Willamette Valley flexes its wine muscle, page 168
The Cavallino Classic celebrates 35 years, page 76
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION? THE HEADLINE CAUGHT MY ATTENTION, AND NOT IRONICALLY. I WAS LYING IN BED SCROLLING MY FEED IN THE 15 MINUTES I ALLOW MYSELF BETWEEN MY ALARM AND WHEN I
Am I addicted to social media? I rarely post anything on my personal accounts, so I’m not here for the likes, loves or comments. I do flip my Instagram app open at a red light and I have been known to watch a few stories when Hulu or Prime insists on showing me 90 seconds of unmemorable advertising between parts of Ryan Murphy’s “Love Story.”
The man we all love to hate, Mark Zuckerburg, has been in court recently here in California to answer the question, What is social media addiction? And has his company, Meta, contributed to that addiction for millions of us? This month, we explore that topic and others, include the concept of Super-Agers – normal geriatric members of society whose brains remain as sharp as their 50-year-old counterparts. What sets them apart from the majority of the aging population? A new study proposes a few ideas.
And what about Bitcoin – does it boost or bloat national economies? For years ago, El Salvador’s government bet big on it, making it an official national currency, but at what price to the economy and El Salvadorians themselves?
Plus, it’s the year of the Fire Horse and we just can’t get enough of this cover and all of the hype around it.
Click and comment on our choices... Tag @pololifestyles . We will share noteworthy comments with you next month.
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DUBAI GOLD CUP
DUBAI GOLD CUP
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MILANO CORTINA WINTER OLYMPICS
MILANO CORTINA WINTER OLYMPICS
MILANO CORTINA WINTER OLYMPICS
MILANO CORTINA WINTER OLYMPICS
MILANO CORTINA WINTER OLYMPICS
MILANO CORTINA WINTER OLYMPICS
MILANO CORTINA WINTER OLYMPICS
PHOTOS
SUPER-AGERS SOME PEOPLE'S BRAINS STAY SHARP AS TACKS FOR DECADES
A NEW STUDY SUGGESTS WHY
NEURON REGENERATION MAY BE WHY THIS GROUP OF SUPER-AGERS IN THEIR 80S ARE AS SHARP AS THEIR 50-SOMETHING COUNTERPARTS
MANY PEOPLE’S BRAINS DETERIORATE AS THEY AGE, BECOMING RIDDLED WITH MALFUNCTIONING PROTEINS THAT RESULT IN CELL DEATH AND THE LOSS OF MEMORY AND COGNITION. BUT OTHER PEOPLE’S BRAINS REMAIN ALMOST PERFECTLY INTACT, THEIR THINKING AS SHARP AT 80 AS IT WAS IN THEIR 50S.
A paper published in the journal Nature provides a new potential explanation for this discrepancy, and it taps into one of the hottest debates in neuroscience: whether human brains can grow new neurons in adulthood, a phenomenon called neurogenesis.
The study found that so-called super-agers — people 80 and up who have the memory ability of someone 30 years younger — had roughly twice as many new neurons as older adults with normal memory for their age, and 2.5 times more than people with Alzheimer’s disease.
The research focused on an area of the brain called the hippocampus, which is important for learning and memory and is thought to be the primary birthplace of new neurons.
“This paper shows biological proof that the aging brain is plastic,” even into a person’s 80s, said Tamar Gefen, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who contributed to the research.
To look for neurogenesis in older adults, the scientists first tried to detect signs of it in the autopsied brains of young adults, age 20 to 40, who died with normal cognition. They identified genetic markers for three key types of cells: neural stem cells, neuroblasts and immature neurons.
“It’s almost like neural stem cells are babies, neuroblasts are kind of teenagers and immature neurons are kind of almost adults,” said Orly Lazarov, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, who led the research. The presence of all three types could suggest that stem cells are active and dividing in the brain and that those new baby cells are maturing into adult neurons.
Next, the scientists searched for these same three cell types in the brains of four groups of older adults: people with normal cognition, those with mild cognitive impairment, those with Alzheimer’s and super-agers, all of whom had donated their brains to be studied after they died. Each group had signs of all three cell types, but the amounts differed dramati-
cally among them and appeared to relate to people’s cognition at the time of death.
The super-agers had substantially more immature neurons in their hippocampi — not only compared with the other older adults, but with the young adults, as well. The super-agers’ immature neurons also had unique genetic and epigenetic characteristics that the researchers think made them resilient to aging.
“Super-aging happens not only because there’s more of these young cells, but because there is a type of genetic programming” that allows for their preservation, Gefen said.
Dr. Bryan Strange, a professor of clinical neuroscience at the Polytechnic University of Madrid who studies a different group of super-agers, said neurogenesis could help to account for other unique aspects of super-ager brains, including that the hippocampus is often much larger than it is in typical older adults.
But he pointed out that super-agers have other brain differences, like more volume in areas that don’t experience neurogenesis and greater connectivity between brain regions, that can’t be explained by the new findings.
The research uncovered something interesting about people in the Alzheimer’s group, too. They actually had more neural stem cells compared with the other older adults, but many fewer neuroblasts and immature neurons.
“If you have normal neurogenesis, you gradually lose the stem cells,” said Hongjun Song, a professor of neurological sciences at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine who researches neurogenesis but was not involved in the study. One interpretation of the new finding is that, in Alzheimer’s, neurogenesis is disrupted and the stem cells get turned off and aren’t able to progress to the next stage of development, so the stem cell pool is preserved.
“If that’s true, that’s really opened up a new direction for the field” to potentially treat Alzheimer’s by reactivating the dormant stem cells, Song said.
Not everyone is convinced of the new findings. Shawn Sorrells, an associate professor of neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh who has also researched neurogenesis, said that the scientists’ goal of mapping “how the hippocampus changes with aging and changes differently in people who age differently is fantastically interesting and important.”
But Sorrells worries the study suffers from some of the same methodological flaws and assumptions as other research on neurogenesis. He added that he would like to see the findings validated using other techniques.
Experts agree that babies and young children are able to generate new neurons in the brain, as are several species of adult animals.
But many think it’s still not clear if human adults have the same ability. There are numerous studies providing evidence on both sides, and the results are often influenced by what methods researchers used.
This latest study most likely won’t settle the debate, but it does give scientists new leads to pursue. For her part, Lazarov is now trying to understand how super-agers’ special immature neurons relate to the group’s superior memory, and if it might be possible to capture some of that activity in a drug to help others stay sharper longer.
WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION LOOKS LIKE
KALEY STARTED USING YOUTUBE AT THE AGE OF 6, DOWNLOADING THE APP ON HER IPOD TOUCH TO WATCH VIDEOS ABOUT LIP GLOSS COLLECTIONS AND THE ONLINE KIDS GAME ANIMAL JAM. SHE POSTED HER FIRST VIDEO WHEN SHE WAS 8 — IN IT, SHE PLAYED ANIMAL JAM AS AN OTTER CHARACTER, SINGING IN A PUT-ON BRITISH ACCENT.
A year later, she downloaded and began posting on Instagram, circumventing a guardrail her mom had tried to set up to block her from the app.
She says she became addicted. She started staying up late and sneaking out of class to scroll YouTube and Instagram.
Within several years Kaley says she began cutting herself to cope with depression, one of a number of mental health challenges she claims were caused or exacerbated by an addiction to social media.
Kaley, now 20, described ongoing struggles with social media before a Los Angeles jury on Thursday, part
of a lawsuit from her and her mother against Meta and YouTube. It marks the first time the public has gotten to hear directly from the young woman at the heart of a case that could set a precedent for hundreds of lawsuits accusing tech platforms of intentionally addicting and harming young users.
“Anytime I would try to set limits for myself, I couldn’t,” said Kaley, who is being referred to in court by only her first name because her claims relate to incidents that took place while she was a minor.
Meta and YouTube have denied her claims and objected to the idea that social media can be “addictive.” YouTube has contested the amount of time Kaley says she spent on the platform; Meta has argued her upbringing is responsible for her mental health challenges.
Both companies say they’ve invested heavily in youth safety features such as parental controls and safety settings for teens, although many of those measures were not in place in Kaley’s early years using the platforms.
YOUTUBE
By the time she was 10, Kaley had uploaded 200 videos to YouTube. She also created multiple accounts so it would appear her videos had more likes and
urged her mom and sister to like her videos, too.
When her videos received little reaction, “it made me feel like I shouldn’t have posted or that it was stupid, or I looked bad,” she said. Losing subscribers made her feel “not worthy.”
Despite bullying Kaley said she experienced on YouTube, she didn’t leave the platform because the idea “bothered me more than the comments.” She once turned off notifications, but that didn’t last, saying, “”I wanted to see what people were saying or who was liking my video.”
YouTube’s autoplay feature also often kept Kaley on the app longer than she intended.
“I would say okay I’m going to get off after that, but then it would autoplay and I would be on for hours,” she said. She added, “I was on it from a young age and I would spend all my time on it,” and would often sneak onto YouTube on her phone in class.
YouTube argues that records from Kaley’s logged-in account show she used it for only a short time each day. The company’s attorney, Luis Li, said in court that Kaley “is not addicted to YouTube and never has been … the data proves she spent little more than a
minute a day using the very features her lawyers claim are addictive.”
But Kaley’s attorney, Mark Lanier, has argued that, like many kids, she spent much of her time using the platform logged out, including her first two years on YouTube.
Lanier showed an undated YouTube video showing Kaley, who looked to be in her early teens, walking viewers through her “night routine.” In it, she scrolls her phone in bed, gets up to shower and take off her makeup, and then gets back in bed to scroll Instagram. Kaley testified her current nighttime routine still looks similar.
INSTAGRAM
Kaley alleges that she used Instagram from age 9 to 13 without her mom knowing. She said she was using a handme-down phone that had already had Instagram downloaded once before, allowing her to bypass a restriction that required her mom to type a password before she could get a new app.
She testified that she’d open the app “first when I woke up” and again before bed, sometimes sneaking to use it during the night.
Like on YouTube, Kaley set up multiple accounts to help feed her desire for more likes. She also used an app that promised to use bots to provide more likes on photos, she said.
She also discussed her use of Instagram’s “beauty” filters — which can manipulate a user’s face to make it appear that they’re wearing makeup or, for example, that their eyes are bigger or nose is smaller. Kaley claims the filters contributed to body dysmorphia, a struggle that she said even today leads her to spend 3 to 4 hours on her appearance each morning.
“At one point, almost all my photos had a filter on,” she said.
Lanier showed the jury an Instagram post of Kaley and her friends captioned: “We look horrible, just put a filter on it.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Kaley’s former therapist, Victoria Burke, testified that she had once asked Kaley what her “miracle day” would be — what would have to happen for her to have her best-case-scenario life. Kaley responded that she would be prettier, no chubby cheeks, no lines.
“I just felt like I wanted to be on it all the time and if I wasn’t on it, I felt like I was going to miss out on something,” she said of Instagram.
Meta has argued that it was Kaley’s difficult childhood — an abusive father, a combative relationship with her mother — that is responsible for her mental health challenges, not social media. “The evidence will show (Kaley) faced many significant, difficult challenges well before she ever used social media,” a Meta spokesperson previously told CNN.
During her testimony, Kaley was asked about posts in which she said her “mental health is so bad” because of her mom. But while Kaley acknowledged that they once had a difficult relationship, she testified she now believes her mom was doing her best to raise her in a tough situation. Social media, she said, contributed to her struggles by coopting her attention and alienating her from friends, family and hobbies.
Kaley contemplated suicide while “dealing with feeling insecure about myself, feeling socially withdrawn and just feeling really depressed and anxious,” she said.
Ultimately, she said, her life would be better without social media. But the platforms continue to have a pull; Kaley told the jury she still sneaks to the bathroom during work to scroll on the apps and she’s considering a career in social media marketing.
THE BEST WAY TO EAT VEGGIES
WHAT IF A DISEASE FIGHTING POWERHOUSE WAS AS CLOSE AS YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD GROCERY, IF NOT YOUR KITCHEN?
Cruciferous vegetables – a group that includes kale, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, radishes, arugula and others – contain compounds that help reduce the risk of cancer, slow the growth of cancer after it’s been diagnosed and protect against heart disease, among other benefits.
“They have amazing benefits when it comes to their nutrition and phytonutrient content,” says Emma Veilleux, RDN, senior dietitian with the Simms/Mann UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology, which provides free psychosocial and nutrition support for people being treated for cancer at UCLA Health.
Also known as Brassica vegetables, cruciferous vegetables contain natural plant compounds called glucosinolates, which break down into sulfur-containing phytochemicals called isothiocyanates. One widely researched glucosinolate is sulforaphane, which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
These plant chemical names may be a mouthful, but eating a mouthful (or more) of the foods that contain them delivers serious health benefits. A review study published in 2021 found that these plant compounds “are important components in the prevention and treatment of multiple chronic diseases,” in-
cluding high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cancer.
Beyond fighting disease, cruciferous vegetables are high in fiber, vitamins and minerals.
‘In addition to just being super healthy vegetables for their nutrient content,” Veilleux says, “they have this additional benefit of these specific vital chemicals that are unique to cruciferous vegetables that are showing so much promise in terms of disease reduction.”
And these benefits come with just one or two servings of cruciferous vegetables a day, she says: “You don’t need to eat a gargantuan portion size in order to reap the benefits.”
MAXIMIZE DISEASE-FIGHTING POWER
Cruciferous vegetables confer benefits whether eaten raw or cooked, but there is a catch, Veilleux says.
“The unique thing about these (disease-fighting) phytochemicals is that there’s a little bit of chemistry that has to take place for the chemicals to be most bioactive – for our bodies to be able to utilize the nutrients,” she says.
An enzyme in cruciferous vegetables must be activated to turn the glucosinolates into isothiocyanates, and this happens by damaging the plant by chopping or chewing it. This enzyme is heat sensitive, so cooking the vegetable deactivates it.
The hack to being able to enjoy these veggies cooked while still reaping their benefit,
Veilleux says, is to chop your veggies at least 40 minutes before cooking them, which allows time for the enzyme to activate before being exposed to heat. You can also eat cruciferous veggies raw. “That’s probably the best way to maximize the benefit,” she says. “But for most people, with the exception of having some shredded cabbage or radishes in a salad, eating them raw isn’t the most desirable way to eat most of these vegetables.”
Buying pre-chopped or frozen veggies is another great shortcut, she adds.
PACK A VEGGIE PUNCH
Veilleux considers cabbage an unsung vegetable hero: “It doesn’t get the attention it deserves for being such a healthy vegetable.
“It’s so cheap. It’s readily available. It lasts a long time,” she says. “If you buy a head of cabbage, you can have it rolling around in your fridge for a good month and it’s not going to go bad the way a bag of spinach would.”
Consider adding shredded cabbage to salads, stir-fries, soups and even scrambled eggs to boost your cruciferous vegetable intake, she suggests. It’s also a great taco topper.
When it comes to cooking cruciferous veggies, opt for steaming, roasting, sauteing or microwaving rather than boiling, Veilleux says. Boiling vegetables can leach nutrients into the water.
Try a quick steam, sauté in olive oil, or toss chopped veggies in olive oil and roast them in the oven. Microwaving fro-
zen broccoli or cauliflower florets makes for a quick and healthy side dish.
ADJUSTING YOUR DIET
Some people complain that cruciferous vegetables make them gassy, Veilleux says – a normal side effect of the sulfur these plants contain.
“People tend to adjust the more consistently they eat these vegetables,” she says.
Start with small portions so you can see how your body responds, then increase your intake gradually, she says.
As long as you can tolerate them, it’s worth incorporating some – if not many – cruciferous vegetables into your regular diet, Veilleux says: “If you’re eating at least some of them consistently, you’re going to get the benefits.”
CELEBRATES ITS 35TH ANNIVERSARY CAVALLINO CLASSIC THE
PALM BEACH HAS LONG UNDERSTOOD THE LANGUAGE OF ELEGANCE — SUNLIT TERRACES, POLISHED BRASS, AND GENERATIONAL WEALTH WHISPERED RATHER THAN DECLARED.
Over Presidents’ Day Weekend, that language was spoken fluently in Rosso Corsa as the 35th Anniversary of the Palm Beach Cavallino Classic concluded in record-setting fashion, welcoming more than 360 automobiles and 300 Ferraris to the grounds of The Boca Raton.
Now firmly established as the world’s most significant gathering dedicated exclusively to Ferrari, the Cavallino Classic has evolved from a collector’s passion project into a global summit of connoisseurship. This milestone edition was not simply a concours — it was a living anthology of Maranello’s greatest chapters, from the earliest post-war competition cars to the definitive road machines of the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, alongside rare special versions seldom seen on a concours lawn.
The international presence of collectors, historians, restorers, and marque special-
ists reaffirmed what insiders have long known: Cavallino is not merely an event. It is the annual pilgrimage for those who understand Ferrari as both mechanical achievement and emotional artifact.
THE CONCORSO D’ELEGANZA: THE BEATING
HEART
At the center of the weekend stood the Concorso d’Eleganza — where provenance, restoration accuracy, originality, and historical relevance are examined with scholarly rigor. This year’s highest honors reflected Ferrari’s earliest competitive DNA and grand touring excellence:
CAVALLINO CLASSIC
THE 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PALM BEACH CAVALLINO CLASSIC A MILESTONE CELEBRATION OF FERRARI’S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
Best of Show Gran Turismo was awarded to the 1956 410 Superamerica #0475 SA — a car whose presence feels less like transportation and more like sculpture in motion.
Best of Show Competizione was claimed by the 1948 166 MM Berlinetta #02C/020 I — a foundational competition Ferrari that represents the very genesis of the marque’s racing mythology.
Beyond the top honors, the winners’ circle read like a curated index of Ferrari excellence. Chairman’s, Preservation, Restoration, and Elegance awards cele-
brated cars distinguished by meticulous stewardship. Family-specific recognitions honored icons ranging from the 250 GTO to the Enzo, the F40, and modern V12 flagships.
More than 80 Platinum Awards were also presented, underscoring the extraordinary depth and quality across Ferrari’s most celebrated eras. Rather than a simple prize list, the awards collectively illustrated the breadth of Ferrari’s legacy — from early barchettas and competition berlinettas to contemporary supercars and Classiche-certified masterpieces.
HISTORY MEETS HORIZON
The 35th Anniversary introduced the Legacy Class, a curated timeline of prior Best of Show winners that effectively turned the concours field into a rolling museum — a visual narrative tracing three and a half decades of Cavallino devotion. Ferrari’s future was equally present. The regional premiere of the Ferrari 849 Testarossa during Friday’s Party Under the Stars bridged past and present with theatrical elegance, reinforcing Ferrari’s ongoing commitment to innovation in design and engineering.
As Chairman and CEO Luigi Orlandini reflected during the award ceremony, Cavallino was founded 35 years ago to honor Ferrari not simply as an automobile, but as an expression of art, engineering, and human emotion. That founding ethos felt palpable throughout the weekend.
THE CAVALLINO AUCTION BY RM SOTHEBY’S
This anniversary also marked the debut of the Cavallino Auction presented by RM Sotheby’s. The boutique sale was curated specifically for the Cavallino audience — discerning, educated, and unapologetically passionate.
Among the highlights was a LaFerrari, which achieved a final price of $5,230,000 — a testament not only to the model’s rarity but to the enduring strength of Ferrari’s top-tier collector market.
A SETTING WORTHY OF THE PRANCING HORSE
The move to The Boca Raton elevated the experience on every level. Expansive lawns, waterfront vistas, and refined hospitality framed the concours in a manner befitting its international stature. Evening programming — culminating in Cavallino Night’s gala dinner, charity auction, and after-party — balanced sophistication with celebration.
Friday’s Tour d’Eleganza offered owners a kinetic counterpoint to the concours lawn, sending some of the world’s most important Ferraris through the scenic roads of South Florida. Meanwhile, Classic & Sports Sunday at Mar-a-Lago Club reaffirmed its status as one of Palm Beach’s most refined automotive gatherings.
THE ROAD AHEAD
The Palm Beach Cavallino Classic will return to The Boca Raton in 2027 for its 36th edition. Yet Cavallino’s calendar is global:
• Cavallino Classic Monaco: April 23–26, 2026
• Cavallino Classic Modena: May 22–24, 2026
• Cavallino Classic Middle East: December 4–6, 2026
Thirty-five years in, the Cavallino Classic is no longer simply a concours. It is a cultural institution — a testament to Ferrari’s ability to transcend machinery and inhabit something far more enduring: aspiration itself.
For those who measure time not in years, but in chassis numbers and engine notes, Palm Beach once again proved that Ferrari’s story is far from finished.
CAVALLINO CLASSIC
OLYMPIC-SIZED
ECONOMICS
MILAN – THE WINTER OLYMPICS WERE IN TOWN. WELL, ACTUALLY SEVERAL TOWNS ACROSS NORTHERN ITALY, WITH THE TWO MAIN COMPETITION SITES SOME 400 KILOMETERS APART.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says this is the ‘most widespread Games in Olympic history’.
But what happens when the show moves on and the athletes are gone? For organizers of the Milano-Cortina Games, the hope is that this dispersed model will bring long-term benefits to communities across the region.
INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS FOR THE FUTURE
Cortina d’Ampezzo and Milan, sites of two cauldrons lit during the Games’ opening ceremony, are several hundred kilometers apart in northern Italy, posing logistical challenges, particularly for ensuring smooth transportation between sites.
However, Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti believes the investments in regional infrastructure for the Games have accelerated improvements that were required across the region. Reuters reported on Giorgetti’s remarks ahead of the Games: “Big events are an opportunity for major mobilization on infrastructure. They are also an excuse to address problems that otherwise would not be
tackled with the speed that is required, and that allow us to achieve results.”
According to Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, some $4.1 billion has been invested ahead of the Games.
Banca Ifis, an Italian financial and banking group, estimates a value of approximately $6.26 billion, with around $3.55 billion attributable to the legacy value of enhanced sporting venues and civil infrastructure.
The World Economic Forum’s Sports for People and Planet report also highlights the economic potential of the global sports economy, which is already worth some $2.3 trillion and is forecast to reach $8.8 trillion by mid-century. Sports tourism is a key driver cited by the Forum as contributing to this growth.
As well as transport, organizers say they’re investing in mountain electricity distribution systems, healthcare centers and boosting energy efficiency and waste reduction in existing venues.
The Games’ Impact 2026 initiative is also designed to provide greater access to the event’s economic opportunities for social, micro, small and medium businesses in the region. The initiative says its legacy will be empowering disadvantaged communities, promoting sustainable and ethical practices and supporting local economic development.
However, after the Paris Summer Olympics in 2024, the French Court of Auditors estimated the Games boosted economic growth by just 0.07 percentage points that year, so any forecasted economic benefits of Milano-Cortina 2026 are, at this point, just that: a forecast.
A SUSTAINABLE OLYMPICS?
The Winter Olympics hope to bring economic and social benefits to city and mountain regions alike. The Porta Romana Olympic Village, in Milan, will become student housing after the Games and, alongside the Santagiulia Arena, will help boost two districts of the city, say organizers.
The Olympic Village is built on an abandoned railway yard and will offer 1,700 beds for students after the Games, as well as retail and public spaces.
In Cortina d’Ampezzo, a temporary village has been constructed, with the land returned to open, public space after the Games. Meanwhile, in Livigno, three traditional Alpine lodges have been renovated and adapted, and will be returned to the local hospitality industry after the Olympics conclude.
However, some environmentalists have
criticized the impact of the Games on the mountain regions, with trees felled to make way for new venues, as well as concreting for car parks, roads and other infrastructure. There has also been criticism of the need to produce artificial snow, with an estimated 84.8 million cubic feet of water drawn from Alpine rivers and streams for snow-making.
Research from previous Games also suggests that local benefits can be fleeting. One study, conducted after London 2012, cautioned that “the data points to patterns of gentrification and migration, suggesting the original local community may have been left out of the equation”.
A 2016 paper published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives warned that the Olympics “result in positive net benefits only under very specific and unusual circumstances”. However, an OECD report published last year suggests that Paris 2024 offers lessons on good practice and innovation for future Games.
FDA APPROVES LIGHT-ACTIVATED POLYMER NERVE REPAIR
TAPPROVAL
IS THE FIRST FOR FIRM TISSIUM, WHICH WAS FOUNDED OVER A DECADE AGO
HE US FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION HAS APPROVED A NEW SYSTEM FOR NERVE REPAIR BASED ON LIGHT-ACTIVATED POLYMERS RATHER THAN SURGICAL STITCHES. THE FLEXIBLE POLYMER SYSTEM WAS DEVELOPED BY THE MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY TISSIUM, WHICH WAS FOUNDED OVER A DECADE AGO TO COMMERCIALIZE RESEARCH FROM THE LABORATORIES OF JEFFREY M. KARP AND BOB LANGER AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.
Christophe Bancel, who is now Tissium’s CEO, recalls meeting the firm’s eventual co-founder, Maria Pereira, back when she was finishing up her PhD work in Karp’s lab. She impressed him with both the quality of her work and the poly(glycerol
sebacate acrylate) material that she had developed for surgical use.
After spending a few days with Pereira in the lab, Bancel returned to France and spoke to numerous surgeons to understand what it would mean to have a biocompatible, light-activated polymer system that could stick cells and tissues together. Convinced the material could have multiple applications in surgery, he founded Tissium with Pereira, and the hard work really began.
Although Tissium first demonstrated its polymer material as a cardiovascular sealant, the application that the FDA just approved for is the repair of nerve damage. Currently, Bancel explains, this is a highly complex surgery in which doctors stitch together extremely delicate tissues under a microscope.
Tissium’s solution uses its polymer to make a 3D-printed chamber that can be fitted around the damaged nerve like a cuff. Liquid prepolymer is then squeezed around the edges and cured to create a flexible seal that holds the damaged
nerve in place inside the cuff so that it can knit itself back together. before the implant is absorbed into the body.
“This first approval is, in fact, the beginning of a journey,” Bancel says. Following today’s approval of the nerve-repair product, Bancel says the company hopes to expand into new treatment areas, possibly through codevelopment partnerships. It has built a manufacturing site in France that can produce complete kits for applications such as fixing nerves, sealing blood vessels, and repairing gastrointestinal hernias.
“Chemistry is central. No chemistry, no Tissium,” Bancel says. “But we decided to go beyond the chemistry . . . combining the polymer with the right accessories, because we believe we are not here to provide a component to the surgeons. We are here to provide a solution for their patients.”
LAURA HOWES/SPECIAL TO POLO LIFESTYLES
BRAND-NEW LUXURY VACATION DESTINATIONS THAT WOW 5
THE OBEROI RAJGARH PALACE
THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A LITTLE LUXURY TO HELP YOU SHAKE OFF THE WINTER BLUES. AND AT THESE NEW AND SOON-TOOPEN HOTELS, INDULGENCES ABOUND, BE THEY AT A PALACE IN INDIA, A BELLE ÉPOQUE GETAWAY IN THE FRENCH RIVIERA OR AN ALPINE INN AMID THE MOUNTAINS OF UTAH.
Madhya Pradesh, India THE OBEROI RAJGARH PALACE KHAJURAHO
This 350-year-old palace built by a Maharajah has been restored and transformed into an opulent escape with 65 rooms and suites, where amenities include private pools, gardens and terraces.
Surrounded by mountains and forests, the palace is on 76 acres with a lake
and, by the end of March, a spa. Tented lakeside suites immerse you in nature for massages and facials.
There is an infinity pool overlooking the lake, as well as a 59-foot palace pool. The hotel’s Maanya restaurant draws inspiration from meals once served in India’s royal palaces, including maans ke dahi vade — Bundelkhand (lamb and lentil dumplings with yogurt and mint chutney) and pista shorba — Rampur (cream of pistachio soup prepared with aromatic nuts). The lakeside Neerangan serves international and Indian cuisine, and for cocktails and bites, stop at Amrava.
Part of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, the luxury hospitality brand based in New Delhi, the palace offers activities like a wildlife safari in nearby Panna National Park. The hotel is also not far from the Khajuraho Group of Monuments, on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which it describes as rare examples of “Nagarastyle temple architecture.” After your
adventures, mark the transition from day to evening with the hotel’s dhoop daan rituals, which involve offering and burning fragrant resin incense.
Grimaud, France COMO LE BEAUVALLON
Opened in 1914 as Le Golf Hôtel, this Belle Époque getaway on the French Riviera hasn’t been open to the public since 2008. But that will change on April 24, when you can check into one of its fashionable 42 rooms and suites with views of the Gulf of St.-Tropez.
Stroll beneath palm trees, luxuriate in the pool or board a free shuttle boat from the hotel’s dock to the port of St.-Tropez. Excursions to the beaches of Pampelonne are also available. After following in the sandy footsteps of boldfaced names, pull up a chair at the hotel’s beach club restaurant Beauvallon Sur Mer, which is led by the French chef Yannick Alléno. The Winter Garden offers all-day dining, and a bar
THE OBEROI RAJGARH PALACE
and lounge in the lobby serves drinks and small plates.
Set on a 10-acre hillside, the hotel is part of the COMO Group based in Singapore. The suites are light and breezy, most with views of the bay, while the “hillside-view” rooms overlook the countryside. You can practice yoga, treat yourself to a massage or stroll the hotel’s grounds where you will discover installations like the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2002, created by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Toyo Ito and the artist and engineer Cecil Balmond. Prices range from 800 euros, or about $945, a night in the low season (April and October) and from €1,400 in the high season (June, July and August). The hotel will be open until October 5.
Kyoto, Japan IMPERIAL HOTEL, KYOTO
Opening March 5 in Gion, a district known for its wooden townhouses, traditional teahouses and geisha culture, this hotel is set within Yasaka Kaikan, a former performance venue. The same company that built it in 1936 has been involved in its metamorphosis and many materials, including thousands of original exterior tiles, have been preserved.
The result is a new boutique hotel — the first new Imperial Hotel in three decades. Its 55 rooms and suites are calm counterpoints to city life, with soft colors and natural touches like Japanese cedar. Rooms in the newly constructed north wing are contemporary and include tatami mats, while “heritage” rooms have original beams, pillars and window frames.
The hotel has a spa, fitness center, pool and four places to savor a meal or have a sip. At Yasaka, you can order a burger and other grilled items. At Ren, take a seat at the chef’s counter where you can enjoy French cuisine inspired by Japan’s 24 “solar terms,” or seasonal changes. At the Old Imperial Bar, try the matcha-based Mount Hiei cocktail, a variation on the Mount Fuji that uses gin, egg whites and cream. (The Rooftop, an open-air bar with views of the city, is open seasonally.) Prices range from 164,500 yen, or about $1,065 per night.
NAPLES BEACH CLUB
Utah
THE INN AT SUNDANCE MOUNTAIN RESORT
This 63 room-and-suite inn, with two wings connected by a footbridge that spans a river, is the first new development at this ski resort since it was founded by Robert Redford in 1969.
Meant to be in line with Mr. Redford’s dedication to the land and local culture, the Inn has “western, Scottish and 1970s rustic design influences,” according to the hotel. A communal Living Room invites guests to lounge, eat and dive into a novel by a fireplace. It is also where you will find breakfast and “alpine tapas,” including dishes like bison chili. A wraparound deck offers mountain views. (The resort’s other restaurants include the Tree Room and Foundry Grill.)
Rooms are cozy, with reclaimed timber flooring, and boldly patterned textiles. But you will probably not linger there with so much to do elsewhere. At the base of the resort’s Outlaw Express lift, the inn makes it easy to ski-in and ski-
out. It has also rolled out luxuries like a ski valet and a boot room.
Beyond the slopes, Sundance offers other things to do, including unwinding in a hot tub or sauna, and taking jewelry-making or pottery classes.
At the new Inn, the gallery includes works by local and international artists. Its first exhibit, “Watercolor Diaries From the Green River,” spotlights the British artist Tony Foster. And a display features memorabilia linked to Mr. Redford’s life and work. Prices range from $980 a night.
