Latest news with #wellness
South China Morning Post
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Meet Gwyneth Paltrow's childhood best friend, filmmaker Mary Wigmore
Author Amy Odell, who has previously written a biography on Anna Wintour , shifts her focus to Gwyneth Paltrow in her latest book Based on over 220 interviews, Gwyneth: The Biography comes out on July 29. It dives into Paltrow's success in Hollywood and also looks at the controversies surrounding the wellness mogul. Gwyneth Paltrow met her friend Mary Wigmore back when they were in kindergarten. Photo: @gwynethpaltrow/Instagram Advertisement The book promises a look into the Emma star's friendships and eventual fallouts with Winona Ryder and Madonna, as well as her romantic life with exes Brad Pitt , Ben Affleck and Coldplay's Chris Martin. But what do we know about one of Gwyneth Paltrow's longest relationships – her friendship with Mary Wigmore? Mary Wigmore is a filmmaker Gwyneth Paltrow called Mary Wigmore 'the best person in the whole universe' on the latter's birthday two years ago. Photo: @gwynethpaltrow/Instagram Wigmore graduated from the Columbia University School of the Arts with a masters in fine arts for directing. She made her debut with a 2003 documentary on yoga, with appearances by Paltrow and Willem Dafoe . The filmmaker has gone on to direct episodes for TV shows including American Horror Story and Scream Queens. Despite the Goop founder and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin's 'conscious uncoupling' in 2014, Paltrow remains on good terms with her ex – and so does Wigmore, it seems. In recent years, Wigmore has directed several of the band's music videos: most recently, she directed the 2024 music video for the song 'All My Love'. They have known each other since kindergarten
Arabian Business
15 hours ago
- Business
- Arabian Business
AB Majlis podcast: How discomfort became a luxury
It's 5 AM on a weekend in Dubai. Your Instagram feed tells a familiar story. Yet another acquaintance has posted from their ice bath session – steam rising off red, shocked skin as they emerge from water that would make a polar bear shiver. The ritual has become so commonplace that Arabian Business journalists Nicole Abigael and Tala Michel Issa barely registered it anymore – until they started looking at the numbers behind the trend. 'I think discomfort sells, and people are buying in,' Abigael says on the latest episode of the AB Majlis podcast, 'No pain, no gain? Ice baths, new-age therapies and why we pay to suffer in the name of health.' What began as casual observations led them into the global wellness economy – a sector valued at $5.6 trillion in 2024, projected to hit $8 trillion by 2027. A substantial share of that comes from people paying to self-inflict discomfort. According to Grand View Research, the cold plunge tub market was valued at $318.63 million in 2023, and is projected to reach $426.79 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 4.3 per cent. Alternative estimates from Zion Market Research suggest the market will grow from $322 million in 2023 to $478 million by 2032, reflecting a CAGR of 4.5 per cent. 'It's not just going to a spa anymore,' Abigael notes. 'People are buying these for their own homes.' Home cold plunge tubs now represent 80 per cent of industry sales growth. Premium models like The Plunge retail around $5,990 for the base tub (with optional chillers in the $3,000–$4,500 range). The Ice Barrel 400 is priced at approximately $1,200, offering strong insulation and long-lasting temperature retention. High-end models from other brands can exceed $10,000. Middle East execs drive demand The Middle East, particularly Dubai, has become fertile ground for this 'economy of discomfort.' Luxury spas now pair ice baths with breathwork sessions, creating a thriving niche of resilience-plus-luxury experiences. Wellness retreats in Thailand are tailoring programs to attract Middle Eastern clientele, highlighting the surge in high-end wellness tourism. 