The Top Wellness Trends Report with Health Expert Faye McCray [Episode #845]

This week’s topic is: The Top Wellness Trends Report with Health Expert Faye McCray

I am so excited to have my very special guest, Faye McCray, who is Head of Content at health and wellness website Well and Good, and she’s here today to talk through their annual Wellness Trends report. Listen in as Faye and I discuss the 2024 Wellness Trend report, from artificial intelligence in personalized fitness, to strength training your skin, and so much more!

TOPICS COVERED

• Next-Generation postpartum care Is born…
• Red-hot sauna industry and new ways to optimize your sweat session…
• Eating for wellness is a lot simpler and celebratory in 2024…
• Artificial intelligence in personalized fitness gets smarter…
• ‘Strength Training’ your skin…
• ‘Hair Longevity’ products to keep hair healthy as you age…
• How the Real Estate Industry is bringing wellness to your doorstep…
• Our everyday gear performing medical tests from home…

[FEATURED GUESTS]

About Faye McCray

Faye McCray is Head of Content, Well+Good. McCray joined the company most recently from RVO Health, where she was Vice President and Head of Health Equity & Social Impact across the company’s brands including Healthline, Psych Central, Greatist, and more. There, she worked in partnership with all teams from editorial to product to brand strategy in order to champion and advance health equity for diverse and underserved communities, addressing social determinants of health and barriers to care that perpetuate health inequality.

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Other Podcasts you may enjoy!:

• 8 Health and Wellness Benefits of Keeping A Consistent Sleep Schedule
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• 5 Effective Ways to Stay on Track and Thrive with your Health, Wellness and Energy
• Simple and Healthy Wellness Rituals

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Transcript:

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

Kimberly: 00:02 Hello, love and welcome back to our Monday interview show where today I am so excited to share a fascinating conversation that I had with Faye McCray, who is the head of content at Health and Wellness website well and good, where today we talk through their annual wellness trends report. Now, if you’ve been a longer term listener of our feelgood podcast, you might remember that we have covered this Wellness Trends report for the last several years, and it’s always fascinating. It’s always different, it never disappoints well and good. Puts a lot of thought and research behind their trends report, and it really spans the gamut of different aspects of health and wellness from our physical wellbeing. It covers beauty, it covers mental health, it covers healthcare changes and coverage. So I’m very excited to get into this upcoming year’s report, and as Fay and I talk about, it’s nice to talk about this, I think this time of year with the new year ahead of us because it gives us a chance to consider some of these trends and how we might incorporate them in our own lives, how we might benefit.

01:19 And with winter solstice coming up, it just feels like a really reflective time to me. This is a time to consider what’s best for us, what’s best for our lives, how we can continue to progress on our individual journeys, and also just keep growing and evolving as humans, which is really, I believe, what we’re here to do. So thank you so much for tuning in, and just a little quick reminder before we get into our show today, that over on our website, my sauna.com, you can submit questions for our Thursday q and a show where I take time to answer a question around our four cornerstones, food body, emotional wellbeing, and spiritual growth and more depth. You’ll also find articles, other podcasts, meditations, thousands of delicious recipes and more. So please check it out. It’s all over there as our central hub. Alright, all that being said, let’s get right into our show today with Faye McCray.

Interview with Faye McCray

Kimberly: 05:08 Faye, it’s so great to be in touch with you. We’ve just been chatting about traveling and living a natural lifestyle and we’re so in tune, and I’m so happy to spend time with you today. Thank you so much.

Faye: 05:32 Oh, thank you for having me. It’s great to be here.

Kimberly: 05:35 It’s really interesting when we think about trends, right? The trends for the next year, the trends that have happened, there’s always this shift and so well and good has been so amazing at compiling all this data, all this information. I’ve been reading the trends, reports from Well and Good for years, and I always learn so much about it. First of all, it seems like you guys put so much effort into it and it takes months of research. Is that right?

Faye: 06:05 Absolutely. Yeah. It takes months. So I’m the new kid. I started in July, but I’ve been a fan of trends for a really long time, and I think I underestimated how much work the team pours into it, but we really want to get it right. And I think also we want there to be real takeaways. We don’t want anyone to feel like when you’re reading the trans, oh, what can I do with this? But really say, Hey, look out for these things. This is where you can find them. This is where you can be a part of this, and we want to make sure that that’s expert backed and we want to make sure that we have the right information behind it. So we pour a lot of intention, purpose research, just all of the things into this report.

