The Dark Side of Wellness

What is it?

Wellness was originally defined as the “opposite of illness” and “the state of being in good health” but in recent years it has evolved into something much more aspirational, expensive and sinister.

The practice of wellness now encompasses everything from bee sting therapy to resetting circadian rhythms and vaginal steaming. While not all actively bad for your health, the more dubious activities are becoming harder to regulate. With a growing number of wellness influencers, celebrity advocates like Gwyneth Paltrow, and an industry worth $4.2 trillion, wellness has become a force to be reckoned with.

So what?

The wellness industry has a habit of taking traditional practices from various cultures and repackaging them as new or revolutionary, whitewashed under the guise of the glowing, slim white woman.

Wellness presents a dangerous ideology, described by André Spicer, professor at Cass Business School and co-author of The Wellness Syndrome: “through ‘positive thinking’ you can be whatever you want to be and if anything bad happens to you, it’s no one’s fault but your own”.

Ironically, the wellness trend has done very little to improve our mental wellbeing despite claims to do so. Of course, a pandemic doesn’t help but research also suggests that our obsession with self-improvement might actually be contributing to feelings of inadequacy, shame and even exacerbating/causing anxiety or addiction.

Unrealistic standards can be damaging and life-threatening

The recent water fasting trend involves eating no food and drinking only water for up to two weeks. Clearly dangerous, it’s one of a number of weight-loss fads circulating on TikTok and Instagram, often promoted by influencers rather than trained nutritionists, dieticians or fitness trainers. Driven by peer pressure, constant social comparison and computer algorithms, the trend could be actively encouraging eating disorders.

The clean-eating movement has led to an increase in one particular eating disorder called orthorexia. As Jessica Knoll wrote, “The diet industry is a virus, and viruses are smart. It has survived all these decades by adapting, but it’s as dangerous as ever. In 2019, dieting presents itself as wellness and clean eating.”

Wellness also extends to skincare and the current ideal of glowing skin, which dermatologist Dr Justine Kluk explains “is not an accurate indicator of health status”. Meanwhile, people are investing in expensive products like acids and retinoids, and beauty fads like slugging, all of which can be harmful if used in the wrong way.

The consequences of this obsession with optimising ourselves can be dangerous and, in some cases, fatal. Prachi Gupta recently shared the story of her brother, a computer programmer and engineer, who died as a result of risky limb-lengthening surgery driven by height dysphoria.

Many wellness trends reinforce gender stereotypes

Wellness trends are rife in the biohacking community. Biohackers, also known as ‘grinders’ and consisting mainly of white cishet men in Big Tech, have one ultimate aim: self-optimisation. They represent the distillation of the wellness ideology: that we could always be more well. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been known to engage in intermittent fasting and drinking ‘salt juice’, while an ex-NASA employee sells his own DIY gene-editing technology.

In the mainstream, we’ve seen a slightly more accessible application of men’s wellness. Websites like Hims, Roman, Manual and Numan target their male audience by promising to aid erectile dysfunction, hair loss and acne. While claiming to help men resolve these issues, they peddle old stereotypes of masculinity and position their products as a replacement for open discussion or treatment of underlying psychological problems.

Misinformation is rife

Some wellness influencers are spreading harmful ideologies including anti-vaccine propaganda and QAnon conspiracy theories. As Hayley Phelan wrote about Instagram influencer @thebalancedblonde in Harper’s Bazaar, “Younger’s views are typical of the kind of privileged, whitewashed, holistic health ideology that so often tips into science denialism, anti-vaccine activism, and, in some cases, the promotion of outright conspiracy theories...” Former wellness guru and influencer Belle Gibson lied about having cancer and published a book on treating cancer with healthy eating and exercise before being found to be a fraud.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop was sued for product claims that weren’t supported by reliable science, including that a $66 jade egg could “balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles, prevent uterine prolapse, and increase bladder control”. Zac Efron’s Netflix travel and wellness series Down to Earth made yet more problematic claims. Netflix series (Un)well explores the controversy around wellness trends from ayahuasca to breastmilk for bodybuilding.

The wellness industry has exploited women struggling with infertility, promising that alternative therapies can help them conceive. Bee sting therapy made the news in recent years, when a woman died after having living bee acupuncture to improve muscular contractures and stress. Essential oils are sold as beneficial and therapeutic, but recently doctors have warned they could also disrupt our endocrine system and cause allergies.

The industry thrives on exploitation of the vulnerable

Many of the ‘healing crystals’ promoted by the wellness industry to realign energies and even improve immunity, are mined in Madagascar through exploiting locals. Every year, between two and four men are buried alive by landslides, while children dig tunnels without protective equipment. Jade mining in Myanmar recently caused a landslide and killed nearly 200 people. Called “the new blood diamonds”, these seemingly innocuous gemstones have a dark history.

The whitewashing of wellness allows “elite whiteness to thrive in the most sacred of spaces that were once designated for holistic healing”, removing substances and practices of value from their original culture for economic gain. The “commodification of wellness” prevents it from providing any authentic benefit for BIPOC and renders it unethical.