Experts at the GWI’s roundtable on “Redefining Workplace Wellness” agreed that it was astounding how little attention has been paid to designing workspaces that actually support human health and productivity – with so many big companies still housing their employees in unhealthy spaces. The future? An intensified focus on natural light, healthy air, worker privacy and comfort, and even biophilic design – and more private-public initiatives that tackle air quality in increasingly smog-choked, big cities.
Study Indicates that with Diets, What’s Healthy for One, Can Be Terrible for Another
Diets tend to adopt capital letters: The Paleo or The Zone Diet…suggesting their universal application to all. But a new medical study reveals that people given identical meals (and healthy foods) metabolize them very differently, given their individual gut microbes and how that impacts their glucose response. For instance, some people can have intense blood sugar spikes after eating tomatoes, which, in “common knowledge,” is a low-glycemic food.
In Radically Aging World, Japan is Case Study on Economic Necessity of Being Old AND Well
Economist Malleret recently stated that the unprecedented way the world is aging is, “the single greatest problem of the 21st century.” Here he analyzes how Japan may be the case study to watch: with a quarter of the population over 65 and with one in 17 Japanese people expected to suffer from dementia within the next decade. The nation is (and will be) a prime example of how the costs of aging transform economies, and how we must create populations that are both old AND well.
Must-Reads from the Wellness World (Week of December 14, 2015)
“The mid-life crisis is real: People in their 40s are officially more depressed” – Quartz, Nov. 23, 2015
The issue as to whether, and when, the mid-life crisis occurs is hotly debated within the academic community. According to this short article, new research shows that the mid-life crisis is real: happiness starts falling from early adulthood, hitting a low at the ages of 40-42, before rising up again towards the age of 70.
Global Wellness Summit Identifies Top Ten Shifts in Wellness
The recent Global Wellness Summit in Mexico City was a watershed moment in its 9-year history: never have so many great minds from so many industries (whether traditional medicine, workplace wellness or travel) come together to discuss the future of wellness.
And across the provocative agenda, ten, key, coming shifts emerged: from the fact that governments will make wellness more mandatory; to breakthroughs ahead in epigenetics, stem cells, integrative medicine and health-tracking technology; to the death of workplace wellness “programs” as we’ve known them; to the rise of “imperceptible” wellness.
Wellness Evidence: Obese Children Who Cut Back on Sugar Turn Their Metabolic Health Around in 10 Days
A new, rigorous study shows that when obese children cut back on sugar (and not carbs or calories), they saw dramatic improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol levels and other key health markers in ten short days. This new research provides some insight on long-debated medical questions. Are all calories created equally? Is it sugar – or the weight gain from eating sugar – that is so bad for people? (can we give the answer to that here also…)
