Revolutionizing Health Care

Powerful forces are converging along the healthcare continuum to catalyze explosive healthcare changes. New economic realities are motivating many to take greater steps towards proactive Health Care rather than Sick Care and greater responsibility for their own health and wellness. At the same time, technology is enabling fully customized and predictive prevention alternatives, including a blending of alternative medicine with Western medical science to create an endless possibility of more effective health care solutions. This perfect storm of the changing economic landscape, enabling technology and innovative treatment is poised to revolutionize health care as we know it today.

Natural Marketing Institute provides insights into how consumers are meeting the new challenges and opportunities that exist within this ever-evolving new "health care" paradigm.

Emerging Self Responsibility

Consumers are increasingly making efforts to take more responsibility across all aspects of their life – especially concerning their own personal health. Their efforts are, in part, driven by a growing mistrust of institutions and corporations brought on by recent occurrences within the financial industry and questionable corporate practices across other market sectors. In addition, recent flu epidemics and reports of resistant bacterial infections have consumers more vigilant over boosting their immunity. Combined with the uncertainty of a future healthcare system and continued economic challenges, consumers are starting to look for better solutions to stay healthy; solutions which may require an increased self-interest and management of their own health.

The majority of consumers agree that taking responsibility for one's health is the best way to stay healthy – and they show strong desire and self motivation toward that end.

Food as Medicine

Driven in part by emerging food fortification technologies and discoveries of nutrient benefits, consumers are choosing to make the most of their caloric intake. Hence, the growth of functional foods is set to outpace the growth of conventional foods over the next few years.

Research shows that the top drivers of functional and fortified food use are to ensure overall health and to increase consumption of certain nutrients – almost like a nutritional insurance policy. In fact, three-quarters of consumers believe healthy foods and beverages can be used to increase the quality of their lives. In addition, over a quarter of the population believe that functional foods and beverages can be used in place of some medicines. It may not be surprising, then, that a majority of consumers would use foods and beverages to prevent and treat many health conditions, including, but not limited to heart disease, high blood pressure, lack of energy, intestinal irregularity and even cancer.

Foods as the new "medicine" is a strong sign of consumers' growing need to take more responsibility for their health and a contrary indication of a widely held belief within the industry that functional foods are reaching a plateau as a future market opportunity – when, in fact, functionality is poised to be a key driver across many existing and emerging markets.

Less is More

Consumers are also realizing that another way they can have better control of their health is through simplification and reduction. Overall, consumers are moving away from consumptive and excessive behaviors because simplification and practicality are becoming the new sophistication and the "right thing to do". This new paring down of one's lifestyle has numerous implications across various consumer health modalities.

Consumers want to understand what they are putting into their bodies and are looking for simplified labels, fewer ingredients, and fewer unnecessary and unhealthy additives in their foods and beverages. In fact, this desire for simplification in food and beverage products has shown an upward trend for the past four years.

In addition, consumers are adopting reduction attitudes; everything from reducing their waistline to reducing unwanted ingredients in the foods they eat. Counter to the previous trend over the past two decades of consumption and the attitude that bigger is better, this new "contraction" trend has even further quality of life implications. In fact, consumers feel that reducing toxins in their body is critical to staying healthy. Even further, they believe reducing inflammation in their body is critical to their body's well-being and three-quarters feel that reducing their stress would increase the quality of their lives.

Reduction, simplification, and "less is more" are just some of the new attitudes helping to shape an emerging consumer-directed health care movement.

Alternative Means

With Americans split on a government run healthcare plan, consumers are looking outside the traditional avenues of healthcare in order to find alternative means to stay healthy.

NMI studies show that consumers indicated they used alternative healthcare in the past year with chiropractic care being the most used alternative healthcare. In addition, consumers are open to a blending of alternative and traditional healthcare marked by their strong interest in a conventional healthcare/insurance plan that also provides alternative healthcare options.

Supplementation is also another means consumers are adopting to stay healthy. In fact, there is a new group of supplement users who have only used supplements for a year or less who indicate they have increased their usage of single vitamins and multivitamins in this past year of economic challenges. An explanation may be that these new users are likely those looking to boost their health in order to keep healthcare costs down, and are turning to supplementation as a solution.

Proactive Health

"It is easy to dodge our responsibilities but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities" – Josiah Charles Stamp

Healthcare is taking on new dimensions as consumers are beginning to take tangible, measured steps in their everyday lives as a way to regain control over a lifestyle which appears to have veered off track. Consumers are recalibrating what is important in order to reestablish balanced and healthy lifestyle goals. Even more so in today's economy, concern is evident as consumers are choosing to eat healthier, take supplements, and use homeopathic remedies as alternatives to costly doctor visits and high priced pharmaceuticals.

Taking personal responsibility is at the heart of the new consumer-directed health care trend and it appears to be picking up momentum. Industries will need to keep pace and assist consumers where needed in order to meet the challenges of the new parameters that are being set and the new lines that are being drawn.