Saint Andreas Hospital

Introduction on the hospital

St. Andrew’s Rheumatology Hospital as a health care providing institution is the successor of the State Thermal Hospital founded on the estate built by the Festetics family at the end of the 17th century.
The hospital, i.e. the handler of the thermal lake of Hévíz, the thermal mud and the water, is a natural treasure that serves as one of the most important instruments of effective treatment of a number of diseases and disorders.

What is it that we are offering to you? What makes the Hévíz thermal therapy unique?

The institution has been carrying out the medical rehabilitation of locomotor diseases with special regards to rheumatism as a rehabilitating and later as a specialised hospital since its foundation. What is it that we are offering to you? What makes the Hévíz thermal therapy unique?
It is the thermal lake’s water composition and effects that make it unique.

Three geological periods meet here at the lake and provide us with everything that can be used in medicine: the thermal karts water deposited in the Pannon limestone erupted in the ice age. This was later replaced by water coming from the geological Triassic’s dolomite. Dolomite provides the anti-inflammatory calcium and nerve soothing magnesium, the vasodilator carbon and carbonate softens the skin; the harmless amount of yet effective noble gases stimulate the adrenal glands to produce more anti-inflammatory hormones and the thyroids to produce more bone building hormones, which results patients with diseases of the joints and osteoporoses to improve their condition by natural hormones.

Mud is formed by the meters thick turf covering the bottom of the lake, which concentrates all the chemicals of the thermal water thereby enhancing the effect. The turf contains the compounds that are close to sex hormones and therefore restore the menstrual cycle and improve potency (which is how a smouldering flame can be relit by water). The most important active agent of the thermal water and the mud is sulphur. The basic compound of joint cartilage is sulphur, the amount of which is reduced in locomotor and rheumatic diseases. This explains why thermal water containing sulphur is a natural remedy for diseases of the joints.

The lake’s indifferent temperature means hardly any stress for the heart and the circulatory system and vertical bathing improves circulation and the ability to move as well as easing painful muscle spasms. The large water surface enhances the effects of the sun’s ultra violet radiation while the steam cover filters the harmful rays. The thermal lake of Hévíz is the place where you can find calm and this relaxation can enhance the effects of the therapy.

How can you have a therapy in our institution?

Once the medical examination has taken place, we create your own individual therapy plan, based on which we offer you a complex therapy. We normally recommend a 3-week therapy.