Naples, Fla.
NAPLES BEACH CLUB, A FOUR SEASONS RESORT
With 220 rooms and suites, this 125acre resort is built on the same plot of land where the Naples Beach Hotel & Gold Club once stood. The new hotel was designed by Hart Howerton, the architecture firm behind Montage Big Sky in Montana and Half Moon Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica, with
interiors by Champalimaud Design, known for its work on the St. Regis New York and Raffles Singapore. The rooms are contemporary and calming, with pale colors — and all have balconies. Most of them have water views.
Head to the beach where at HB’s restaurant you can order seafood, including crudo and other selections from a raw bar. Or stop at the hotel’s Sunset Bar for tropical cocktails, ceviche and tacos. At the Merchant Room — a new brasserie from Gavin Kaysen, a James Beard Award winner — linger over steak, pasta and other American fare.
Beyond the beach, the Sanctuary Spa has three floors and numerous offerings, including an aquatherapy circuit where you can experience an aromatherapy steam room and step into a Finnish sauna. There’s also an outdoor lap pool, Pilates studio and fitness center designed by the celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak. An 18-hole golf course is expected to open later this year. Prices go from $1,200 a night.
COMO LE BEAUVALLON
IMPERIAL HOTEL, KYOTO
DO BITCOIN BOOST OR BLOAT NATIONAL ECONOMIES?
AS THE UNITED STATES STRUGGLES TO GET EVEN BASIC CRYPTO LEGISLATION OFF THE STARTING LINE, ONE SMALL NATION WENT ALL IN ON BLOCKCHAIN — AND IT’S GOING ABOUT AS WELL AS YOU’D EXPECT.
That country is El Salvador, home to the native Pipil people of Cuscatlán, ancient mangrove forests, and for four wild years, the crypto industry.
Following the whims of conservative populist Nayib Bukele — who calls himself “the world’s coolest dictator” — El Salvador’s congress signed legislation to become the first country in the world to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender in June of 2021. The government hoped the
edict would jump-start the nation’s ailing economy, a growing haven for organized crime that’s typical of high-poverty nations.
Dreaming of the crypto future, lawmakers set the date for national tokenization for September 2021, but there was a lot of work to do.
Leading up to the big day, the Central American nation contracted US crypto asset trust BitGo to lead its central crypto wallet, promising $30 USD worth of Bitcoin to each citizen, backed by a $20 million government Bitcoin purchase. Plans were hastily cobbled together for BitGo to become the official digital banking infrastructure for El Salvador’s 6.3 million residents. Bukele took to Twitter to hype up the moves as Bitcoin ATMs sprouted up on every street corner.
In all, about $200 million in El Salvadorian tax dollars were earmarked for the gamble — 2.7 percent of the government’s total annual budget, according to Time. The government’s hype wasn’t just typical crypto bro babble; so much was riding on it that it had to work.
Then, reality hit. The immediate results were devastating. Bitcoin’s price almost instantly crashed by about 20 percent. BitGo’s servers struggled to keep up with the flood of new users, even as the government’s official crypto app failed to show up on platforms like Apple and Huawei. Protesters took to the streets, surrounding the Supreme Court, where they were met by heavily armed riot police.
Since then, the country has experienced increased inflation, upsized national debt, and a huge increase in pov-
erty. As of early March, 2025, less than 2 percent of the nation’s citizens have adopted the much-hyped financial tech.
With little market incentive to seek a legitimate living, El Salvador’s crime woes persisted, prompting a brutal crackdown by Bukele which saw the county’s prison population balloon by 205 percent from 2021 to 2024. For many El Salvadorians, the rise of crypto and the escalation of state violence went hand in hand.
And despite requiring all El Salvadorian businesses to accept Bitcoin as tender, Bukele’s crypto gamble has largely failed to court many of the international players he hoped would pump his country full of virtual cash.
One video from 2022 might help explain why. It shows a crypto enthusiast at a self-serve beer kiosk struggling to pay for his pint with Bitcoin. “I don’t have my invoice ready,” he says as he waves his phone around the kiosk to no avail.
It’s no wonder El Salvadorans have largely rejected the crypto regime, if this is supposed to be their salvation from a life of poverty.
But his nation’s lack of enthusiasm hasn’t stopped Bukele from doubling down on his experiment. The president recently expedited plans for an ostentatious “Bitcoin City” which is meant to court industry moguls and crypto enthusiasts from around the world. Located on top
of an old mangrove forest, construction has so far destroyed over three square kilometers of wildland and displaced 225 households, many of them indigenous.
He’s likewise reneged on a $3.5 billion IMF loan that would have restricted the government’s Bitcoin transactions and banned government Bitcoin accumulation. That was last week, and yesterday El Salvador’s “Bitcoin Office” announced it had added one more Bitcoin to the reserve, a bizarre move making the deal’s future uncertain.
It’s a surprise twist in the long and winding saga of El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment, one that’s apparently far from over.
THE YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE
WHAT IT MEANS - AND DOESN'T MEAN - FOR EQUESTRIANS
THE HORSE IS THE 7TH ANIMAL IN THE 12-YEAR CHINESE CALENDAR.
TECHNICALLY THE YEAR OF THE HORSE WILL BEGIN ON FEB. 17 AND ENDS FEB. 5, 2027, PER FOLLOWING THE LUNAR YEAR CYCLE. THE HORSE IS KNOWN FOR SYMBOLIZING ENERGY, INDEPENDENCE AND PASSION.
PEOPLE BORN IN A YEAR OF THE HORSE (LIKE 1990, 2002 AND 2014) ARE CONSIDERED TO BE STRONG, LIVELY AND FREE-SPIRITED.
Each horse year is tied to one of the five elements. In 2026, we’re being dealt the rare “Fire Horse,” which only comes around once every 60 years. That means be sure to lunge it before we all kick on into the new year.
The next year of the horse, in 2038, will be an Earth Horse. That sounds much more reasonable.
We’ve spent the last few weeks peering at the stars and waiting for mercury to be retrograde so we can analyze what this means for us horse girls. Here’s some of our rambling thoughts.
THE YEAR OF THE CHESTNUT MARE
It is perhaps the most basic, overused equestrian stereotype: the firey, ornery chestnut mare. But what better symbol to
represent the year of the fire horse than these ultimate redheaded queens? I think the stars are telling us, horse girls, that 2026 is the year to be our unapologetic best selves.
No longer should we feel guilty about the time we spend at the barn and with said chestnut mares. No longer are we beholden to financial constraints that limit how many colorful saddle pads we can afford to buy. You only live once, and truly, will we ever live through another Year of the Fire Horse? If there was ever a year to book the trip, send in the entries, add to cart, or do something new even if it scares you, it’s now in 2026!
SUCCESS AND GOOD FORTUNE
Being born in a horse year on the Chinese calendar generally means success and good fortune follows you. This
is almost laughable, if you are indeed a horse person as well, cause we all known our fortune is forked over to our horses. But according to Chinese lore, wearing a symbol of a horse is meant to bring good luck. So if there was ever a time to be a fashionable horse girl, it’s in 2026.
Pull out the field boots, the fox hunter vests and jodhpurs and feel fabulous while wearing them in the grocery store.
INCREASE YOUR LUCK
Whether you were born in a year of the horse or just want to embrace 2026 as the year of the fire horse, there are a few fun ways to participate, according to the Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese spiritual guide.
Keep the “south end” of your home clutter-free, because it represents fame and recognition. Add plants or flowers to your living area to invite in growth and harmony. And avoid mirrors, especially if they directly face your bed, as that can cause restless sleep. These sound like all good luck horse show omens to me, friends.
If you really want to lean in for good luck: Add a frog to entrance of your home (aka a “money frog”) to bring prosperity and financial success. A dragon tortoise will boost your career. Mandarin ducks strengthen love and romance.
And lucky colors? Stick with blue, green and red. Avoid black and “dull gray,” which can bring on bad vibes.