Kimberly: 06:41 It’s made with a lot of love,

Faye: 06:43 A lot of love

Kimberly: 06:44 And a lot of research,

Faye: 06:46 Love and research.

Kimberly: 06:48 And one thing I’ve noticed over the years that I love about Well and Good is really starting to, you can see how much more holistic it’s become. I remember last year, one of the trends was the telehealth and the mental health, and just seeing that wasn’t something that any of us really talked about or you might not have seen on the trends report a decade ago, obviously. So we’re just starting to come into this space of being really honoring our wholism, I think, and our wholistic wellness, which is something that I’m so passionate about. So I love that. Well and Good is really supporting that.

Faye: 07:19 Yeah, I think there’s been really a shift sort of in the cultural zeitgeist too, of coming out of the pandemic. I think folks wanted more autonomy of their health. They want it to be able to really think about their health at all different levels. So I think in some ways it’s not as much driven by us as it’s driven by people and the way that we’re thinking about things and the way that we’re thinking about ourselves. And it is a really beautiful thing to see that the landscape is responding to that.

Kimberly: 07:45 Beautiful. So let’s talk about some of these top trends here, and we will link in the show notes, of course, to the trends report brand new. I love that you guys publish it before the beginning of the year. People talk about New Year. So much Faye. For me, there’s this natural time right now coming towards winter solstice. I feel like I’m already preparing for the new year. I’m thinking about my goals for next year. Do you feel that too?

Faye: 08:14 Yeah, absolutely. And I think that you’re right. I don’t know that we intentionally thought about that and did it that way, but even in just the preparation of this and reading the articles that we created, it has caused me to kind of go deep and think, what are those things that I want to take ownership of in the new year? And then how do these things help me get there? So it really is a great time of reflection, and we hope that this can add to that too.

Kimberly: 08:38 Yeah, I think it’s really powerful because New Year’s is a manmade holiday, and of course this is still relevant, and many people will be reading the report all through first quarter, but now winter solstice means the outer light is going down, and so the inner light grows. So our awareness, our intentionality, our connection. So I think our connection to wellness is really strong right now. So I love that we’re talking about the report now versus in a month or two. Yeah,

Faye: 09:11 Absolutely.

Kimberly: 09:12 So I’m going to talk about some of these topics. I’m going to dive right in. And again, this is just a smattering of the very incredible in-depth report that we, again, we’ll link to. But one of the things that resonated so much with me, Faye as a mom, I’ve got a three-year-old and seven-year-old. I’m a boy mama. I’ve got two sons. I’m a

Faye: 09:32 Boy mama.

Kimberly: 09:34 How old are your sons?

Faye: 09:36 I have, my littlest is seven, and then I have a thirteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old. Have

Kimberly: 09:40 Three boys

Faye: 09:41 Have three boys.

Kimberly: 09:43 Oh my gosh, that’s so fun. So we both have seven-year-olds. What a fun age.

Faye: 09:47 It’s the best age. I love this age so much.

Kimberly: 09:51 They’re so innocent still, but you can have a conversation. It’s fun. It’s a really,

Faye: 09:57 Yeah, funny

Kimberly: 10:00 That sixteen-year-old day,

Faye: 10:03 It’s been tough. Yeah, also a really exciting time. I feel like now I’m getting to know him as a person, and I am like, you’re a really cool human. I like you. Which is really nice.

Kimberly: 10:18 I love that every phase, right?

Faye: 10:19 Yeah, for sure.

Kimberly: 10:22 So speaking of phases, the first trend was talking about this new generation of postpartum care, which I don’t think has been in the media very much or hasn’t been in the culture very much. It’s sort of like, okay, pregnancy, how we take care of ourselves. There’s been a lot around birth. There’s been documentaries about birth birthing different ways, but then it’s like we miss this fourth trimester, and a lot of women, Arya Veda talks about this, how women became very susceptible in their calcium levels, in their bones, in their depression levels. Can you talk a little bit about this new trend, which sounds really positive and amazing?

