[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1200},["ShallowReactive",2],{"catalog":3,"dest-tyrol":400},{"destinations":4,"resorts":123,"concerns":200,"concernGroups":283,"landings":296,"markets":321,"modalities":361,"totals":392},[5,19,27,36,44,53,62,69,75,83,89,95,102,108,116],{"slug":6,"name":7,"country":8,"cluster":9,"modalities":10,"resortCount":13,"programmeCount":14,"fromPrice":15,"gatewayCode":18},"kerala","Kerala","India","asia",[11,12],"ayurveda","yoga",3,4,{"amount":16,"currency":17},128000,"INR","COK",{"slug":20,"name":21,"country":8,"cluster":9,"modalities":22,"resortCount":23,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":24,"gatewayCode":26},"rishikesh","Rishikesh",[12,11],2,{"amount":25,"currency":17},207000,"DED",{"slug":28,"name":29,"country":30,"cluster":9,"modalities":31,"resortCount":23,"programmeCount":23,"fromPrice":32,"gatewayCode":35},"sri-lanka-coast","The Ayurveda coast","Sri Lanka",[11,12],{"amount":33,"currency":34},2180,"EUR","CMB",{"slug":37,"name":38,"country":38,"cluster":9,"modalities":39,"resortCount":41,"programmeCount":42,"gatewayCode":43},"bhutan","Bhutan",[40],"sowa-rigpa",1,0,"PBH",{"slug":45,"name":46,"country":47,"cluster":9,"modalities":48,"resortCount":23,"programmeCount":23,"fromPrice":49,"gatewayCode":52},"ubud","Ubud","Indonesia",[12],{"amount":50,"currency":51},2070,"USD","DPS",{"slug":54,"name":55,"country":56,"cluster":9,"modalities":57,"resortCount":23,"programmeCount":23,"fromPrice":59,"gatewayCode":61},"koh-samui","Koh Samui","Thailand",[58],"thai-lanna",{"amount":60,"currency":51},1890,"USM",{"slug":63,"name":64,"country":65,"cluster":9,"modalities":66,"resortCount":41,"programmeCount":42,"gatewayCode":68},"beppu","Beppu","Japan",[67],"onsen","OIT",{"slug":70,"name":71,"country":65,"cluster":9,"modalities":72,"resortCount":41,"programmeCount":42,"gatewayCode":74},"okinawa","Okinawa",[73,67],"longevity","OKA",{"slug":76,"name":77,"country":78,"cluster":79,"modalities":80,"resortCount":23,"programmeCount":42,"gatewayCode":82},"baden-baden","Baden-Baden","Germany","europe",[81],"balneotherapy","FKB",{"slug":84,"name":85,"country":86,"cluster":79,"modalities":87,"resortCount":41,"programmeCount":42,"gatewayCode":88},"karlovy-vary","Karlovy Vary","Czechia",[81],"PRG",{"slug":90,"name":91,"country":92,"cluster":79,"modalities":93,"resortCount":41,"programmeCount":42,"gatewayCode":94},"bad-gastein","Bad Gastein","Austria",[81],"SZG",{"slug":96,"name":97,"country":98,"cluster":79,"modalities":99,"resortCount":41,"programmeCount":42,"gatewayCode":101},"quiberon","Quiberon","France",[100],"thalassotherapy","LRT",{"slug":103,"name":104,"country":105,"cluster":79,"modalities":106,"resortCount":41,"programmeCount":42,"gatewayCode":107},"montreux","Montreux","Switzerland",[73],"GVA",{"slug":109,"name":110,"country":92,"cluster":79,"modalities":111,"resortCount":23,"programmeCount":23,"fromPrice":113,"gatewayCode":115},"tyrol","Tyrol",[112,81],"mayr",{"amount":114,"currency":34},4310,"INN",{"slug":117,"name":118,"country":119,"cluster":120,"modalities":121,"resortCount":41,"programmeCount":42,"gatewayCode":122},"nicoya","The Nicoya peninsula","Costa Rica","americas",[73,12],"LIR",[124,129,132,135,139,142,145,148,152,155,158,161,164,168,171,175,178,181,184,187,191,194,197],{"slug":125,"name":126,"destinationSlug":6,"destinationName":7,"country":8,"character":127,"relationship":128},"somatheeram","Somatheeram Ayurveda Village","ayurveda-hospital","bookable",{"slug":130,"name":131,"destinationSlug":6,"destinationName":7,"country":8,"character":127,"relationship":128},"kalari-kovilakom","Kalari Kovilakom",{"slug":133,"name":134,"destinationSlug":6,"destinationName":7,"country":8,"character":127,"relationship":128},"carnoustie","Carnoustie Ayurveda & Wellness Resort",{"slug":136,"name":137,"destinationSlug":20,"destinationName":21,"country":8,"character":138,"relationship":128},"ananda-himalayas","Ananda in the Himalayas","retreat",{"slug":140,"name":141,"destinationSlug":20,"destinationName":21,"country":8,"character":138,"relationship":128},"six-senses-vana","Six Senses Vana",{"slug":143,"name":144,"destinationSlug":28,"destinationName":29,"country":30,"character":127,"relationship":128},"barberyn-reef","Barberyn Reef",{"slug":146,"name":147,"destinationSlug":28,"destinationName":29,"country":30,"character":138,"relationship":128},"santani","Santani Wellness Resort",{"slug":149,"name":150,"destinationSlug":37,"destinationName":38,"country":38,"character":138,"relationship":151},"amankora","Amankora","profile",{"slug":153,"name":154,"destinationSlug":45,"destinationName":46,"country":47,"character":138,"relationship":128},"como-shambhala-estate","COMO Shambhala Estate",{"slug":156,"name":157,"destinationSlug":45,"destinationName":46,"country":47,"character":138,"relationship":128},"fivelements-bali","Fivelements Retreat Bali",{"slug":159,"name":160,"destinationSlug":54,"destinationName":55,"country":56,"character":138,"relationship":128},"kamalaya","Kamalaya",{"slug":162,"name":163,"destinationSlug":54,"destinationName":55,"country":56,"character":138,"relationship":128},"absolute-sanctuary","Absolute Sanctuary",{"slug":165,"name":166,"destinationSlug":63,"destinationName":64,"country":65,"character":167,"relationship":151},"suginoi","Suginoi Hotel","thermal-cure",{"slug":169,"name":170,"destinationSlug":70,"destinationName":71,"country":65,"character":138,"relationship":151},"hoshinoya-okinawa","Hoshinoya Okinawa",{"slug":172,"name":173,"destinationSlug":76,"destinationName":77,"country":78,"character":174,"relationship":151},"villa-stephanie","Brenners Park-Hotel & Villa Stéphanie","medical-clinic",{"slug":176,"name":177,"destinationSlug":76,"destinationName":77,"country":78,"character":167,"relationship":151},"friedrichsbad","Friedrichsbad",{"slug":179,"name":180,"destinationSlug":84,"destinationName":85,"country":86,"character":167,"relationship":151},"grandhotel-pupp","Grandhotel Pupp",{"slug":182,"name":183,"destinationSlug":90,"destinationName":91,"country":92,"character":174,"relationship":151},"gasteiner-heilstollen","Gasteiner Heilstollen",{"slug":185,"name":186,"destinationSlug":96,"destinationName":97,"country":98,"character":167,"relationship":151},"thalassa-quiberon","Institut Thalassa Quiberon",{"slug":188,"name":189,"destinationSlug":103,"destinationName":104,"country":105,"character":190,"relationship":151},"clinique-la-prairie","Clinique La Prairie","longevity-clinic",{"slug":192,"name":193,"destinationSlug":109,"destinationName":110,"country":92,"character":174,"relationship":128},"lanserhof-lans","Lanserhof Lans",{"slug":195,"name":196,"destinationSlug":109,"destinationName":110,"country":92,"character":174,"relationship":128},"park-igls","Park Igls",{"slug":198,"name":199,"destinationSlug":117,"destinationName":118,"country":119,"character":138,"relationship":151},"harmony-nosara","Harmony Hotel",[201,207,212,217,224,229,235,241,246,253,258,264,268,273,278],{"slug":202,"name":203,"group":204,"said":205,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":206},"sleep","Sleep","mind","I fall asleep fine and then I am awake at three.",{"amount":16,"currency":17},{"slug":208,"name":209,"group":204,"said":210,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":211},"burnout","Burnout & exhaustion","I am not depressed. I am just completely empty.",{"amount":33,"currency":34},{"slug":213,"name":214,"group":204,"said":215,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":216},"stress-and-anxiety","Stress & anxiety","My shoulders are somewhere near my ears and they have been for a year.",{"amount":50,"currency":51},{"slug":218,"name":219,"group":220,"said":221,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":222},"digestion","Digestion & the gut","body","Something has been wrong with my stomach for years and nobody can tell me what.",{"amount":223,"currency":17},286000,{"slug":225,"name":226,"group":220,"said":227,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":228},"weight","Weight & metabolic health","I have lost the same eight kilos four times.",{"amount":60,"currency":51},{"slug":230,"name":231,"group":220,"said":232,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":233},"back-and-joints","Back, neck & joints","My lower back has been a background noise for a decade.",{"amount":234,"currency":17},251000,{"slug":236,"name":237,"group":238,"said":239,"programmeCount":23,"fromPrice":240},"chronic-pain","Chronic & rheumatic pain","medical","I have a diagnosis. I am looking for something that is not another drug.",{"amount":234,"currency":17},{"slug":242,"name":243,"group":220,"said":244,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":245},"detox","Detox & the annual reset","I want to properly clean myself out once a year.",{"amount":234,"currency":17},{"slug":247,"name":248,"group":249,"said":250,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":251},"menopause","Menopause & perimenopause","life-stage","I am not sleeping, I am not myself, and I am tired of being told it is normal.",{"amount":252,"currency":17},185000,{"slug":254,"name":255,"group":249,"said":256,"programmeCount":41,"fromPrice":257},"fertility","Fertility & preconception","We are trying, and I want to give my body the best possible chance.",{"amount":252,"currency":17},{"slug":259,"name":260,"group":238,"said":261,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":262},"post-viral-fatigue","After illness","I was ill six months ago and I still am not right.",{"amount":263,"currency":34},2770,{"slug":73,"name":265,"group":238,"said":266,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":267},"Longevity & prevention","I am well. I would like to stay that way, and I would like some data.",{"amount":114,"currency":34},{"slug":269,"name":270,"group":249,"said":271,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":272},"first-retreat","A first retreat","I have never done anything like this and I do not want to get it wrong.",{"amount":50,"currency":51},{"slug":274,"name":275,"group":249,"said":276,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":277},"travelling-alone","Travelling alone","I am going by myself and I do not want to eat dinner alone for two weeks.",{"amount":263,"currency":34},{"slug":279,"name":280,"group":249,"said":281,"programmeCount":13,"fromPrice":282},"together","Going together","I want to do the programme. My partner wants a holiday.",{"amount":252,"currency":17},[284,287,290,293],{"key":204,"title":285,"note":286},"Mind & nervous system","Where a change of place does the most work, and where the evidence is best.",{"key":220,"title":288,"note":289},"Body & metabolism","Digestion, weight, joints — the concerns that respond to daily repetition over a fortnight.",{"key":238,"title":291,"note":292},"With a diagnosis","Alongside your own doctor, never instead. These pages are the most careful on the site.",{"key":249,"title":294,"note":295},"Where you are","Menopause, preconception, a first retreat, travelling alone or together.",[297,300,303,306,309,312,315,318],{"slug":298,"h1":299},"ayurveda-retreats-in-india","Ayurveda retreats in India",{"slug":301,"h1":302},"balneotherapy-retreats-in-austria","The thermal kur retreats in Austria",{"slug":304,"h1":305},"balneotherapy-retreats-in-czechia","The thermal kur retreats in Czechia",{"slug":307,"h1":308},"balneotherapy-retreats-in-germany","The thermal kur retreats in Germany",{"slug":310,"h1":311},"longevity-retreats-in-japan","Longevity retreats in Japan",{"slug":313,"h1":314},"longevity-retreats-in-switzerland","Longevity retreats in Switzerland",{"slug":316,"h1":317},"mayr-retreats-in-austria","The Mayr cure retreats in Austria",{"slug":319,"h1":320},"mayr-retreats-in-germany","The Mayr cure retreats in Germany",[322,325,328,330,332,335,337,340,343,346,349,352,355,358],{"slug":323,"shortName":324},"united-kingdom","United Kingdom",{"slug":326,"shortName":327},"ireland","Ireland",{"slug":329,"shortName":78},"germany",{"slug":331,"shortName":98},"france",{"slug":333,"shortName":334},"spain","Spain",{"slug":336,"shortName":105},"switzerland",{"slug":338,"shortName":339},"netherlands","Netherlands",{"slug":341,"shortName":342},"united-states","United States",{"slug":344,"shortName":345},"canada","Canada",{"slug":347,"shortName":348},"mexico","Mexico",{"slug":350,"shortName":351},"brazil","Brazil",{"slug":353,"shortName":354},"argentina","Argentina",{"slug":356,"shortName":357},"chile","Chile",{"slug":359,"shortName":360},"colombia","Colombia",[362,366,371,374,377,380,383,386,389],{"slug":11,"name":363,"tagline":364,"regulated":365,"count":13},"Ayurveda","India’s licensed system of medicine, practised as medicine",true,{"slug":12,"name":367,"tagline":368,"regulated":369,"count":370},"Yoga","A lineage, a teacher, and enough consecutive days to matter",false,5,{"slug":81,"name":372,"tagline":373,"regulated":365,"count":14},"The thermal kur","Europe’s prescribed cure, still paid for by health insurers",{"slug":67,"name":375,"tagline":376,"regulated":365,"count":23},"Onsen","Japanese hot-spring bathing, defined by law",{"slug":100,"name":378,"tagline":379,"regulated":365,"count":41},"Thalassotherapy","Heated seawater, under medical supervision, since 1899",{"slug":58,"name":381,"tagline":382,"regulated":365,"count":41},"Traditional Thai medicine","A licensed profession, not the massage on the high street",{"slug":40,"name":384,"tagline":385,"regulated":365,"count":41},"Sowa Rigpa","Himalayan medicine, delivered by the state in Bhutan",{"slug":73,"name":387,"tagline":388,"regulated":365,"count":13},"Longevity","Two very different answers to the same question",{"slug":112,"name":390,"tagline":391,"regulated":365,"count":41},"The Mayr cure","A medically supervised digestive rest, invented in Austria",{"destinations":393,"countries":394,"resorts":395,"programmes":393,"concerns":393,"modalities":396,"bookable":397,"excursions":398,"extensions":399},15,12,23,9,13,76,45,{"destination":401,"resorts":540,"programmes":645,"modalities":954},{"slug":109,"name":110,"place":402,"country":92,"countryCode":403,"cluster":79,"fame":41,"modalities":404,"hook":405,"caseFor":406,"hardFacts":411,"caveat":417,"season":418,"seasonNote":419,"practical":420,"figures":433,"faqs":446,"image":453,"imageAlt":454,"gallery":455,"coords":467,"gateway":470,"tempC":492,"climateNote":498,"leisure":499,"extensions":523,"resortCount":23,"programmeCount":23,"fromPrice":537,"minNights":538,"maxNights":539},"Lans, Igls and the Inn valley above Innsbruck","AT",[112,81],"Where the Mayr cure became a medical category — and where “going to Austria for your gut” came from.",[407,408,409,410],"This is the birthplace of the modern F. X. Mayr cure as an international product. Lanserhof opened at Lans in 1984 and turned a nineteenth-century digestive cure into a rigorous, doctor-led programme with diagnostics attached.","The tone is genuinely clinical rather than resort. A Mayr house runs a medical intake, blood work, manual abdominal treatment and a graded diet — and the well-known Austrian houses are unusually candid that the first three days are unpleasant.","It sits at altitude above Innsbruck with graded walking on the doorstep, which the doctors prescribe rather than suggest, and it is two hours from most of Europe.","The competition between the Tyrolean houses is real and useful: Lanserhof, Park Igls and the VIVAMAYR group have pushed each other on diagnostics for four decades, and the least resort-like of them is usually also the best value.",[412,413,414,415,416],"Lanserhof Lans opened in 1984 — the original house of the group that made Modern Mayr Medicine an international category.","The cure derives from Franz Xaver Mayr (1875–1965), an Austrian physician whose diagnostic and dietary system underpins every house here.","Lanserhof Tegernsee (2014) and Lanserhof Sylt (2022) are the group’s later flagships, in Germany.","Park Igls sits above Innsbruck at roughly 900 m and is consistently the most clinically-toned and least