How Wellness Trends Might Reshape Healthcare as We Know It

The time has come for Healthcare and Wellness to merge.  That is the message from Beth McGroarty, Wellness Scientist and Researcher during a recent webinar from the Global Wellness Institute, the premier location for all things about the science of wellness.

How Wellness Trends Might Reshape Healthcare as We Know It

After attending the Global Wellness Institute Webinar I was even more than inspired that I had selected the correct profession for me to fit in.  Yes – wellness is my passion and profession.

Even before I graduated from Nursing School I had the feeling that being a typical bedside nurse was not a fit for me.  I always felt that taking care of illnesses that could have been prevented was not the best way to use my talents of wanting to keep people healthy so they would not succumb to disease.  And so I entered the budding (at the time) world of wellness and never looked back.  I will admit it was a steady climb uphill all these years until now when you see wellness everywhere and on everything.

And then COVID hit.  And wellness started taking center stage because those who were more well were not as at risk as those who were not.  Wellness has become the Big Pharma alternative because of the limitations of the current healthcare system we all thought would save us.  Now the real challenge for wellness is to go to a deeper level and not just be a word on a label or a program. 

Beth McGroarty shared the Wellness Trends for 2021 and revealed how wellness is now becoming embedded in our society in very interesting ways. Here are some take-aways from her in-depth investigations of trends. 

The COVID Trauma has Revealed:

  • The value of wellness as a preventive tool
  • Human cost of sickness and chronic disease
  • Healthcare and wellness need to merge and serve all people
  • Healthcare needs to change image from cold and sterile and only for those that have the means
  • Wellness needs to be more scientific and less trendy
  • The tone of wellness needs to shift
  • Less trendy
  • More inclusive
  • Accessible
  • Affordable
  • Evidence-based 

Stress Management

  • New focus on emotion due to COVID
  • Personal mood trackers increased
  • Need for emotional support from love, empathy, hospitality
  • Prepare for massive treatment for PTSD of front-line workers 

Nature is Therapeutic

  • Medical benefits
  • Mental and physical therapy
  • Climate crisis has nature front and center
  • Social distancing is easily implemented outside 

Wellness Travel Becoming More Popular

  • Natural beauty destinations
  • Purposeful and meaningful
  • Consciousness of over-tourism
  • Mindful slower pace
  • Human-powered (bikes, kayak, etc)
  • Concern for safety 

Personal Immunity Needs to be Supported

  • Supplements
  • Superfoods
  • Gut health
  • Personal health practices
  • Littman Lab Microbiota and Human Disease

 Gut Microbiome Has a Powerful Role over Health

  • Taking center stage
  • Poor gut health leads to poor health, infection, death
  • NIH studying microbiome and how we process food - Human Microbiome Project
  • 70% of immunity starts in the gut 

Personalized Nutrition Can Aid Healing

Hollywood Influence and Wellness

  • More platforms providing wellness information
  • CALM and HEADSPACE for relaxation have made so much money they are  funding TV shows and new formats 
  • Apple and Sampson have more platforms doing personalized wellness programs
  • Health wearables are being connected to TV 

Music as Therapy

  • Very popular during a pandemic to heal emotions
  • Soundscapes, sleep, stress management
  • Big tech and big media need to collaborate with health practitioners
  • Check out the multiple Ted Talks such as:

Rise of Financial Wellness

  • New openness to effect on health
  • Mindless consumerism has changed
  • Relationship of money to stress and shame
  • Increase of financial coaches, therapists
  • New banks and apps 

Spirituality and Wellness

  • Spirituality and consciousness are always the most popular area of Wellness
  • Decline in church attendance
  • Closing of churches due to COVID 

Hopefully, this overview of 2021 wellness trends will help you see where we are heading with healthcare and wellness and give you ideas of how you can affect change in your personal sphere.  Please share what new innovations you see happening around you.

3
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Carol Ebert

About Carol Ebert, MSN, RN

Inspiring Role Model for Women in their Third Act

36 Articles   207 Posts

Share this post

Share on other sites
Specializes in Sm Bus Mgmt, Operations, Planning, HR, Coaching.

Great article @Carol Ebert.  I am thankful for the Wellness and Healthcare merging trends.  I, for one, appreciate the wellness advice I get from my MD before prescribing pharmaceuticals.  She always has me try the natural way first. 

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Wellness and Coaching for Women in their Third Act.
7 hours ago, Julie said:

Great article @Carol Ebert.  I am thankful for the Wellness and Healthcare merging trends.  I, for one, appreciate the wellness advice I get from my MD before prescribing pharmaceuticals.  She always has me try the natural way first. 

You are so fortunate to have a physician who seeks alternatives before meds.  I think wellness has a long way to go to break thru some of the old ways of doing things, but those of us in the wellness field will still be out there gently (or maybe not so gently) nudging it along.

 

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment