The Austrian medical spa Viva Mayr has temporarily relocated to the village of Pörtschach until the end of 2014, across the Lake Wörth from its original location in Maria Worth.

The Viva Mayr clinic is assuring guests that the temporary facility at the five-star Lake’s Hotel and Spa will operate as usual, with the same Viva medical team, chef, detox regimes, treatments, therapies and diet plans.

Once the revamp is complete, the Viva Mayr clinic will return to Maria Worth in January 2015. The spa equipment will be supplied by Gharieni.

This resort and its sister property Mayr & More – which opened in April after refurbishment on Southern Carinthia's Worthersee lake – in are famous for practising the FX Mayr cure, a gut restoration therapy devised in 1901 by Dr Franz Xaver Mayr.

Guests follow a restricted calorie, low starch regime – in some cases drinking only tea or water – chew each bite of food dozens of times, take Epsom salts as a bowel cleanse and receive regular abdominal massages and a range of other prescribed therapies.

“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,” said Dr Stephan Domenig, medical director of Mayr & More said, in an interview with Spa Business 2014 Issue 1 page 60.

“Once your digestive system is cleansed, rested and you begin to eat the right things properly, you can absorb nutrients and the liver can do its job, kick-starting better overall health,” Domenig added.

The Mayr cure can only be delivered by doctors who have trained for at least three postgraduate years in the FX Mayr technique, but there is no official definition for gut therapy nor a singular designated training programme for practitioners and facilities wishing to offer this treatment.