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men conversations with friends and social media, television and more, wellness is a hot topic and more people than ever are striving to achieve it.
In the survey of the global consultancy McKinsey & Co. 2025 on the Future of Wellness, 84% of US consumers cited wellness as a top or important priority. Of that group, 30% of Gen Zers and Millennials and 23% of older generations said wellness was much more important to them compared to a year ago.
With our long-standing stories on top doctors, top dentists and women’s health, health has long been a mainstay of HONOLULU coverage. This month, in conjunction with our annual Castle Connolly Top Doctors feature, we’ve dedicated the entire magazine to the topic. We asked some of Hawaii’s top doctors questions about everything from hormone replacement therapy to GLP-1, brain health and bone density. Another feature delves into longevity, a big buzzword in the health and wellness space. People of all ages focus on longevity, which is not just about living a long life, but quality for as long as possible.
Personally, health and wellness are also priorities for me. And this year I learned a hard lesson about what happens when you lose them.
Nothing will knock you out of your overconfidence of being healthier than the flu. I had a severe attack earlier this year that ironically came right after I cleared my 2026 resolutions, which included a prosaic “stay strong and healthy.” My symptoms started with inflammation all over my body, which turned into severe muscle pain, nerve pain and fatigue. The cough started a day later, a persistent, phlegmatic cough that wouldn’t let me sleep for more than an hour at a time. The next day, things went from bad to worse: fever and a pounding headache added to the body aches and cough.
The next few days were like nightmare groundhog days, with the same repeated cycle of terrible sleep, waking up like a zombie, sore throat, fever, non-stop headache, terrible cough. No amount of Advil or Tylenol could stop the agony, and lots of anxious Google and ChatGPT conversations didn’t help either.
Over the years I have adopted many wellness and health practices: daily meditation and breathing and lots of yoga. So what happened while he was under siege by this virus? I haven’t done anything. I just dreamed of a magic shot that would end my inflammatory nightmare.
Finally, partial relief came on day 7. When I woke up, I was drenched in sweat – my body, hair, clothes and sheets were soaked. But I felt better, like something lifted. HONOLULU dining editor Mari Taketa said the same thing happened to her while battling the flu, recalling how classics like Little Women and Wuthering Heights featured terminally ill characters who woke up after night sweats and were fine because “the fever broke.”
But my recovery was not linear. The next few weeks can only be described as a zigzagging, horrible ride, where one day I would feel great, the next bad. The fever and headache were gone, but I was smothered in a blanket of tiredness, fatigue, and anxiety, and my blood pressure rose. It was frustrating, scary and humbling.
Although I’m mostly recovered, the flu threw my nervous system out of whack and it’s taken months to try and get it sorted. As of this writing, I’m still not 100%. So what is the lesson? It goes back to the “overconfidence” I mentioned earlier. I realized that no matter what, I couldn’t take my health for granted. It’s not a given, it doesn’t matter how many times a week you do the 4-7-8 breathing pattern. The body is a mystery and so are viruses. We are all playing Russian roulette living with each other, never knowing when and which ones will come for you. I continue into 2026 with a more nuanced view of my “stay strong and healthy” resolution. It’s been a great start to the new year, but here’s to everyone getting through the rest of it in good health.
