I work in wellness. I believe in it deeply. And I'm increasingly embarrassed by what gets sold under the wellness banner. IV vitamin drips with no evidence base. "Detox" programmes that detox nothing. AI-powered health apps that are glorified horoscopes with a subscription fee. The industry's credibility problem is real, and it's undermining the people doing legitimate work.
The Noise Problem
The global wellness market is worth trillions. That kind of money attracts everyone - the clinicians doing evidence-based work, the entrepreneurs with genuine health innovations, and the grifters who've realised that "wellness" is an unregulated term you can attach to almost anything.
$5.6T
global wellness economy in 2023, spanning everything from clinical health programmes to crystal healing and alkaline water
Source: Global Wellness Institute, Global Wellness Economy Monitor, 2023
The problem isn't that some wellness products lack evidence. It's that consumers can't tell the difference. A corporate wellness platform backed by clinical research looks identical in a Google search to one backed by Instagram testimonials. Both use the same language. Both promise "personalised health." Both have polished websites.
The result: buyers either trust everything (and waste money on nonsense) or trust nothing (and miss the interventions that actually work). Both outcomes hurt the industry.
What Credible Wellness Looks Like
The distinction is simpler than the industry makes it seem. Credible wellness interventions share three characteristics.
Evidence base. There is published, peer-reviewed research supporting the intervention. Not a single study. A body of evidence. If the "evidence" is customer testimonials and blog posts, it's marketing.
Measurable outcomes. The programme measures health outcomes - biomarkers, clinical indicators, validated psychological scales - not just engagement metrics. If the only numbers are app downloads and session counts, there's no proof anything works.
Clinical involvement. A qualified health professional is involved in the design, delivery, or oversight. If the entire programme was designed by a marketing team and a software engineer, it might be a great product. It's not a health intervention.
If a wellness product can't name the clinical evidence behind its core claims, it's not a health product. It's a lifestyle product wearing a lab coat.
Jay Harrison
Health Technology Advisory
Why It Matters for Enterprise
This isn't just a consumer problem. It's an enterprise problem. When organisations invest in workplace wellness, they're increasingly navigating a market full of well-marketed products with no evidence base.
I've reviewed wellness platform proposals where the product demo was compelling, the pricing was competitive, and the clinical evidence was nonexistent. When I asked for outcome data, I got case studies - carefully selected success stories with no control group, no longitudinal tracking, and no clinical measurement.
Employers deserve better. Their employees deserve better.
Separating Signal From Noise
If you're evaluating a wellness product or programme, ask these questions.
What peer-reviewed research supports this? Not "our approach is based on the latest science." Specific citations. Specific studies. If they can't provide them, that tells you something.
What health outcomes do you measure? Not engagement. Not satisfaction. Health outcomes. If they only measure whether people used the platform, they don't know whether it worked.
Who is your clinical lead? A named health professional with relevant qualifications who is accountable for the clinical integrity of the programme. If there isn't one, the programme isn't clinically governed.
Can you share outcome data from existing clients? Anonymised, aggregated health outcome data from organisations that have used the programme. If all they have is NPS scores and testimonials, they haven't measured what matters.
The wellness industry doesn't need more products. It needs more accountability. The organisations doing genuine, evidence-based work should be leading that charge - because the alternative is watching the entire category lose credibility to the loudest marketers in the room.