Dry January, a subscription to the gym or would you rather do some basic physical cleansing? “The Original FX Mayr” health resort is located on Lake Wörthersee in Austria. From what was originally a barren treatment, a modern all-round concept was developed – with astonishing results. A self-experiment.
These aren't huge steps for humanity, but they are for Kate Campbell (not her real name). The 52-year-old is walking next to me through the forest on the southern bank of Lake Wörthersee. The guided hike is part of the daily program and also has something of a school trip. The guests or patients of “The Original FX Mayr” in Maria Wörth in Carinthia chat about all nationalities. And just like in school days, there is also a group dynamic rejector: some people apparently still have to shout at their employees on the other side of the world through their cell phones, even in the most idyllic mixed forest. Can they even be helped?
Kate and I talk about everything, from the weather to the world situation to the inevitable question: “Why are you here?” What she then says sounds more like the New Testament than like medical success: Thirty years ago she got her back started. After several operations, she could only walk with a cane and with pain. There were also painkillers, “too much wine” and the associated psychological stress. After ten days under the care of the doctors here, she was able to walk pain-free again for the first time – without a cane. “If someone had told me this a week ago, I wouldn’t have believed it myself,” she says. Me neither, but it's really unmissable.
Nobody at “The Original FX Mayr” is surprised that miracles happen. Cases in which conventional medicine reaches its limits regularly end up in the 5-star medical department: allergies and intolerances, migraines, stress, chronic inflammation, intestinal diseases or obesity are, for many people, conditions that are often only partially alleviated by medication with lots of side effects Can be held by a handle or subject to the yo-yo effect. Anyone who comes here is often at a loss and often reaches their limits. Now it's also about overcoming it by giving up some things for a while and allowing others to happen.
The doctors don't tinker with symptoms; it's more about “reprogramming the body and lifestyle,” says Gabriella Schnitzler, managing director of the house. “The focus today is on individualization.” And that means: time, empathy and a tailor-made nutrition and therapy plan. Everything is based on the belief that the foundation for well-being is laid in a healthy intestine.
It is now almost common knowledge that intestinal health plays a central role in many immediate and not immediately related complaints. Books about it are bestsellers, probiotics are sold in supermarkets. We know what is not good for the intestines: sugar, alcohol, white flour and meat, for example. All things that are usually avoided in classic diets. But the FX Mayr program is not a diet. Weight loss is more of a side effect, not the goal of the treatment. Rather, it's about doing a lot of cleaning – on a physical and, as a result, often on a mental level. Unlike fasting, however, you eat in small quantities – depending on your constitution.
“FX Mayr? Isn’t that the thing about the dry rolls?” I received a message from an Austrian friend when I arrived. He's not the only one who somewhat pityingly points out the joyless pastries. The correct answer should be yes. In the week ahead of me, I too will be crushing flatbread-like buckwheat rolls, also known as chewing trainers, ideally 30 times per bite every day, but the famous centerpiece of the treatment is accompanied by numerous other effective components, and for those who eat a little more, a high-class one Gourmet health kitchen.
Nevertheless, for the first five days I also have rolls in the morning, rolls at lunch, clear soup in the evening and tea, tea, tea and water, water, water in between. If shopping, cooking and eating are missing as a structuring element in the day, if you can't go to the fridge as a short-term escape when you're stressed or bored, that's what puts you in a bad mood. Around the third day it hits everyone – a feeling of meaninglessness and emptiness. On the hike, I think of honey rolls as I pass the beehives, of wild goulash when I see the deer jumping across the clearing, and of compote with cinnamon when I look at the half-rotten apples lying under the trees.
The Austrian Franz Xaver Mayr invented the cure named after him about 100 years ago and his approach back then, often involving consumption of rolls and milk for weeks or even months and a comparatively steely supporting program, was much more challenging and one-sided than today. A lot has happened and research has been done since then.
The somewhat unwieldy name of the house on Lake Wörthersee deliberately emphasizes its roots, as there are now numerous offers based on the principle. However, this health center was the first of its kind and was founded in the 1970s by Erich Rauch, a student of the old Mayr, who began to add further offerings to the sparse principle. Today a team of doctors under the direction of Ursula Muntean-Rock as well as various therapists, sports and nutritionists practice here. What is on offer here today has as much to do with the basic principle of 100 years ago as an automobile from that time has to do with a high-class electric car.
The personal program is created at the beginning: Some modules such as regular doctor's visits with abdominal massage as well as massage, bath and sports appointments, among other things, are standard. In addition, you can book everything your body and soul desires – or even what your wallet can afford – from salt peeling to nasal reflexology therapy to spa support from a psychologist.
So you are busy throughout the day – with less uplifting activities such as emptying your bowels with Glauber's salt, but also with beneficial applications and: attention. Extremely comfortable rooms and access to the lake – in the end, it is the warm and attentive contact with the doctors and therapists that gets things moving: “Don’t put yourself under too much pressure,” says doctor Muntean-Rock. “It’s enough to permanently implement one or two things you learned here when you get back home.”
Most of the house's guests stick around and come back regularly. One of them is Hans Rother (name changed), lawyer from Munich, 86 years old, he looks at least ten years younger. He came here 35 years ago, when it was still “like a youth hostel”. “The greatest achievement back then was a radio that was played over loudspeakers in all rooms.” The collective woke up at 6:30 a.m. and “the oven was off at 8:30 p.m.,” he remembers and laughs. Today there is a “pillow menu” for choosing pillows, and if desired, a router for Netflix can be set up in the room.
Rother's findings were less funny back then: severe joint inflammation throughout the body and drained by countless cortisone treatments that only made everything worse. He stayed with Mayr student Erich Rauch for several weeks, “after that I never had anything again and my hay fever disappeared too.” Today he also appreciates the cultured guests and that the property with its 45 rooms and suites is very privately run.
It is this interplay of privacy on the extensive grounds and a kind of conspiracy among the guests that makes this place special. Exciting stories included. Not least your own, because even without dramatic illnesses, you feel better after a week of bread cure than after an entire Dry January.
