Wellness

The English language has acquired a new word, but its meaning is vague and any benefits are doubtful. One might say that ‘wellness’ is the same thing as good health, in which case there would be no need for a new word. But the difference seems to be that good health is defined by and dependent on medical science, whereas wellness is loosely decided by its practitioners and varies according to their beliefs. Maintaining good health includes looking after both one’s physical and mental condition, whereas wellness appears to be more about what one should avoid.

A recent new acquaintance, who claims to write about wellness, has shone a little light on this new phenomenon. She cannot sleep in a room with pictures on the wall, abhors indoor plants, cannot survive without her room being flooded with sunshine and refuses to use a microwave oven. And yet has a mobile phone! Another acquaintance has had all the amalgam fillings in her teeth removed as she was convinced she was suffering from mercury poisoning. And then there are those who live entirely on uncooked vegetables, or starve themselves regularly, or take ice-cold baths.

Wellness seems to be a conglomeration of beliefs and attitudes, mostly without any scientific basis. A wellness advocate can accept any or all of the beliefs and practice some or all of the habits. A wellness lifestyle appears to be based on a limited and distorted understanding of the immune system, so that daily dosing with vitamin pills, eating special herbs and certain avoidance behaviours will protect one from all illnesses.

However, this way of life has its drawbacks in not being being able to use a microwave oven and opposition to the rollout of the 5G network because it spreads the coronavirus, failure to protect oneself from infection with Covid-19 by wearing a mask, refusal of vaccination and, as I have pointed out elsewhere, the irrationality and danger of having a colonic irrigation to clean out any ‘residual toxins’.