The Integrative Era

March 27, 2011

Wellness-First Markets

The phrase “integrative health and wellness” describes a process underway across the US that blends the work and outcomes of many fields of endeavor, many not normally thought of as “health,” that are infusing business, education, personal  and civic life with new ideas and models and are establishing new paradigms for personal and community wellbeing.

The work in green building, especially in schools; in nutrition for school and hospital kitchens; in a new emphasis on phys ed as “fitness-based learning;” in the inclusion of healing therapies in spas and fitness centers, even the outcomes of sustainable clean energy are partially defined in terms of health: all reflect a response to long gestating (simmering?)  consumer demand.

The marketplace forming to serve these needs works mostly outside the parameters of the health care system itself.  Although it is infused with what we have learned about human biology, the brain and genome and what affects them, it is about bringing to individuals and organizations the tools for establishing an optimal personal kind of vitality and systems of prevention tuned to prevent the onset of disease.

We believe that what are now mostly disconnected fields will increasingly intersect, though partnerships and collaborations, as the health-creating qualities and outcomes of their work become better known and understood.