Alexandr Umanetz

"I first encountered naftalan therapy in 2014, on what was supposed to be a short reporting trip to Azerbaijan. I had been writing about alternative therapies for European patients for several years, mostly as a sceptic. Naftalan was on the list of things I expected to dismiss politely."

"What I found instead was a regional medical tradition more than a century old — one that had quietly accumulated tens of thousands of patient outcomes, documented in archives most Western physicians have never seen. I stayed for three weeks. Then I came back the next year. And the year after that."

"Over the past decade I've visited every sanatorium in the region — usually more than once. I've sat in on intake consultations, read patient files, and spent long evenings with the doctors who run these facilities. More importantly, I've followed the patients I've referred: the German teacher with psoriasis, the Israeli engineer with sciatica, the French retiree with bilateral knee osteoarthritis."

"I built this platform because the alternative was watching prospective patients land in a maze of travel-agency websites, sanatorium brochures, and contradictory advice. There was no neutral, well-informed English-language resource. Now there is one."

"I am not a doctor. I am not affiliated with any sanatorium. I do not accept commissions, kickbacks, or affiliate fees. My only commercial relationship with patients is the €150 Navigator fee — which they pay me directly, for my time and expertise. Everything else on this site is given freely, because that's the only way to be useful."