First 1000 Days Initiative
2019 Trends
TREND 1: Optimizing the home environment for “integral wellness”
Optimizing the home environment for “integral wellness” will be the trend with the purpose being to lower stress, anxiety and depression and to optimize lowering inflammation. This includes air quality, less noise, improved light, lowering EMF exposure (which smart homes have a lot of), frequency of music, smells, and individualized pillow/mattress for best rest. Preconception, pregnancy and infancy stages are the most important time to optimize your home environment. The home can also help support baby’s development. The new “optimal home” can minimize risks of your external environment and overall stress by optimizing your home’s internal environment.
TREND 2: “Network Wellness”
“Network Wellness”—idea stemming from the “Network Medicine” concept. Network Medicine uses the application of network science toward identifying, preventing and treating diseases. This field focuses on using network topology and network dynamics in the community toward identifying diseases and developing medical drugs. Network Wellness is a concept that will develop organically (Dr. Sergio Pecorelli has begun using the term to describe the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary nature of the wellness model) in its definitive role in the preventive model and “Precision Health.” Using the various modalities of the wellness world to create optimal health and wellbeing. Part of the Network Wellness model is to use “wellness prescriptions” to target “Precision Health” for individuals. In this process, we address the prevention of chronic disease by fighting inflammation through the use of the wellness network. This will positively impact our health/longevity, especially from the very beginning—preconception through the first two years of life. An example of the activation of the Wellness Network is the use of information and knowledge from other areas of the network, such as in Mental Wellness. This trend would create a partnership between the spa world and the medical world. We envision shared data platforms and a team approach as spa practitioners and medical practitioners collaborate to optimize someone’s wellness.
TREND 3: Sound or Vibrational Frequency
Sound or Vibrational Frequency—the effects of music and sound are part of the history of humans, and it has been shown through evidence that there is “ancestral DNA” that governs the receptivity to sound and vibrational frequency (at certain levels) is an important part of a wellbeing component. Sound and music are being shown to positively impact health, and they are being used all over the world in both medical circles and wellness spaces. Look for increased innovation in this field and new extraordinary ways in which this will be applied, not just as “medicine” but as prevention wellness modalities, including usage in-utero exposure to the fetus and its benefits for the prevention of many mental wellness adverse conditions and other learning disabilities. We envision sound being another touchpoint in every person’s spa and wellness experience—beyond sound bowls, sound at certain frequencies will immerse the individual (especially pregnant spa-goers) to amplify their health and energy flow.
TREND 4: Ecotherapy
Ecotherapy refers to a series of nature-based exercises intended to address both mental and physical health. Ecotherapists are a small but growing group of healthcare professionals who are essentially medicalizing nature. What would it look like if we “prescribed nature?” Part of this, too, is the rise in psychedelics and “microdosing.” This is connected to the notion of “Nature Bathing or Forest Bathing.” Look for more connection to nature particularly with the time period of the First 1000 Days and the individual’s first year of life.
TREND 5: Ecotherapy Neuroscience
Look for more application of the latest findings in how to restore pathways and rewire circuitry as we continue to learn more about how the brain regulates and controls individual motivations and reward pathways. For instance, viewing images of iconic parks activates a part of the brain that responds to enjoyable experiences, leading to greater understanding of how to evoke positivity and calm through imagery. Within the framework of the First 1000 Days, this has a tremendous impact on the epigenetic influence and inherited disease risks. This will be integrated on many levels with the use of VR technology.
TREND 6: Baby spa experiences
New couples are seeking information on how to optimize the health and wellbeing of their infants. Western medical systems are not able to meet this demand outside of some quick mention during a few minutes long visit. They are looking for a support system or guidance for the overall wellbeing of their growing family. Preventative prescriptions at this important time can help good nervous system and immune system development in their infants. Often this population group wants to go to spas and has the means, but spas are not welcoming to them; However, spa and wellness spaces would do well to create programs and “baby spa wings” for the new family, including babysitting services that integrate play while mom and dad get some R & R. Science has shown the health benefits of massage/touch, aromatherapy, sound/music, nature, nutrition, etc. and during this time (perinatal and early life), the benefits could have a massive positive impact.
The Global Wellness Institute serves as an umbrella organization for numerous Initiatives, that are independently chaired and run. The resources, editorial, research and opinions presented by the Initiatives do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Global Wellness Institute.
