by We all want to be good – to feel good or, at least, not to be bad. For the most part, we know how to do this: eat nutritious food, move your body, get enough sleep, manage stress and nurture your relationships.
But eating leafy greens, walks and journaling is not very exciting. New trends that promise to revolutionize our health and well-being are fascinating. Often, these trends are old ideas in shiny new packaging (eg detoxification). Sometimes, they are real advances whose implications may not yet be fully understood (eg microbiome testing).
It can be difficult to sort the healthy wheat from the chaff. Here are some of the biggest health and wellness trends in 2024 – so far – and what to make of them.
Related: What is ‘cortisol face’ and why is TikTok obsessed with it?
The face of cortisol
The phrase “cortisol face” started popping up on TikTok this year with the creators claiming that an oversupply of cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, results in an “ugly” puffy face. Lower your cortisol, they argued, and your face will be more attractive.
Cortisol can affect a person’s appearance, but not in the way that fitness influencers casually suggest. According to experts, excess cortisol in the body can lead to Cushing’s syndrome, a relatively rare condition that usually results from steroid treatments. Standard day-to-day stress is unlikely to raise cortisol levels high enough. If you’re concerned about your cortisol levels, consult a doctor – not TikTok.
Red light therapy
Originally used as an in-office tool, at-home red light therapy devices have grown in popularity, thanks to claims that they smooth wrinkles, heal acne and promote hair growth. But the products are still an “emerging therapeutic area,” says Toronto dermatologist Dr. Annie Liu.
Anecdotally, many users report a boost in glow and brightness, but California-based facial plastic surgeon Dr. Prem Tripathi is more cautious. “There will be a limit to what you can see from using these devices,” he says. Think of them as a maintenance tool best used between in-office treatments.
Related: Does red light therapy work? These are the pros and cons
Recently, some TikTok users have tried red Christmas lights or heat lamps that are usually used to raise chickens, but these methods are unlikely to have any meaningful benefits.
If you’re going to invest time in red light therapy, your best bet is a product from a reputable brand that’s been tested in third-party clinical trials.
Magnesium
Early this year, magnesium was a health buzzword on TikTok. Content creators claimed that ingesting magnesium supplements helped reduce their feelings of anxiety. The mineral is vital for the body to function, and research suggests it can help prevent stress and have an overall calming effect.
But more research is needed to fully understand its effects. Although there is probably no harm in increasing the amount of magnesium in your diet – foods such as salmon, avocado and beans are good sources – consult a doctor before taking it as a supplement, and don’t pretend if it does. t help. “In our research, as with any other intervention, it didn’t work for everyone,” one researcher told the Guardian.
Raw milk
Another craze that rose from the depths of social media this year was raw milk, or milk that has not been pasteurized. Adherents have claimed that raw milk has more vitamins and minerals than pasteurized milk; the CDC opposes this.
Related: ‘Playing Russian roulette with your health’: my encounter with LA’s raw-milk, powdered-meat smoothie
Demand has grown so much in the United States that more than two dozen states have legalized the sale of raw milk. But food safety experts are “absolutely horrified” by the trend, Dr Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University told the Guardian in January. “The likelihood of getting sick from raw milk is higher than the likelihood of getting sick from pasteurized milk,” she said.
Home microbiome testing kits
Maybe your Instagram feed, like mine, has been saturated lately with ads for home microbiome testing kits. Many of the companies that sell these kits – which cost anywhere from $120 to $400 – claim that by analyzing a customer’s stool sample, they can provide personalized dietary recommendations that can help a person with conditions such as anxiety, pain joint and low energy management.
Experts agree that the gut microbiome is important for human health. But many experts also agree that meaningful conclusions cannot yet be drawn from microbiome data, and that most of these companies cannot deliver on the big promises they make. As one researcher told the Guardian, these tests are currently a useful diagnostic tool for “a limited number of conditions” such as Crohn’s disease and type 2 diabetes, but using them to make dietary recommendations is “extremely difficult”. to do.
Aura Points
On TikTok, users are calculating the strength of their auras – a vague term that describes a person’s energy and charisma, or “rizz,” to use the contemporary parlance – using “aura points”. As reporter Alaina Demopoulos explained in July, “winning aura points usually comes from acting in a hazy, uninhibited but confident way”, while one loses aura points by being cringy and insecure.
