What the Future: Wellness

What tensions are driving the future of wellness? We have more tools and technology and greater understanding of how to be well. But at the same time we have a level of skepticism in how much to take advantage of those technologies. All of which exists in a complicated healthcare system.

Listen in as we draw on exclusive new data, expert interviews with CVS Health, Unilever, Lumen, and other players driving the future of wellness. We cover equity, inclusion, gut health, wearable technology and more as we talk about how our wellness efforts will evolve in coming years.

Don't forget to also sign-up to receive our What the Future newsletter - a monthly dispatch from the future with exclusive data, and expert insights from Ipsos and other leading-edge companies, digging into the trends that will shape the world in the months, years and decades to come. 

AI-generated audio transcript is offered below. Apologies in advance for inconsistencies that have been included.

Welcome. I'm Matt Carmichael, editor of What the Future and head of the newly launched Ipsos future and foresight lab. And today we're talking about the future of wellness. I'm going to start this webinar with one of my favorite words. It's a totally wonky word, kind of, and I wish I had an AI of James Earl Jones that would just read his voice. It's also a word that summarizes a dominant, recurring and inescapable theme in What the Future, the word is bifurcation. To me, it implies being on different ends of spectrum without necessarily being opposed like polarization, which is a relevant word often too. You can be on opposite ends without being intention. And don't worry. We'll have plenty of tensions to talk about as we go today. On one hand, you have a proportion of the population who is very concerned in tune and working proactively on all aspects of health and wellness from diet to fitness, to mental health and mindfulness.

But on the other hand, there's a swelling epidemic of diabetes, obesity, and addiction. We'll talk about this and much more as we go, but first I want you to imagine something. So imagine it's 2028, the continued waves of the pandemic have strained the healthcare system for some more than others, but increase in people are taking their health and wellbeing, their wellness into their own hands. They get encouragement from social media, from friends and family. They get nudged with sticks and carrots by everyone, from pharmaceutical companies to insurers, to employers who help pay for that insurance to the best behavioral science that tech companies can utilize and commercialize in this world, our devices work together to collect data and customize ways for us to optimize our foods and fitness across a range of physical and mental measures. Wellness is a fad, a trend, a religion, a way of life, or even just a boring part of everyday reality, depending on whom you ask. And yet it's out of reach for many economically or logistically or both and tensions push and pull us along to the plausible future. And while it's apply for some, it's an not a plausible future for everyone individually, some have high barriers to being healthy as we'll discuss, or perhaps for reasons we'll also discuss, they just don't buy into all of the tech solutions, either the gadgets or the science, but how did we come up with this mini scenario and how we'll know if that's where we're headed, let's dive in.

So in today's episode, which we've treated as sort of a pod, we're going to talk about how we do the work of creating a What the Future. We'll walk you through all the steps. We'll take you through all of the data. We'll talk to you, all of our experts. And in the end, you'll see how we see the future of wellness and how that all comes together. This is What the Future.

So here's our agenda for the day. We're going to start by looking at all the things that wrap around the future of wellness itself. Then we're going to dive into each of those different areas on our map, which you'll see in a moment, we're going to talk about the lay of the land. What does the world look like in each of those areas? We're going to think about the tensions, the opinions that underlie how we'll absorb the future and all those changes. And we'll think about what the world looks like based on our current state of being in regard to those tensions, we call that the plausible ports then we'll think about, okay, take one of those tensions. And what happens if we slide that bar one way or the other. If we take that tension and movement as a Waypoint, which different plausible port or plausible future might we be aiming towards, and then we're going to introduce you to an artifact from the future when Kate MacArthur, What the Future is, deputy editor.