'A lot of clients arrive with stress-related symptoms or burnout,' Abigael reported, citing conversations with clinic operators. Executives worn down by 80-hour work weeks are flying halfway around the world to pay thousands of dollars to stress their bodies – to eventually destress them. The science behind these trends offers a more tempered view. A review published in PLoS One found no immediate immune boost from cold water immersion, but stress levels dropped significantly 12 hours later, with some improvement in sleep quality and overall well-being – though benefits were often short-lived without long-term practice. Another large systematic review analysing 3,177 participants confirmed that stress reduction and better quality of life persisted only for about 12 hours post-exposure; immune claims were unsupported and effects faded within a few months without constant repetition. Breathwork shows similarly modest gains. A 2023 meta-analysis of 12 randomised controlled trials (totalling 785 participants) found a small-to-moderate effect for reducing stress compared to controls, but most studies exhibited moderate risk of bias. Academic perspective Recent research suggests that benefits from cold-water immersion and breathwork are time‑sensitive and largely context-dependent. A University of Ottawa study found that one week of daily cold exposure enhanced cellular resilience and autophagic processes, indicating improved stress adaptation at the cellular level – but longer-term health implications remain uncertain. Meanwhile, clinical reviews show that effective breathwork outcomes typically result from human-guided training, multiple sessions, and long-term engagement, while one-off or fast-paced (less than 5 min) practices tend to yield little benefit. Abigael, who has worked in cryotherapy, explains the energetic jolt more physiologically than mystically: 'Your body rushes blood to your core to stay warm, and after you exit, circulation surges outward, creating that super‑energetic rush.' What underpins this booming industry may be less about physical health and more about visual spectacle. Social media loves a dramatic plunge: clean, aesthetic shots of matcha, breathwork, red‑faced emergence moments. It's a blend of genuine wellness seekers and trend followers feeding the same algorithm. As the episode wraps, the journalists arrive at a sobering final thought. 'What's booming is the business of health and the business of wellness,' said Abigael. Issa sums it up plainly: 'We're paying to suffer, and someone's making a fortune.' The final takeaway from their deep dive into discomfort economics? 'Marketing is always stronger than medicine.' And in an industry worth trillions, that may be the most uncomfortable truth of all. Tune in to AB Majlis every Monday To listen to the full episode and gain a comprehensive understanding of doing business in the Gulf region, visit our RSS feed or check out AB Majlis on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other platforms. Episodes are also available on: Tune in every Monday for weekly episodes that will help you stay ahead of the curve and enrich your understanding of the Gulf region.
Daily Mail
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Gregg Wallace admits he 'might have hit the bottle' after allegations of inappropriate conduct cost him his MasterChef role and left his TV career in ruins
Gregg Wallace has admitted he might have hit the bottle after being fired over his behaviour on MasterChef. The fallen host admitted that he'd endured a 'difficult' few months and might have sought solace in booze. But he said fitness had saved him. He runs a website called Gregg Wallace Health and is now offering £200-a-month personal training packages. The telly star shared a social media reel of him outside London's Canary Wharf at dawn as he prepared to hit the gym with a pal. He told fans: 'Look, it has been a difficult few months and I made a decision when all this started to really look after myself physically. So I exercise better than I did before. 'I've got better nutrition than I ever did before, and I don't know what I'd have done without that. Possibly hit the bottle. I don't know. 'But here I am in probably the best physical condition I've ever been.' He launched his new career as PT just weeks ago after he lost five stone three years ago. The 60-year-old has announced he is personally training clients to improve their "wellness" for the £200 a month fee. In a video posted to Instagram, he explained: 'You do not have to accept decline as a part of getting older. 'You can do something about this. You can be leaner, fitter, healthier, [and] have more energy.' Gregg continued: 'I went on my own wellness journey and I am healthier at 60 than I was at 30. 'I coach people over 50. I help them feel better and look better and have more confidence.