The phenomenon is largely tongue-in-cheek, but philosophers trace its origins back to Aristotle’s virtue ethics. “It also seems to be a kind of strange, contemporary code of honor,” said philosopher Julian Baggini. So before you cut someone off in traffic or share a secret someone told you about, think: can you afford to lose the aura points?
Psychedelic for mental health
The mental health potential of psychedelics is not a new trend but a continuation of an existing one. Research into how drugs such as LSD, MDMA and psilocybin can improve mental health continues to grow and develop. Companies and researchers are focusing on topics like how patients might be able to consume psychedelics without tripping to treat depression, and how psilocybin might help terminal cancer patients cope with death.
This is not all smooth sailing though. This summer, the FDA rejected MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of PTSD. But as Ross Ellenhorn and Dimitri Mugianis, founders of psychedelic program Cardea, wrote in the Guardian in July, thinking of psychedelics like pharmaceuticals might not be helpful. “It’s a way to gain experience; it is not medicine,” they wrote.
An under-consumed core
Is he “underconsumed” or is he living normally? Some TikTok creators have started to push back against the culture of buying and smearing material goods, and are instead embracing an “under-consumed core”. While other “hearts” are usually associated with certain aesthetics and acquiring certain clothes or other products, this trend encourages reuse, upcycling and waste reduction.
Critics note that this is not unusual for most people. “A lot of people are responding [to the trend] saying this is what it’s like to be in the working class,” Georgina Johnson, an editor and environmentalist, told the Guardian in August. It can still be a positive message, she says. “It’s about how it’s contextualized and who it’s given visibility to.”
Skins for children
The skin care market is booming, and according to some reports, the rise is partly due to gen Alpha – those born between 2010 and 2024. This year, parents and dermatologists reported that babies as young as nine taking complex multi-step skin care. regimens, and use their holiday wish lists to request eye creams and anti-aging serums. Part of this can be attributed to the experimentation and identity formation that is a normal part of adolescent and adolescent development.
Experts warn that fear of aging and a focus on unrealistic standards of beauty can harm a child’s mental health. Not to mention the risks to their skin. “Most tweens have few, if any, skin concerns so using these products can cause irritation and often lead to skin conditions like periorbital dermatitis,” said the Dr Shreya Andric, dermatologist, with the Guardian.
Digital detox
Although smartphones have become a staple of modern life, more individuals and organizations are re-examining their relationship with them. Some people are doing digital detoxes, or trading in their smartphones for “dumb phones” – old-school flip phones with no email or distracting apps. In the United States, some schools are banning smartphones and seeing great results.
Related: What happens when a school bans smartphones? A complete transformation
There is still some debate about how bad our phones really are. But many people want to use their phones less or at least more mindfully. At the start of this year, the Guardian launched the Reclaim Your Brain newsletter to help people spend less time on their phones. Over 100,000 readers signed up within three months. In a March survey, subscribers said they cut their overall screen time by 40%. “I’m reading more books, doing more work and sleeping better,” said one respondent.
Voluntary celibacy, or being ‘boyish’
Maybe you haven’t come across the term “boysober,” but you’ve probably come across its non-gendered synonym: celibacy. In February, a woman told the New York Times it was “the hottest mental health craze this year”. A few months later, actress Julia Fox revealed that she had been celibate for over two years. In the spring, dating app Bumble issued an apology after its anti-celibacy advertising campaign received widespread backlash. This movement – mostly, but not exclusively, heterosexual women – comes amid a wider alleged “sexual regression”. Some of this lack of interest in sex has been attributed to dating app fatigue. Others see it as a reimagining of politics and sexual dynamics.
Egg freezing
Related: You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to buy sperm
There has been a huge increase in the number of patients freezing their eggs in fertility clinics in the US and the UK. In the United States, this rise is due in part to an increase in the number of employers offering fertility treatment benefits that cover the huge costs of the procedure. These services can offer a sense of freedom and security, a way for those who use them to make decisions about their lives without being pressured by their “biological clocks”.
Still, egg freezing is not a guarantee, one fertility clinic doctor told the Guardian: for those over 35 who can get 20 eggs, the chance of pregnancy is 50%. For those with 5 eggs, it is 6%. Finding sperm for a person’s eggs has its own challenges. And even if everything goes smoothly, there is often a lack of social and professional support for parents.