And I sit down to start thinking about an issue at the very earliest stages we want to think about not just the future of our topic, but all of the things that will drive that future. And so we've created, and we now actually include in the issue, this handy dandy territory map to show our work and show our thinking in terms of what we think is going to shape the future of in this is wellness. We think that some of the dominant industries around it are the healthcare industry. Obviously the food industry will think about consumer behaviors, the environment, consumer goods, and demographics. So in the healthcare industry, we have everything from actual pharmaceuticals to healthcare provider, to caregivers in the caregiving industry, something you'll see also pop up in next. Month's What the Future aging in the food industry. We think about how nutrition and supplements and sweeteners and natural and health foods all play into creating more wellness.

We'll think about the desire to have a healthy lifestyle. We'll think about behavioral and mental health. We'll think about fitness. And obviously we'll also be thinking about the bifurcation, the fact that there is this CA ASM between living healthy and not. And the things that go into that, like the healthcare system itself, we'll think about the environment and the world around us, how climate change is going to impact the way we live and how healthy we can be in that world. We'll think about consumer goods, personal technology, apparel, fitness equipment, and we'll think about the big driving demographic trends that play into all of this, the generational dynamics, diversified population and gender differences in terms of how we view things. So what does that world start to look like in the us, especially when you talk about wellness, you have to start with the healthcare system itself, right?

There are no shortages to talk about in terms of the system, especially since only 36% of 18 to 30 or four year olds say the system works for them. But since we're focused on wellness broadly, we wanted to approach this from the standpoint of access and equity, healthcare equity are two things that seem like they should go hand in hand. And yet they often don't in the us, the health providers, which includes doctors, nurses, pharmacies, insurance companies, nonprofits, government agencies, they're constantly merging and evolving, but they don't always work together or recognize each other. And me still rely on historically bias science. How should these organizations work together to improve the system so that it better supports our individual health? Kate MacArthur spoke to U Michael Currie, the chief health equity officer for UnitedHealth Group about several programs. They've run speaking about the bias science.

He said that United health has a work group focused on evaluating the programs that determine the care to remove any biases. He said that they want to contribute to the science. So they're ensuring the best possible care for all individuals. Removing bias is an important step and to get to the system, to work for everyone to and improve of outcomes for people in the future care also needs to be more accessible and convenient. A silver lining the pandemic was that telehealth expanded quickly providing more access to care for those who otherwise wouldn't have had it, but that comes with its own challenges and limitations. How can care providers adapt to make telehealth and other access points more, are powerful and available to more people? Here's what he had to say. One of those technologies that has really shown itself to be beneficial is telehealth and the increase of telehealth by giving patients and, and easier option to access care. But there are also barriers that people experience associated with telehealth as well. So we realized early on that many of those vulnerable patients were unable or reluctant because of trust issues to use traditional telehealth. So how could we be in 10 and purposeful about removing the barrier and driving better access to this affordable type care?

And so what they did to alleviate some of those barriers is they gave tablets with cellular data to patients in, in a pilot. And they were able to take 200,000 people and give them care through this telehealth platform. And 40,000 of those became recurring patients, really helping to address issues of equity and inclusion and avoid some of the traditional barriers to healthcare. Telehealth is partially about control, which is a dominant theme here. If barriers are dismantled in the future, we'll have more to say over how we manage our care within the system and how we monitor our health diet and exercise three quarters, 78%, especially those under the age of 25 at 90% say they would like to start managing their care year using their health plans website app, and have that serve as a resource for accessing appropriate care. According to ANSO study forever north from late 2, 20, 20 many are already using apps and wearables to track various aspects of their health and wellness.

And about half have used some sort of virtual care most positively. Imagine what possibilities augmented and virtual reality will open for care and wellness. David Scowcroft an SVP of healthcare of Ipsos in North America told us that over the next three to five years, we expect to see more and more digital systems being used in healthcare and generating a mountain of new types, data access to healthcare. And your interaction with the system is not necessarily something everyone control, even as many are working to reduce barriers. But one piece of the puzzle you can control is what you eat well, that's the theory, at least, although it's certainly something many myself included struggle with. And part of the problem is that the food that is red available and least expenses, isn't always good for us. But what if our food could be healthier, not just in a general way, but in very specific and tailored way every day, scientists gain more understanding of what food and nutrients work best for a person's unique biology, food and ingredients found in nature.

