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Boston Strong The Global Wellness Summit brought together public health and wellness experts in Boston recently. Jane Kitchen was there for HCM to see first-hand what this ‘New new era in health and wellness’ will look like for the sector
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et’s get this out of the way first: this Summit was not the international gathering of wellness minds from across the globe of pre-COVID days, when we used to jump on a transatlantic flight without a thought in our mind or a lateral flow test result in our hand. But it was, all things considered, a step in that direction. The Summit’s theme, ‘A new new era in health and wellness’, was showcased with an impressive roster of speakers, as organisers took advantage of Boston’s reputation as a hub of academic and medical research to bring in an exceptional lineup. Some of the top medical advisors from around the US were in attendance, including Summit co-host Dr Michael Roizen of the Cleveland Clinic; Dr Richard Carmona, 17th surgeon general of the US; and Dr Michelle Williams, dean of the faculty at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. The agenda kept up with the times; several panels and speakers focused on women’s health and communities of colour and in this age of anxiety, new research on sleep health, breathwork, and the power of psychedelics for mental wellness were presented. As would be expected, many of the speakers and panellists focused on how COVID has impacted our wellness – mental, physical and economic.
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As it’s done since 2015, when the name of the Summit changed from the Global Spa & Wellness Summit to the Global Wellness Summit, this year’s programme took one small step further away from spa, to focus more on topics such as technology (set to be a big subject at the next Summit in Tel Aviv), wellness architecture and real estate, and bridging the gap between medicine and wellness.
Personal and planetary wellness After the traditional opening of beautiful cinematography from filmmaker and mushroom-lover Louie Schwartzberg and a welcome from GWS CEO Susie Ellis, co-host, Cleveland Clinic’s Dr Michael Roizen, author of Real Age, opened the Summit with a bombshell: between 2020 and 2030, we’ll see an exponential increase in life expectancy of at least 30 years and by 2030, 90 will be the new 40, he said. “We’ve extended life expectancy by two-and-a-half years every decade since 1890, when life expectancy was 40; now, it’s 78 or 79,” he explained. “Up to now, we’ve delayed ageing; now we’re going to be able to reverse it.” Dr Roizen talked about the importance of lifestyle – exercise, nutrition and stress management – in making sure that if we’re living longer, we’re living longer ‘well’.