expensive of the famous Austrian Mayr houses.","A standard Mayr course is 7 to 14 nights; the houses themselves recommend 14 for a first cure.","The Mayr cure is not a spa week and the first seventy-two hours are genuinely miserable — headache, fatigue and hunger while caffeine and sugar come out. The evidence base is also thinner than the clinical presentation suggests: supervised caloric restriction, chewing training and a strict eating rhythm plausibly explain most of the benefit, and the more elaborate diagnostic claims made for abdominal palpation are not well supported. Go for the structure and the supervision, not for the theory.",[41,41,41,41,23,23,23,23,23,41,42,41],"May to September is the window, because the graded walking that the doctors prescribe needs open paths and long light. November is the Alpine Zwischensaison and much of the valley closes. Winter courses run and work perfectly well — you simply do the walking on cleared paths in the cold.",[421,424,427,430],{"label":422,"value":423},"Getting there","Innsbruck (INN) is twenty minutes away; Munich is two hours by road or rail and often better connected.",{"label":425,"value":426},"The first days","Expect headache and fatigue on days two and three. Taper caffeine at home for a fortnight beforehand and it is markedly easier.",{"label":428,"value":429},"Insurance","Austrian and German insurers occasionally contribute where a medical indication is documented. Ask before travelling; it is never automatic.",{"label":431,"value":432},"What to bring","Walking shoes. The prescription includes the hill, and the houses check that you are using it.",[434,437,440,443],{"value":435,"label":436},"1984","Lanserhof Lans opens",{"value":438,"label":439},"900 m","Park Igls altitude",{"value":441,"label":442},"7–14","Nights, standard course",{"value":444,"label":445},"3 days","Before it gets easier",[447,450],{"q":448,"a":449},"What actually is a Mayr cure?","A medically supervised digestive rest: a graded, deliberately dull diet, trained slow chewing, manual abdominal treatment, magnesium, and a strict eating rhythm with nothing after early evening. Diagnostics and blood work sit around it. It is dull by design and that is most of why it works.",{"q":451,"a":452},"Which house should I take?","Park Igls if you want the most clinical tone and the best value; Lanserhof if you want the diagnostics and the architecture and do not mind paying for both. We will tell you plainly which one your answers point at.","photo-1520769945061-0a448c463865","An Alpine meadow above the Inn valley",[456,459,461,464],{"src":457,"alt":458},"photo-1501785888041-af3ef285b470","An Alpine lake below mountains",{"src":453,"alt":460},"The valley from the ridge above it",{"src":462,"alt":463},"photo-1439853949127-fa647821eba0","A mountain lake in the high Alps",{"src":465,"alt":466},"photo-1476231682828-37e571bc172f","Alpine forest from above",{"lat":468,"lng":469},47.23,11.41,{"airport":471,"code":115,"city":472,"routings":473,"transfer":490,"flightNote":491},"Innsbruck","Innsbruck — the clinics are in the hills immediately above it",[474,478,482,486],{"from":475,"how":476,"time":477},"London & the UK","Direct to Innsbruck, heavily weighted to the ski season; Munich is the year-round alternative, two hours by road.","2 hours",{"from":479,"how":480,"time":481},"Continental Europe","Direct to Innsbruck or Munich, or the rail network through Munich and Zurich.","2–4 hours",{"from":483,"how":484,"time":485},"The Gulf & India","Direct to Munich or Vienna, then rail or road.","6–8 hours flying",{"from":487,"how":488,"time":489},"North America","One stop through Munich, Frankfurt, Vienna or Zurich.","10–12 hours","20 to 30 minutes up the hill from Innsbruck airport to Lans, Igls and the Hungerburg. Two hours from Munich.","The Innsbruck approach is a valley one and winter weather diverts it to Munich or Salzburg more often than any other alpine airport — the airline buses you on, but it adds three hours. If your programme starts the next morning, fly the day before.",[13,370,493,393,494,395,495,496,494,393,497,14],11,20,25,24,8,"A sheltered alpine valley at 600 m, with the clinics 300 m above it. Föhn winds make spring changeable; September and October are the settled months.",[500,506,511,514,518],{"name":501,"kind":502,"duration":503,"note":504,"when":505},"The Nordkette by cable car","nature","Half day","From the middle of Innsbruck to 2,300 m in twenty minutes on a Zaha Hadid funicular and two cable cars. The city is directly below your feet at the top.","any",{"name":507,"kind":508,"duration":477,"note":509,"when":510},"The Goldenes Dachl and the old town","culture","Maximilian’s golden roof of 1500, the Hofburg and the Hofkirche with its twenty-eight bronze mourners — the finest Renaissance monument north of the Alps.","rest-day",{"name":512,"kind":508,"duration":503,"note":513,"when":510},"Swarovski Kristallwelten","Twenty minutes east at Wattens. Divisive, spectacular, and the André Heller chambers are far stranger than the shop suggests.",{"name":515,"kind":502,"duration":516,"note":517,"when":505},"The Zillertal and the Achensee","Full day","A steam railway up the Ziller valley, or the lake steamer on the Achensee. Tyrol at its most postcard, an hour away.",{"name":519,"kind":520,"duration":503,"note":521,"when":522},"A mountain hut lunch","food","Fifty minutes up on foot to a Jausenstation for Kaiserschmarrn and a view. On a modified-fasting programme this is a genuinely bad idea and we will say so — take it after.","after",[524,529,533],{"name":525,"nights":526,"note":527,"side":528},"Salzburg","2 nights","Two hours by rail, and the natural pairing with an Innsbruck stay.","either",{"name":530,"nights":531,"note":532,"side":522},"The Dolomites","3 nights","Over the Brenner into Alto Adige — Alpe di Siusi, Ortisei and the best mountain food in Europe.",{"name":534,"nights":526,"note":535,"side":536},"Munich","Two hours north, and often the gateway anyway. The Pinakotheken and the Englischer Garten.","before",{"amount":114,"currency":34},10,14,[541,597],{"slug":192,"name":193,"destinationSlug":109,"area":542,"country":92,"opened":543,"modalities":544,"character":174,"knownFor":545,"why":546,"signature":551,"typicalNights":552,"priceNote":553,"accolades":554,"honest":557,"relationship":128,"confidence":558,"image":457,"imageAlt":559,"greatFor":560,"whoShouldGo":565,"team":566,"roomTypes":567,"facilities":577,"dining":583,"activities":587,"arrival":593,"destinationName":110,"programmeCount":41,"fromPrice":595},"Lans, above Innsbruck",1984,[112],"The mother house of the Lanserhof group — the property that turned the F. X. Mayr gut cure into a luxury medical category.",[547,548,549,550],"Opened in 1984 as the original Lanserhof, and the house from which the entire Modern Mayr Medicine category was exported.","The smallest and most clinically intimate of the Lanserhof houses, which is exactly why regulars keep choosing it over the newer flagships.","A genuine medical intake: physician examination, blood work, manual abdominal treatment and a graded diet, with diagnostics rather than a spa menu.","At altitude above Innsbruck with graded walking prescribed as part of the cure rather than offered as an activity.","The classic Mayr cure — seven to fourteen nights of medically supervised digestive rest with daily physician review.","7–14 nights","Indicative and season-dependent; the group prices by programme and room category. Confirm in writing.",[555,556],"The original Lanserhof, opened 1984","The house that made Modern Mayr Medicine an international category","The first seventy-two hours are genuinely miserable — headache, fatigue and hunger while caffeine and sugar come out — and the houses are candid about it. The evidence base is also thinner than the clinical presentation implies: supervised caloric restriction, chewing training and a strict eating rhythm plausibly explain most of the benefit, while the diagnostic claims made for abdominal palpation