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Murthy has been tapped by president-elect Joe Biden to lead the USA’s response to COVID
Dr Vivek Murthy, the 19th US surgeon general, spoke to attendees of the Global Wellness Summit in November about the importance of addressing loneliness on a personal level, in the workplace, in communities and society.
In a powerful interview with Dr Richard Carmona, the 17th US surgeon general and chief of health innovations at Canyon Ranch, he said that an antidote to loneliness is human connection and building relationships with people. “Few medicines are more powerful than love, compassion and kindness,” he said. “And all of us have the power to be healers because all of us have the power to be kind, compassionate and loving.”
Murthy has just been tapped by president-elect Joe Biden to lead the USA’s response to COVID-19. He’s also the author of a best-selling book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World. He explained that he was motivated to write the book because of things he’s seen during his many years of clinical practice and as surgeon general. “I was never trained to think about loneliness in medical school, but I’d often see patients coming into hospital on their own in really difficult times and I’d ask them if there was someone I could call to be with them and a lot of times they’d say ‘I wish there was’.
“As surgeon general, people were talking to me about their struggles with depression, opioid use disorder, concerns with chronic disease and would say ‘on top of all of this, I have to deal with this on my own’, ‘I feel abandoned’, ‘If I disappeared tomorrow, no one would even care’. And this resonated with me.”
Loneliness, he said, is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, dementia and premature death and is also linked with a higher risk of depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances and a host of other conditions. All of these challenges, which are mostly preventable diseases, cost the US up to US$3tn a year in healthcare costs.
Recognising the social and economic burden of isolation, the UK appointed a Minister for Loneliness in 2018. Australia and several countries in Europe are taking the lead to combat it too.
“The book I wrote was essentially about loneliness, but I became fascinated and encouraged by the power of social connection,” Murthy said. “The more meaningful our social relations are, the more they enhance all dimensions of our lives – not just our physical and mental health, they also enhance how we perform in school and in the workplace.”
But, he added, you don’t need years and years of relationships to make a difference. Even a barista at a coffee shop smiling at you, asking you how you are and waiting to hear your response counts. “Research has shown that even if you have a brief interaction with someone that’s positive, that’s marked by kindness and compassion, you have a longer impact on them than just a few seconds.”
Touch is also profoundly important, he said.
Offering advice to all those in the world of spa, Murthy concluded: “If you think about designing your workplaces for your staff and the services you provide your community, just recognise that whenever you can, bring people together where they can understand one another more clearly by sharing, where they have opportunities to help one another which strengthens connection.
“Then you’re helping to build community. You’re contributing to healing… Especially during this time of COVID because people are dealing with extraordinary levels of stress, anxiety and uncertainty.”
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2020 issue 4
Editor's letter: Nurturing mental health
It’s time for spas re-evaluate their mental wellness approach to help governments and society to tackle the escalating mental health crisis says Katie Barnes
Spa people: Dr Narinthorn Surasinthon
RAKxa Jai, a cutting-edge medi-wellness spa, has opened in partnership with Bumrungrad International Hospital and Minor Hotels in Bangkok. Spa Business talks to its COO
Spa people: Isabelle Duchesneau
The executive director of Québec's Le Monastère Augustines explains why its priority of serving caretakers is more relevant today than ever
Spa people: Michael Banissy
The world's largest study on touch uncovers the role it plays in our health and wellbeing. Spa Business talks to the lead researcher
Interview: Krip Rojanastien
Chiva-Som’s CEO talks to Spa Business magazine about guiding the destination spa through COVID-19 and its first contract management project in Qatar
Ask an expert: Corridors of power
What will it take to make politicians realise the value of spas? Spa Business magazine asks those in government and others who’ve made inroads
Promotion: Artofcryo: Cold Calling
Artofcryo.com aims to offer the best whole-body cryotherapy chambers as well as a complete, reliable and effective solution for operators and results for guests
Promotion: ISPA: Lead, inform, inspire
Lead, Inform, Inspire. It’s been quite a year for ISPA, with its firm commitment to supporting members through the pandemic, as president, Lynne McNees explains
Interview: Mark Hennebry
Ensana’s chair tells Spa Business magazine about its landmark development, Buxton Crescent, one of the only genuine spa hotels in the UK
Promotion: Lemi: Creating the dream team
This year leading Italian supplier Lemi launched three new spa solutions, and ventured into the creation of signature treatments for the first time. General manager Matteo Brusaferri explains why he sees this as the way forward to help spas maximise their investment
Interview: Luisa Anderson
A Longevity Garden and inner healing room are just two of the extra special features at the new Healing Village Spa at Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay, Bali, says its regional spa director
Promotion: Biologique Recherche
Skincare specialist, Biologique Recherche, is using its knowledge of chronobiology to create new approaches to skincare which yield powerful results
Event review: Global Wellness Summit 2020
This year’s Global Wellness Summit saw two US surgeon generals, leading spa stakeholders and wellness professionals look towards the role they have to play following the global pandemic. Spa Business magazine gives its highlights
Research: Matter of minds
A new study is the first to define and put a value on the global mental wellness industry – estimating it to be worth US$121bn. But what does this mean for spas?