Zawya
19 hours ago
- Business
- Zawya
Fakhruddin Properties starts work on 32-storey Dubai residential tower
Sustainability-focused developer Fakhruddin Properties today (July 28) broke ground on its newest residential project, the 32-storey Treppan Tower, located in Jumeirah Village Triangle, Dubai. A flagship Treppan Living branded development, it will be home to 264 contemporary one- and two-bedroom apartments, and limited number of three-bedroom sky villas, units ranging in size from 479 to 2,916-sq ft and occupying 25 residential floors. A further two floors will be dedicated to revolutionary and wellness-focused lifestyle amenities including Zen inspired landscaping, with five podium parking levels, said the developer. This builds on the April establishment of the Real Estate Alliance, a Dubai Land Department (DLD) strategic initiative that brings together a quartet of leading developers, including Fakhruddin Properties, through enhanced collaboration and partnership between public and private sector entities in support of long-term real estate market growth. Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, CEO and Managing Partner Yousuf Fakhruddin said: "A next-generation, wellness-centric branded residence designed for the future of urban living, today's Treppan Tower groundbreaking signals the next phase of our commitment to building transformational wellness-integrated communities in Dubai and collectively address carbon footprint reduction goals across our portfolio." "Together with our upcoming duo of luxury residential projects set to bring signature Fakhruddin innovation to future communities within the Dubai Islands cluster, this further strengthens our substantial portfolio to include a growing number of existing and under-development residential destinations," stated Fakhruddin. Tower residents will benefit from AI-enabled smart home automation technology capable of detecting unnecessary lighting or air-conditioning usage, with inbuilt demand-control functionality designed to effectively regulate and manage energy consumption, he noted. "Homeowners and tenants will also breathe easier, thanks to pure indoor air quality levels delivered via our proprietary Smart Air Handling Unit (SAHU) system; and have on-tap access to hydrogenated, ionised, organically mineralised alkaline drinking water," he added. According to him, the Greenhouse Café will be the heart of the community for residents. "Conventional air-conditioning replaced by radiant cooling technology and the run-off water recycled for irrigation use in the onsite hydroponics garden make this place one of a kind," he stated. A refill station for everyday household product essentials will also be located within the café with the goal of reducing/eliminating single use plastics purchase. "To reduce landfill waste by 90%, Fakhruddin Properties will provide residents with color-coded, barcode-enabled bags for easy sorting into wet, dry, and reject bins. The building's system is set up for comprehensive composting and recycling," he added. Copyright 2025 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
The Independent
20 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
The truth behind ex-vegan influencers now selling organ meat supplements
Another day, another wellness influencer on social media telling me I should be rubbing tallow on my face. We're in a strange era, because for all the medical-grade skincare I'm being told I should use by doctors online, there'll be another post featuring a woman in a floral dress slathering clarified animal fat onto her face and telling me to eat raw beef. 'Pure' animal products are a booming business. I see hundreds of animal-based diets and animal-based skincare routines being pushed to me every week. They have titles like 'what I eat in a day' and 'how I balanced my hormones', but the content is all the same. These influencers are eating meat and dairy, often raw, and telling us that 'straight from the farm' is the best way to support our health. If you cast your mind back to the early noughties, the big message was plant-based everything was the healthiest way to live. Clean, green beauty products were in, and recipes were more raw vegan than raw milk. So why are popular influencers now promoting organ meat supplements, carnivore diets and raw dairy products in place of tofu, courgetti and quinoa? And why did they flip the script so willingly? Registered clinical nutritionist Claire Johnson says: 'Good nutrition advice should be grounded in scientific evidence and high-quality research, so it's worrying to see that dietary trends can move as quickly as fashion. Post-pandemic, there seems to have been a notable shift from aesthetically pleasing and 'instagramable' vegetables and veganism, to hyper-masculine, meat -heavy, ancestral carnivore diets.' Johnson explains that her concern isn't just the extremity of these diets – which claim to improve 'mental clarity, benefit weight loss and reduce inflammation' – but how influential they've become among their online communities, despite lacking scientific credibility. More often that not, their arguments are almost entirely anecdotal. 'These all-or-nothing dietary patterns are being used as an engagement tool to cultivate community, followers and a sense of identity, rather than being rooted in scientific evidence,' continues Johnson. 'Many influencers will present themselves as experts and point to 'the science' about diet and nutrition without providing such evidence. And when studies are provided, data is often lifted out of context. Studies might also be sponsored by brands or contain a very small sample size.' I was a vegan for almost a decade and now, I eat chicken and fish and drink kefir, so I'm well aware of how personal needs and choices we make when it comes to our health can change with time – of course, the same goes for influencers. However, these so-called wellness gurus with thousands-strong followings are in powerful positions. By their very nature, they sway and impact the decisions and lifestyles of their followers, and they usually profit from doing so. Which is where the conflict lies. Nutritionist Clarissa Lenherr says, 'The shift feels less like a genuine health evolution and more like a reflection of trend cycles in the wellness space. Influencers often pivot based on what's gaining traction online, and right now, we're seeing a big swing toward 'ancestral' eating, with colostrum, raw milk and organ meats becoming the new wellness buzzwords. 