are not well supported.","high","An Alpine lake below the Tyrolean mountains",[561,562,563,564],"Modern Mayr medicine","Gut health","Diagnostics","A properly medical fast","Somebody whose problem is digestive, metabolic or inflammatory, and who is prepared to be genuinely hungry for a fortnight in exchange for a properly medical answer. Modern Mayr medicine is a real diagnostic and dietary discipline and this is one of the houses that developed it.","Physicians trained in Mayr medicine alongside internists, with diagnostics, laboratory work and manual abdominal treatment as standard. Every stay opens with a medical examination and the diet is prescribed from it — there is no menu to choose from.",[568,571,574],{"name":569,"note":570},"Comfort room","The standard category, alpine-modern, quiet.",{"name":572,"note":573},"Superior room","Larger, with a balcony over the Inn valley.",{"name":575,"note":576},"Suite","For longer stays and accompanying guests.",[578,579,580,581,582],"Medical diagnostics and laboratory","Manual abdominal treatment rooms","Indoor pool, sauna and thermal area","Fitness, movement and physiotherapy studios","Extensive walking terrain from the door at 900 m",[584],{"name":585,"note":586},"The dining room","The prescribed Mayr diet — small, precise, and chewed at length, which is a technique rather than a joke. What arrives is decided by the physician.",[588,589,590,591,592],"Guided alpine walks","Nordic walking","Innsbruck and the Nordkette","Movement and breathing classes","Very little else, because you will be tired",{"airport":471,"code":115,"transfer":594},"Twenty minutes up the hill to Lans",{"amount":596,"currency":34},8620,{"slug":195,"name":196,"destinationSlug":109,"area":598,"country":92,"modalities":599,"character":174,"knownFor":600,"why":601,"signature":606,"typicalNights":552,"priceNote":607,"accolades":608,"honest":611,"relationship":128,"confidence":612,"image":462,"imageAlt":613,"greatFor":614,"whoShouldGo":618,"team":619,"roomTypes":620,"facilities":629,"dining":634,"activities":637,"arrival":642,"destinationName":110,"programmeCount":41,"fromPrice":644},"Igls, above Innsbruck",[112],"The most clinically serious and least resort-like of the famous Austrian Mayr houses — and consistently the best value among them.",[602,603,604,605],"A genuinely medical tone: unhurried physician consultations, real diagnostics, and none of the spa-hotel dressing that the flagship houses carry.","At roughly 900 m above Innsbruck, with the graded walking the cure depends on directly outside.","Materially less expensive than Lanserhof or the VIVAMAYR houses for a comparable, arguably more rigorous, medical week.","Small, family-run in feel, and repeatedly recommended by people who have done the cure at more than one house.","Modern Mayr medicine delivered with a clinical rather than a hotel emphasis, over one to two weeks.","The best value of the famous Austrian Mayr houses; low and high season differ substantially. Indicative.",[609,610],"Listed in the Sunday Times World’s Top 50 Spas 2025","The least expensive of the famous Austrian Mayr houses","It looks like a comfortable Alpine hotel rather than a destination spa, and guests expecting Lanserhof’s architecture are briefly disappointed. Then the medicine turns out to be at least as good and about half the price. If you want to be photographed, go elsewhere; if you want the cure, this is the one we would take ourselves.","medium","A mountain lake in the Tyrolean Alps",[561,615,616,617],"Value against its neighbours","Metabolic health","Repeat cures","Somebody who wants the same Mayr discipline in a quieter, less designed, less expensive house — and who would rather the money went on the medicine than the architecture. It is the connoisseur’s choice in the Tyrol and it has the returning guests to prove it.","Physicians trained in modern Mayr medicine with diagnostics and laboratory work on site, plus therapists for manual abdominal treatment. The medical density here is comparable to its more famous neighbours.",[621,624,627],{"name":622,"note":623},"Single room","A large proportion of the house is genuine single rooms rather than doubles sold for sole use — which for a solo cure guest is a material difference in price.",{"name":625,"note":626},"Double room","Standard and superior categories, most with balconies.",{"name":575,"note":628},"The larger rooms, for longer cures.",[578,630,631,632,633],"Manual abdominal treatment","Indoor pool and sauna world","Physiotherapy, gym and movement studios","A park on the Igls plateau at 900 m, with walking from the door",[635],{"name":585,"note":636},"The prescribed Mayr diet, in stages, decided at the medical examination and revised through the cure.",[638,589,639,640,641],"Guided walks on the plateau","The Patscherkofel cable car","Innsbruck old town","Talks on the Mayr method",{"airport":471,"code":115,"transfer":643},"Twenty minutes up the hill to Igls",{"amount":114,"currency":34},[646,818],{"slug":647,"name":390,"resortSlug":192,"modalitySlug":112,"hook":648,"intention":225,"concerns":649,"nights":539,"groupSize":41,"intensity":650,"overview":651,"suitedTo":654,"notSuitedTo":659,"phases":664,"dayShape":689,"sampleDay":690,"included":723,"excluded":730,"departures":734,"faqs":747,"image":457,"imageAlt":559,"bands":754,"durations":780,"counted":794,"priceIncludes":811,"care":812,"price":816,"singlePrice":817,"resortName":193,"resortCharacter":174,"destinationSlug":109,"destinationName":110,"country":92},"lanserhof-mayr-cure","Medically supervised digestive rest at the house that invented the category — and the first three days are genuinely miserable.",[218,225,242],"demanding",[652,653],"A medical intake with blood work on arrival, then a graded and deliberately dull diet — beginning for most guests with broth and a stale roll you are taught to chew thirty times — with manual abdominal treatment, magnesium, and nothing to eat after early evening.","The point is a digestive rest with a doctor watching. Days two and three are unpleasant for almost everybody as caffeine and sugar come out, and the house says so before you book rather than after.",[655,656,657,658],"Bloating, reflux and functional digestive complaints already investigated and found structurally normal","A metabolic reset — insulin resistance, visceral fat, weight that will not move","Anyone whose eating rhythm has drifted into late nights and grazing","Guests who want a genuinely medical fortnight with diagnostics attached",[660,661,662,663],"Any history of an eating disorder — the restriction and the weighing are inappropriate and we decline","Pregnancy and breastfeeding","Type 1 diabetes, and type 2 on insulin or sulfonylureas, without your own doctor’s written plan","Anyone underweight, or over seventy without a cardiology review",[665,673,681],{"title":666,"days":667,"body":668,"points":669},"Intake","Days 1–3","Physician examination, bloods, body composition and a diet assigned. Then the hard part: caffeine and sugar come out and most guests have a headache by the second evening.",[670,671,672],"Medical intake and bloods","Diet assigned individually","Chewing training begins",{"title":674,"days":675,"body":676,"points":677},"The cure","Days 4–11","Manual abdominal treatment daily, a graded diet that widens slowly, magnesium, and prescribed graded walking on the hill outside.",[678,679,680],"Daily abdominal treatment","Graded diet","Prescribed daily walking",{"title":682,"days":683,"body":684,"points":685},"Rebuilding","Days 12–14","Food is reintroduced on a schedule, with a written eating protocol for the three months that follow and a repeat blood panel.",[686,687,688],"Structured reintroduction","Repeat bloods","Three-month written protocol","Three hours are fixed, and the walking is prescribed rather than offered. The rest of the day is quiet by design.",[691,694,698,702,705,709,713,716,719],{"time":692,"what":693},"07:00","Wake, and weigh",{"time":695,"what":696,"note":697},"07:30","Breakfast","Broth