Sponsored briefing: Starpool: Cargo-tecture
During lockdown, Riccardo Turri, CEO of Starpool, was inspired to create a whole new category of product, based on recycled containers. The result is the new i.con spa brand, which fuses luxury, wellness, recycling and design
Software: All booked up
Spa software suppliers take a look at 'big data' to reveal the booking trends they’ve seen since spas have reopened
Promotion: Voya: supporting spa partners
Jessica Anhold, Voya’s head of global sales and marketing, talks community in a time of crisis and how the company is supporting its spa partners
In the fast-paced world of fitness and wellness, where high-intensity workouts push us to
our limits and the sweat pours, the importance of efficient recovery cannot be overstated. [more...]
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Murthy has been tapped by president-elect Joe Biden to lead the USA’s response to COVID
Dr Vivek Murthy, the 19th US surgeon general, spoke to attendees of the Global Wellness Summit in November about the importance of addressing loneliness on a personal level, in the workplace, in communities and society.
In a powerful interview with Dr Richard Carmona, the 17th US surgeon general and chief of health innovations at Canyon Ranch, he said that an antidote to loneliness is human connection and building relationships with people. “Few medicines are more powerful than love, compassion and kindness,” he said. “And all of us have the power to be healers because all of us have the power to be kind, compassionate and loving.”
Murthy has just been tapped by president-elect Joe Biden to lead the USA’s response to COVID-19. He’s also the author of a best-selling book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World. He explained that he was motivated to write the book because of things he’s seen during his many years of clinical practice and as surgeon general. “I was never trained to think about loneliness in medical school, but I’d often see patients coming into hospital on their own in really difficult times and I’d ask them if there was someone I could call to be with them and a lot of times they’d say ‘I wish there was’.
“As surgeon general, people were talking to me about their struggles with depression, opioid use disorder, concerns with chronic disease and would say ‘on top of all of this, I have to deal with this on my own’, ‘I feel abandoned’, ‘If I disappeared tomorrow, no one would even care’. And this resonated with me.”
Loneliness, he said, is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, dementia and premature death and is also linked with a higher risk of depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances and a host of other conditions. All of these challenges, which are mostly preventable diseases, cost the US up to US$3tn a year in healthcare costs.
Recognising the social and economic burden of isolation, the UK appointed a Minister for Loneliness in 2018. Australia and several countries in Europe are taking the lead to combat it too.
“The book I wrote was essentially about loneliness, but I became fascinated and encouraged by the power of social connection,” Murthy said. “The more meaningful our social relations are, the more they enhance all dimensions of our lives – not just our physical and mental health, they also enhance how we perform in school and in the workplace.”
But, he added, you don’t need years and years of relationships to make a difference. Even a barista at a coffee shop smiling at you, asking you how you are and waiting to hear your response counts. “Research has shown that even if you have a brief interaction with someone that’s positive, that’s marked by kindness and compassion, you have a longer impact on them than just a few seconds.”
Touch is also profoundly important, he said.
Offering advice to all those in the world of spa, Murthy concluded: “If you think about designing your workplaces for your staff and the services you provide your community, just recognise that whenever you can, bring people together where they can understand one another more clearly by sharing, where they have opportunities to help one another which strengthens connection.
“Then you’re helping to build community. You’re contributing to healing… Especially during this time of COVID because people are dealing with extraordinary levels of stress, anxiety and uncertainty.”
