Top 10 weirdest wellness trends of the last 10 years

Looking up the trendiest wellness movement that social media believes you should be a part of is something we’re sure you’ve done way too many times over the last few years. Some of them want you to lose weight, others want you to gain it in the right places, to look younger, feel sexier, be happy, to appear more in sync with the times, to while the time away… The list goes on.     [caption id=“attachment_7785801” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Image source: Getty Images.[/caption] Wellness trends are a dime a dozen these days, and sifting through them to find the ones that are relevant or useful is a task that seems tougher than going to the moon. The 2010s were especially challenging because the rise and further rise of social media meant that anything (literally anything) could become popular without being backed by science or even logic.   Here are some of the strangest wellness trends that gained an immense following all over the world over the last 10 years:

1. Jade/Yoni eggs

Now here’s a marketing myth so artfully created that you might not even think to question it. Jade or Yoni Eggs are egg-shaped gemstones that you’re supposed to insert and hold in your vagina to improve vaginal muscle capacity. Gwyneth Paltrow and a few sex toy companies popularised it in 2017 saying it had been used to increase sexual prowess and heal women internally in ancient China - claims that are totally unfounded.   Many even proposed that Yoni Eggs must be beneficial because they made women engage in Kegel exercises constantly. Wrong again, because Kegel means you have to contract and relax the vaginal muscles, and not just stiffen them up to hold an egg in place. The latter just ends up hurting the pelvic floor instead of benefitting it in any way.

2. Vaginal steaming

From relieving stress to curing haemorrhoids and infections, some people claim that vaginal steaming can do you a lot of good down there. You are supposed to sit or hover over a herb-infused steaming basin or pot for about 15 minutes to clean up your vagina and reproductive tract.   There is absolutely no proof that herbal steaming of your vagina will improve your health in any way, even though experiencing some warmth down there might feel pleasant at the moment. How is the steam supposed to penetrate the vaginal tissues and stop infections or induce fertility? Nobody knows. Instead of helping, vaginal steaming can burn your genitalia if the steam is too hot.

3. Biohacking

Biohacking means exactly what the name suggests: hacking your biology. How does one go about doing that? People (mostly the rich and famous) use tech, supplements, gadgets, chemical injections, implants etc - to make their bodies work more efficiently. Most biohackers are untrained in scientific theory and application and do not realise that inserting alien objects in the human body can lead to infections and even cancer. Most of the ‘biohacks’ aren’t backed by any science which makes them a risky experiment.  

4. Juice cleanses

Consuming the juices of fruits and veggies to get appropriate nutrition and lose weight sounds good, right? Wrong! The juice cleanses gained immense popularity over the last decade, and its benefits were then largely debunked.   Fruits and vegetables are high in vitamins and micronutrients, they are rich in antioxidants and have anti-inflammatory qualities too. But when you depend on just juices as your source of nutrition, you might end up doing immense harm to your body. The weight loss will be substantial, but unhealthy and not at all sustainable. Juicing can also lead to kidney stones, bacterial infections, dehydration and imbalance in blood sugar levels.  

5. The green tea miracle

Here’s another marketing myth everyone seems to have bought in the 2010s: To lose weight drink green tea! Matcha, Sencha, Bancha, Shincha, Gyokuro, Hyson… There are so many varieties to choose from and all will increase your metabolism rates enough to help you lose weight.   All recent studies into said benefits of drinking green tea reveal that while the catechins in green tea are helpful, and will help you lose weight with regular, continued consumption, the results are not significant. When combined with regular exercise, green tea fares much better, but it is no miracle ingredient that will lead to weight loss the more you drink it.

6. Booze, pot and animal yoga  

Yoga is a great form of exercise and can improve everything from your immunity and core balance as well as help you lose weight and gain flexibility. If the last decade has seen a rise in yoga and yoga events worldwide, it has also witnessed the advent of yoga that is simply weird.   There’s wine yoga, which lets you focus on a glass of wine while performing yogic asanas; beer yoga, where you even have to balance beer bottles on your heads; pot yoga, where you indulge in cannabis before engaging your chakras. And then there’s that spate of animal yoga practices involving goats, kittens, rabbits and even horses! The latter isn’t about fitness, thankfully, but rather about having fun with animals. But has there been a more useless group of wellness trends? Maybe not.

7. Urine therapy

Did you think Morarji Desai guzzling down his own urine on live television was just a thing of the 1980s? Urine therapy is an age-old practice with roots in ancient Rome, India and even Portugal, and made quite a mark since 2010 as a trendy therapeutic method to treat gum and teeth related issues.   Now if reintroducing toxins that your body removed in the first place doesn’t make sense to you, it’s because urine therapy is highly controversial with benefits that are yet to be proven. Most studies reveal that drinking urine is neither good for you, nor recommended, for hydration, for vitamins or any other purported benefits.  

8. Add cauliflower, make it all healthy

It doesn’t matter which new weight loss plan you’re on, cauliflower is probably an essential part of your diet. This is the truth of the 2010s, where Keto pizzas and burgers rule, thanks to cauliflowers. This veggie is delicious and has immense health benefits due to its high fibre and vitamin B complex content. Don’t worry, we’re not going to tell you otherwise. Consuming cauliflowers can aid in weight loss. But the enthusiasm with which cauliflower was adapted to create healthier versions of everything junk was so mind-boggling that it just had to make it to this list.

9. Semen facial

This bizarre beauty trend took the world by storm in the mid-2010s, and while most people were simply grossed out, many were up for anything if it helped them reduce the signs of ageing. That’s what semen facials, also known as sperm facials, are “supposed” to do apart from giving your skin a natural glow and reducing rosacea (a skin condition that causes redness on the face). What they can give you are sexually transmitted infections (STIs), eye herpes, the Human Papilloma Virus (HPVs) and aggravated acne. No wonder the hype around this trend died down quickly enough.

10. Activated charcoal

This fine, odourless black powder has toxin-absorbing properties that have made it very popular for cosmetic and medical use. While the approved medical use is limited to treating emergency cases of overdoses and poisonings in hospitals, the cosmetic uses have expanded into an activated charcoal market that targets everything from your complexion to yellowing teeth. Activated charcoal drinks, creams and cleansers have invaded the market. The fun fact here is that barely any of these purported benefits are backed by science.   If these strange wellness trends are anything to go by, we will surely see more ludicrous and overhyped products hit the market in the coming decade. Let’s just hope that they don’t end up doing more harm than good to humankind in general. For more information, please read our article on   Yoga: Types, Benefits and Asanas_._ Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, India’s first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.