It can be synthesized for scale and sustainability and improved. And Kate talked to Naveen Jain, an entrepreneur whose current venture Viome life sciences is working to develop tech and solutions to deliver just that consider a future where a connected fridge talks to you, wearable health devices, which talk to devices where you can test your blood or saliva. And they all work together toward a tailored wellness and nutrition plan specific to your body in that movement. All of these smart devices might sound awesome. They might also sound a little dystopian and that's the tension we'll talk about later on, but if you're willing to succeed a little control or put another way to have some tools to help you gain more control, that future might be coming. Here's what he had  say. “And our personal assistant called AI is going to be constantly looking at everything that's happening in our life and analyzing and say, okay, we have already ordered the food. Your fridge is already stacked up with the food. You should be eating. And we already to out every food, you should not be eating right. Or we will not let you order the food that's back for you anymore. And it's going to control what you can order.”

He's already seen a future where all of these things can work together and we're getting closer and closer to that, but really how much does your diet impact your wellness?

And in what ways the truth is, we're still figuring that out. One aspect that is gaining importance is gut biome. I can see some of you out there, nodding sagely and others are looking at me like, I'm sorry, what? And no, no, you don't need to cover your camera. I can't really see you, but I can. Anyway, gut biome refers to all the microbes who live in your digestive tract and Simone Pyle studies this for Unilever to help develop food and products that can lead to a healthier gut, which in turn leads to a healthier you in a variety of ways, from mental wellbeing to sleep to he, aging to immunity, sleep and wellness are so integrated.

That sleep number is the official sleep and wellness partner of the NFL. But again, we're still learning. She told us we haven't discovered all of the microbes in our gut, and there's no clear blueprint for the ideal composition. So we still need to look, learn more about the ecosystem and how it works and the function the microbes have plus their role in many aspects of health and wellness.

Let's dial in on the mental health aspects for a moment because you can't have wellness. If you're only looking at the physical side, mental health is the second ranked health concern in the us. And third in the old, according to a recent Ipsos global advisor survey, we have more tools at our disposal now than ever before to manage our mental wellness and greater understanding that it's connected to our gut health, managing sleep, nutrition, exercise, hydration, therapy, and medications.

Following advice from a functioning healthcare system can put us in great place to be holistically. Healthy says Dr. Uma Naidoo who founded and directs the first hospital-based nutritional psychiatry service in the United States. She also hopes that technology and advances in research can lead us to a future with more personalized care. She thinks we should focus on understanding dosing of foods. She says nutritional psychiatry is not yet at a prescriptive point. We're not at a point where we can say eat these three blueberries, four almonds and two carrots, but she thinks that research is taking us in that and understanding the amounts of food. We should be eating for a certain effect. Part of the issue as with all discussions of mental and health and wellness is the willingness to have the conversation in the first place, which different generations view differently. Younger generations for instance, are far more likely to visit or consult with mental health profess than older generations. When we spoke about these things, she thinks that the media and the healthcare system all play a role in education and that that education can help frame and help destigmatize and help lead to better conversations. We can all have about mental illness and mental wellness. She sees some hope.

“It's also the Responsibility of scientists, physicians, media experts, media outlets, to put forth accurate educational content. And I think it's a powerful bridge to bridge that chasm between different demographics and people who need access to information and those who are providing it. And I think the media has to be include in that as a psychiatrist, I feel the increased awareness of mental health conditions and the repo resources that are available is something that I do find encouraging. I think that that people are maybe the slightest bit more open to hearing about a less stigmatized version of mental health.”

