Ezekiel J. Emanuel

There is an enormous Wellness-Industrial Complex. There are three problems with these wellness and longevity authors, newsletters, internet gurus and Tik Tok influencers. While some of whom have a great insights, many are making crazy, unsubstantiated recommendations. Many wellness commentators have enormous conflicts of interest. Finally there is just too much information so for the average person who wants to be healthy it is hard to differentiate fact from fiction and make suitable adjustments in life.

Wellness is not really complex. It entails 6 simple things, and you don’t have to do them perfectly to get the enormous benefits. The most important thing is cultivating social relations. They add to your wellness, happiness and longevity. Second is staying mentally engaged and thus not retiring to ward off cognitive impairment and dementia. Third, eat well. This mainly entails stopping to do bad stuff—stopping to drink sodas, stopping to eat snacks like cookies, potato chips, and packaged sweets, and reducing ultra-processed foods to about 20% or less of calories. The main good thing to do is eat fermented foods—yogurt, kimchi, miso, and other products with probiotics. Fourth, get the 3 types of exercise—aerobic, strength training, and flexibility and balance. Fifth, sleep like a baby. You cannot will yourself to sleep, but you can make it conducive. Finally, don’t be a schmuck—don’t take unnecessary risks. This means don’t smoke or vape, don’t drink alcohol or no more than 4 drinks a week, don’t buy a gun to protect yourself, and certainly don’t try to climb Mt. Everest. These are all schmuck moves.

Maybe the most important advice is not to obsess over wellness—don’t make it a religion or all consuming obsession. Adopt the key behaviors and put it into the background so you can focus on the important things in your life—your family, your career, making the world better.