and a stale roll, chewed thirty times. It takes twenty-five minutes and it is meant to.",{"time":699,"what":700,"note":701},"08:30","Physician contact","Brief, daily, and it changes the day's diet.",{"time":703,"what":630,"note":704},"09:00","Twenty minutes, and the part guests are most sceptical of before and most attached to after.",{"time":706,"what":707,"note":708},"10:00","Prescribed walk","Graded by the doctor. The hill is part of the treatment.",{"time":710,"what":711,"note":712},"12:30","Lunch","The largest meal, which is not saying much in week one.",{"time":714,"what":715},"14:00","Rest, or a diagnostic appointment",{"time":717,"what":718},"16:00","Second treatment or the sauna",{"time":720,"what":721,"note":722},"18:00","Supper — and nothing after it","The eating window closes here. This is non-negotiable.",[724,725,726,727,728,729],"Fourteen nights, at the occupancy you are quoted for","Full medical intake, bloods and closing panel","Daily physician contact and manual treatment","All meals on the prescribed diet","Guided graded walking","Written protocol",[731,428,732,733],"Flights or rail — both quoted separately, and we book European rail","Diagnostics beyond the standard panel","Any food not on the prescribed diet — there is none available",[735,739,743],{"start":736,"end":737,"note":738,"places":41},"2026-09-06","2026-09-20","Late summer",{"start":740,"end":741,"note":742,"places":41},"2027-05-16","2027-05-30","Alpine spring",{"start":744,"end":745,"note":746,"places":41},"2027-06-13","2027-06-27","Long light",[748,751],{"q":749,"a":750},"How bad are the first days?","Headache, fatigue and hunger, peaking on day two or three. Taper caffeine at home for a fortnight beforehand and it is markedly easier. Everybody who has done it says the same thing about day four.",{"q":752,"a":753},"Does the theory hold up?","Partly. Supervised caloric restriction, chewing training and a strict eating rhythm plausibly explain most of the benefit, and those are well supported. The more specific diagnostic claims made for abdominal palpation are not. Go for the structure and the supervision.",[755,763,772],{"band":756,"label":757,"months":758,"sharing":759,"single":760,"note":762},"low","Low season","November to February",{"amount":596,"currency":34},{"amount":761,"currency":34},10390,"Short days and snow. Both Mayr houses run all winter and it is the least expensive time to take a cure — which, given you will be indoors and fasting, is worth thinking about seriously.",{"band":764,"label":765,"months":766,"sharing":767,"single":769,"note":771},"shoulder","Shoulder","March and April",{"amount":768,"currency":34},9800,{"amount":770,"currency":34},11760,"The thaw. Changeable föhn weather, and the quietest weeks of the year at both houses.",{"band":558,"label":773,"months":774,"sharing":775,"single":777,"note":779},"High season","May to October",{"amount":776,"currency":34},11370,{"amount":778,"currency":34},13720,"Alpine walking from the door, long light evenings, and the months everybody wants. Book six months out.",[781,786,789],{"nights":782,"label":783,"factor":784,"note":785},7,"The week",0.56,"The shortest cure the house takes. Enough to be uncomfortable, rarely enough to be changed.",{"nights":539,"label":787,"factor":41,"note":788,"recommended":365},"The classical cure","The length modern Mayr medicine is written around, and the one the physicians will recommend.",{"nights":790,"label":791,"factor":792,"note":793},21,"Three weeks",1.42,"For metabolic and inflammatory presentations, and where the diagnostics find something worth working on.",[795,799,803,807],{"value":796,"label":797,"detail":798},"14","days of prescribed diet","In stages, decided at the medical examination and revised through the cure. There is no menu and nothing to choose.",{"value":800,"label":801,"detail":802},"6+","medical examinations","Including diagnostics and laboratory work on site, at the start, through and at the end.",{"value":804,"label":805,"detail":806},"10+","manual treatments","Abdominal treatment is the core Mayr technique and it is a physician's or therapist's hands, not a machine.",{"value":808,"label":809,"detail":810},"900","metres of altitude","On the Lans plateau above Innsbruck, with walking from the door — which is prescribed rather than offered.","Per person for fourteen nights, including the room, the prescribed Mayr diet at every stage, the medical examinations and diagnostics listed below, manual abdominal treatment, the movement programme and use of the thermal area. Transfers from Innsbruck and flights are quoted separately.",{"supervision":813,"team":814,"consultations":815},"Physicians trained in modern Mayr medicine alongside internists, with diagnostics and laboratory work carried out on site.","Every stay opens with a medical examination and the diet is prescribed from it. Manual abdominal treatment runs through the cure.","An opening examination, regular medical reviews through the cure and a departure consultation with a protocol for home.",{"amount":596,"currency":34},{"amount":761,"currency":34},{"slug":819,"name":820,"resortSlug":195,"modalitySlug":112,"hook":821,"intention":73,"concerns":822,"nights":538,"groupSize":41,"intensity":823,"overview":824,"suitedTo":827,"notSuitedTo":832,"phases":836,"dayShape":857,"sampleDay":858,"included":881,"excluded":885,"departures":887,"faqs":898,"image":453,"imageAlt":454,"bands":904,"durations":919,"counted":933,"priceIncludes":947,"care":948,"price":952,"singlePrice":953,"resortName":196,"resortCharacter":174,"destinationSlug":109,"destinationName":110,"country":92},"park-igls-metabolic","The metabolic week","The most clinical Mayr week available, at roughly half what the flagship houses charge.",[218,225,73,274],"moderate",[825,826],"A diagnostic and metabolic week built on the Mayr method: bloods, body composition, cardiovascular assessment and a graded diet, with unhurried physician consultations that are the reason people choose this house over its glossier neighbours.","At roughly 900 m above Innsbruck, with the graded walking the cure depends on directly outside the door — prescribed rather than suggested.",[828,829,830,831],"A metabolic baseline you will actually act on — insulin resistance, lipids, visceral fat","Anyone who wants the medicine without the destination-spa dressing","Guests comparing Mayr houses on clinical quality rather than architecture","A first cure, where value matters",[833,834,835],"Any history of an eating disorder","Anyone expecting a luxury hotel — it is a comfortable Alpine house and no more","Pregnancy, and diabetes on insulin without your own doctor’s written plan",[837,844,851],{"title":838,"days":667,"body":839,"points":840},"Baseline","Physician examination, full metabolic bloods, body composition and cardiovascular assessment, then a diet assigned from the findings.",[841,842,843],"Metabolic blood panel","Body composition","Cardiovascular assessment",{"title":674,"days":845,"body":846,"points":847},"Days 4–8","Manual abdominal treatment, graded diet, magnesium and prescribed daily walking on the hill, with a mid-week physician review.",[848,849,850],"Daily manual treatment","Prescribed graded walking","Mid-week review",{"title":852,"days":853,"body":854,"points":855},"The protocol","Days 9–10","Repeat bloods, a written protocol covering eating rhythm, exercise and anything needing your own doctor’s attention.",[687,729,856],"Referral letter where indicated","Three hours are fixed. The consultations are unhurried, which is the main reason regulars choose this house.",[859,861,864,868,870,873,874,877,879],{"time":692,"what":860},"Wake, weigh, and bloods on assessment days",{"time":862,"what":696,"note":863},"07:45","Graded to your assignment; chewing training from day one.",{"time":865,"what":866,"note":867},"08:45","Physician consultation","Unhurried — twenty minutes, not five.",{"time":869,"what":630},"09:30",{"time":871,"what":872},"10:30","Prescribed walk