Unless one has managed to avoid the internet, commercial television and those ubiquitous Tess Daly billboards, one hallmark of 21st-century culture will have become apparent to readers: the rampant monetisation of what has become known as “wellness” (capitalism always needs a neologism), a global industry worth $1.5tn and growing at 5% to 10% a year.
Healthcare and wellbeing as big business is, of course, not new, whether useless quackery or legitimate scientific breakthrough. From the “miracle remedies” of the early 20th century to cigarettes marketed as health products; from the synthesis of chlorpromazine in the 1950s, revolutionising psychiatric medicine, to gamechanging antiretroviral therapies for HIV. We’ve had leeches and we’ve had Jane Fonda 80s workout tapes, but we’ve also had penicillin and organ transplants. It wasn’t, however, until the late 2010s that Gwyneth Paltrow started putting jade eggs up her vagina and “semen facials” became a thing. Which rather took it to another level.