Next-Generation postpartum care Is born

Faye: 11:03 Yeah. It’s one of, there are trends that we did that you get excited about and you want to be a part of, and then there are trends that just hit you like, yes, this is what we should have been doing. We all heard the stats about the state of maternal health in this country. I mean, it’s dire, especially for women of color. We know that that fourth trimester is actually the time when you’re most at risk, when the mortality rates are the highest. So when you hear about companies kind of coming out now and figuring out ways to be there for women during this period, it’s just one of those things that’s fantastic. There are these centers popping up now. These programs that offer so much support during this time, prenatal care drop offs, three to seven night postnatal stays for moms for support. There’s this fantastic place in New York that I know I’ve seen all over my Instagram recently.

11:55 So I’m like, okay, we’ve done this right in time called Boram in New York, where it’s modeled after the South Korean customary postnatal care where you just go and stay and your’re catered to, and your health is monitored. I mean, just all of these things that we need are now being addressed, and there are these great organizations and companies doing it. There’s also this kind of rise of virtual postpartum care, which is great because as we know as moms, sometimes you need the most support in the middle of the night, and that’s probably when you’re at your most alone. So now there are these fantastic places like Ola that offers virtual drop-in postpartum office hours when you have a question or you have a need. So it’s just a really fantastic way to respond to what’s a real crisis right now, but in a way that really thinks about how can we be there and in a way that’s practical and that allows women and folks with uteruses to be able to get the right support.

Kimberly: 13:01 As you’re speaking Fay, I can remember feeling real loneliness at times in those periods because people don’t really know what you’re going through. You may have a partner, you may not. I have two friends here that are neighbors that have decided to have kids on their own. So there’s this vulnerability in that stage that wasn’t always talked about. Like you said, it’s crucial. Now, you said something that I don’t think a lot of people still know, which is that in the fourth trimester, there’s higher mortality than at birth. Is that true?

Higher mortality than at birth in the fourth trimester and if that’s true

Faye: 13:34 Yeah. And that captures not just the complications that sometimes can arise as a result of childbirth, but also the mental health concerns. We know that postpartum depression is real, postpartum anxiety is real, and those things also impact maternal mortality. So yeah. Yeah, it’s absolutely a fact. The CDC released that report in 2022. I mean, it’s one of those, again, those stats that just kind of stop you, like, okay, we need to figure this out.

Kimberly: 14:03 So when you say that, just to get really real for a moment, suicide level, is that what you mean?

Faye: 14:09 Yeah,

Kimberly: 14:10 Absolutely. Wow. I’ll just get goosebumps. So thank goodness this is an incredible trend centers and virtual and ways,

Faye: 14:20 And then also there are things like postpartum preeclampsia, which just transparently is something I suffered from with my last child. I was privileged in a lot of ways that I was surrounded by care and folks took me seriously and took me to the hospital right away. But you’re hearing these awful stories about women who don’t have that support and are coming to these preventable and treatable illnesses. So I think what’s wonderful about this trend or this movement is it’s a real saying of we acknowledge you just went through this huge massive life body health changing event, and we’re going to acknowledge that and we’re going to be there and we’re going to figure out a way to support you through it.

Kimberly: 15:01 Amazing. I love this. I love talking about this first,

15:05 We’ll jump around because there’s real all across the board. The trends are, so one of the things that is really interesting is the sauna industry. So as someone that’s, we talked about traveling to Asia, it’s a big part of the culture in Korea. We’ve seen different trends, Faye from infrared saunas, dry saunas. I’m starting to see the dry saunas coming back a little bit more paired with the cold plunges. You’re seeing this huge emphasis on it. Places in Europe have always been big sauna people. So what’s going on here? What’s new and what’s different? Yeah.

