Eternal Youth

This article argues that American wellness culture is a complex mix of positive health engagement and dangerous pseudoscience. The challenge for experts and policymakers is to encourage beneficial health behaviors while protecting the public from misinformation and political extremism. The wellness industry, now deeply embedded in American life and politics, reflects both the nation’s aspirations for better health and its vulnerabilities to unproven, profit-driven solutions.

A woman I met recently told me that she's all about PRP (I had no idea what that was) and loved staying on hormones because they made her feel so much better. She has no health conditions that required medical help and what was most astounding to me is that she is an ER nurse. I would have imagined someone with no proximity to illness and hospitals may want to experiment with fads but for medical professional to want to do things to just improve quality of life was a bit unexpected. She was very unconcerned about side-effects and tried to explain to me why these things were absolutely safe. Maybe being in the professional gives her that confidence and I hope for her sake she is right because those are not the only experiments she's tried. 

Over the years, Americans have spent less and less time with their doctors and received increasingly alienating healthcare services. For many people, going to the doctor is intimidating or inaccessible. Going on Instagram is easy and habitual.

I had to wonder if this woman was talking to any of the doctors who were her colleagues at the hospital or if she been inspired by some biohacking influencer who claimed to have found the fountain of eternal youth.