Set the scene
With a prime position on the shores of Lake Constance at the confluence of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Liechtenstein, Buff Medical Resort is a brand new beast with searing ambition. New on the high-tech medispa scene, this beacon of calm offers state-of-the-art diagnostics and therapies with a team of specialist doctors, therapists, sports scientists and osteopaths at the ready. It’s not yet as busy and populated as the likes of Lanserhof, but that’s rather lovely as you have acres of hotel and spa to yourself (and a 40m inside-out swimming pool, saltwater jacuzzi, Wim Hof chamber, saunas and steam room) to wallow in glorious solitude. Cavernous contemporary-style minimalist bedrooms (with lake views) stay cosy with underfloor heating, some with personal saunas. The meals are still flavoursome (albeit rather sparse) and moreish (not a given with Mayr-centred nutrition approaches, given their rigidity). The 5000sqm medical spa runs like clockwork and is staffed with efficient, kind and caring receptionists, medical assistants and doctors of cheery good humour. Progressive, positive, forward-thinking, and embracing the future of preventative health, Buff feels a little blessed – and so will your autonomic nervous system when you leave.
What’s the backstory?
The site was home to a sanatorium for internal diseases in the early 20th century, founded by the physician Theodor Büdingen. Fast-forward to the 21st century, ten years ago, St Moritz hotel scion Hans Jürg Buff snapped up the prime chunk of real estate with the idea of wrapping a centre of excellence for modern, holistic preventive medicine in a sustainable architecture package. “Lake Constance is a special place of power for me.” Buff believes. “The mild climate, the clear air, the calm waters and the expansive views.” Buff Medical Resort finally opened in 2025, a medi-spa where every aspect of your patient experience is diligently reviewed.
What’s the wellness concept?
Buff blends diagnostics and the latest and most significant findings in functional medicine with conventional medicine. The diagnostics are stellar: blood tests, intestinal and metabolic exams, investigations of oxidative stress and inflammation, heart rate variability tests, radiation-free cardio MRIs, movement and 3D body analysis, as well as IHHT tests (interval hypoxia-hyperoxia therapy, which reveals the state of your mitochondrial function). As it’s an F.X. Mayr medicine centre, intestinal health and cleansing are at the forefront (hence guests are expected to chew the tiny food portions religiously). But it’s more than Mayr, dovetailing progressive diagnostics with muscle and movement analysis run by personal trainers and sport scientists who are on hand to advise, train and guide.
What’s the nutrition concept?
Buff has invented its own unappealing-sounding “Buff GourMed” food concept based on Mayr’s principles. It’s nicer than it sounds. Meals are anti-inflammatory, regional, and organic. Impressively, the tiny, measured portions are tasty (guests are on a Mayr level spectrum; mine is set at Level 1, one up from the broth, after I get better from a virus). Some of the dishes I’m allowed over my stay include smoked fish from the lake, homemade hummus, potato with linseed oil, fresh organic beetroot-coconut soups, pumpkin carpaccio with goat’s cheese ricotta and potato gnocchi with pecorino and baby spinach.
Nutritionist Clara Ender-Andersson twice-analyses my diet, pores through test results I’ve brought with me, advises me how to eat for each meal and gives general instructions on supporting my poor digestion (consume flaxseed oil, avoid raw food at night, eat fruit in the morning only, with protein and fat, discard seeds and peel vegetables to reduce lectins, eat peeled almonds, avoid root vegetables for now). She advises a plant-only five-day fasting-mimicking diet when I go home to further lighten my system. As with any F.X. Mayr approach, chewing at a glacial speed, and repetitively – 30 times per bite – is the aim. This aids digestion, appetite control, glucose regulation and cortisol regulation. It really is a simple, effective way to change one’s relationship with food.
What are the signature treatments?
