SHA Wellness Mexico brings luxe med-spa healing to the beach

Some people leave Mexico exhausted from partying — I was exhausted from good health. Over four days last month, I met with two functional medicine doctors, two nurses, an osteopath and a nutritionist.I had my blood, body composition and cognitive abilities tested.

I was cold plunged, wrapped in seaweed, zapped with electromagnetic waves and spritzed with cold atmospheric plasma.I squatted, lifted, lunged and Pilated.

I sampled shiatsu and deep-tissue massages, enjoyed a radio frequency facial and subjected myself to Emsella, a chair targeting the perineum with jackhammer-like vibrations meant to strengthen the pelvic floor.I took IV treatments, talked sexuality and aging with a psychologist, and felt the agony and rush of cryotherapy.

I tried acupuncture, ginger therapeutic compresses and woke daily to a bowl of miso soup.And that was only some of what the ambitious SHA Wellness Mexico, just 30 minutes north of the Cancun airport, offers.Just over a year old, the health center boasts 100 rooms and suites — each with sweeping ocean views — and as many treatment rooms in an adjacent clinic building, designed by Mexico City-based architecture firm Sordo Madaleno.

It’s the second outpost of the original SHA, which opened near Alicante, Spain, in 2008 and will be followed late next year by SHA Emirates.My personalized program focused on well-ageing and menopause care, but other visitors come to address weight loss or leadership performance, in a setting that is both luxurious and clinical.Most guests stay for a week, but even my four-day stay would yield significant benefits, according to Dr.

Diego Martinez Conde, who leads the center’s regenerative and well-ageing unit, and holds a medical degree from Mexico’s Anahuac University as well as certifications in nutrition and functional medicine.  “You’re much more capable of healing when you address your health in the most integrated way,” he tells Alexa.“We assess your blood, your hormone leve...