What a Difference A Spa Makes!

Spotlight with Klaus Labuttis

We are speaking with Klaus Labuttis, a wellness and natural health consumer recounting his own experiences of healing from rheumatoid arthritis and his yearly travels to the Grand Spas in the Czech Republic to stay healthy and fit.

My Personal Story

All my life, I was an athlete. Sports and fitness were part of my daily routine. This life changed without warning when I woke up one morning and felt my hands and underarms fragile like glass. Even the slightest pressure caused pain to shoot throughout my body. The change came so suddenly and unexpectedly, and I feared that my 49-year-old life was from now on a mere shadow of my previous existence.

I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and prescribed medications used for cancer treatment that the doctor said would help me to use my hands again. What the doctor did not tell me, however, were the side effects. I experienced intense sweating at night, stomach aches, diarrhea, and especially the loss of my libido and sexual ability. No way could I continue with this. I threw the pills away and explored other options.

Reading the famous German poet and writer Johann von Goethe, I learned about his old-age rheumatic sufferings and the healing waters he used at a spa in the Czech Republic. I started to research and read about the healing properties of the thermal waters there and especially the pain-relieving effects of the carbon-rich mineral gases.

What a difference a Spa makes

 So, I went to this wellness hotel two hours outside of Prague in the Czech Republic. Being born and raised in Germany, I was wonderfully surprised by the beauty of this hotel and the old-style European ambiance that I so missed living in Miami Beach, Florida. Thomas Edison went almost yearly in his older age to this spa and called it “the most beautiful place on Earth.”

These Grand Spas of Europe have attracted the elites and aristocracy for centuries. The settings of these towns will take your breath away. Fortunately, there is an impressive arsenal of applications available to revive you. These wellness hotels are not a soul-searching yoga retreat, but about life-transforming experiences and natural healing methods. The approaches are holistic and include fitness, exercising, and eating right. The buffet-style dining is stocked with whole-grain choices, paired with in-season, locally grown, organic vegetables, fruits, nuts, and fish.

The focus is on preventive, anti-aging medicine, and pain relief. Whether you come here for a specific goal in mind (weight loss, detoxification, fighting a disease) or you need a week or two for serious self-care, the doctors and balneologists (professionals concerned with the therapeutic value of baths – especially those taken with natural mineral waters) in the hotels will create an individual program that fits your metabolism and health targets.

My Healing Journey

On my first day into the spa program, I saw a physician/balneologist whose recommendation was drinking the therapeutic waters as it is an essential aspect of the healing and detoxification process. The doctor’s consultation determines which spring has the right mineral content for your benefits. For me, he chose this particular mineral spring water with its high magnesium and potassium content that I was to drink 3-times daily before meals.

I had three treatments a day as part of the spa program, starting with dry carbon mineral baths and mineral water inhalations to fight my internal inflammations. Medical massages and special mud baths, in addition to peat wraps on my arms and hands, were applied. Peats are organic substances found around the springs and then mixed with the waters to heal and reduce pain.

They also offered lymphatic drainage, deep tissue massages, and a complete suite of water therapies (including saunas, Roman and Turkish baths, and different pools), natural resources of mineral-rich waters, carbon-rich mineral gases, ozone therapy, cryotherapy, salt caves, inhalations, and much more.

After a few days, I felt different, I experienced my pain fading away, and after two weeks of treatments, I gained my strength and inner harmony back. I got hooked.

“After two weeks of treatments with the healing power of thermal waters and soothing mineral-rich carbon gases, I was able again to squeeze my shampoo bottle and shake people’s hands.”

Now I go every year to this spa – especially for my digestive ailments – to keep my body agile. It was so special that I decided to introduce these unique natural resources and healing properties to Americans.

Some scientific information about the healing mineral waters

The healing thermal waters are rainwater passing for decades through unique rock formations that only exist in a few places in the world (mostly in Europe.) The long process by which rainwater travels through mountains and rocks makes it packed full of minerals. The specific geological consistency of the stones defines the composition and therapeutic effects of the water. The springs come from so-called ‘aquifers,’ a body of permeable rock that transmits the waters.

The water is pure and clean if collected correctly and usually has a neutral pH, meaning no acidity or alkalinity. This mineral water is from deep underground, away from bacteria and pollution. Iodine, mineral salts, and carbon are just some of the dominant components in thermal spring water.

The medicinal mineral-rich water may be warm, cold, or hot. The temperature depends on the way the water is collected in the aquifers and transported to the surface.

Focusing on Wellness as You Age

I’ve lived in the USA now for over 20 years and do observe that popping a pill and going to work is often the way of life. Yes, it takes time and energy to focus on one’s health, but what else is out there, when pain is darkening all activities and the body has lost its vitality?

Getting older, I understand more clearly that my health and well-being is an essential element in my life. A holistic lifestyle means for me to eat right, move, and work out regularly and not allow any toxic substances to be introduced into my body.

The European wellness culture has over centuries developed  unique treatment techniques and applications, nowhere else to be found; and you will be amazed about the long-lasting effects reported by the long list of famous guests to these spas you can find on my website.

Klaus Labuttis
Health Tours Europe
Sacramento, CA 95825

klaus@healthtourseurope.com
530-300-8033,

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