Wellness, also known as well-being, was not a term commonly used just a few decades ago, and it certainly wasn’t associated with the economy. Yet, in the last several years, it has been associated with entire categories of industry such as trade, health, and lifestyle. Wellness has been used as a selling point for products and services connected to longevity, self-care, nutritional products, and even real estate.
According to the Global Wellness Institute, a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower wellness worldwide by educating public and private sectors about preventative health and wellness, global wellness spending has exceeded 4 trillion (that’s with a T) dollars per year since 2017 and in 2023 totaled a whopping 6.3 trillion dollars. In fact, if you think about it, wellness spending has touched every part of our lives, from how and where we build our smart, energy-efficient homes to the trail-rated vehicles we drive, to even the dating partners we select on the app for fitness enthusiasts. From our food to our medications, wellness has become a modern way of life as well as a major economic driver.
There are four major reasons why wellness has made such an impact on modern living:
1. The global population, as a whole, is declining in health. We are growing lonelier despite rapidly improving technology, which should connect us, and we are also aging as a population, with fewer children being born in developed countries. Both of which seem to be negatively impacting our happiness.
2. Environmental issues are also health issues. Concerns over climate change, rising sea levels, air pollution, changing weather patterns, microplastics, and even fertilizer run-off in our water are all causing stress on a global level.
3. Health systems are unable to keep up with the growing demand for services while simultaneously getting crushed by the financial demand for providing those services. Thus, insurance companies spar with providers while patients get crushed in the middle.
4. Consumer values and behaviors are shifting toward a wellness lifestyle as the middle class has greater access to things such as new fitness technology, better quality food, medications that have been repurposed, such as GLP-1 class weight loss drugs, and increased usage of modalities such as saunas and cold tubs.
It’s no surprise that the United States leads the world in wellness spending, with an average of over $6,000 spent for every man, woman, and child. In spite of the boatloads of money spent on health trends in the U.S., we are still facing a national crisis when it comes to chronic, lifestyle-related illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Unlike Japan, which was 87.14 years for women and 81.09 years for men, the life expectancy in the United States, as of 2023, was 81.1 years for women and 75.8 years for men. These numbers are down, however, from their peak in 2014, which were 81.3 years for women and 76.5 years for men, respectively.
So, the lesson is that spending more money on health and wellness does not necessarily translate into improved health and longevity. The barriers to health in the United States are complex. Obesity is on the rise along with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, COPD, hypertension, Alzheimer’s disease, and others. These unfortunate trends are largely influenced by lifestyle choices such as a low-quality diet, lack of exercise, and substance abuse. An overabundance of heavily processed food also makes my list of contributing factors. The solution: keep it simple. Exercise more, eat better quality food, and get regular medical check-ups. While buying the latest fitness gadget or piece of equipment is nice, sustainable lifestyle changes need to take place for wellness to be improved.
