The practice of improving health by getting away for a time to a place dedicated to health and healing goes back centuries in cultures around the world. The health benefits of daily balneotherapy (bathing therapy), drinking lots of spring water, eating light, wholesome food, exercising in the fresh air and receiving body work have always been widely appreciated in Europe and in Japan. "Spa cures" gradually fell out of favor in the U.S. in the course of the last century, however, as Western medicine triumphed over infection and acute illness. Why waste time and money taking care of your health when the doctor could fix whatever ailed you?But in the last 20 to 30 years, as chronic, lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease have become a scourge, the idea of the healing spa has come back in North America in a big way. Most notably, the model of the medical healing spa, supervised by a physician and staffed by allied healing professionals-as well as by the expected massage therapists, aestheticians and fitness instructors-has become increasingly popular.
Integrating Spas and Medicine
Combining the relaxation and comfort people associate with the word "spa" with advanced medical evaluation and treatment can have far-reaching effects, inspiring and empowering guests to come to grips with chronic problems and change their lives for the better."It's great to watch people relax and come alive as the days go by-you can actually see it happen," says Karen Koffler, M.D., Clinical Director at Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach, a medical healing spa that opened late in 2008. (Its Wellness Spa is also the center of an associated healthy-living condominium community.) "Just being at the beach-the fresh breezes, the rhythm of the surf, the closeness to nature-is in itself healing.
"Dr. Koffler became frustrated with the conventional approach to patient care, which she felt was narrow and often ineffective, while working as a hospitalist. She decided to find a new approach, and became a fellow in Andrew Weil's integrative medicine program at the University of Arizona."Integrative medicine treats the whole person, and combines the best approaches of Western and Eastern practices to go beyond just treating disease to improving wellness. That's our focus here," she explains.
Meeting the Patients Needs
At many traditional medical healing spas, all guests are under a doctor's supervision. The model that's becoming more common now, however, is to give guests a choice of how "medical" they want their visit to be. Guests also have the option of mixing and matching Western and Eastern modalities, according to their needs and interests.Someone who wanted to lose weight, for instance, might want to have their blood sugar levels assessed, get an accurate metabolic assessment done, consult with a nutritionist about portion sizes and eating strategies, work with an exercise physiologist or fitness instructor on developing an exercise program-and consult a Chinese medicine practitioner for herbs and acupuncture to control appetite and cravings.And guests need not figure out for themselves what would be most helpful-most medical healing spas offer extensive advising services, as well as packages of services focused on common health challenges and goals.
This holistic, integrative healing spa approach offers hope for many conditions for which standard Western medical practice-with its abbreviated office visits and symptom-oriented focus-may not be particularly effective.For example, back pain is both extremely common and often hard to diagnose and treat using a purely medical approach-MRIs of people in excruciating pain sometimes show nothing. A well-staffed medical healing spa, however, can offer a guest struggling with back pain a whole range of things to try, including expert bodywork, access to aquathermal environments and hydromassage, a personalized yoga practice, a customized exercise program focused on strengthening back muscles, and more.
Exceptional Staff
"At Canyon Ranch, for instance, we have a McKenzie-trained physical therapist on staff," says Dr. Koffler. "McKenzie is a system of musculoskeletal evaluation and care that's incredibly effective at getting people out of pain. I've seen McKenzie make a stunning difference in people's lives, but it's by no means easy to find a physical therapist with this training.
"And we have Oriental modalities that are wonderful, including Reiki and Acutonics. We have a healing energy practitioner who does extraordinary hands-on work that teaches people to breathe more deeply and release tension that causes disease."It's important to note that a physician-supervised medical healing spa is the safest possible place in which to explore alternative healing, since guests can be sure that all the practitioners are experienced and properly credentialed."You add resources like these to options like 80-minute physician consultations and the most advanced lab work anywhere, and you can see why people choose to come to a medical healing spa," says Dr. Koffler. "This truly is the health care of the future."
About the Author
Founded by Mel and Enid Zuckerman, Canyon Ranch has been offering healthy, active vacations for 30 years. The life-enhancement company has two destination resorts-the original, which opened in Tucson, Ariz., in 1979, and a second, which opened in Lenox, Mass., in 1989. Canyon Ranch introduced Canyon Ranch Living Miami Beach and Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach, the nation's first luxury residential community and wellness hotel, in 2008. Canyon Ranch SpaClub facilities are located at The Venetian and The Palazzo in Las Vegas, Nev. and the newest Canyon Ranch venture, Canyon Ranch SpaClub at Sea, features facilities onboard the six ships that make up Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, as well as on-board Cunards' Queen Mary 2 luxury ocean liner. To learn more about Canyon Ranch, Miaimi Beach, visit www.canyonranchmiamibeach.com.