These days, Americans on the whole, like most global citizen recognize that mental wellbeing is a strong component of our overall health and wellness, but younger generations even before, but more so since the pandemic are languishing, yoga, formal therapy and medications, apps like calm and breathe can help, but how will we integrate all of these into our daily lives wellness practices? And how will a greater understanding of these issues impact our overall wellness? In the future? We checked in with Jennifer Berg, a director in ipso says us public service affairs line. And she says in healthcare, especially we talk about whether mental health is treated as importantly as physical health. We're measuring point in time check, but we're also looking at resiliency on how people are able to bounce back versus those who get stuck in their problems. As I said, we're going to go kind of around the territory map.

And as we slip into the environment, we have to kind of ask this question. Climate change and pollution are two obvious environmental drivers of our wellbeing. We see that concern in our surveys, even if we don't see as much action on them as, as needed to alleviate these global threats, our built environment, the roads, layout buildings, those currently work against us. And in ways that exacerbate inequality in our health that bifurcation yet the built environment can evolve from a problem to a solution and or into a means of coping with a changing climate landscape. For instance, we know that walking itself is healthy and even healthier if used as a replacement mode of transit from sitting in earth, in polluting cars, regardless of whether we drive or they drive themselves, but does where we live, facilitate walking or biking and does it do so in a pleasant and safe way because getting hit by a car isn't very good for our health.

Either cities are paying more attention these days, so progress towards a more sustainable and safe a solution is possible. And I say this not just as the Ipsos future and foresight lab head, but I also say this as the former editor of livability.com a site about what goes into making a great place to live. So in theory, self-driving cars will be safer for sharing the road. Will that lead to an even more car-centric built environment? Climate change will pay a role in every aspect of our future lives. It'll be a recurring topic in what future coping with heat, potential food and water shortages, a lack of biodiversity and a whole host of environmental issues. We'll present challenges to our health and wellbeing. Ipsos data shows that we mostly understand the threat, but we're likely not taking enough action to stave it off in a meaningful way.

Nick Boyon, a senior vice president in public affairs at Ipsos says people globally. And especially in the us report, having hold back on, making changes to their consumer behavior out of concern for climate change, that could be a short term change as a result of the global COVID 19 pandemic. He says, as consumers trade sustainability for safety and convenience, as people start to realize that the climate is impacting their personal health and safety, could that be a tipping point? We've talked a little bit about measure, but let's dive into that some more, because one thing that's impacting the future of wellness is our ability to check in on our vitals often in real time. But what do we measure? How often and why lots of companies are trying to answer that with growing stream of products.

Lumen is Israeli company founded by twin sisters who wanted to better understand their own metabolism to better come impede in their chosen sport triathlons.

They've created a breathalyzer type device that measures your metabolism. Their initial customers are much like them, serious athletes, but they were kind enough to send one to me, not a serious athlete to try out. And I learned, I think what they wanted me to because I was initially skeptical. I mean, I get that. I should eat more veggie and get more exercise. Do I really need a thing to tell me that wearable health devices have proliferated in recent years, but our data hints that some of the initial enthusiasm has waned. And that was my experience too early on. I built some new healthy habits, which the devices helped with, but then I kind of didn't need the device anymore. I think that was a pretty typical early adopter wave. And I think usage and enthusiasm are going to pick up again because these devices are going to do more in terms of creating recommendations and those are going to be personal. And ideally they will also be something that require is less work. I spoke to Michal and Merav Mor, the founding sisters from Lumen via zoom here's Michal.

“I think this is the friend that everything will be passive. We don't want to put more effort in those things. I mean, if, you know, we can imagine ideal, uh, wearable or ideal device. It will be something that we hardly need to do anything and it'll collect my data and it'll give me recommendation. And it's possible that it will also help me do the accommodation. So this is, this is where we are today, right? We want things to be easy and done and done for us.”

