C2 Proficiency · Multiple Choice Reading · Ready for C2 Proficiency Workbook, Macmillan
You are going to read an article about the wellness industry. For questions 1–6, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.
Dr Stephanie Baker is an expert in wellness culture and medical misinformation. Her book Wellness Culture is the latest to describe how this small, earnest movement, founded by medical doctors last century, has grown into an economy worth at least
.5 trillion (£1.26 trillion), and which relies on people feeling vulnerable and like they could always be, somehow, better. Real money is to be found in serving a demographic known as 'the worried well'. Turning the adjective 'well' into a noun is to add a price for being better. The anxieties of the better-off are being monetised. The benefits of many of these treatments still exist only in the realms of the theoretical. Which is not to say they are harmful, nor, indeed, that they aren't beneficial, just that as with a lot of wellness treatments, the science is vague. Take, for example, NAD+. A health, wellness and biohacking clinic called Hum2n claims IV infusions of this coenzyme, which binds with proteins to become niacin vitamin B3, responsible for revitalising cells from the inside out, can boost energy. A course of ten infusions usually costs about £3000. Science is rather more cautious. One review concluded: 'Long-term side effects of NAD+ upregulation … are harder to quantify and may exist.' I first saw IV NAD+ punted on the Instagram pages of Britain's leading wellness influencer, Davinia Taylor. Is she concerned about its efficacy, given the lack of long-term trials or clinical evidence? 'Not at all,' she says, 'it makes me feel a hundred years younger.' Wellness relies on celebrities rather than scientific journals to spread its message. It even has its own poster boys and girls, such as Dr Mark Hyman, a medical doctor and functional medicine practitioner. Hyman has written ten bestselling books and is a friend to the rich and famous. He references studies and articles in peer-reviewed journals. Earlier this year, I watched Hyman bounce around on stage dressed like a rock star at a wellness festival for a high-net-worth audience. His first words: 'There is a new miracle drug. It's called food.' So far, so inspiring. But the talk soon departed from endorsement of simpler and free lifestyle changes and spiralled into costly interventions such as total body scans (cost £2100), exosome therapy, teleomeres and heterochronic parabiosis. The audience were rapt. Gwyneth Paltrow is the world's best-known wellness influencer. She started her Goop site as a little newsletter in 2008. It was valued ten years later at £208 million. Baker says that Paltrow was initially just 'recommending restaurants and talking about things she did. Then she met a venture capitalist, and he invested, seeing the profit to be made from her influential voice and recommendations.' Baker says the more insidious powers on social media are not the big Hollywood names turned wellness sellers such as Paltrow, but what she calls 'microcelebrities' with a devoted following online. As Baker says, 'This idea about a hero's journey, having psychological pain or a physical condition and somehow overcoming it … within wellness culture, too often that stands in for professional expertise. It's comforting and reassuring for people, that's why they relate, but this is where the problems lie: there is no way of testing the truth of their claims.' At the end of the summer, I went to a panel discussion led by Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London and co-founder of the personalised nutrition company Zoe. In the audience were professional nutritionists and wellness influencers. I wonder how the highly credible Spector feels, having to occupy this space in order to communicate his research and his science-based health app, Zoe. He says, 'I am comfortable we are contributing to the conversation as evidence-based scientists and nutrition professionals; we ensure we make our scientific principles transparent for all to see. The wellness space needs more evidence-based science to drown out the noise.' The wellness economy can support human health and alleviate people's suffering. It can also harbour expensive, unregulated and potentially dangerous products and players. 'Wellness culture,' says Baker, 'is thriving in a time of anxiety, a time that is stripped of meaning. It gives people hope, meaning and purpose. But it is crying out for some kind of rules-based framework. Anyone can share health advice, no matter how ill-qualified or dubious their motives. We need to find some immunity to all the nonsense out there.'
It preys on people's unfounded fears and insecurities.
The treatments it offers are less effective than they claim to be.
The primary motivation for its rapid growth has been financial.
It deceives wealthy clients into undergoing unproven treatments.
What does the author suggest about the wellness industry in the first paragraph?
its enduring but unintentional impacts on those who take it
the process by which it becomes a vitamin
the reason for Davinia Taylor's confidence in its efficacy
its ability to invigorate people
Which information about NAD+ does the author present as an uncontested fact, not an opinion?
imply they are based on pseudoscience that may be ineffective.
question Dr Hyman's credentials as an expert.
highlight a contrast with the benefits of healthy nutrition.
hint at the relative gullibility of Dr Hyman's wealthy fans.
The author mentions exosome therapy, teleomeres and heterochronic parabiosis in order to
celebrities using their reputations to support paid promotions
powerful social media influencers disputing medical facts
investors turning well-meaning advisory sites into lucrative businesses
regular people touting their inspirational experiences as evidence
What phenomenon is Dr Baker most concerned about?
risks harming his reputation by associating with wellness influencers.
will struggle to compete with more established players in the market.
is naïve in expecting to be accepted into an otherwise hostile community.
is sending conflicting messages by promoting his product while sharing his expertise.
Available as a free printable PDF worksheet with an optional answer key.
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