You are what you eat…
The inspiration behind Spain’s prestigious SHA Wellness Clinic, Alfredo Bataller Parietti, who cured his own 30-year digestive disease in 30 days by changing his diet now shares his wisdom with you
What inspired you to open SHA Wellness?
I had suffered for 30 years with digestive diseases and although I had always been checked by doctors there was no improvement. At the age of 52 I was surprised and lucky to find a real solution thanks to a splendid nutritionist and other natural therapies.
Once I discovered this new world, and mine was not an isolated case, I knew I needed to share this wisdom.
How did natural therapies ease your digestive problems?
They were eased in a very fast and effective way.
In just one month I went from feeling really bad and having a very worrying diagnosis of a colon stenosis, produced by a possible tumour to experience a radical change without pain and perfect digestion. Literally, I solved a 30 years problem in 30 days.
SHA Wellness Clinic
What symptoms were eased with the healing powers of nutrition?
I faced the evidence by feeling that my digestive system was functioning properly – something I had not experienced in decades.
Since then I have not felt heartburn or pain. I also lost nine kilograms in one month which is weight that, I suppose, I had to lose. I felt a mental lightening, a renewed energy, felt more nimble and enjoyed a positive and pushing spirit.
Do you now share these healing powers with people who attend SHA Wellness?
That is the reason SHA was created. My target was always to share a treasure that I was lucky to find in a very slight moment of my life, with many people.
Due to cancer I have lost many beloved relatives including my mother, my aunt and my sister to this disease. When my father was 48, he started suffering from ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). I wish I discovered all this knowledge before to share it with them; I am convinced that it would have been very useful.
HEALING POWERS OF NUTRITION
How would you describe a stay at SHA?
As a wonderful, experience. From there comes the name of a wellness clinic. Everything at SHA is delightful, the calm of the place, the silence, the pure air from the sea and the pine forest.
Also you have the personalised nutrition, weather, sun, sightseeing, facilities, aqua treatments and massages and the superb professionals.
Honestly, I think it is one of the best experiences we could have in our life. Apart from being pleasant, it is a source of knowledge to help us to live more and better if we know how to apply it in our life.
What sort of person would it suit?
To ensure the peace and tranquility of our guests, we have decided to restrain the presence of minors under 15 years of age. Everybody else fits perfectly with the SHA concept.
There are young people with great maturity who wish to start taking care of themselves to ensure a long and healthy life; there are athletes who want to improve their performance with an ideal diet and detoxifying habits.
There are people, whom due to their occupation, have to take care of their image, like well-known models, actresses and singers and they take the opportunity to, not only cleanse themselves inwards, but also enjoy the most innovative aesthetic treatments. We have four doctors who are experts in aesthetic medicine who apply the most pioneering existing techniques.
There are business people from all over the world who want to detoxify, relax, and get to know breathing and stress control techniques. We also host many people who want to solve their health problems, such as being overweight or experience sleep disorders,
There are also programmes for focusing on fertility and the menopause. The most popular are the anti-ageing or rejuvenation treatments where we achieve excellent results thanks to the best natural therapies with the most advanced and avant-garde treatments and knowledge of genetics, to manage delaying the ageing process and boost the vitality.
Why do you think spa is now important to our busy lifestyles?
In reality, spas are great places to relax and enjoy some treatments and massages.
But the SHA concept is something more complex as we have a very important spa area, with more than 60 masseurs (male and female) and therapists to give a great offer to our guests. This goes from Chinese Traditional Medicine, the best possible nutrition, therapies from millenary knowledge and diverse cultures.
We also provide the most advanced scientific medicine, but respect the premise of being minimally invasive and with a great holistic sense to boost the self-healing ability of the human body. In SHA there are 250 excellent professionals from more than 30 countries and we procure they are the best ones at what they do.
Where do you go to relax when you are not working at SHA?
This is a good question; you take for granted that in SHA I don’t get a chance to relax and you are right. I believe I am the one who experiences the least relaxation. But it thrills me so much to see the results in our guests and gives me strength and hope to carry on.
In our six years we have been awarded with more than 25 national and international awards, which are very rewarding, but nothing compared with the emotive gratitude from someone who manages to solve a health problem they have suffered from for a long time.
I enjoy going to other distinguished establishments, preferably in a good climate, and in contact with nature.
What nutritional advice could you give us for a healthier lifestyle?
I can only give a few general guidelines as our programmes are customised and you have to take into account the following facts such as where a person lives, what activities they do and how healthy they are. In general I recommend: beware of animal fat, pay attention to processed products; from animals choose fish; not all the vegetables and fruits are good, be careful with dairy products and sugar. I don’t dare to say more.
Glossary
Natural therapies – this is a form of medicine which employs an array of natural treatments including homeopathy, herbalism and acupuncture as well as diet and counselling
Chinese Traditional Medicine – is a broad range of medicine practices sharing common concepts which have been developed in China and are based on a tradition of more than 2,000 years