on the hill",{"time":710,"what":711},{"time":714,"what":875,"note":876},"Rest or diagnostics","Cardio-pulmonary testing and body composition fall here.",{"time":717,"what":878},"Treatment or the thermal suite",{"time":720,"what":880},"Supper, and the eating window closes",[882,883,726,727,728,884],"Ten nights, at the occupancy you are quoted for","Full diagnostic panel on arrival and departure","Written protocol and referral letter where indicated",[731,428,886],"Imaging beyond the standard assessment",[888,891,894],{"start":737,"end":889,"note":890,"places":41},"2026-09-30","Autumn",{"start":892,"end":893,"note":742,"places":41},"2027-05-09","2027-05-19",{"start":895,"end":896,"note":897,"places":41},"2027-07-04","2027-07-14","High summer walking",[899,902],{"q":900,"a":901},"Is this really \"longevity\"?","It is metabolic medicine, which is the part of the longevity conversation that has evidence behind it. Nobody here will sell you an infusion or a cell therapy, and if that is what you were looking for we would rather lose the booking.",{"q":903,"a":452},"Lanserhof or Park Igls?",[905,909,914],{"band":756,"label":757,"months":758,"sharing":906,"single":907,"note":762},{"amount":114,"currency":34},{"amount":908,"currency":34},5190,{"band":764,"label":765,"months":766,"sharing":910,"single":912,"note":771},{"amount":911,"currency":34},4900,{"amount":913,"currency":34},5880,{"band":558,"label":773,"months":774,"sharing":915,"single":917,"note":779},{"amount":916,"currency":34},5680,{"amount":918,"currency":34},6860,[920,923,926,930],{"nights":782,"label":783,"factor":921,"note":922},0.74,"The house's short cure. Real, and the physicians will tell you what it cannot do.",{"nights":538,"label":924,"factor":41,"note":925,"recommended":365},"The metabolic cure","Long enough for the laboratory work at the end to mean something against the work at the start.",{"nights":539,"label":927,"factor":928,"note":929},"The fortnight",1.34,"The classical length, and what we would book given the choice.",{"nights":790,"label":791,"factor":931,"note":932},1.88,"For long-standing metabolic presentations.",[934,937,940,943],{"value":935,"label":797,"detail":936},"10","In stages, from the medical examination, revised as the cure progresses.",{"value":938,"label":801,"detail":939},"5+","With laboratory work at the start and the end, so the result is measured rather than felt.",{"value":941,"label":805,"detail":942},"8+","Abdominal treatment, the core of the method.",{"value":944,"label":945,"detail":946},"1","genuine single-room house","A large proportion of the rooms here are real singles rather than doubles sold for sole use — which for a solo guest is a material difference in the price.","Per person for ten nights, including the room, the prescribed Mayr diet at every stage, medical examinations and diagnostics, manual abdominal treatment, the movement programme and the sauna and pool. Transfers from Innsbruck and flights are quoted separately.",{"supervision":949,"team":950,"consultations":951},"Physicians trained in modern Mayr medicine, with diagnostics and laboratory work on site and therapists for manual abdominal treatment.","The medical density here is comparable to its better-known neighbours; the difference is in the building, not the medicine.","An opening examination, reviews through the cure and a closing consultation with laboratory work repeated.",{"amount":114,"currency":34},{"amount":908,"currency":34},[955,1073],{"slug":112,"name":390,"tagline":391,"origin":956,"regulated":365,"regulationNote":957,"indications":958,"cautions":964,"whatHappens":966,"minimumNights":782,"recommendedNights":539,"image":457,"imageAlt":967,"originPlace":92,"body":968,"hardFacts":972,"evidence":979,"treatments":1002,"glossary":1025,"confusedWith":1046,"figures":1049,"faqs":1060,"destinationCount":41,"resortCount":13,"programmeCount":23},"Austria. Franz Xaver Mayr (1875–1965) built the diagnostic and dietary system that carries his name.","Delivered by licensed physicians in Austrian and German clinics under ordinary medical regulation — a Mayr house is a medical practice with a hotel attached rather than a spa with a doctor visiting. The method itself is not separately accredited; what is regulated is the doctor.",[959,960,961,962,963],"Bloating, reflux and functional digestive complaints that have been investigated and found structurally normal","Metabolic reset — insulin resistance, visceral fat, stubborn weight","Breaking an eating rhythm that has drifted into late nights and grazing","Fatigue with no identified cause, where a fortnight of structure is worth trying","Recovery from a long stretch of travel, alcohol and restaurant food",[965,661,662,663],"Any history of an eating disorder — the restriction and the weighing are inappropriate and good houses decline","A medical intake with bloods on arrival, then a graded and deliberately dull diet — often beginning with broth and a stale roll you are taught to chew thirty times — with manual abdominal treatment, magnesium, and nothing to eat after early evening. Diagnostics and daily walking sit around it. Days two and three are unpleasant for almost everybody.","An alpine lake below the peaks, with a single boat",[969,970,971],"Modern Mayr medicine is the most rigorous of the European cure traditions and the least pleasant to undergo, and those two facts are related. It rests on a specific, testable proposition: that a large amount of general unwellness is digestive in origin, and that resting, cleansing and retraining the digestive tract changes it. Franz Xaver Mayr, an Austrian physician, developed the diagnostic approach in the early twentieth century; the modern form has added laboratory medicine and dropped much of the original severity.","What makes it medicine rather than a diet is the examination. A Mayr physician performs a structured abdominal assessment — palpation, posture, tongue, a defined set of findings — and the diet is prescribed from it and revised through the stay. There is no menu. What arrives at the table is a clinical decision, and it is often very little.","The technique guests find hardest is the simplest: chewing. Each mouthful is chewed to liquid, thirty or forty times, in silence, at a table where everyone else is doing the same. It sounds absurd. It is central, it is measurable in how you feel by day four, and it is the single habit most people take home.",[973,974,975,976,977,978],"Franz Xaver Mayr (1875–1965) was an Austrian physician; the diagnostic and dietary system carries his name.","Modern Mayr medicine is practised under physician supervision with laboratory diagnostics, and is taught through professional associations in Austria and Germany.","The classical cure length is fourteen days; the method is written around that duration.","The Tyrolean cure houses sit at roughly 900 m on the plateaux above Innsbruck, and graded walking is part of the prescription.","Manual abdominal treatment by a physician or trained therapist is a defining component, not an optional extra.","The historical \"milk and stale roll\" diet has largely been replaced by staged modern protocols.",[980,984,988,991,995,998],{"claim":981,"status":982,"note":983},"Caloric restriction and fasting produce metabolic improvements","good","Short-term improvements in weight, blood pressure, lipids and glycaemic markers under supervised fasting and severe restriction are well documented. The open question is durability after you go home, which is what the departure protocol exists for.",{"claim":985,"status":986,"note":987},"Supervised fasting improves symptoms in metabolic syndrome and hypertension","mixed","A reasonable observational and small-trial literature, much of it from German fasting clinics. Encouraging, not definitive, and heavily dependent on what happens in the following months.",{"claim":989,"status":986,"note":990},"Thorough chewing and slow eating reduce intake and improve digestive symptoms","Slower eating and increased