The Truth About Wearables, Supplements and the Optimisation Trap
Twenty years ago, most people had a fairly simple relationship with health.
Eat reasonably well. Exercise a few times a week. Get enough sleep. Try not to drink too much. Maybe take a multivitamin.
Today, many of us are tracking our sleep scores, monitoring our heart rate variability, counting every step, analysing blood glucose fluctuations and taking a small pharmacy’s worth of supplements before breakfast.
We’ve never had more information about our health.
Yet paradoxically, many people seem more anxious about their health than ever.
So have we made health too complicated?
It’s a question that recently came up following comments from entrepreneur and podcaster Stephen Bartlett, who spoke about feeling the effects of a couple of glasses of wine for several days afterwards. The reaction online was mixed, but it highlights a much bigger conversation around modern health culture.
The rise of wearables, biohacking, optimisation and endless health data has undoubtedly changed the way we think about wellbeing.
The question is whether it’s making us healthier—or simply more preoccupied.
The Rise of Optimisation Culture
Technology has transformed healthcare and personal wellbeing.
What once required a visit to your GP can now be monitored from your wrist.
Smart watches, rings, straps and apps track everything from sleep quality and recovery scores to heart rate, blood oxygen levels and stress.
On one level, this is incredibly empowering.
We have access to information that previous generations could only dream of. We can identify patterns, build healthier habits and potentially spot health issues earlier.
But there’s a catch.
Having data isn’t the same as understanding it.
Most of us aren’t doctors, physiologists or data scientists. We often don’t fully understand what these metrics mean, how they’re measured, or how they interact with each other.
As humans, we naturally look for simple answers.
A score goes down.
A graph goes up.
A number turns red.
We immediately assume something is wrong.
But health is rarely that straightforward.
When Data Starts Driving Behaviour
One of the biggest risks of optimisation culture is that we stop listening to ourselves.
Instead of asking:
“How do I feel today?”
We ask:
“What does my wearable say?”
Many people find themselves checking sleep scores before deciding how much energy they’ll have that day.
Others become obsessed with hitting arbitrary targets.
We’ve met people walking around the house late at night because they haven’t reached 10,000 steps.
People who feel guilty if they miss a workout.
People whose mood is determined by a recovery score generated by an algorithm.
At that point, the technology is no longer serving you.
You’re serving the technology.
The Psychology Behind Health Obsession
The challenge isn’t the data itself.
It’s how our brains respond to it.
Humans are wired to seek certainty and control. Health tracking promises both.
But there’s a fine line between awareness and obsession.
Psychologists refer to something called the hedonic treadmill—the tendency to continually pursue the next improvement without ever feeling satisfied.
In health optimisation, the goalposts never stop moving.
Once you’ve improved your sleep score, you focus on recovery.
Then heart rate variability.
Then glucose spikes.
Then supplements.
Then longevity biomarkers.
There is always another metric to improve.
Another score to chase.
Another area where you could supposedly do better.
The result?
Instead of feeling healthier, many people feel perpetually inadequate.
Are We Solving Problems That Don’t Exist?
Another concern is that optimisation culture can encourage people to look for problems where none exist.
Take continuous glucose monitors.
For people with diabetes or pre-diabetes, they can be life-changing tools.
For the average healthy person, however, they can sometimes create unnecessary anxiety.
We’ve spoken to people who became fixated on every blood sugar fluctuation.
Some developed feelings of guilt around eating certain foods.
Others found themselves overthinking meals that they had previously enjoyed without concern.
The tool itself wasn’t the problem.
The relationship with the data was.
Health should help us feel more empowered.
Not more fearful.
The Forgotten Fundamentals
Perhaps the biggest issue with optimisation culture is that it can distract us from what actually matters.
People spend hours researching supplements, cold plunges and recovery hacks.
Yet often neglect the basics that decades of research consistently show have the biggest impact on health and longevity:
- Getting enough quality sleep
- Strength training regularly
- Maintaining cardiovascular fitness
- Eating a predominantly whole-food diet
- Managing stress effectively
- Limiting excessive alcohol
- Building meaningful relationships
- Having a sense of purpose
These aren’t sexy.
They don’t generate viral social media content.
But they move the needle more than almost any biohack ever will.
In many ways, the pursuit of optimisation can become a form of procrastination.
It’s easier to buy another gadget than to consistently go to bed on time.
The Longevity Secret Nobody Wants to Hear
When researchers study some of the world’s longest-living populations, they don’t find people obsessively tracking biomarkers.
They find strong communities.
Meaningful relationships.
Purpose.
Movement built naturally into daily life.
Good food.
Connection.
In fact, loneliness is now recognised as one of the biggest risk factors for poor health and mortality.
Yet it’s difficult to track connection on an app.
You can’t optimise friendship with a wearable.
And perhaps that’s part of the problem.
The things that matter most are often the hardest to measure.
A Better Approach to Health
We’re not anti-wearables.
Far from it.
Technology can be incredibly useful.
It can create awareness, encourage positive behaviour change and even save lives.
But the key is remembering who is in charge.
Use data as information.
Not instruction.
Let it inform your decisions rather than dictate them.
Understand why you’re tracking something before you start tracking it.
And most importantly, don’t lose trust in your own body.
A question worth asking is this:
Do you trust your body less now than you did before you bought the wearable?
If the answer is yes, it might be time to reassess your relationship with the technology.
Final Thoughts
At midlife, health matters.
Energy matters.
Longevity matters.
But health should support your life, not become your life.
Before chasing the latest optimisation trend, ask yourself:
Am I focusing on what actually matters?
Or am I getting distracted by what is merely measurable?
Because the goal isn’t to become the most optimised human on Instagram.
The goal is to have enough health, energy and vitality to fully engage with the life you want to live.
And that’s something no wearable can measure.
Take a listen to the Midlife Mentors podcast about this subject:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unhealthy-pursuit-of-optimal-health/id1463373998?i=1000771456598
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5mXZi9rbBU5IIvrhRHZPon?si=_GtwUFiLSBybAgUywqQG9w