FASHION & STYLE
FALL WINTER RUNWAYS: BURBERRY, BOTTEGA VENETA
GUCCI & MOSCHINO
BURBERRY FW26
BOTTEGA VENETA
REBIRTHING A BRAND IN YOUR OWN IMAGE CAN TAKE MANY SEASONS OF TRIAL AND ERROR, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE PAST FEW YEARS HAVE BEEN SIGNIFICANTLY MARKED BY THE DISTINCTIVE HANDWRITING OF YOUR PREDECESSOR, YET IT TOOK LOUISE TROTTER ONLY ONE.
Setting the House on a new course that uses craft as its technology, the creative director is on a mission to create clothes that compel us to remember the joy of dressing up.
Wiping the slate with a ‘palette cleanser’ of a first collection, she ripped up the rulebook on how to make a re-entrance onto the scene with her debut. The creative director has built on her memory-making opener that featured no less than fiberglass separates that were kinetically charged.
In the year since she has physically migrated to the Milanese capital, she has been taking the time to connect to Italian culture, telling The Impression “I think I feel more connected to the culture. You know, when I first arrived, I was sort of studying in a way, but now I feel it’s less studied and more natural for me.”
Her sophomore collection was to be grounded in the roots of Milanese design, roots that grew industry innovators from Giorgio Armani to Ricardo Tisci, Miuccia Prada and Gianfranco Ferré to demonstrate what good company the creative director dwells amongst. Her view of the city, from someone who has come from the outside and is looking in – from within – she believes the city possesses “this incredible sort of shift between being quite brutalist, both in architecture and feeling, and the gray weather, but then there’s this sensuality and seduction that’s behind it.” An analogy she used to describe what it was the way a Milanese building can appear structured, and even fortified, from the outside but once inside you will find “something very beautiful in the courtyard.” This has not just been her experience of the city but the people too, revealing an insight into how she has come to warm to the Italian city and its characters that may have felt cold at first.
Her fall 2026 collection unfolded at the Palazzo San Fedele, marrying brutalism with a seductive undertone that reflected both sides of Milanese culture through her prism. Her tailored silhouettes felt cocooning as if they were enveloping each model in a structured architectural exterior. Her curved shoulder shift dresses were caught to one side with the single strap of a belt alongside angular leather trench coats, loosely folded wrap skirts and longline tunic tops with soft creases.
This gave way to the dance of seduction with the human senses of sight and touch satisfied. Even if the collection will only ever be experienced on-screen by the masses. A burgundy suit made for lounging was followed up with a clipped fur vest dress. This part reintroduced us to the designers hyper-tactile fabric devel-
opments that could have stood alone but make for a compelling contrast. Often moving both in unison with the models, layers of fringing and ‘fur’ would dance around with every step, until the show culminated with another set of her fiberglass innovations that have become the calling card from her debut. Explaining she said “I see a brand as a human, as a living thing, and it’s history, like all of us, where we were born, where we live, our footprint in life, our journey, is part of who we are.”
More than humanity the collection felt like a celebration, as well as an invitation to get dressed again. As Trotter found particularly wonderful in the Italians is the fact that “people really dress up.” In her cataclysmic clash of color and texture she wanted to express the joy and theatrics of dressing for “oneself, but also for one’s community.” Not just in the skins the house is famous for, but in her newfound hyperbolic textures that dance on command. In her use of both natural and synthetic fibers, Trotter is still getting
to grips with the endless possibilities for textural exploration that is available to her. She is constantly working on trying out new techniques, as is the natural way of the house, she likened it to craft being the House’s technology.
In only two seasons the designer has managed to marry directional ideas with pragmatic silhouettes in a dialogue of her own making. This is her artistic vision of Bottega Veneta and it has never been clearer.
MOSCHINO FW26
MOSCHINO FW26
MOSCHINO FW26
GUCCI FW26
“IT’S VERY WEIRD FOR ME TO STAND ALONE,” DEMNA SAYS, HALF-LAUGHING, HALF-EXHALING, AS THE CAMERAS FINALLY QUIET. THE SPECTACLE HAS JUST ENDED. THE LIGHTS ARE STILL HOT. HE LOOKS BOTH EXHILARATED AND SLIGHTLY STUNNED BY WHAT HE HAS SET IN MOTION.
“I’m so happy this is done,” he says. “But I don’t know how I can do it every time.”
What he has done is launch, unequivocally, his Gucci. Not a respectful preface.
Not a transitional chapter. His version — and it is very sexy.
To feel Gucci, in his vocabulary, is not about logos or nostalgia. “Feel the energy, the passion, the fun, the sexy,” he explains. “People keep asking me, how do you feel? I’m like, I feel like I’m falling in love. It’s this feeling I cannot really understand. I’m a bit anxious, I’m a bit afraid, but I’m also very into it and very excited, and I want to do it.”
Butterflies, essentially — though on a global stage.
The collection pulses with that emotion. Bodies are present. Silhouettes curve and hold. There is polish, but also heat. After years of intellectual armor — first
at Vetements, then through the rigorous conceptualism of Balenciaga — Demna has allowed himself proximity to the body.
“It feels actually very liberating,” he says of designing sexy clothes. “I think I finally allow myself to do that. It’s also because of my relationship to myself, to my own body, to the way I see myself. I wanna feel like that. I wanna feel sexy. I wanna feel attracted. If I want to like myself, maybe I’m also partly falling in love with myself in this moment.”
There is no irony in his tone. If anything, there is relief.
“For 10 years, I tried to impress,” he continues. “Try to impress myself that
I’m like a smart designer. And at Gucci, I suddenly got this carte blanche for emotion. I realized that I can actually create from an emotional standpoint, rather than intellectual standpoint. So either you love it or you hate it. Fashion that triggers emotion, you know?”
At Gucci, he is less interested in proving his intelligence than in provoking feeling. That shift alone recalibrates the house’s temperature.
The set traced that recalibration back to Florence. Demna recounts a visit to the Uffizi, standing before Botticelli’s Primavera, overwhelmed not only by Renaissance proportion and the choreography of bodies, but by a realization about culture itself.
“Gucci is such a big part of Italian culture, as well as Botticelli and Michelangelo,” he says. “Everybody knows Gucci is part of the culture.”
Leaving the gallery and seeing Palazzo Gucci in the square crystallized something. The show’s original set design was scrapped. “I had to go back to Milan and change it,” he explains. “I want to put Gucci back into the spotlight of what culture is — relevance and cultural relevance.”
For Demna, cultural relevance does not originate in corporate messaging. It comes from people. From musicians, artists, the figures whose work he consumes and admires. Many were present on the runway and in the audience.
The casting reflected that ethos. Models were instructed not to mute themselves but to heighten who they already are. “We told each of them to kind of be themselves, how they are, but exaggerated,” he says. “To really not try to hide their personality and to go for it. To really see what the limit is with exaggerating who they are.”
The result was less procession, more presence. The silhouettes themselves surprised many who anticipated oversized bombers and heavy irony. Demna is aware of the assumption. “I mean, ChatGPT thought that, apparently,” he jokes. But he did not come to Gucci to replicate a signature. “I was actually going to Gucci to discover new dimensions in me as a creative.”
GUCCI FW26
GUCCI FW26
That exploration led him toward sensuality — not as provocation, but as affirmation. In a world that feels fractured and defensive, he frames seduction as something deeply human.
“It’s a very human quality,” he says. “Feeling attractive, feeling seductive. It’s part of a human being. I want to put that out there as something that we need, especially in the world in which we live right now. That kind of beauty and love that we can see in ourselves.”
Sex appeal, in his view, is simply one expression of self-acceptance. The collection’s charge lies in that generosity. It invites the wearer not to perform for the
algorithm, but to enjoy themselves.
When asked what defines the new Gucci, he answers without hesitation: “New Gucci is looking forward.”
Looking forward does not mean abandoning the house’s DNA. It means activating it — the flirtation, the boldness, the fearless pleasure that have long animated Gucci at its best. In Demna’s hands, those qualities feel personal again.
As the room empties and the adrenaline begins to settle, he circles back to that initial hope: that we felt it.
Energy. Passion. Fun. Sexy.
For a designer who once built his reputation on critique, this is something far more direct. Demna’s Gucci is not a thesis. It is a sensation — and he is clearly, unmistakably in love.
