Welcome to Well Now Now, Now, Slate's podcast on Health and Wellness.

I'm Maya Feller.

And I'm Dr. Kavita Patel. We're bombarded with messaging about what

wellness is, how it looks, and what quote lifestyle changes we need to make in order to

get there. I could not agree more Kavita. I mean at the beginning of the new year I'm seeing all of these ads for body

composition scans gym memberships detoxes I mean you name it.

Decyphering which new wellness trend works for you can be challenging and in a

moment we're going to speak with someone who worked to define wellness for some of the biggest health

magazines in the country.

Okay, but before we get to that, Kavita,

I want to do like a little dig in

to how we define wellness,

like both professionally and also for ourselves and families.

So I don't know that I've got this particular definition of wellness. I have an idea of what it's absolutely not,

but I do think that there are a number of variables that we have to think about and they contribute to overall wellness.

Like I think about physical health, even in the presence of a disease diagnosis, right,

like as being a part of wellness.

Someone might have a chronic condition, for example, diabetes, and if it's well managed, I do think of that person as being well.

I also think that community and mental health are important parts of wellness.

Maybe they're even like pillars that fit into that overall wellness puzzle.

And the same goes for finances. I mean, Kavita, one of the things that I do think about is that in dominant culture, wellness is often portrayed as something that can be purchased like those body composition

scans. You know, it's such a broad topic. I feel that my definition is ever

...