Red-hot sauna industry and new ways to optimize your sweat session

Faye: 15:43 What’s so funny is when this first came up, I was like, saunas to me it rings, I don’t know, nineties. There’s just a certain vibe that I think about. So saunas themselves aren’t new as we know, but in 2024, sauna tech innovations are going to increase with the potential for benefits that you can really get from a sweat session. So to your point, this is something that’s been taking place in other cultures and other places for a really long time, but we’re seeing like thermotherapy getting smarter with ways to maximize sweat and give you better results. To your point, again, it’s rooted in Turkey and Russia. We’ve seen Native American customs that have captured this for a really long time, but now in spa and at-home saunas have now they’re featuring red light therapy that reduce inflammation. I mean, all sorts of new ways to reap the benefits of saunas that really mimic the Earth’s like natural magnetic energy to improve your health. So there are just all these fun ways and all these new benefits that are coming from this therapy, this tried and true and old thing that we’ve seen for so long.

Kimberly: 16:51 And are you seeing Faye sort of this kind of reversal, yes, new technology, but kind of going back to that dry sauna again? Right. I felt like there was a time a few years ago where everything went to infrared. Now it’s sort of shifting back, or at least partly I’ve seen that too. Isn’t that interesting?

Faye: 17:11 Yeah, yeah. I think so too. And I think what’s innovative about this space that we’re in now is too thinking of ways to bring it in home. There are so many things that are popping up to, and we’ll talk more about this too, I think this is a thread through a lot of the trends, is how do we make your home in an oasis and how do we make your home a place of healing? So a lot of these technologies are finding ways into your home. Also, there’s different studios popping up, wellness clubs where you can go and reap the benefits of these things in a social setting. I’ve seen places with halo therapy and salt therapy, and we’re in the cold and flu season right now, so we think about improving our lung health and inflammation. So there are so many ways that these things can sort of benefit and be supplements to your health journey.

Kimberly: 17:59 Do you think that was one of the after effects of Covid was that people really got used to being home and they like having stuff at home more than before? Like you said, there’s centers, people like to go to classes. Sometimes fitness, I’m such a home body, so it even intensified that more for me where I want to have everything here.

Faye: 18:21 I think it’s a combination of the two, right? Because there are these advances now in technology that allow us to bring these things in home, but at the same time, yes, I mean, we all created these little oases and bungalows in our space when we couldn’t go out and do the things that we wanted to do outside of the house. Absolutely. And again, that is a thread when you look at the trends. So much of it is like, how do I bring these things into my space? How do I own this piece and this sense of tranquility or overall health, but within the confines of my safe space, my home,

Kimberly: 18:56 And I don’t know if there’s any research on this, just kind of going off topic a little bit, but people were forced to cook at home, which I think is such a way to increase healthy eating, what oils are being used? And I wonder if a lot of people kept up with it or they just went back to their restaurant. Yeah, I dunno. But it’s

Faye: 19:15 Interesting. I dunno, personally, I probably am eating out way more than I was during the pandemic.

Kimberly: 19:21 Yeah,

Faye: 19:22 That’s a good one for us to dig into.

Kimberly: 19:25 Yeah, it’s interesting. And back to that is this trend about healthy eating where it says it’s more flavor forward and legitimately functional. And I like how that word was part of the trends because sometimes there’s the marketing speak and you don’t really know what’s legitimately functional. Can you talk a little bit about what you discovered there? Well, and good found? Yeah.

Eating for wellness is a lot simpler and celebratory in 2024

Faye: 19:50 It’s definitely a supplement to this food as medicine culture that we’re used to seeing develop and rise. People want the comfort of food, but they also want the functionality of food. You want to eat something and kind of know what it’s doing. It doesn’t just taste good, but what’s the nutritional value and how does this help my overall journey to wellness? So we’re seeing breakfast foods where newer players are focused on offering products that contain plant-based protein or less added sugar or fewer ingredients overall compared to a number of popular name brand cereals and other things. So there’s a real intentionality to this. I love the phrase I think that we used in the article, joyful Nourishment. How does this impact my mood? How does it impact my health? We were looking at the functionality of what we put in our bodies.

Kimberly: 20:41 I love the joyful. It sort of goes along with what my friend Dan Butner talks about, who’s come on this podcast a lot as well. He’s the one who discovered the Blue Zones. When you look at these really healthy cultures, and you and I were talking about how I love traveling, especially in Asia and Africa, there’s this naturalness, it’s not so manufactured, it’s just nutritious, it’s happy. The relax meals, they’re smiling more naturally. It’s part of health, the dieting culture from the eighties. And even now, these restricted that. There’s still so many different iterations, low carb, no carb. Now there’s the carnivore diet and paleo crack. All these weight,

Faye: 21:25 I

Kimberly: 21:26 Think just very restrictive to be followed. So I love that it’s coming back to this, food is medicine, food is natural, food can be joyful, and that’s how we stay on things.

