Must-Reads from the Wellness World (Week of January 15, 2019)

7 Ways to Age Well in 2019 — The New York Times, December 24, 2018 Different contributors from the “Well” section of the NYT offer advice on what research can teach us about living longer and better (or just looking younger!). It ranges from exercising often (at least four times a week) to slowing the decline of aging with simple but smart choices related to the…

Wellness Trends for 2019

The wellness trends forecasts keep rolling in, and Fast Company’s recent report on the “most promising” for 2019 identifies everything from the home fitness revolution to the “Drybar Effect” to a wave of wellness companies by and for people of color to “plant-based foods getting meatier.” One key trend: wellness real estate, a sector put on the map by GWI research. The prediction: In the…

Employers & Insurers Increasingly Track Our Health Behavior

An unsettling story is being played out in the field of tech. It touches the boundaries of privacy and personal freedom—a bonsai version of China’s plan by 2021 to assign a grade to all 1.3 billion citizens on their “social behavior.” More and more, tech AI companies are selling recruitment technology to both large employers and individuals (to choose a babysitter for example) that assess…

Study: Lifelong Exercisers Have Bodies “Thirty Years Younger”

A new study from Ball State University, testing the cardiovascular health and muscles of people in their 70s that exercised steadily for decades, found that the muscles of these men and women were indistinguishable in many ways from those of healthy 25-year-olds, with as many capillaries and enzymes. And these active septuagenarians essentially had the cardiovascular health of people 30 years younger. The researchers summarized…

The Digital Divide Goes in Reverse

The digital divide is going into reverse. Until recently, it was all about access to technology; but now, it’s about limiting access to technology. Among those who know most about tech, the worry about the impact that digital devices have on their children is such that they are moving toward a complete or partial ban. In Silicon Valley, elite schools now eschew most digital devices…