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Digestive health: Gut restoration
With a growing body of scientific research revealing how our digestion can have a powerful effect on everything from immunity to mood, is now the right time for health clubs to be offering members specialised digestion programmes? Julie Cramer investigates
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 the gut actually 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 – but the theory is that establishing a healthy and functioning digestive tract will lead to the improvement of other ailments, even including 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 these depend on a healthy GI [gastrointestinal] tract. Good digestion is the starting point for many, if not all, health issues.”
Dr Stephan Domenig, medical director at the newly refurbished Mayr & More clinic in Austria, 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 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 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 five – 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 qualified resident nutritional therapists.
However, just as there’s no official definition 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.
This feature first appeared in Spa Business issue 2 2014, p60
CASE STUDY: GUT HEALTH AT GRAYSHOTT
The operator’s view
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) for the 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, as well as many others who have digestive issues like IBS, diverticulitis, inflammatory bowel disease, acid reflux and bloating,” says Moore. “It’s also great for people who are highly stressed, as digestion often suffers when stressed.”
She continues: “I call everyone from the regime two weeks after their stay and I get such encouraging feedback, 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.
“It wasn’t designed as a weight-loss programme, but 95 per cent of people lose impressive amounts of weight – often 5–6lbs in a week.”
First person experience:
Julie Cramer
We were a mixed bunch gathered at Grayshott Spa to experience the gut health regime: 16 of us, with 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 better care of herself after nursing her elderly mother. Two ladies were returnees, delighted with the results they’d experienced the previous year.
Food, and the removal of certain food groups, is a major part of the programme: 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 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 analysis, a nutritional therapy session, abdominal massage, a hydrotherapy bath, and castor oil compresses to aid detoxification.
The most notable 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 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.
“If participants truly act on all the advice they absorb over seven days, I believe it can be a life-changing regime”
