A new double-blinded randomized trial from Stanford University found that six weeks of electroacupuncture (which uses a small electric current passed between needles) helped people with chronic lower back pain: They reported improvements in walking comfortably, standing for longer periods, bending and kneeling, etc. It did not seem to help with pain intensity. The researchers concluded that with back pain, it’s best to use a…
The continent where wellness is flourishing the most is Asia. There, three long-term trends fuel the demand for wellness: (1) the rising prevalence of chronic lifestyle diseases, (2) intensely aging populations, and (3) rising incomes (a major boost that explains why Asia is playing “wellness catch-up” with the West). According to the ADB (Asian Development Bank), wellness—defined with the GWI as the active pursuit of…
In the immediate post-COVID era, the world will be collectively poorer—explicable by simple arithmetic: In the first three quarters of this year, the income earned by workers around the world fell by more than 10%—a loss caused by the pandemic equivalent to more than $3.5 trillion, or 5.5% of global GDP. Notably, this doesn’t yet take into account the mass lay-offs that are looming (like…
The Global Wellness Institute is the research organization renowned for sizing and analyzing the sectors across the global wellness economy and known for its wellness industry bubble chart. On Monday, a new “bubble” will be born when the GWI releases the first research on the dynamic, multi-sector mental wellness economy at the Global Wellness Summit. While mental wellness is a market seeing explosive growth (dramatically…
Presidential Elections May Be Bad for Your Health–New York Times, October 20 The stress of presidential elections may increase the incidence of heart attacks and strokes, say researchers from Kaiser Permanente looking at the 2016 US election. The study, in PNAS, found that hospitalizations for cardiovascular disease in the two days following that election were 61% higher than in the same two days of the preceding…
Pranayama is a set of techniques for controlling the breath, and a new randomized controlled trial from Brazilian doctors showed that this yoga breathwork led to significantly decreased anxiety and negative affect. It’s the first study to show how it impacts the brain: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), they found that Pranayama exercises led to changes in areas of the brain implicated in emotional…
