Gastein cure

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Historically, the term Gastein cure was used to describe a stay of several weeks in the Austrian Bad Gastein and the associated spa treatments. Bad Gastein enables a stay in alpine altitude at 1000  m above sea level. A. in combination with daily baths in mineralized Radon - thermal water . "Healing bathing" has a long history in Bad Gastein.

history

A bath in the Gastein is mentioned for the first time in 1350 and has been documented as a regular bathing establishment since the second half of the 15th century. Paracelsus , who examined the healing springs in the Alpine region, wrote in more detail about Gastein in 1525 and treated the mineral ingredients. In 1792, the Gastein spa doctor Niederhuber wrote about a "fine mineral gas" as an explanatory hypothesis. Around 1832, when the modern health resort began, there were still complaints about the comparatively primitive and poor accommodation. One was still amazed at the comparatively low mineral content of the thermal water and the stimulating effect of the cures in Gastein. It was also observed that the effects of the cure only take effect a few weeks after the stay. Around 1900 it was discovered the radium - emanation , which could later attribute the effect of the Gastein cure and similar spas within a few years.

Bad Gastein established itself in the late 19th century up to the First World War as a fashionable spa of international standing, it was called "Monte Carlo" or "Monaco of the Alps". The spa guests still had to travel by carriage until 1905, only then was Gastein connected to the railway network with the Tauernbahn . Within a very short time, a construction boom set in in the narrow valley, for example the ten-story Grand Hotel de l'Europe was built as early as 1906 . Gastein is still characterized by the cityscape today.

After the First World War, however, mainly because of the thousand-mark barrier in 1933, there were considerable crises and break-ins. Therapy in Bad Gastein was associated with the flair of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Gastein became attractive again to wealthy Jewish guests in the 1950s, including Nahum Goldmann and Ernst Stiassny. From the 1960s to the 80s, when the spa business could be combined with ski tourism, large hotel castles continued to emerge.

At the end of the 1980s, the health spa, like many other spas in Austria, and with it the whole town, fell into a crisis that could only be absorbed with the wellness boom of the 2000s. There were always revitalization projects by major investors, especially around the Viennese financier Franz Duval. Also in the 2010s, the spa business is facing the end.

Treatment remedies and application form

The typical Gastein thermal bath is structurally designed as a classic Roman bathtub , i. H. as a depression with a descent to an underwater bench (= sink bath). The naturally hot thermal water emerges from 17 contained springs at the foot of the Badberg at around 46 degrees Celsius . There are 44 sources in total. In addition, the radioactive noble gas Radon 223 Rn is dissolved in the thermal water , which is described on the Gastein homepage as "mild, natural radioactivity", which is "exclusively positive for the body, enjoyed as a cure". The water is individually mixed with chilled thermal water to the prescribed and tolerable bathing temperature. Further applications are steam baths ( vapor bath ) and air cures in the healing cave .

Some of the doctors working in the spa conducted various studies on the course of the spa. The Gastein Tauern Region research institute was founded in 1936 and dealt with radon thermal springs. In 2006 it was affiliated as the Gastein Research Institute (FOI) to the Paracelsus Medical Private University (PMU) in Salzburg. Extensive literature on the subject can be found in the Tyrol University and State Library.

Medical mechanisms of action and criticism

In the course of the popularization of radioactivity , the use of radon was said to have various healing effects - for example in faster wound healing or the reduction of tuberculosis. A hormesis , the positive effect of low radiation doses, was assumed at the time, but has not yet been confirmed. The use of radon in cures, the radon balneology , remains scientifically controversial and its effectiveness is not recognized. The incidence of lung cancer in the Gastein Valley is lower than expected in the Salzburg region.

literature

  • Joseph Kiene: The warm springs in Gastein . A contribution to the closer knowledge of the healing powers of this alpine bath. 2nd Edition. Duyle, 1847 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Greinwald: The Gastein cure. Therme and Heilstollen. A guide for healing seekers and healthy people by Dr. Hermann Greinwald. , 1986 (= Gastein Library, Volume 8). Publisher: Badgastein: Verlag Dr. Maria Krauth.
  2. ^ A b Heinrich von Zimburg: Theophrastus Paracelsus and Gastein. In: Communications from the Society for Regional Studies in Salzburg. 84-85, 1944/45, pp. 94-96 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  3. ↑ a b Burkard Eble: The Wildbad Gastein in its relationship to the human organism and the newly established branch bath establishment in Hof-Gastein . Sollinger, 1832 ( digitized version ).
  4. ^ Joseph Kiene: The warm springs in Gastein. A contribution. 2nd, presumably edition Duyle, 1847.
  5. ↑ Robert Exner: About the aftermath of the Gastein cure. In: The Balneologist. Year 8, 1941, issue 2.
  6. ↑ a b Bad Gastein is looking for itself. In: Die Welt online, August 20, 2012.
  7. ↑ a b Bad Gastein - From the Belle Époque to Art on Snow . Kultur-port.de, February 22, 2013.
  8. ↑ Laurenz Krisch: Breaking the Dollfuss Chains: The Development of National Socialism in Bad Gastein until 1938 . Böhlau, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-205-77129-X .
  9. ↑ a b Helga Embacher : Jewish "guests" in the Gastein Valley after 1945. In: Robert Kriechbaumer (Ed.): The taste of transience. Jewish summer retreat in Salzburg. Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 2002, pp. 227–247.
  10. ↑ Thomas Auinger: Therme Bad Gastein is fighting against bankruptcy. In: Salzburger Nachrichten. November 27, 2012, accessed November 25, 2015 .
  11. ↑ http://www.gastein.com/gasteiner-kur/radontherapie/gasteiner-thermalwasser ( memento of the original from November 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gastein.com
  12. ↑ Bechterew's disease Symposium, Bad Gastein 2004
  13. ↑ R. Piispanen: hormesis Radiation - fact or fiction? In: Environmental Geochemistry and Health . tape 17 , no. 2 , June 1, 1995, ISSN  0269-4042 , p. 95-102 , doi : 10.1007 / BF00146711 .
  14. ↑ German medical newspaper: Researchers explore the tunnel air. Doctors newspaper from January 7, 2013 [1]. Retrieved October 6, 2014
  15. ^ Johanna Pohl-Rüling, Werner Hofmann: Investigation of cancer mortality in the Gastein Valley, an area of ​​high-level natural radiation . In: International Congress Series (=  Radiation and homeostasis ). tape 1236 , July 1, 2002, p. 27-29 , doi : 10.1016 / S0531-5131 (01) 00763-4 .