Faye: 21:40 Yeah, and you see the brands following. So purely Elizabeth, you kind of think of like Opril’s granola, but now there’s oatmeal and value, size, packaging options. I mean, there’s really a trend, for lack of a better word, of these brands kind of tacking onto again, what we are needing and what we’re demanding

Kimberly: 21:59 And still tasting Delicious.

Faye: 22:02 Still delicious.

Kimberly: 22:04 I love Pure Elizabeth. And Elizabeth has actually been on the podcast as well. Yeah.

Faye: 22:07 Oh, I’m a granola. I love granola.

Kimberly: 22:10 Me too. Me Too. So delicious. And I’m a granola with coconut yogurt. Banana my favorite.

Faye: 22:17 Yeah, that’s a list.

Kimberly: 22:19 Okay, so let’s talk about artificial intelligence and personal fitness. So this is an interesting one because my husband also works in wellness. He’s on the agency side. He gets a lot of biohacking stuff sent here. So I’ve seen Fade the mirrors with trainers. So you’re not getting trainers anymore. There’s all kinds of tracking devices. I think people can really go down the rabbit hole if they’re into the quantitative data and the technology. This is one place where huge explosion in technology, right?

Faye: 22:52 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is one of those things I think, I don’t know if it’s just this field and editorial, but where we’re always, there’s a healthy side eye for AI in tech, right? Because we’re always like, what’s happening here? Can we trust this?

Artificial intelligence in personalized fitness gets smarter

Kimberly: 23:09 We’re calling more and more and more, right?

Faye: 23:11 Yeah, I know. Yes. But I mean, one of the awesome things I think about this particular trend and how it’s impacting fitness is it’s getting so smart about the personalization of your fitness journey, which I think we all know when we discuss things like BMI or different kind of calculations of health, they’ve been flawed and biased for years. And what’s great about the emergence of some of this technology is it really looks at you. We saw some things like assessing DNA, believe it or not, and working with twentythreeandmeandancestry.com to recommend training plans that are unique to your Yeah, and I mean, it’s just kind of this awesome landscape of thinking of new ways to really personalize care, personalize fitness, so that you’re not feeling shame that maybe this thing didn’t work for me. This diet didn’t work for me, routine didn’t work for me. Well, what is it that I need? And AI is kind of emerging to fill this gap, but then how much do you want to give it? Right? How much information do you want to give it?

Kimberly: 24:13 So that’s really interesting. For some people it may say, Hey, high intensity training doesn’t work for you. Maybe you need something that’s less inflammatory or whatever. It goes to that level.

Faye: 24:24 Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s fascinating. We’ve seen things in the market like tonal, right? That can sort of assess the ideal amount of resistance that you need based on your utilization of it. But these things just take it a step further and really helping you determine what works for me, what’s going to work for me.

Kimberly: 24:44 Wow. In that category, would you say there’s brands like Catalyst where you wear the suit and the electrodes are coming to make it a more efficient workout? So it’s like instead of working out for an hour, you can work out for 12 minutes.

Faye: 24:56 Yeah. I think all of that kind of fits into this landscape before of just those things that are really addressing what’s unique to you and what your needs are.

Kimberly: 25:08 I know most simple fave this one for me, I walk for an hour, I get outside. That’s always been my fitness routine. I used to do more yoga, but to each their own, I think it’s great. It’s there for people that really want to take advantage of it.

Faye: 25:24 Yeah, I’m pretty No-frills too. I cycle. That’s my thing. But I’m like, I don’t know. Maybe there’ll be something on the bike or something in your shoe, right? That’s going to tell you

Kimberly: 25:32 Who knows. And you know what? If it motivates people and it helps a substratum of people, it’s an amazing trend.

Faye: 25:39 Absolutely.