'That's not to say some people haven't genuinely felt better after reintroducing animal products, but the way it's packaged and promoted online often lacks context, nuance or individualisation.' Lenherr also points out that while some might genuinely believe in the dietary shifts they've made, it's important to consider why and to be wary of anecdotal evidence that lacks context. 'In many cases, people aren't necessarily going from a healthy, balanced diet to an 'ancestral' one. They're going from a diet high in ultra-processed foods to one that cuts those out. The benefits they're seeing may be less about organ meats or raw dairy, and more about the removal of excess sugar and packaged foods.' A recent report titled Nutrition Misinformation in the Digital Age revealed how just 53 high-profile super-spreaders of misinformation were able to reach over 24 million followers. Most had no formal qualifications, yet often claimed some sort of medical authority. Johnson points out that unsurprisingly, 96 per cent of these content creators had a financial incentive attached to their posts. The most common subjects identified in the report included carnivore diets, seed oils and the ills of plant-based diets. The rapid shift from pro-plant-based to pro-farmyard has occurred against the backdrop of a global political shift to the right. The rise of carnivore influencers has taken place at the same time as the rise of the Maha (Make America Healthy Again) movement and the rise in viral tradwife content. The farmyard has been presented to us as idyllic and natural, but there seems to be a subtext here – a p ipeline into right-wing ideology and a yearning for a wholesome traditional era that never really existed. Many of the influencers pushing ancestral eating are also suggesting we stop putting our faith in the likes of 'big food' and 'big pharma' – there's a political, conspiratorial and anti-establishment edge to tallow skincare and organ meat supplements and one that can't be ignored. 'I can see first-hand these growing trends, whereby high-profile influencers reject nutrition science under the guise of 'natural' living or personal truth,' says Johnson. 'But it's no longer about evidence; it's about narratives and belonging, or worse, engagement, followers and financial incentives. 'A primal fantasy is being sold that eating like a caveman can reverse modern disease and solve issues such as declining male testosterone levels. These trends are not about nutrition science. They are about identity, especially masculinity, rebellion and distrust of modernity.' 'Post-pandemic, we've seen a declining trust in institutions, and a backlash against 'mainstream' health advice. This has gone hand-in-hand with trends such as biohacking and self-optimisation. Raw liver, bone broth and unpasteurised milk are being promoted as miracle cures to world health problems. And wellness influencers have taken it upon themselves to find and share extremely specific and unfounded self-optimisation hacks and dietary patterns,' she adds. What makes it more confusing is the fact that the same influencer selling a cure-all carnivore diet now would have been touting vegan beauty products and strictly plant-based recipes just six years ago – making it difficult to ignore the financial incentive driving these so-called trends. Navigating the world of wellness on social media requires critical thinking and, there are plenty of ways information can be warped into a politically charged message or money-making schemes. For example, Lenherr confirms that while liver is one of the most nutrient-rich foods out there, high in iron, B12, vitamin A and zinc, there's very little evidence that drying and grinding up organ meats into capsules, which many influencers are now advising, gives the same nutritional benefits as actually eating liver. She explains that 'a lot of these supplements don't even list the amounts of nutrients they contain, so you have no idea if you're getting useful doses or potentially too much of something like vitamin A, which can be harmful in excess.' As for vegan vs carnivore supremacy, Lenherr says that both diets can be done well, and both can be done poorly. 'A vegan diet can support long-term health if it's well planned, with enough protein, omega-3s, B12, iron and zinc. Likewise, a more animal-focused diet might work well for some, as long as it still includes fibre, phytonutrients, and a diversity of real foods. What's 'healthier' depends on your goals, your values, your metabolism and how the diet is implemented.' In an online world which is dominated by strategic habits, bio-hacking and lifestyle identity, common sense and balance often struggle to get heard. 'Drinking raw milk and eating raw liver aren't acts of rebellion, they're risky behaviours promoted as lifestyle choices – often for likes and sales, not health outcomes,' says Johnson. If you're unsure about a piece of health, wellness or nutritional information on social media, consider this checklist before sharing the post, making any purchases or changing your habits. Is the poster transparent about whether the post is sponsored? Do they explain why they're recommending the product? Do they link to studies, rather than just mention a study or statistic? Do they mention any possible downsides or who a product or habit might not be suitable for? Do they have any relevant qualifications? Are they a registered nutritionist, dietitian, doctor, or do they have formal training in health or science? After some practice, you'll be able to work out who is merely sharing personal experience as fact, and then the unfollow button is there for the clicking.
