‘Of all the new 2025 health trends, as an editor I'm only hyping one’
As the year draws to a close, my role as a Cosmopolitan UK editor guarantees my inbox is flooded with messages from brands and trend forecasters, all declaring they’ve unearthed the ‘next big things’ in health. Sometimes, like 2023’s predicted focus on gut health, these predictions ring true and stick around. Others, like the idea we’ll definitely all be ditching our gym memberships in favour of becoming sweaty cyborgs, thanks to virtual reality headset workouts? Eh, not so much. (Tried it, made me nauseous.)
This year, the predictions around what 2025 has in store on the wellness front have been in the hundreds – Anti-stress mushroom tea! Bee pollen for your metabolism, anyone? – but while attempting to separate the wheat from the chaff, it seems pretty much all of these prophecies are linked via a common thread: longevity. As in, aging better and trying to live for not only as long as we can, but as healthily as we can. Longevity essentially the anchor behind almost all of the forecasted fads and the Global Wellness Index estimates that as the fast-growing sub-sector of the wellness economy, longevity is on track to be worth $610 billion by the end of 2025.
So, how is this all set to play out? It appears we’re in the process of a mindset shift, no matter our age, and we’re looking forwards and consciously thinking about how we can remain disease-free for as long as possible. For women in particular, I’m glad that this has emerged as health’s next winner, as despite our life expectancy being, on average, 4 years longer than men’s, we actually spend far longer in worse health. Women, the stats say, spend almost a quarter of their lives in poor health, whereas for men it’s a fifth. Gulp.
This school of thought around healthy aging and preservation has been quietly growing in the background for a couple of years. Remember the boom in YouTube biohackers, like Bryan Johnson, going viral last year after spending millions trying to reverse their biological age? Us, the general non-millionaire population striving for longevity is the next, more attainable, iteration of it. Our shared obsession with tracking our literal every move via Oura rings and Fitbits has morphed into something with a more long-term, consistent goal in mind. Our desire to smooth out any external signs of growing older is turning inwards and we’re thirsting to do more with all this knowledge we’ve gathered about ourselves. The longevity trend also ties in nicely with the overall shift towards more conscious consumerism vs fast fashion that we’ve been witnessing.
So, how are we all going to go about it? Supplements, strength training, focussing on brain health, slowing down and opting for a ‘prevention over cure’ mentality, is what I’m gathering. Oh, and we’re all going to be obsessed with lowering our alarming levels of inflammation (with the help of turmeric shots and meditation).
No longer is a multivitamin enough, it’d seem. Now, there's a new focus (as per health store Holland and Barrett’s latest report) on brain health – with kimchi and kefir being cited not only for their impact on the gut, but on our noggins too. We’ll be looking to get more iodine in our diets (seaweed, fish and eggs will do it) and this is happening alongside a rise in brands, like supplements company Heights, developing brainfood-specific capsules containing Omega 3 and other mentally stimulating ingredients. All of which can help ward off cognitive decline, linked to ageing, and will be housed under the label ‘psychobiotics’ in 2025 (think probiotics for your gut vibes, but further north).
Elsewhere, another ‘wonder pill’, called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide – known on the streets as NAD+ – has buzz and promising research emerging (although more still needs to be done). Search around it has gone up 25% in the last year and shows no signs of stopping. NAD+ is a coenzyme molecule, already found in every cell of our bodies, that helps with a tonne of vital biological processes, but like collagen, it sadly drops off as we age. Fans of it, be it in daily pill form or through an IV drip (which I’m wary of; barely any doctors say one big dose is the best method), are hopeful that it could help to slow some age-related diseases and even rebuild healthy cells. It’s been given the seal of approval by the likes of Justin Bieber, who has been using NAD+ therapy for his Lyme disease, along with Kendall Jenner and, naturally, Goop queen Gwyneth Paltrow.
Wellness-inspired travel is also continuing to thrive, with many hotels (like those in the Rosewood collection) creating bespoke longevity-centred packages or adding anti-inflammation infared saunas to their spas. Given that stress is linked to a multitude of healthspan-crunching issues, like heart disease and a weakened immune system, it’s no surprise that ‘moments of micro-meditation’ and ‘holistic wellness’ are also forecast to take off next year. Experts are urging us to slow down, even if just for a couple of minutes and breathe, and many are also sounding an alarm to remind us that the link between our body and mind is strong and in 2025 – and if we want to achieve eternal youth, we’d best pay attention to it. Fitness studios are getting prepped to meet this upcoming demand from customers, so expect more calming sound baths to appear on a gym timetable near you soon.
Strength training, with the goal of ‘building your old lady body’, is only continuing to thrive too – which many are hoping will counteract the worrying ‘return to thinspiration’ that we’ve been witnessing of late, as a multitude of celebrities have notably dropped dress sizes and weight loss injections infiltrated the masses.
As ever, a lot of the new health and wellness trends boil down to the basics, whatever your goal: eat whole foods and avoid junk if you can, exercise a decent amount, stay socially connected, get good sleep, minimise stress and keep your mind sharp. Every year, the health and wellness industry finds new ways of repackaging these core pillars of human existence into something that feels shiny and attention-worthy, but this year it feels like the idea of baking these essential basic principles in on a longer-term basis, rather than having a three-month fling with a ‘magical’ juice cleanse, is a positive that’s here to stay. Hopefully, thanks to this incoming overhaul as to how we view health, we’ll all be kicking around a bit longer too – and feeling better while we’re at it.
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