Kimberly: 25:41 And along those lines, this is something that my Ayurvedic, he’s not my doctor, but he did my chart so you wouldn’t think, oh, astrology chart. He kind of looked at my body type and he said, Kimberly, you need to add more strength training. Isn’t that interesting? Which is a trend around, it’s the most important part. It’ll become such an important thing. And that’s one I am not drawn to, but I know it’s important as we age, we have to take care of our bones. We don’t want to fall. Tell us about this. Maybe because I don’t know, some of us are drawn to it, some of us aren’t, but it’s important.

Faye: 26:19 Yeah. Well, what’s unique about this trend? It’s a little deceptive that it’s strength training of your skin. Oh, your skin barrier.

Kimberly: 26:28 Oh my gosh. I just totally glossed over that. I was like, yeah, I know. I’m trying to lift weight. Tell me about strength training your skin.

Faye: 26:38 Yeah. I don’t know if you’ve seen, it’s popping up everywhere, but just that your skin barrier is really your first line of defense against elements. And especially now we went through this, I know not so much on the west coast where you are, but the Canadian air and all the things that were happening over the summer that were bizarre. And so pollution, there’s also to bacteria in the air that’s impacting your skin. So we’re really talking about strength training your skin to sort of withstand these elements. How

Kimberly: 27:07 Do you do that?

Faye: 27:08 There are these fantastic products now coming on,

Kimberly: 27:11 Not the market right now. You’re not talking about that?

Faye: 27:14 No, no. We’re not weightlifting with our,

Kimberly: 27:17 I mean, the crystals that people roll on their face, I think that’s more lymphatic drainage. This is amazing. Yeah. What does it look like when you’re strength training your skin?

‘Strength Training’ your skin will become the single most important part of your beauty routine in 2024

Faye: 27:30 Well, when functioning properly, your complexion will be hydrated and healthy. And when it’s compromised, you really become vulnerable to things like dryness and irritation. Inflammation and research has found that things like atopic dermatitis, which is a type of eczema, is characterized by an extremely weak skin barrier. So we’ve seen a lot of products coming to market now that there are active ingredients that people can put in their skincare that can help improve your barrier and help resist that compromising. So we look at products that have been used previously, like retinol and vitamin C and exfoliating acids, which people use for their functions, but they can really strip the skin. So folks are now supplementing as a part of their skincare routine, these products now that help strengthen your barrier. So it largely comes from lighter weight products that can be suitable for different skin products. Polish Choice has launched a barrier repair, advanced moisturizer, which boosts the skin’s production of ceramics to strengthen the barrier and allow for better moisture retention. We’ve seen products from rock, but everyone’s now prioritizing this idea that, Hey, we’re forgetting a part, and that’s that barrier.

Kimberly: 28:43 I want to do whatever you are doing fe because your skin is

Faye: 28:48 Lazy.

Kimberly: 28:49 It’s that perfect, not greasy, not dry, glowy. Are you a big exfoliator? Are you a big moisturizer?

Faye: 28:59 Look, one of the benefits from working for Well, and

Kimberly: 29:02 You no doubt,

Faye: 29:02 Is that you hear from our beauty editors, people talk about stuff and then you’re like, I need to incorporate that into my skincare routine. So moisture, I think, especially now as we enter the dry months, right? Yes, sure. It’s just so important. I think the right moisturizer as well. Knowing your skin type is really, really important. But I’ve certainly incorporated barrier protection into my care routine after hearing about this and just being more cognizant of that, especially as we enter this kind of bizarre phase of living on earth where you just never know what the temperature is going to be or what’s going to be floating around in the air.

Kimberly: 29:38 So there was this trend, again for exfoliation. At a certain point, everyone was using those brushes. Yes. Does that hinder your barrier? So now we shouldn’t be exfoliating as much as they used to say. Is that right? I

Faye: 29:52 Think it’s more just adding barrier protection into your routine. So I think without really, really talking to a dermatologist, which I think is always important when it comes to your unique skin types, but from what we’ve seen of this trend, it’s really supplemental. So it’s adding in additional products that are considering your skin barrier and strength training your skin. It’s so

Kimberly: 30:15 Funny. I totally overlooked that part. Thank you for pointing that out. Of course. And now let’s talk about hair, because that’s a big topic. We get so many questions around how do I grow my hair? My hair doesn’t grow, my hair’s thinning, especially for us moms. I don’t know if that happened to you. Faye. Definitely

‘Hair Longevity’ products to keep hair healthy as you age

Faye: 30:33 A thousand percent. Yes.