chewing are associated with lower intake and improved satiety signalling in several studies. Modest effects; free; and the one thing every guest leaves with.",{"claim":992,"status":993,"note":994},"Manual abdominal treatment relieves functional digestive symptoms","traditional","A century of clinical practice, a coherent rationale, and very little controlled evidence. Guests are consistently positive about it.",{"claim":996,"status":986,"note":997},"The gut is the origin of most systemic disease","The foundational claim, and it has aged better than most such claims — gut–systemic links in inflammation and metabolism are a serious research field. That is a long way from the strong version the tradition asserts.",{"claim":999,"status":1000,"note":1001},"A cure \"detoxifies\" the body","none","The word appears on menus and should not. What is demonstrably happening is caloric restriction, dietary simplification, removal of alcohol and caffeine, sleep repair and daily walking under supervision — which is quite enough to explain the result.",[1003,1007,1011,1014,1018,1022],{"name":1004,"duration":1005,"body":1006},"Mayr diagnostic examination","45–60 minutes, on arrival","Structured abdominal palpation, posture, tongue and history. The diet is written from this and from nothing else. Repeated through the stay.",{"name":1008,"duration":1009,"body":1010},"The staged diet","The whole cure","Prescribed in stages from very restricted upward, revised as you respond. Plain, small, and eaten slowly. You will be hungry, particularly on days two and three, and that is expected rather than a sign of a mistake.",{"name":630,"duration":1012,"body":1013},"20–30 minutes, most days","Hands-on work over the abdomen by a physician or trained therapist. The core technique of the method and, for most guests, the most surprising part of it.",{"name":1015,"duration":1016,"body":1017},"Laboratory diagnostics","Start and end","Bloods at both ends so the result is measured rather than felt. A cure house that does not repeat the panel has left the most useful part out.",{"name":1019,"duration":1020,"body":1021},"Graded walking","Daily","Prescribed, at altitude, at an intensity set to your state — usually far gentler than guests expect in week one. The alpine plateau is not decoration; it is part of the protocol.",{"name":1023,"duration":1020,"body":1024},"Base powders and supplementation","Alkaline mineral supplementation and magnesium are standard within the method. Ask what each is for; a good physician answers precisely.",[1026,1029,1031,1034,1037,1040,1043],{"term":1027,"meaning":1028},"Mayr cure","The full physician-led course: examination, staged diet, manual treatment, movement.",{"term":561,"meaning":1030},"The contemporary form, with laboratory diagnostics and without the original severity.",{"term":1032,"meaning":1033},"Kauen","Chewing — to liquid, thirty or forty times, in silence. The technique.",{"term":1035,"meaning":1036},"Bauchbehandlung","Manual abdominal treatment.",{"term":1038,"meaning":1039},"Basenpulver","Alkaline mineral powder used within the protocol.",{"term":1041,"meaning":1042},"Schonkost","The gentle, restricted diet stage.",{"term":1044,"meaning":1045},"Entlastungstag","A relief day — a deliberately reduced day within the cure.",{"name":1047,"difference":1048},"A juice-fast detox retreat","A juice fast is a product you order. A Mayr cure is a diagnosis followed by a prescription, with laboratory work at both ends and a physician who can stop it. The subjective experience of hunger is similar; everything around it — the assessment, the staging, the supervision, the measurement — is not.",[1050,1052,1054,1057],{"value":796,"label":1051},"Days in a classical cure",{"value":438,"label":1053},"Altitude of the Tyrolean houses",{"value":1055,"label":1056},"2","Laboratory panels: start and end",{"value":1058,"label":1059},"40","Chews per mouthful",[1061,1064,1067,1070],{"q":1062,"a":1063},"How hungry will I actually be?","Genuinely hungry, and worst on days two and three. It settles, and most guests report a strange clarity by the end of the first week. If that sounds intolerable rather than interesting, this is the wrong discipline and we will say so.",{"q":1065,"a":1066},"Is a week enough?","Seven nights is the shortest cure the houses take and it is enough to be uncomfortable, rarely enough to be changed. Fourteen is the length the method is written around and what the physicians will recommend. Ten is a workable compromise if the laboratory work is repeated.",{"q":1068,"a":1069},"Who should not do this?","Anyone with a history of an eating disorder — we ask, and we will decline. Also pregnancy, breastfeeding, type 1 diabetes, significant underweight, and active treatment for serious illness. Fasting interacts seriously with insulin, sulfonylureas, lithium, anticoagulants and several blood-pressure drugs; the physicians must see your full list. If you are on a GLP-1 medication, say so — it changes what the programme should be doing.",{"q":1071,"a":1072},"Will I put the weight straight back on?","Some of it, and quickly — a meaningful part of what comes off in week one is water. What the cure is actually for is the metabolic picture, the digestive symptoms and the habits, and the eight weeks after you leave decide whether any of it lasts. That is what the departure protocol is for, and it is the part to take seriously.",{"slug":81,"name":372,"tagline":373,"origin":1074,"regulated":365,"regulationNote":1075,"indications":1076,"cautions":1082,"whatHappens":1087,"minimumNights":539,"recommendedNights":790,"image":1088,"imageAlt":1089,"originPlace":1090,"body":1091,"hardFacts":1095,"evidence":1102,"treatments":1121,"glossary":1146,"confusedWith":1171,"figures":1174,"faqs":1187,"destinationCount":14,"resortCount":14,"programmeCount":42},"Roman, revived across the Habsburg and German spa towns from the eighteenth century.","Genuinely medical in the German-speaking world. A Kur is prescribed by a doctor, delivered under medical supervision at an accredited Kurhaus, and part-reimbursed by statutory health insurance in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. The water itself is analysed and certified for mineral content.",[1077,1078,1079,1080,1081],"Osteoarthritis and chronic musculoskeletal pain — the best-evidenced use","Rheumatic conditions in a stable phase","Rehabilitation after orthopaedic surgery","Respiratory conditions, in the salt and radon galleries","Psoriasis and eczema, in specific mineral waters",[1083,1084,1085,1086],"Uncontrolled cardiac disease — hot immersion is a genuine cardiovascular load","Active infection, open wounds or fever","Pregnancy, for the hotter protocols and the radon galleries","Radon exposure is dose-controlled and not for anyone under eighteen","A doctor examines you and writes a two- or three-week schedule: timed immersion at a specified temperature, drinking cures taken at the spring at fixed hours, mud packs, inhalation, and graded exercise. It is unglamorous, medical and rather bracing — the treatment is the water and the routine, not the wellness centre attached to it.","photo-1571896349842-33c89424de2d","A lit thermal pool at dusk","Central Europe",[1092,1093,1094],"The European thermal cure is the oldest continuously practised form of medical tourism there is, and the least understood outside the continent. In Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France and Italy a *Kur* is a prescribed course — a physician examines you, writes a programme of bathing, drinking, inhalation and rest over two to three weeks, and in several of these countries some portion of it is reimbursed by the health system. That reimbursement is the most useful signal available about how the practice is regarded where it is actually practised.","What distinguishes it from a spa is the word \"course\". A single thermal bath is a pleasant afternoon. Balneotherapy is a defined number of exposures over a defined period, at a defined mineral composition