MONARCH VISIONARY
MANIFEST CALM & SERENITY
“The wise are not confused, the benevolent are not anxious, the courageous are not afraid.” - Confucius
IMMERSED IN THE SICHUAN GIANT PANDA SANCTUARIES, WITHIN CHINA’S QIONGLAI AND JIAJIN MOUNTAINS, THE WORLD FORGETS HOW TO SHOUT. MIST MOVES THROUGH BAMBOO LIKE A PRAYER MADE VISIBLE, AND THE MOUNTAINS - SOFT WITH DISTANCE, ANCIENT WITH SILENCE - EXHALE FOR YOU.
UNESCO honors this realm as a protected cathedral of life, an immense sanctuary where rare beings still belong to the Earth’s original rhythm; and where botanical abundance rises in living layers, including a rich diversity of medici-
nal plant lineages and even magnolias, named among the sanctuary’s floristic wonders.
And then, like an oracle of gentleness, there is the panda. Not merely a symbol of conservation, but a spiritual archetype: soft power embodied. A creature whose medicine is non-aggression, whose strength is expressed through calm, whose very presence is a refusal to be hurried into fear. In a civilization trained to react, the panda is a quiet revolution. It teaches the ancient paradox: the most potent force is often the one that does not need to prove itself.
The panda’s path is that of the Diamond Mind.
Here, at the threshold between forest and future, the ancient wisdom rises. Long before laboratories mapped receptors, Traditional Chinese Medicine mapped the inner energetic landscape: what rises, what descends, what congests, what clears.
Among its quiet sovereigns is Hou Po (Magnolia bark) an aromatic emissary
of stillness, historically used to release internal tightness, restore flow, and help the spirit descend into grounded clarity.
In our time, science approaches this lineage like a reverent translator - listening to the old language and discovering its hidden syntax. Magnolia’s key constituents have been studied for their relationship to inhibitory calm pathways, offering modern vocabulary for what the ancients felt through breath and pulse.
From this lineage emerges DHH-B, a refined echo of Magnolia’s calm intelligence - now carried forward in Zenity Bio Labs’ CALM, a modern ritual for serene focus and emotional steadiness.
THE DIAMOND MIND MYTHOS FOR THE MODERN EXECUTIVE
“To conquer others is strength; to conquer oneself is true power.” - Laozi
Across civilizations, there has always been a vision of the perfected human instrument: the vajra symbolism of Tibet, the illumined sage of Daoism, the sovereign yogi of India. Each tradition speaks, in its own dialect, of a being who
has refined their inner architecture into crystalline stability - unshaken by chaos, undistorted by fear, luminous under pressure.
They call it the Diamond Body. A diamond does not resist pressure; it organizes it. It retracts light without losing structure. It is the ultimate alchemical emblem of refined consciousness: clarity born from compression.
Translated into executive reality, the Diamond-Body is an operating system:
Diamond attention: focus that does not fracture under stimulation.
Diamond speech: truth delivered without emotional contagion.
Diamond ethics: power guided by longrange stewardship, not short-term relief.
Diamond action: decisive, serene motion—impact born from peace.
In our era - an era of geopolitical tremors, economic recalibrations, climate volatility, digital overstimula-
tion, and collective psychic fatigue - the Diamond-Body myth is re-emerging not as mysticism alone, but as neuroscience, endocrinology, and psychophysiology.
Ancient wisdom is stepping forward through scientific articulation. The sages spoke of calming the spirit (Shen), settling the heart-mind, harmonizing the Qi. Modern science speaks of neuroendocrine regulation, inhibitory tone, GABAergic modulation, and stress-axis recalibration. Different languages. One revelation:
When the nervous system is coherent, consciousness becomes sovereign. Sovereignty consciousness is the birthplace of healing, wealth, leadership, and legacy.
In Monarch Visionary language, the Diamond Mind is the inner instrument refined to hold pressure without distortion. Translating that into science-forward terms, it’s:
• State regulation (you can downshift from hyperarousal)
• Signal fidelity (you perceive accurately under load)
• Executive function under pressure (you can choose, not just react)
• Behavioral coherence (your values remain online when stressed)
This is where “manifestation” becomes practical: you create outcomes reliably because your nervous system isn’t constantly hijacking your attention, speech, and decision-making.
THE SENSES AS ORACLES: AWAKENING TO THE STRESS SPELL
“In an empty chamber, light is born.” - Zhuangzi
In the Diamond Mind paradigm, your senses are not simply passersby; they are prophets. They continually whisper truth to the nervous system. When you are stressed, however, those whispers get drowned by a cacophony of alarms. Chronic stress can literally “rewire”
sensory processing – heightening threat detection and numbing nuance. Under this neural distortion:
Sound may become jarring, so one hears urgency even in calm voices.
Light and visuals become sharper or more glaring, so beauty dims.
Touch becomes uncomfortable or withheld, so comfort is elusive.
Taste and appetite veer from intuitive hunger to false cravings.
The “sixth sense” of interoception (body-awareness) goes offline, disconnecting mind from gut and heart.
We awaken now at the intersection of mysticism and physics: vibration. Everything in the universe vibrates at a certain frequency, from atoms to hearts. High vibes. Low vibes. And stress is a downward pull on that frequency - thickening perception, dulling intuition, and collapsing vision into narrow reaction.
We have all felt this: a crisis hits, and suddenly focus flees. Emotions harden. The body tenses. The habitual reflexes take over. This is the ancient “dark night” experience, writ modern: feeling trapped in a hard instant rather than flowing with life’s currents.
This is the stress spell: a belief imposed on perception that the world is unsafe until proven safe. It is a nocebo cascadenegative expectation becoming embodied reality.
Breaking that spell requires a disciplined return to presence. In Diamond Mind terms, it is resonant attunement. It means mastering every sense to re-synchronize with stability. The richest leaders know this as smart self-care: tea breaks, nature walks, meditation rooms, breathing exercises. But it’s deeper: it’s rewiring your internal frequency to save your soul and realize a higher purpose.
Stress is not only an emotion - it is a spell of frequency entrainment cast by manipulating neural and hormonal chemistries to hijack the mind’s central processing center and herd the unprepared into self-destructive, disempowering habits.
This is why stress becomes self-sabotage. Because the body in activation will always seek relief, and relief pursued without awareness becomes reflexed addiction:
• the compulsive scroll
• the sharp email
• the control addiction
• the stimulants and sedations
• the avoidance disguised as “busyness”
• the perfectionism disguised as “standards”
Beneath it all, a silent and fatal cost: the body’s healing intelligence is diverted toward high-alert readiness. Even wound repair has been shown to slow under chronic psychological strain - an emblem of what happens when the organism is continually asked to survive.
Today’s top CEOs and innovators increasingly recognize that the highest ROI is internal: mental coherence. The call is clear: transformational calm is the new competitive edge.
The Diamond Mind begins where all alchemy begins: You awaken from the spell, and liberate your life force.
Manifesting calm serenity thus becomes literal: we reshape the input field. In spiritual terms, we change our vibration. In neuroscientific terms, we engage parasympathetic tone and align neuropeptides. The modern executive who can do this at will is like one who can flick a hidden switch, turning on the “peace mode” of the brain.
In the mountains of China, Magnolia officinalis - known in Traditional Chinese Medicine as Hou Po - was revered not as a sedative, but as a harmonizer, discovered by ancient physicians who listened to breath, pulse, and pattern and sought cures within the mysteries of the Earth.
According to Zenity Bio Labs founder - Daoist Priest and Doctor of Chinese Energy Medicine - Aelita Leto: “In classical Chinese medicine, Magnolia bark is prized because it addresses the kind of stress that becomes congestion - tightness in the chest, heaviness in the belly, the mind that cannot descend into rest.
“In Daoist terms, it helps the spirit return to its root. It was said to move stagnation, clear internal congestion, and settle the turbulence of the spirit. Its aromatic bitterness was believed to descend rebellious energy, ease tension in the chest and abdomen, and restore the dignified rhythm of breath. In leadership terms, it gives you back the pause where discernment arises into awareness.”
Hou Po was never merely about “calming down.” It was about restoring flow.
