The GWI’s Wellness Moonshot: A World Free of Preventable Disease was announced at the 2017 Global Wellness Summit, and leading medical experts – from Dr. Andrew Weil to Dr. Mehmet Oz – were asked which one thing they think could help make this ambitious goal a reality – and have the biggest impact on reversing the alarming rates of chronic disease.
Must-Reads from the Wellness World (Week of March 12, 2018)
“How Companies Scour Our Digital Lives for Clues to Our Health” – The New York Times, February 25, 2018. Your digital footprint — how often you post on social media or how frequently you check your phone late at night — could hold clues to your physical and mental health. And this is the theory behind an emerging field, digital phenotyping, that is trying to assess people’s well-being based on their interactions with digital devices.
Prediction: Demand for Intangible Wellness Goods Will Outpace Tangible Ones
Prediction: conspicuous consumption of tangible wellness goods (luxury spa treatments, gym memberships, wearables, etc.) will be trumped by the consumption of more intangible wellness “goods” with more scarcity value (so more cache): like choosing a neighbourhood that doesn’t require a car, has a less polluted local environment or access to fresh food/nature.
Medical Tourism: Does It Help or Hurt the Providing Nation’s Own Wellness?
Some argue that medical tourism revenues help developing/poorer countries like India grow its healthcare system and improve local care. Others claim that it merely shifts resources to private hospitals catering to elites at the expense of public institutions serving the poor (86 percent of India’s rural population lacks health insurance).
New Research: Why the Wellness MoonshotTM Must Focus on Youngest Children
Earlier reports claimed that the U.S. was finally making headway with childhood obesity, but those hopes were crushed this week as a new Duke University study showed that’s not the case: The percentage of obese children ages 2-19 increased from 14% in 1999 to 18.5% in 2016. Very worrying: A big jump in obesity among the youngest children aged 2-5 – from 9% to 14%. Researchers noted: ”The earlier you start seeing obesity, the harder it is to address it.” Fresh evidence that the GWI’s Wellness Moonshot for a world free of preventable disease needs to focus on the youngest children.
Wellness Evidence Study: Weight Loss Isn’t About Counting Calories – It’s About Food Quality
Weight loss advice has long been about counting calories, but a new, large, expensive ($8 million) study led by Stanford Prevention Research Center throws that wisdom into serious doubt: it’s diet quality (cutting back on sugar, refined grains and highly processed foods, while focusing on vegetables and whole foods) that led to people losing significant amounts of weight over the course of a year – with no worrying about portion size or whether it was a low-fat or low-carb diet.