Buff combines conventional medicine with the latest in functional medicine. A few people I speak to are here for apheresis – a blood-filtering therapy that removes harmful substances, immune complexes and pro-inflammatory substances from the blood. Detailed laboratory analyses and infusion therapies also boost the treatment. I’m passed through Buff’s system – they map out my body composition in excruciating 3D, do a full blood panel, and a state-of-the-art ECG uses AI to pick up any minute discrepancy. When it finds one, the cardiologist Dr Tihamer Molnar does a heart ultrasound, and they test another heart marker to be extra sure. It turns out there’s nothing wrong: AI is overzealous sometimes. Using spiroergometry (a cardiopulmonary exercise test) they assess my VO2 max and my FatMax zone (the intensity where my body burns the highest percentage of fat for fuel). Sport scientist Clemens Brunner employs high-tech gait and movement analysis to produce insoles to fix my gait, and PT Thomas Glinka in the Technogym addresses tight hamstrings, calf tension and right-foot pronation with take-home exercises. And Bahareh Alimoradinasrabadi on the sports science team introduces me to the Buteyko Method, a breathing retraining that involves breath-holding, which has been expanding lungs since the 1950s. They also hook me up to three antioxidant-rich IV therapies when I fall ill from a virus on my first day.
Which therapist should I book?
The medical director, Dr Claas Hohmann, oversees a team spanning medicine, orthopaedics, internal medicine, longevity, nutrition, and exercise science. I know my incredible doctor, Sepp Fegerl, already, having met him ten years ago at Vivamayr. He is still meticulous and caring, willing to scrutinise every aspect of my health and go above and beyond. He goes through my supplements, puts me on antioxidants, and low-dose lithium orotate, which reverses cognitive decline. (“Everyone who goes on to develop dementia is deficient in this”, he says.) He injects my face with local anaesthetic on the site of an inner-ear fracture I suffered via bike accident last April (“neural therapy” can restore nerve function after accidents when trauma has disrupted the normal electrical function of cells and tissues).
I also see Xavier Eggert, a gifted bodywork specialist in TCM, osteopathy and cranial, who addresses some of the compensations in my body that remain since the bike accident that caused the inner-ear fracture (and a skull fracture). There’s a complexity to the long conversations I have with Dr Fegerl, and other specialists, but he’s also very plain about the simple things. I am an oestrogen and cortisol dominant, over-performing woman with poor digestion and oxidative stress, with a central nervous system running on sugar, but with great muscle mass, he says. Take the supplements, follow the food rules, stick to the 95-98 beats per minute heart-rate zone to lose fat – a brisk walk and nothing more – and practise nasal breathing, and I’ll be just fine, he says. “You can live a long life, but you need to exercise every day”.
Where do you stay?
The rooms and suites are spacious, with picture-book windows over the lake, ancient trees, drifting swans, and passing walkers, joggers, bikers, and dogs. Dressed in Swiss pine flooring and pine-panelled walls, they have a chalet-eyrie feel. They have a simulated high-altitude climate, promoting cell regeneration during sleep.
Eco Effort
With a post-and-beam construction combined with natural stone including Gauinger travertine and Swiss stone pine wood, sustainability “was a central element of our project from the very beginning,” says Buff. The rooms are metal-free and designed to be low in radiation, creating a healthy indoor climate. Conceiving the resort, Buff wanted the focus to be on energy efficiency day to day, smart building technology, and regional organic food. Even the health focus on prevention, rather than invasive procedures, is part of this, he says. “For us, sustainability means ecological responsibility but also creating an environment that promotes health, from architecture to medicine.” It’s a thoroughly modern approach.
Accessibility
All areas of the hotel are accessible by wheelchair, with compliant door widths, and with main doors wider than 90 cm. The sauna, relaxation areas, fitness room and pool are accessible; only the saltwater pool and Watsu pool do not have step-free access. There is one fully accessible, wheelchair-friendly guest room.
Healing Holidays (healingholidays.com/condenast; 020 7843 3592) can arrange a three-night Relax programme from £2,599 per person sharing, including transfers, full board accommodation and inclusions of the programme