthy and functioning digestive tract will lead to the improvement of other ailments, even mental health issues like depression.
Nutritional therapist Stephanie Moore, of Grayshott Spa in the UK, says: “A healthy digestive system is the route to overall health. The immune system, the manufacture of nutrients, the absorption of nutrients, the protection from toxins – all depend on a healthy GI [gastrointestinal] tract. Good digestion is the starting point for many if not all health issues.”
Dr Stephan Domenig, the medical director of Austria’s newly refurbished Mayr & More clinic, says: “We all eat too much, too fast, too late at night and gradually wear down our digestive systems, leading to a backlog of undigested food and toxins.
“Once your digestive system is cleansed, rested and you begin to eat the right things properly – that means chewing each mouthful at least 30 times – you can absorb nutrients and the liver can do its job, kick-starting better overall health.”
The background
Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician who’s considered the 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 American 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, which is more than in the spinal cord. It also manufactures around 50 per cent of the feel-good hormones serotonin and dopamine in our bodies.
The ENS is 9m 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 focusing on digestion (see SB07/3 p92). Guests follow a restricted calorie, low starch regime (in some cases, drinking only tea or water), chew each food morsel dozens of times, 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-fast days per week. The regime is based on the 5:2 intermittent fasting rule where you consume 500 calories on two days a week and eat what you want for the other five (although Grayshott still likes to keep calories in check). Guests also take probiotics and cultured foods and have abdominal massages and other treatments to further aid their digestive systems.
Training
In Austria, the Mayr cure can only be delivered by doctors who’ve 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 qualified resident nutritional therapists.
However, just as there’s no official definition for gut therapy, there’s no, one 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 notice. 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 help clear up other ailments, then such a programme could potentially attract a wide range of clients.
The operator’s view
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The Grayshott Health regime launched in January 2013 in response to a growing demand from visitors to experience more than just pampering. They wanted take-home health benefits.
The seven-day programme is offered every week of the year and typically has eight to 16 participants at a time – some come from as far afield as Kuwait and the US. A basic package starts at £1,500 (US$2,500, €1,800) per week.
Jackie Phelan, Grayshott Spa’s marketing director, says: “We often get compared to the Mayr clinic but only because so few places look at digestion. Our programme is unique to us.”
The health protocol was devised by the spa’s director of natural therapies, Elaine Williams and resident clinical nutritionist Stephanie Moore. “We have all kinds of people on the regime from type 2 diabetics to those who want to lose weight and many others who have digestive issues like IBS, diverticulitis, inflammatory bowel disease, acid reflux and bloating,” says Moore. “It’s also really great for people who are highly stressed, as digestion often suffers when stressed.
“I call everyone from the regime two weeks after their stay and I get such really encouraging feedback including statements like ‘it changed my life’ and ‘it’s the best money I’ve ever spent’.
“We teach people how to eat well for life and how to support their bodies rather than exhaust them. This was never designed as a weight loss programme but 95 per cent of people lose impressive amounts of weight too – typically 5-6 pounds in a week.”
First person experience:
Grayshott Health Regime
Journalist
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We were a mixed bunch gathered at Grayshott Spa to experience the gut health regime – 16 of us, ages ranging from 30s to 80s, all female apart from one man with his wife. One lady, a type 2 diabetic, was trying to avoid more medication, while another wanted to take some care of herself after nursing her elderly mother. Two ladies were returnees, delighted with the results they’d experienced on the regime last year.
Food, and the removal of certain food groups, is a major part of the programme. So complex carbohydrates such as grains, dairy and starchy vegetables are out, as they require a lot of digestive energy. As is sugar, which we’re told feeds undesirable pathogens in the gut and must be avoided.
We were all surprised to find that the food – served in a sunny conservatory – was mouth-wateringly delicious. Each meal started with some digestive aperitifs of sauerkraut and herbal bitters to get the stomach juices flowing, while lunch ended with the taking of probiotics to improve gut flora. In between, who could complain about piquillo pepper and spinach omelette for breakfast, carrot and coconut soup with Thai spiced chicken breast and salad for lunch, and Barbary duck with salsify and hazelnut crumble for dinner?
Portions were small and controlled, so in the first few days I felt the edge of hunger before each meal, but at least this made the semi-fasting days less of a shock. On Mondays and Fridays, breakfast is skipped, the group have lunch together and a bowl of broth is served in rooms in the evening.
The regime also includes a personal health consultation with blood and body composition analyses, a nutritional therapy session, therapeutic abdominal massage, a hydrotherapy bath and castor oil compresses to aid detoxification. However, the stand-out element for me was the very comprehensive range of daily talks delivered by resident nutritionists and visiting lecturers, who were always available after the sessions and during lunch to answer further questions.
They covered topics like stress management, which fats and carbohydrates to eat and which to avoid, and the healing nature of deep breathing. None of the talks were dumbed down, but instead delivered the latest scientific thinking on diet and health combined with loads of practical tips to try out at home. If participants truly act on all the advice they absorb over seven days, I believe it can be a life-altering regime.
I personally arrived home feeling very rested, armed with fresh knowledge and new healthy eating resolutions, my skin was glowing and I’d dropped three pounds.