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2020 issue 4
Editor's letter: Nurturing mental health
It’s time for spas re-evaluate their mental wellness approach to help governments and society to tackle the escalating mental health crisis says Katie Barnes
Spa people: Dr Narinthorn Surasinthon
RAKxa Jai, a cutting-edge medi-wellness spa, has opened in partnership with Bumrungrad International Hospital and Minor Hotels in Bangkok. Spa Business talks to its COO
Spa people: Isabelle Duchesneau
The executive director of Québec's Le Monastère Augustines explains why its priority of serving caretakers is more relevant today than ever
Spa people: Michael Banissy
The world's largest study on touch uncovers the role it plays in our health and wellbeing. Spa Business talks to the lead researcher
Interview: Krip Rojanastien
Chiva-Som’s CEO talks to Spa Business magazine about guiding the destination spa through COVID-19 and its first contract management project in Qatar
Ask an expert: Corridors of power
What will it take to make politicians realise the value of spas? Spa Business magazine asks those in government and others who’ve made inroads
Promotion: Artofcryo: Cold Calling
Artofcryo.com aims to offer the best whole-body cryotherapy chambers as well as a complete, reliable and effective solution for operators and results for guests
Promotion: ISPA: Lead, inform, inspire
Lead, Inform, Inspire. It’s been quite a year for ISPA, with its firm commitment to supporting members through the pandemic, as president, Lynne McNees explains
Interview: Mark Hennebry
Ensana’s chair tells Spa Business magazine about its landmark development, Buxton Crescent, one of the only genuine spa hotels in the UK
Promotion: Lemi: Creating the dream team
This year leading Italian supplier Lemi launched three new spa solutions, and ventured into the creation of signature treatments for the first time. General manager Matteo Brusaferri explains why he sees this as the way forward to help spas maximise their investment
Interview: Luisa Anderson
A Longevity Garden and inner healing room are just two of the extra special features at the new Healing Village Spa at Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay, Bali, says its regional spa director
Promotion: Biologique Recherche
Skincare specialist, Biologique Recherche, is using its knowledge of chronobiology to create new approaches to skincare which yield powerful results
Event review: Global Wellness Summit 2020
This year’s Global Wellness Summit saw two US surgeon generals, leading spa stakeholders and wellness professionals look towards the role they have to play following the global pandemic. Spa Business magazine gives its highlights
Research: Matter of minds
A new study is the first to define and put a value on the global mental wellness industry – estimating it to be worth US$121bn. But what does this mean for spas?
Sponsored briefing: Starpool: Cargo-tecture
During lockdown, Riccardo Turri, CEO of Starpool, was inspired to create a whole new category of product, based on recycled containers. The result is the new i.con spa brand, which fuses luxury, wellness, recycling and design
Software: All booked up
Spa software suppliers take a look at 'big data' to reveal the booking trends they’ve seen since spas have reopened
Promotion: Voya: supporting spa partners
Jessica Anhold, Voya’s head of global sales and marketing, talks community in a time of crisis and how the company is supporting its spa partners
The Wellness Tourism Association (WTA) has published a non-regulatory global industry
framework designed to ensure the retreat market offers responsible experiences.
A new survey of UK and international spa practitioners shows that stress, burnout and
wellbeing concerns have caused one in three respondents to consider leaving the industry.
The UK's four Chief Medical Officers have published a refreshed edition of Physical activity
guidelines: UK Chief Medical Officers' report, updating the evidence that underpins the nation's
physical activity recommendations and placing greater emphasis on strength, balance, reducing
sedentary behaviour and, for the first time, supporting people taking weight loss medications.
Anna Bjurstam has left her role as Wellness Pioneer at Six Senses Hotels and Resorts and
launched a new wellness, longevity and “consciousness consultancy” called Wahayla.
Fairmont Cheshire, The Mere, has opened today (10 July) in the Northwest of England
with a
1,715sq m Fairmont Spa that has been designed using a ‘Wellness without Walls’
concept.
Wellness hotels generating less than US$1 million (€932,700, £785,200) – or 10 per cent of
total revenue from wellness and leisure – recorded the strongest RevPAR and TRevPAR growth
in 2025 across categories when compared with 2024, according to the latest Wellness Real
Estate Report by RLA Global, produced in partnership with P and L benchmarking firm HotStats.
Lefay Resorts, the portfolio of two luxury wellness properties in Italy, has added emotional
dance classes and group cold plunge sessions in response to market demand for social
connection.
In the fast-paced world of fitness and wellness, where high-intensity workouts push us to
our limits and the sweat pours, the importance of efficient recovery cannot be overstated. [more...]
+ More featured suppliers
COMPANY PROFILES
Fenix Group srl Founded in Italy by Gianluca Cavalletti, Fenix Group introduced Endospheres with the aim of redefini [more...]