Kimberly: 30:36 But you were talking about a trend. Is hair longevity, does that mean the health as it grows longer, or what does that mean exactly? Because I’ve never heard that term.

Faye: 30:47 Yeah. It’s so interesting that you’re differentiating too with the hair loss. Something that we wanted to be clear about too, which was also a trend. And especially coming out of the pandemic, a lot of folks were thinking about that. So fun fact that I did not know until I went into this, but the skin on your scalp actually ages faster than anywhere else on your body. So that can impact your health. So that can impact the health of your hair. So when we talk about what it looks like to have hair that could be aging, it’s drying, it could be a little bit weaker, which could also lead to hair loss. It could be brittle and prone to breakage. There could be premature graying due to pigment loss, which I’m teen gray. I love the sprinkles in my hair. But a lot of times if that happens prematurely and it’s due to a decline in health in your hair, those are things that you want to address. So a lot of companies are now looking at ways that we can impact the longevity of your hair and really the health of your hair. So it’s not just a matter of having it, but how healthy is it, right? The hair that’s in your head. So that’s what this trend is about really addressing that.

Kimberly: 31:53 Is it ingestibles or is it more topicals for this skin on your scalp?

Faye: 32:00 Yeah, we’re definitely seeing shampoos. We’re seeing conditioners. We’re seeing other repair lines. Unilever has a couple of repair lines that they’re launching soon that really get into hydrating and just keeping your hair healthy.

Kimberly: 32:16 Wow. I’m going to look into some of that. My hair goes through a lot with the sun, and we swim a lot in Hawaii where we are a lot too. So it’s one of those things you don’t always think about until you’re like, wow, I don’t know. My hair feels so dry, and it is a part of health. It is a sign of wellbeing. So I love that.

Faye: 32:38 I know there was a period in my twenties where I was covering my hair a lot with hats and different things, and it wasn’t getting as much sun. And I remember going to a beautician once who said, once you get your hair out in the sun, the richness of the color is going to come back. And I never thought about that, the sun’s impact on hair and just making sure that I was thinking about those sorts of things. So I love this trend is just companies now thinking about those parts, those pieces, not just the preservation, but really what does it look like to have longevity?

Kimberly: 33:09 And the past shampoo was like, oh, it smells good, or it’s this.

Faye: 33:13 You

Kimberly: 33:14 Said the functional foods. There’s actually a lot of functional ingredients going into the shampoos. Okay, so we have time for a few more here. I love real estate is bringing wellness to your doorstep, real estate industry. What does this mean,

How the Real Estate Industry is bringing wellness to your doorstep

Faye? Yeah.

Faye: 33:32 I mean, this was such an interesting one for us to explore because I felt like it opened up a whole world to me that I did not know was happening. So real estate is undergoing this wellness makeover that we’re going to see continue to shift. So if you think about back to food and beverages over the last 15 years, all of a sudden we were hearing about non-GMO foods, inorganic. I think real estate is going to see a similar kind of shift. What constitutes a healthy home? And I think that’s going to depend on a lot of factors. So people are looking at air quality and water quality and lighting elements that enhance sleep, kind of what you’re facing. We’re facing south, north. All of those things sort of factor in now to how people are looking at their homes and the real estate and the places where they invest. So we’re seeing also in apartments, things popping up, like installing a cold plunge or a sauna as an amenity, as a part of new places that you live. So wellness is really being prioritized in the development of new homes and places to live.

Kimberly: 34:38 Wow. I mean, we started to see that in hotel rooms. Yes. Does that make sense? People wanting to have the wellness rooms. And I did a partnership with Celebrity, Crew Ships, and there was wellness experiences and meditations. So that makes sense because it’s a big part of life now.

Faye: 34:55 Yeah. Yeah. I think for sure. It feels like it’s a spilling over into things that were being provided at hotels, like Blue Zone Center, opening a hotel and a residential property Now in Miami that’s going to include a large-scale medical center that’s going to kind of address people’s health in addition to where they live. I mean, we’re seeing it in so many places. There’s a real estate development in Ohio called the Gravity, and it’s as billed as the world’s largest conscious living community.

