From the Editor Christian Schwalbach “ In the past few years, the quest to live more healthily and to extend both our healthspans and our lifespans has only gathered momentum „ DEPARTURES WE WOULD ALL like to be healthy, wealthy and wise, but so far this decade, it’s the first of these – health – that has been at the forefront of most minds across the globe. Covid, of course, is the primary reason, but our increasing focus on wellbeing has deeper roots. Across many of the richest countries, the so-called baby boomers (those born after World War II through to the early 1960s) hold a significant portion of the wealth: in the US, for example, the Federal Reserve reports that the boomers possess around half of the nation’s wealth. For context, Gen X (born 1965-1980) has 30 per cent; those born before 1946 have 11 per cent; and those born after 1980 have nine per cent. This concentration of wealth has come alongside a flourishing of medical knowledge and biological technologies. A few of the more ambitious boomers have set themselves the task of living forever (and more power to them), while the majority are aiming to live better and longer. This well-equipped quest to live more healthily and to extend both our healthspans and our lifespans was underway long before Covid – and has only gathered momentum in the past few years. In this issue, we have dedicated our largest feature, on page 72, to exploring the very latest developments in health and wellness. They range from activities as simple as spending more time in nature to state-of-the-art full-body cryotherapy chambers and picosecond lasers that can erase sun damage and fine lines. The original maxim incorporating health, wealth and wisdom comes from early American thinker Benjamin Franklin, whose solution to achieving all three was being “early to bed and early to rise”. Sure enough, we’re still thinking about sleep today – and one of the latest openings is a fully equipped sleep lab on the German island of Sylt. Here’s hoping the next months bring you good health – and that the rest of the stories we have curated for you in this magazine inspire many happy dreams. 14
