Top In-Home Health Trends of 2018

The world can be a stressful place, so our methods for staying calm and well need to be accessible, not reserved for irregular doctor (or in worst case scenarios, hospital) visits. Thanks to advances in technology and research, a growing number of people can take their health into their own hands. Medical products, wellness techniques, and even simple daily habits can have dramatic effects on our lives, so here are some of the best in-home health trends people are taking advantage of in 2018.

Products

Products for managing health: Well-funded hospitals are usually the places to find high-tech equipment, but the number of personalized medical devices is expanding rapidly. These best-selling products are not meant for blood transfusions, but they can help people avoid trips to the emergency room and promote better overall physical and mental health.

Such devices include wearable technology. Modern consumers are more tech-savvy than their predecessors and engage with it more frequently, so manufacturers are learning to address customer demand for machines that patients can wear on their bodies and let them go to work. One popular device is the Under Armour Healthbox, which includes a three-piece tracker that compiles data regarding your steps, workout intensity, duration, and heart rate.

Some devices do not even need to go on your body—they can go under your mattress. An abundance of research emphasizes the importance of sleep, so the EmFit QS Sleep Monitor rests under your bed to track your heart rate, movements, and other information to give you insight into your sleeping habits.

There has also been a recent shift towards personalized care. BizVibe reports that 30 to 40 percent of current patients use therapies or medications with harmful side effects outweighing the benefits. Everyone has different body chemistry. Personalized care accounts for individuals’ unique needs. Not only does it help to remove the possibility of adverse reactions, but it also helps MedTech manufacturers discover and develop new treatments through data from personalized devices.

Products for protection: Modern technology is incredible, but it is not without its shortcomings. Environmental impact is still an essential subject that requires due attention, but it also has an impact on our health. Well and Good notes that your skin battles an abundance of blue light from screens, harsh ingredients, and pollution on a daily basis, which is why a new wave of skin-care products is intended to protect people from their own devices.

Cosmetic chemist Jim Hammer says: “Especially now, there are lots of impacts from pollutants in the environment and ozone to UV rays, and all of these can have a negative impact on the [skin’s] lipid barrier. So, proper skin barrier function is really the key to maintaining healthy, hydrated skin.”

Companies like Biossance, Allies of Skin, Marie Veronique, and Mother Dirt are accounting for environmental stressors in their products, and others are likely to follow suit. These are not products you concoct at home, but they protect your skin no matter where you are.

Habits

Finding communities: The pursuit of happiness is a search no one has found an end-all answer to, but there is something happy people have in common: they interact with one another. The most recent World Happiness Report found that close social connections are what foster happiness, rather than money or even physical health. Out of 155 countries surveyed, poorer nations like Mexico and Costa Rica ranked higher than wealthier ones such as the US and China because they engage in community relationships more. Countries that find a balance, including Northern European nations, typically rank the highest.

Even if people do not learn of this data, they are still sensing its truth in their daily lives. An increasing number of people are deleting various social media accounts, or at least detoxing from them. Social media has not been around for long, but its pervasiveness is encouraging folks to examine their usage. Jillian Knox Finley from My Domaine quit using social media for 40 days, and she says:

“It was not until I got back online that I had a bird’s-eye view of my takeaway from this experiment. In the end, the biggest cleanse ended up not in sharing, but in the documenting of life. Gone was the compulsion to record. Sharing is human. It’s powerful. It’s true we are more connected than ever. The question is, what are you sharing? Art or illusion, or both? Are you generous? Are you listening? Are you present, or are you looking around?”

People who reduce their social media use find themselves engaging with people in-person more. Social media is an excellent platform for communication, but escaping from compulsive binging and posting enables people to foster real-life relationships and communities, which are essential to emotional health.

There are small-scale habits folks can adopt, too. 2017 saw several wellness trends that have not died in 2018—such as increased meditation, setting up plant walls (which filter toxins and boost moods), cooking healthier, and space cleansing (cleaning your bedroom reduces mind clutter)—and none of them require excessive doctor visits. People can take better care of themselves more than ever before with new tools and research, slowly bringing about a brighter, healthier world.

How do plan to stay healthy for the rest of the year?

This is a guest blog entry.