Modern Makeovers

Lyndsey Steven checks into VivaMayr Altaussee where she tries Nasal reex therapy, chats to unwinding corporates and hears why you shouldn’t eat raw after four.

“A lot of men are really fatigued,” Dr Sepp Fegerl tells me. With the bucolic view through his window of lakes and forest, gentle meadows and snowy peaks, I’m finding it difficult to concentrate. But then distraction is clearly written into the DNA of VivaMayr Altaussee.

“It’s not only women who are striving to be the perfect wife, mother and career woman,” continues the idyllic health resort’s Medical Director. “We have a lot of male clients who are getting onto planes ten times a week – this is not healthy. They are overweight, stressed and suffer from insomnia. What’s more, is that the state of desperation in our male clients is sometimes higher than in our female clients.”

Dr Fegerl and his team believe that one ten-day stay can add ten years to a lifespan, while adopting their clean living principles could give you at least another 20 years. Staff follow the doctrines of Austrian physician Dr Franz Xaver Mayr who started practising more than 100 years ago – and who lived until he was 90. He believed humans unknowingly self-harm by storing up toxins in their intestines. To this end, he developed the Mayr Cure, a combination of fasting, sweating, sleeping, sensible living and chewing. Lots of chewing. Your ears need to echo from chewing.

Through word of mouth (General Manager Dr Dieter Resch tells me that they never advertise, though the website, vivamayr.com/en/altaussee, is comprehensive), it’s a philosophy that’s gained an avid following. What’s more, big corporations are buying into it as a method in maintaining a healthier, happier ship.

“More companies are sending top-tier executives to VivaMayr in a bid to make them look after themselves better. A lot of big finance and pharmaceutical companies, including ones from Dubai, are benefitting from our programmes,” says Dr Fegerl.