Wellness moves

Maybe it’s August’s hazy ambition hiatus or the lingering heat, but I’m sensing that the appetite for (or even tolerance of) the intense brand of health and wellness optimization that’s characterized the mid-2020s is cooling.

You’ve probably heard it referred to as wellnessmaxxing (just, let’s be crystal, never by me) – and I feel like it’s peaked. Friends who were going all in, expending much money and time on reaching their optimum, seem disenchanted: index fingers even minus their smart rings, packed bathroom shelves streamlined.

Trying to Be The Best according to every conceivable health metric – cardio fitness, recovery, sleep, optimal nutrition, skin age – all at once, is leading to a very real type of burnout. Of energy, of finances, and of expectation. People appear to be reining much of theirs in.

I’d advise being cognisant of this mood: health and wellness editors have the sense that the child-in-a-sweet-shop scattergun frenzy around wellness is abating. Or – positive reframe – maturing.

That’s good for the conversations we’re having about how to meaningfully look after our wellbeing. Expect fewer ‘wow, this new thing!’ trend pieces from publications, more one-eyebrow-raised analysis.

There’s a public health story here too. One GP told me polysupplementation is fast becoming the polypharmacy of the wellness age: people stacking with no one checking the combined effect, or whether any of it is needed. I wonder what else about the optimisation frenzy has clinicians’ heads in their hands…

Pitching product? We still want to know what’s out there (and the wellness economy isn’t slowing down) Be specific: who is this for, what problem does it solve. Foreground the studies, speak to the mood. It’s better for all of us.