As I said, Lumen, isn't alone. It joins a field with everything from apple watches and Fitbits to devices that monitor our pulse, blood sugar and other aspects of your health and vitals. So what could hold back adoption for one thing, trackers, mostly take work. As they said, while you wearable or phone might count your steps or measure sleep more advanced in detailed measurement requires you to take time, sit down and collect some sort of sample breath, blood cetera. And at the moment you need to collect different types of samples at different points during the day with different devices and different apps doing the analysis. This is kind of like active tracking that requires building habits and routines, which are often hard to do and harder to keep up. Gil Blander is the co-founder and chief scientific officer of InsideTracker, which for more than a decade helped people optimize their health and tracker data, DNA analysis, and collection of biomarker blood samples. He sees the future where this process will get simpler and easier, but might still need at least some active steps from users. This could all greatly help adoption. Here's how he sees some of that feature playing out:

“In the future. We'll have a, a, maybe an machine at our house and there are already some machines like that that you basically can trick your finger and, uh, run, uh, 12 to 15, uh, uh, biomarkers in two minutes. And then it'll go to our server and we'll tell you, okay, today you shouldn't exercise today. You should eat that. And, uh, at one time you should take a, an nap for half an hour and then you'll be completely set for tomorrow for the night.”

For the most part, everything I've been talking about in the last while is about the ways that the future is going to enable our continued ability to take many matters into our own hands, or at least develop a more real time and ongoing understanding of our current and future condition. But is that enough and will all of these tools, which aren't necessarily cheap nor covered by insurance. If you even have insurance, will they all be somehow available for everyone?

How does the individual fit into the health system? And does that work equally for everyone? Kate talked to Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief health equity, officer of CVS health and former chief medical executive for my home state of Michigan. She talked about how there are valid alternatives to the healthcare system. Especially as the system itself works better for some than for others. That's something we see reflected in data. And it makes sense if the system isn't working for you or it doesn't reflect your views on what the system even should be. You'll look elsewhere. How should the larger healthcare system take the lead to remove structural barriers to optimal health? She contends that it's hard to achieve individual wellness. If the system or broader systems aren't supporting you, do individuals even have a role to play. Here's what she told us.

“They, they do have a role to play in being healthy, as healthy as possible. But I, again, I want to emphasize that it's easy to sit and say, well, why don't you just eat better? <laugh> and then you wouldn't have your diabetes, uh, or you wouldn't be obese. But again, a lot of these issues with health are not about individual choices. Particularly when you're talking about health equity, they're about systems. If you are homeless, if there is no reasonably priced grocery store within 20, 30 miles of your house, or there is one, but it's five miles away, you don't have a car and you're stressed and you're worried about walking outside of your house. How can we re, and if you don't have a job, you don't have insurance. How can we reasonably expect someone to appropriately manage their diabetes and be healthy?”

She says the healthcare ecosystem needs to better research and measure how different populations interactive with and faring. She says, if we could focus on outcomes and understanding our customers, our patients, and those nonclinical social determinants of health, that would make a lot of progress. So wait, we need better measurement for ourselves and that's coming and we need better measurement within the system. It's like the future involves research and data. And as Dr. Currie said earlier, it requires looking at that data without bias because in an ideal world, every patient would have the same positive experience where the system and their providers treated them with dignity and respect. But our current data show that many, especially many women in those in marginalized communities often feel that their concerns aren't respected by the system. Cynthia Pelayo, a vice president in the Ipsos, US public affairs service line sees potential in the data.

She says, these numbers in the chart show us, we still have some work to do. But as Dr. Khaldun says, measurement allows us to see where there are gaps and work to address them. So there are systemic tensions within the system, and there's a tension between how much we can control as individuals and how much we need to rely on the system in a previous, What the Future. We talked to Dr. Sandro, Galea the Dean of Boston university's school of public health. He talked about how Americans on the whole and our data backed this up, underestimate the importance of governments and policy in our health. He said, step one in having healthier outcomes is for us to quote, govern for health well ahead of creating consumer demand for health. But I want to talk more about tensions for the next little bit and our editorial foresight work, Kate and I identified four tensions.

