How we approach health is constantly evolving. Whilst the basics often remain the same, there are constant new and interesting trends always occurring. So here are some of my health prediction trends for 2018.
#1 Basics but with a modern twist
The foundations of health can’t ever change. The most important things are always good sleep, good nutrition, managing stress and moving your body. However, we can hack our health by using modern technology. For example, to improve sleep we can use devices like the Fitbit to monitor our patterns, use white noise machines like Marpac Dohm to help improve sleep quality by creating soothing background noise and mask outside sounds. There are podcasts like ‘Sleep with Me’ that can help you fall asleep, and a multitude of apps such as Headspace, Relax with Andrew Johnson and Calm which can help you to manage stress. Don’t fear using technology, use it to hack your health.
#2 Personalised Health Care Plans
There are multitudes of different diets out there that work for different people. Paleo, Mediterranean, low fat…. they can all be good, but which one is good for you? Now you can take the guess work out of it and find out what type of diet is best for your genetic make-up and what sort of exercise your body responds best to (spoiler alert: the answer is never no exercise!). Other genes that can be looked at are methylation genes, which if they aren’t working well can increase your risk of inflammation, certain cancers, heart disease, making low levels antioxidants and causing problems with mood, sleep and vitamin D levels. You can also see how your body deals with alcohol and smoking, and how your body processes certain medications. For people taking hormones, we can see how you process them and if there’s any increased cancer risk with taking HRT. This will lead to personalised health care plans of supplements, nutrition and exercise to keep you healthy.
#3 Holistic Therapies
There’s lots of research that shows that holistic treatments like acupuncture have benefits.
Taking time out to have therapies you enjoy can give you time to relax and could potentially help your symptoms. Lots of my patients have treatments such as reflexology, massage, Bowen’s technique, see a life coach or an osteopath.
#4 Meditation, but not as you know it
Visualisation is where it’s at. Research shows that visualisation improves your immune system and health. Studies show that people who visualise themselves at being at their optimum weight do lose more weight than people who don’t. Other studies have shown that patients with breast cancer visualising their cancer cells being destroyed had better outcomes than patients who did not.
So, incorporate some visualisation into your meditation time.
