Nurture Spa Village in Tagaytay has new and exciting improvements to serve its clients better with bigger grounds and an enhanced spa menu, deluxe rooms, a swimming pool, more recreational facilities, and a new healthy and hearty cuisine.

Every time I go to the Nurture Spa Village in Tagaytay, there's always something new.  And during my recent visit, they certainly didn't disappoint me. In fact, the changes have been impressive.

From the original four Ifugao huts, the place is now sprawling with nine air conditioned overnight rooms and  dormitory-type accommodations that are perfect for one's renewal of wellness.  They even have a mini-pool for those who would want to take a dip when the humid weather hits.  But what's really notable with all of its transformation is the inclusion of naturopathic services that have transformed Nurture Spa into a medi-spa.

Combining spa with natural medicine

A medi-spa has been defined as a facility that operates under the full-time, on-site supervision of a licensed health care professional. The facility operates within the scope of practice of its staff, and offers traditional, complementary, and alternative health practices and treatments in a spa-like setting.  And since October last year, renowned naturopath Dr. Samuel Dizon has been working with Mike and Cathy Turvill, owners of Nurture Spa.  He has brought with him a sattelite clinic of the Institute of Natural Healing (INH) that has other facilities in Subic, Pasig, and Bataan.

"For the last 13 months, Cathy has been working on quite significant amounts of wellness programs like simple detox, stress busters, and weight loss," tells Mike of her wife who was then out-of-the country for a spa convention.  He adds, "Having Dr. Dizon helps us a lot [with our detoxification programs]."

Of late, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, mayor Edward Hagedorn was in the facility due to a bad knee. Dr. Dizon placed him under a detox program for five days consisting of a liquid diet, coffee enemas and electrotherapy, Filipino-style massages to raise his energy, and kelp capsules for the thyroid.  The result was a remarkable seven-pound loss and no more knee-cap replacement.

Healing spa

"Two years ago, he was a patient in Subic for knee-cap replacement. I treated him for about a week and he lost 10 pounds and then went home.  And then last year he went back but I didn't know where to put him.  Cathy offered her place and so we did it here.  Now he wants to set up something like this - again," says the soft-spoken Dr. Dizon.

Cathy and Dr. Dizon got to know each other through a project that they were supposed to do together.  When things didn't push through as planned, the two who have already became friends, decided to collaborate by putting natural medicine in a spa.  Having pioneered INH initially in a big hospital, Dr. Dizon is quick to note: "What we did in Subic before was incorporate the medical with the altenative.  Now, we are incorporating the alternative with the spa."

Dr. Dizon expounds on the idea.  "Some people think that a spa is only for the rich and can afford, only for the elite, only for relaxation and rejuvenation.  But if you make  [people understand that it's] a healing spa, people will still want to come.  It's medical spa for professionals, healing spa for laymen."

True to his words, people do search for them, and come, no matter the distance.  Filipino immigrant Mia Doerksen came all the way from Guam after hearing so many good things about the famous doctor who has produced miraculous results including saving patients in the worst-case scenario.  Thirty-three year old Mia was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and time, obviously, wasn't on her side.

Divine providence

Mia manages a small computer training school back in Guam where her family moved when she was nine years old.  She's had pulmonary complex as a child and so when she started having constant cough, the doctors thought it was pneumonia, later on  asthma, and then TB.  But the cough lasted for over a year.  The cancer had already metastasized when they finally figured out what was going on.

"I had done a lot of research and at the time I couldn't find him (Dr. Dizon) so I decided to go to Spain 'cause it's more within my budget and also had a better climate. It was beneficial except that it (the treatments) was self-administered.  It was a challenge and not exactly an ideal cancer battle plan," she says.

It was an Indonesian doctor in Guam who told Mia about Dr. Dizon.   When she finally decided to come to the Philippines, she still had no idea where to find him.  She's gone to other wellness spas in the county and Nurture Spa was her last stop.

"I've heard they're doing treatments so my husband and I went for a visit.  But then we couldn't find it on the menu [of services] so we just did a regular massage.  Then I asked the masseuse if they know or if they do wellness alternative treatment.  When she said yes, I asked who was the doctor supervising it.  When she said it was Dr. Dizon, I just said that he's the guy I was looking for," Mia recalls.

Lifestyle modification

What followed suit for Mia was a 21-day intensive holistic healing program found in Nurture Spa's Joyful Health Wellness Treatments.  Among them are:

• DMS (Digital Meridian Scanner, a computerized check-up for overall screening to monitor symptoms of illness in its early state.  It has been proven to be 80 to 90 percent accurate and is absolutely safe, non-intrusive, and non-invasive;
• Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator (TENS) also called non-invasive acupuncture that stimulates the nerve, muscles, and cells via surface skin by low electricity to make the brain produce endorphins or natural pain killers to relieve symptoms and stop pain;
• Pyroenergen, a treatment using a specially designed chair that helps eradicate viral diseases and those of unknown cause.  It also boosts energy and good for destroying microbes, fungus, and bacteria; and
• Coffee/Charcoal Colon Enema, an old fashioned method of cleansing the body's poisons through elimination of wastes via the colon using solutions including charcoal, coffee, and wheatgrass.

"It's the most aggresive I've actually had in terms of treatments because it's a lot," Mia recalls.  "For example, the one in  Spain, maybe I did two or three treatments a day in addition to the dietary thing but they didn't emphasize raw food which I think is one of the contributing factos why my cancer mark didn't go down.  I was eating mostly cooked food and cooked food don't have enzymes.

"And I discovered many things like the less work you give the digestive system, the more energy you're giving for the body to take care of the cancer. That's why here, I eat blended food and fresh juices a lot."

Mia admits that it was difficult in the beginning and that she thinks she's gone through a healing crisis.  "It'll feel like you're sick but what actually happens is your body is showing the symptoms as it's trying to get rid of the things you were experiencing before.  And you know the difference between the healing crisis and the disease because you feel more energized after."

Nutrition 101

On hand to help Dr. Dizon with Mia's dietary requirement are chefs Jasper Versoza and Gino Lebardo of Josiah's Catering.  Incidentally, they are also responsible for the spa food being served inside Nurture Spa's Tanglad Restaurant.

"Before we start cooking for his patients, Dr. Dizon talks to us.  It's like a crash-course in nutrition.  We customize our menu [depending on what we can serve for the patient].  In Mia's case, she can't eat meat, milk, cheese, chicken, anything that has  any seasoning because protein triggers her cancer cells," says Jasper.

Gino adds, "Dr. Dizon's diet is divided into four - A, B, C, and D.  Diet A is the liquid diet; Diet B is still a liquid diet with a bit of solids like fruits and vegetables; Diet C is normal food but small amounts and healthier options like brown rice or unpolished rice; and Diet D marami pa ring bawal."

According to Dr. Dizon, raw food provide the nutrients which heal the body, including the digestive system. To heal the body, it must be supplied with an enormous amount of nutrients above and beyond daily requirements. Excess energy can be injected rapidly into the body through juicing; it is the body’s take-off point to detoxification or cleansing.

As of this writing, Mia, who has gone back to Guam to join her Canadian husband and two lovely kids, maintains: "I really appreciate the support network here because that's one of the things that I realized when I started researching.  You really need to have a good support network that's going to assist you in the journey. The only treatments I've done before were pretty much self-administered, which is very hard and sometimes very discouraging.  This is a real blessing and this is what I was really looking for - an in-patient alternative cancer treatment in the Philippines."

As for Dr. Dizon, he recommends a patient to pray about and ask for signs. He concludes, "What we actually need is to open our minds."