We think play a big part in the future of wellness. These tensions are a useful device for thinking about the future because public opinion can drive innovation or the, of, to innovation and it can drive policy tension. One, do we want privacy or personalization in many ways, this is the tension that shouldn't be attention. We should be able to get the customized benefits of a wearable, for instance, while also knowing where the data is, and isn't going, there are benefits to sharing the data with insurers, et cetera, because collect data at all on your own tells them something. When we talked to Michal Mor from Lumen, she said, if you're engaged with your health, you're probably going to be healthier, but that can cut both ways. All the data can demonstrate that you're not taking care of yourself. People have good cause to be skeptical of the benefits and the risks.

And we see that in our attention data, a solid enjoy already want to control, who has access to their health data and a plurality agree that they would like more customized recommendations. Currently that's usually a trade off to be made. Will that be the case in the future tension two, how do we balance between care and cost? There's a saying that you can have your health, your family, or your career pick two, that true tension today, as you see in the data, there's no clear winner in terms of what people prioritize health beats budget for many in another survey question, health beats time by almost the same 60, 40 ratio, but time and money are split 50 50. Now imagine a world like in many other countries today where people don't have to make that choice, expansion of telehealth could help manage that balance between time and cost and equity by removing logistic barriers like transportation two, and having to take time off work for appointments and doctor visits.

As we saw with Unitedhealth Groups, example of providing tablets to underserved community tension, three organic versus modified and engineered foods. This tension is like many playing out in the us today, putting scientific advancement versus the traditional and alternative, or perhaps you see it as putting the natural order versus tampering. The truth is that most food we eat now is modified by science in some way, whether that's processing synthesizing or genetically modifying, but whatever you believe and wherever you get the information on which you base that belief will cause you to fall on one side or the other of this divide. Currently half of Americans say they try to avoid modified or engineered foods, perhaps not understanding the extent to which many foods already fall into these categories. These opinions will have very real consequences for how and how well we are able to feed humanity moving forward, especially during the accelerating climate crisis.

One area which could be a model is gut health, where science is driving consumer interest, which is driving adoption. Unilever's Simone Pyle said these scientific advancements are now feeding into consumer understanding, which has led to more consumers, actively seeking health and wellbeing solutions in food and refreshment products, tension four equitable access versus pay for access today about half of Americans say the healthcare system works for them, but those who make more than a hundred thousand dollars a year are, is likely to say so as those who earn less than 50,000 and this, this is a future we can all agree on while Americans strongly agree, 82%, that access should be equitable. Cross race, party, gender income, and age. We see that agreement clearly. That's not whether it's happening today. One thing to keep in mind is that equity doesn't mean everyone gets the same kind of care.

Dr. Khaldun from CVS health says part of advocating health equity is making sure people have access to the care and services and support that they need and that they receive it in a way that is culturally responsive to what they need. She continues, of course, we want people to have access to the highest quality medical care, which oftentimes includes an MD or a specialist, but sometimes it's really about broader support system and services. And we can use non MD specialists and professionals to have that these tensions and how they play out will really help determine which of the futures we wind up in. And so we've spun out two potential futures for you. The first is based on those tensions remaining, where they are. So today we live in a nation where people absolutely want to control who has access to their health data. And many also want customized health advice.

We prioritize our health over our budgets, but not by much, many try to avoid genetically modified organisms, GMOs and overwhelming. We think everyone should have access to healthcare quality healthcare, regardless of the ability to afford that care. So what does that future look like in 2028 in one plausible future political gridlock or worse decay prevents systemic reform in the us, our unmet desire for a better healthcare system leads to further fresh and people take more and more matters into their own hands in good and bad ways. A bifurcation expands between the haves and have nots, not based on demographics, but of those who have access to and meaningfully embrace well wellness technology, and those who don't. The pandemic was a fulcrum. While technology can undoubtedly provide benefits for health and wellness, not everyone is buying it. Literally some distrust, the health system that provides advice and guidance.