Kimberly: 35:25 Really

Faye: 35:26 Include apartments, restaurants, retailers, but all kind of geared towards health and wellness.

Kimberly: 35:32 I love this trend. Yes. Really becomes the whole way that we live.

Faye: 35:38 Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And it’s necessary. It’s needed. These are things that we should be thinking about.

Kimberly: 35:45 I love it. So we have time for one more here. Love. So maybe we talk about the everyday gear that’s going to perform medical tests from home, these smart products. And I think this is really interesting because we saw some things that were a little bit sketchy at a certain point. The Theranos, remember that whole phenomenon that happened? We’re like, oh, maybe we can’t do the blood test. But now there’s these legitimate brands that are doing tests, which of course can save us time. They can save money. Can you talk a little bit about this trend, which seems like it will only continue to grow?

Our everyday gear performing medical tests from home

Faye: 36:22 Yeah. What’s so interesting about this trend is a lot of these products and these testing products are just going to be embedded into products we use already. And one of the things that’s most fascinating, and I love that you selected this one, I wanted to talk about this, but there are smart tampons in menstrual cups now that will be connected to an app that can tell you about your flow level. Your pH can evaluate signs of diabetes, cholesterol, and other gynecological diseases. And what I love about this is, as we know, women tend to be understudied. And there are lots of, especially when it comes to menstruation. So the idea that you could use a tampon and it can help sort of measure these things within your health is pretty fascinating to me.

Kimberly: 37:06 But is there any sort of EMF or, that was one of the things I get concerned with, all the trackers that you wear, if it’s going in your vagina and it’s tracking things, how is that connecting to an app? I mean, everything has a plus side and downside.

Faye: 37:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean there’s definitely, I mean, there’s a lot of factors there. You want to make sure that, I mean, it’s even just privacy at its most basic level. Say even when we were evaluating these trends, we tried to kind of make sure that we gave a holistic view of this is what’s happening. These are the questions you should ask before you choose to or engage in them. But again, there’s that piece that folks want to take ownership of their health, especially as saturated as the healthcare market is right now. How hard it’s to get an appointment with a doctor. There’s medical lighting is a thing. Sometimes you’re just not believed. These are places in ways that you can take ownership of your healthcare journey. We’ve seen smart contact lenses to measure eye diseases. There are just these all fantastic things that are low lift, using them already, but they’re helping you evaluate your health

Kimberly: 38:14 And just making everything more accessible and more timely. Yeah.

Faye: 38:17 Yeah. For sure.

Kimberly: 38:19 Too long. Well, this is amazing, Faye. I know there’s so much more in the report. So thank you for sharing some of your amazing wisdom and brilliance and being able to go in depth about anything that I’m throwing your way.

Faye: 38:35 I can talk about this forever. So it was such a pleasure.

Kimberly: 38:39 Wow. So we will link in the show notes to the report. There’s so much more in depth. And like I said, well and Good does an A plus job every year, and it’s always unexpected. It’s always exciting. And this year it’s completely different than last year.

Faye: 38:57 Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I’m so glad.

Kimberly: 39:00 Yeah. So thank you so much my love. It’s been a pleasure speaking to you, and I look forward to connecting with you more.

Faye: 39:06 You two can really have a great day. Bye.

Kimberly: 02:58  I hope you enjoyed the trends report and discussing it with Faye. As much as I absolutely loved discussing it, we will link to the report directly in our show notes, which are@mysauna.com. That’s M-Y-S-O-L-L-U n.com, so you can peruse the trends report for yourself. As I mentioned with Faye, we didn’t cover all the topics because it’s very in depth, so I encourage you to check it out. We will also link to

Kimberly: 02:58 Other shows I think you would enjoy and recipes, meditations, articles, and more. If you haven’t been to our site yet, you are in for a treat because we have so much available for you over there. Alright, my love. We’ll be back here Thursday for our next Q and a show. So till then, have a wonderful, wonderful week. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday season. Sending you so much love and so much light. Namaste.