and temperature, and the effect it claims is cumulative. Taking one and expecting the benefit is like taking one physiotherapy appointment.","The drinking cure — *Trinkkur* — is the half foreigners skip and Central Europeans consider the point. At Karlovy Vary you walk the colonnades with a porcelain cup and a spout, drinking specified springs at specified temperatures before specified meals, on a doctor’s schedule. It looks like a promenade. It is a prescription.",[1096,1097,1098,1099,1100,1101],"Eleven towns across seven countries were inscribed together as \"The Great Spa Towns of Europe\" on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2021, including Baden-Baden, Karlovy Vary, Bad Ems, Spa, Vichy, Montecatini and Bath.","The Friedrichsbad at Baden-Baden opened in 1877 and still runs its Roman-Irish bathing circuit.","Karlovy Vary’s Vřídlo (Sprudel) spring erupts at around 72 °C; the town’s springs are drunk at graded temperatures rather than at source heat.","Bad Gastein’s thermal water emerges at around 45.8 °C and the valley’s therapeutic use of its mine tunnels dates to the mid-twentieth century.","In Germany and Austria a Kur is a physician-prescribed course, and elements are reimbursable under some statutory health insurance conditions.","The term \"spa\" itself derives from the town of Spa in Belgium.",[1103,1106,1109,1112,1115,1118],{"claim":1104,"status":986,"note":1105},"Balneotherapy relieves pain and improves function in osteoarthritis","The most-studied indication, with Cochrane and other reviews finding small to moderate short-term benefit for pain and function — but consistently flagging low study quality and the near-impossibility of blinding somebody to being in a warm bath.",{"claim":1107,"status":986,"note":1108},"Thermal courses help fibromyalgia symptoms","Several small randomised trials report improvement in pain and quality-of-life scores lasting some months. Same methodological caveats; a reasonable thing to try, not a settled result.",{"claim":1110,"status":993,"note":1111},"A drinking cure aids digestive and metabolic complaints","Four centuries of clinical practice in Bohemia and a plausible mechanism for specific mineral waters — some are genuinely laxative or choleretic. Modern trial evidence is thin, and it remains a prescribed medical course where it originates.",{"claim":1113,"status":986,"note":1114},"Immersion in hot water improves cardiovascular measures","Passive heating produces real, measurable short-term cardiovascular responses, and observational work on habitual bathing populations is suggestive. It is not established that a fortnight’s course changes long-term outcomes.",{"claim":1116,"status":986,"note":1117},"Radon speleotherapy is beneficial for ankylosing spondylitis","The most contested entry in this atlas. Licensed and partly reimbursed in Austria on the basis of trials reporting reduced pain and analgesic use; radon is also a known carcinogen, and the hormesis argument underlying the therapy is not accepted outside the field. Read the debate rather than the brochure.",{"claim":1119,"status":1000,"note":1120},"Mineral water removes toxins through the skin","No. Skin is a barrier, not an exit. Whatever a thermal bath does — and it does something — it is not this.",[1122,1126,1130,1134,1138,1142],{"name":1123,"duration":1124,"body":1125},"Thermal bathing","20 minutes, daily or on alternate days","Immersion in mineral water at a controlled temperature, usually 34–39 °C, for a prescribed and surprisingly short time. Longer is not better and the staff will tell you so.",{"name":1127,"duration":1128,"body":1129},"Trinkkur — the drinking cure","Three times daily, before meals","Specified springs, specified volumes, specified temperatures, walked between with a cup. At Karlovy Vary the porcelain cup with a spout in the handle is the standard object and the walking between springs is part of the prescription.",{"name":1131,"duration":1132,"body":1133},"Fango and moor mud","20–30 minutes","Mineral mud or peat applied hot, usually over joints, then wrapped. Heavier and hotter than it sounds, and the most physically demanding item on a typical Kur.",{"name":1135,"duration":1136,"body":1137},"Kneipp hydrotherapy","5–10 minutes","Alternating hot and cold water — arm baths, treading pools, affusions — developed by Sebastian Kneipp in nineteenth-century Bavaria and still built into German cure towns as public infrastructure.",{"name":1139,"duration":1140,"body":1141},"Inhalation","15 minutes","Nebulised mineral or saline water for respiratory indications, taken in a group inhalatorium. Unglamorous and the main reason many Central Europeans go.",{"name":1143,"duration":1144,"body":1145},"Roman-Irish bathing circuit","About 3 hours","A fixed sequence of warm-air rooms, steam, a brush massage, thermal pools and a wrapped rest. At the Friedrichsbad it is seventeen stages and textile-free, with some mixed and some separated days.",[1147,1150,1153,1156,1159,1162,1165,1168],{"term":1148,"meaning":1149},"Kur","A prescribed course of treatment at a spa town — the whole three-week programme, not one bath.",{"term":1151,"meaning":1152},"Kurort","A town formally designated for taking a cure. The status is regulated in German-speaking countries.",{"term":1154,"meaning":1155},"Trinkkur","The drinking cure: prescribed mineral water at prescribed times.",{"term":1157,"meaning":1158},"Kurhaus","The cure house — the social and treatment building at the centre of a spa town.",{"term":1160,"meaning":1161},"Fango","Thermal mineral mud, applied hot.",{"term":1163,"meaning":1164},"Kneipp","Alternating hot-and-cold hydrotherapy, after Sebastian Kneipp.",{"term":1166,"meaning":1167},"Speleotherapy","Treatment inside caves or mine tunnels, using their stable air, humidity — and at Gastein, radon.",{"term":1169,"meaning":1170},"Colonnade","The covered walkway housing the drinking springs, and the social centre of a Bohemian spa town.",{"name":1172,"difference":1173},"A hotel spa with a thermal pool","A thermal pool is amenity; a Kur is a prescription. The distinction is whether a physician examined you, whether the water composition and exposure time were chosen rather than offered, and whether it runs as a course of a set number of sessions. The good news is that the cure towns themselves are delightful whether or not you take the medical version.",[1175,1178,1181,1184],{"value":1176,"label":1177},"11","UNESCO Great Spa Towns",{"value":1179,"label":1180},"1877","Friedrichsbad opened",{"value":1182,"label":1183},"2–3 wks","A classical course",{"value":1185,"label":1186},"72 °C","Vřídlo at source",[1188,1191,1194,1197],{"q":1189,"a":1190},"Do I need a doctor’s prescription?","For the medical version, yes — and the examination happens on arrival at the cure centre. For the towns, the bath houses and the colonnades, no: you can buy a ticket and walk in, and a great many visitors do exactly that.",{"q":1192,"a":1193},"Three weeks is a long time. Does a week do anything?","A week is a pleasant week. The claimed effect of balneotherapy is cumulative and the trials that show benefit run courses of two to three weeks. We will book you a week and tell you honestly that you are buying the town rather than the cure.",{"q":1195,"a":1196},"Is the textile-free bathing negotiable?","At the historic Roman-Irish houses, no — the Friedrichsbad circuit is textile-free throughout, with some days mixed and some separated. The modern thermal complexes next door are swimwear. Both exist in the same towns precisely because both preferences do.",{"q":1198,"a":1199},"What about radon at Bad Gastein?","It is licensed in Austria, partly reimbursed, and genuinely contested — radon is a known carcinogen and the low-dose hormesis argument is not accepted outside the field. It is contraindicated in pregnancy, in active malignancy and in several cardiac conditions. If you are considering it, read the argument on both sides; we will not sell it as uncomplicated.",1788864742525]