Some distrust, the companies creating the apps, wearables, synthetics, and modified foods and other solutions. But as the tech continues to advance, many who can, and yes, that's a huge equity issue, lean into it. They use the products, they follow the advice and they see the privacy implications as a fair trade off. It's not just the healthcare system, but people use these tools for their own wellness plans. Their outcomes improve. A subset pushes even further into biohacking, through natural, as well as tech-augmented means this is neither dystopian nor utopian, but what if we were able to nudge public opinion? So imagine that one of those tensions shifts that we move from 50% today who try to avoid foods, they don't view as natural. What if acceptance of these things grows? That takes us to a slightly different 20, 28 1 in which this Waypoint, which we would track in the future.

One in which that has moved two factors contribute to this one is greater transparency driven by maturing, regulation and consumer pressure. The second is a perception that we need these technologies to solve climate problems, as well as improve our own health and wellbeing. More people realize the connection between their mental wellness, their physical health and the health of their community and broader ecosystem research and development into synthetic food ingredients leads to fewer food shortages, more resilient crops, and even less need to grow many forms of crops in livestock with a little hindsight, people realize how much worse the pandemic would've been without RNA and other pharmaceutical advancements. Meanwhile, work continues to reduce barriers to equitable care, but those are bigger problems than a few years can solve. Especially since this shift in opinion, doesn't change. The likely political gridlock telehealth is embraced by more patients and caregivers for the conveniences and the way it extends cover bridge to those whom the healthcare system wasn't serving as well.

Either of these two futures we've just read are plausible. The key will be keeping an eye on these tensions and planning for what could come next. The themes you see in both of these scenarios really is what I want you to take away from all of this Podinar. First, we're still learning, but it's more and more clear that all of these things are connected. It's not just diet and exercise that lead to wellness, it's sleep, hydration, mental health, and mindfulness, and sure, to an extent we learn that all in kindergarten or by watching gremlins. But the degree in balance of these things is still being understood and especially degree to which these things can change from person to person year to year. And moment to moment. We'll talk about some of that again, in more depth next month in our, What the Future aging issue takeaway two is that technology is making huge strides to help us measure this, customize it, and take away some of the burden from us, helping us build habits and routine that keep us healthier longer, but not everyone sees tech as the answer.

And heck maybe it's not in some ways we're still figuring that out too, but that tension exists and whichever way public opinion writ large and as individuals and opinion, sways will determine how our personal collective health evolve. And lastly, there's a degree to which all of that doesn't matter for most. Anyway, if the system itself is broken, if we don't have access to affordable quality care, if we don't have access to affordable healthy food, if we live places that make it hard or even unsafe for us to walk, bike, run, and get out nature. If climate change forces us all inside or fills the air with smoke and ash, there's some bad futures out there, we can control what we can control, but that's only one part of the puzzle.

Finally, I want to leave you with something new that we're featuring in What the Future called artifacts from the future for this month, as we think about wellness, we actually think back to a previous What the Future, where we talked out, the idea of tattoos and tattoos that could have biomarkers inked right into them. So our artifact from the future for the wellness issue is a tattoo such as that, where a grandfather, an aging millennial was having a hard time understanding sure. Grams from had gotten tattoos when he was a 20 something in the 2010s, but not because a doctor prescribed it. His grandchild patiently explained that it wasn't just art. It was for their health. Each part of the dragon was a monitor, depending on the colors. It turned depending on the shades of the scales, it told them something D about their metabolism, their blood glucose and their blood pressure.

When grandpa asked why a dragon and not something like a band logo or something that would match their avatar, they rolled their eyes. Okay, millennial. They said, and with that, we're going to leave you we'll be back next month. And we'll be talking about the future of aging as always thank you to Kate MacArthur, Stephen, Gary, who heads our production and all of the people on this team who have a hand in What the Future, thanks to you, to our Ipsos experts. Thank you to all of the people who agreed to be interviewed. And thank you to you for reading, for subscribing. And for checking in, you can get this content on our website. And for now, this is Matt Carmichael saying when you imagine possible tomorrows, you ask better questions today.