Flow of Qi
• Flow of breath
• Flow of decision
• Flow of insight
In classical formulations, Magnolia bark appeared where agitation met digestive disruption, where worry lodged in the body, where the mind could not descend into rest. It was prescribed not for passivity, but for functional clarity - for the return of centered action.
And this is where ancient wisdom begins to shimmer through modern science.
This matters in radiant stewarding because reactive leadership is often simply trapped energy looking for an exit. When the system cannot downshift, it finds substitutes: control, impulsivity, distraction, conflict and collapse.
Hou Po, in this sense, is not merely “calm.” It is the state of calm that can shift gears - serene clarity capable of steering a global community.
FROM BARK TO BIOCHEMISTRY: WHEN ANCIENT WISDOM STEPS FORWARD THROUGH SCIENCE
“Review the old and you will know the new.” - Confucius
When Western pharmacology turned its lens toward Magnolia, it discovered what the ancients intuited: this bark carries neuroactive constituents - most notably honokiol and magnolol - that interact with inhibitory signaling systems in the brain’s reptilian limbic system (amygdala, hippocampus), critical for regulating emotion, memory, and anxiety. These receptors are targets for central nervous center depressants, such as benzodiazepines and alcohol.
Modern research has described honokiol and magnolol as modulators of GABA(A) receptors - the very receptors that serve as the nervous system’s braking architecture. This is not sedation; it is modulation. It is the difference between collapse and composure.
Within this lineage emerges DHH-B (dihydrohonokiol-B): a honokiol-related derivative explored for its interaction with chloride signaling in neuronal models. DHH-B is not a peptide, nor is it a hormone. It is a refined botanical
molecule whose significance lies in its potential to influence the upstream conditions of neural inhibition.
Inhibition, in the most elegant sense, is not suppression: It is cosmic sovereignty.
Without brakes, there is no pause. Without pause, there is no choice. Without choice, there is no free-will to realize one’s manifest destiny - only the conditioned reflex to be drained of vital life force energy.
Zenity Bio Labs’ CALM distills this lineage into a modern ritual, featuring DHH-B botanical wellness extract, positioned to support calm focus and emotional steadiness without sedation. It is the ancient bark translated into contemporary neurochemical dialectHou Po stepping forward in a tailored suit.
Ancient medicine did not disappear, it evolved into precision. The forest did not lose her wisdom, she found a new language.
PEPTIDES, NEUROPEPTIDES, AND THE NEUROENDOCRINE ORCHESTRA
“When spirit is guarded within, how can disorder arise?” - Huangdi Neijing
Peptides and neuropeptides serve as the body’s whispering messengers, the hidden scriptwriters of physiological drama. Short chains of amino acids, neuropeptides shuttle signals that govern hunger, love, pain, fear, and resilience. They are released in synapses, into the bloodstream, and even through gut-brain routes, binding to receptors like keys in locks.
Most relevant to our journey is the HPA axis - the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal chain. Under perceived threat, the hypothalamus secretes CRH (corticotropin-releasing hormone), prompting the pituitary to release ACTH (a 39-amino-acid peptide hormone), which in turn commands the adrenals to pour out
cortisol and adrenaline. The HPA stress axis shapes how we experience the world.
This brilliantly evolved cascade prepares body and mind to survive shortterm danger. But it becomes brittle if left “always on.” Chronic activation of this neuropeptide stress cascade rewires baseline: sleep fragments, metabolism shifts, and memory can bias negative salience. It even loops back to amplify negative thinking, a self-perpetuating cortisol cycle.
Perceptions sharpen toward threat Rumination prolongs hormonal activation. The body remains braced
When we cultivate calm serenity, we are effectively rewriting the neuromodulator environment. GABAergic (inhibitory) circuits rise, norepinephrine (fear) wanes, and the body re-enters homeostasis.
We are both author and audience of our endocrine story. Good expectations can trigger beneficial neurotransmitter cascades (placebo science), whereas chronic doubt triggers fightor-flight as default.
When inhibitory systems are balanced, the neuroendocrine cascade can recalibrate. The body remembers how to downshift.
This is where DHH-B’s role becomes relevant - not as a peptide replacement, but as a modulator of the broader neural climate in which peptide signals operate. DHH-B and honokiol don’t turn into peptides - but by tuning GABA pathways, they can modulate the inhibitory signals that govern these peptides.
In practical terms: we give the brakes a boost so cortisol doesn’t so easily flood our bloodstream and sabotage the system.
The result: a mind that can generate intention without imprinting it into stress hormones.
In mystical language: It clears the static for our heart song to emerge victoriously.
MONARCH VISIONARY’S FOURFOLD PATH FOR THE DIAMOND MIND EXECUTIVE
“Great affairs under heaven are accomplished through the subtle.” - Laozi
I. INITIATION: Consecrating Darkness
We are living through planetary trauma - collective grief, digital saturation, climate disruption, polarized narratives. The temptation is either collapse or aggression.
The Diamond Mind offers a third path: consecration.
Consecration means refusing to let darkness dictate your nervous system and sense of reality. It means metabolizing collective stress into personal clarity.
It means saying: “I will not manifest from reaction.”
Zenity CALM, in this phase, becomes an ally for interruption - supporting the return to baseline steadiness where the executive, the healer, the visionary can re-enter choice.
Initiation is the first alchemical act: You stop feeding the reflex.
II. CRYSTALLIZATION: Building the Inner Architecture
Crystallization is where calm becomes repeatable.
In high-level leadership, this is the difference between episodic composure and embodied coherence. The Diamond-Body executive is not calm only on retreat—they are calm in negotiation, in crisis, in the boardroom, in the intimate conversation.
Magnolia’s ancient teaching - move stagnation, settle turbulence - becomes a metaphor for nervous system hygiene.
Zenity CALM becomes a daily consecration: a signal to the body that safety is available. When safety is internalized, clarity becomes sustainable.
III. ACTUALIZATION: Manifestation Through Resonant Frequency
New-age language often speaks of “vibration.” Stripped of fantasy, vibration is simply this: your baseline physiological and emotional tone. A dysregulated baseline manifests chaos, but a coherent baseline manifests precision.
Expectation can alter neurochemistry. Intention, when paired with structured action (such as implementation intentions and mental rehearsal), increases the likelihood of goal realization. Zenity Calm improves both - because calm reduces internal resistance.
Manifestation, in Diamond Mind terms, is not wishing. It is alignment.
Alignment across:
• nervous system
• emotional values
• life and business strategy
• resonant action
Zenity CALM becomes part of that alignment ritual - supporting the internal steadiness from which ethical wealth, relational harmony, and impactful activism are born.
IV. ASCENSION: Radiant Leadership in a Turbulent World
Ascension is not escape. It is presence so refined that turbulence cannot distort it. The Diamond Mind executive becomes a field of influence:
• your senses become oracles again
• your intuition becomes audible again
• your timing becomes impeccable
• your mission becomes less reactive and more inevitable
• your relationships become cleaner
In a world fatigued by outrage, the calm leader becomes revolutionary. In a marketplace saturated by urgency, serene action becomes magnetic.
Magnolia bark, once steeped in decoctions by ancient physicians, now finds itself articulated through receptor science and molecular refinement. Ancient Qi becomes modern neurotransmission. Shen becomes self-regulation. The forest becomes formulation.
And through it all, the teaching remains unchanged: When the system settles, consciousness shines.
CLOSING: THE SANCTUARY YOU SHINE FORTH
“The highest luxury is not escape - it is sovereignty. Calm is not passive; it is precision. When you cultivate serenity without sedation, you stop manifesting from reaction and start manifesting from resonance. That is how healing and success arise from the same source: a coherent mind, a softened breath, and a heart stable enough to serve.” – Aelita Leto
The Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries protect rare life by stabilizing conditions - by making space for biodiversity, magnolias among them, and for medicinal lineages that have shaped ancient healing traditions.
• Your body is also a sanctuary.
• When you refine your nervous system, you protect your future
• When you refine your mind, you protect your mission
• When you refine your heart, you protect your ability to love without depletion
This is the power of a Diamond Mind: manifesting calm serenity as healing, success, and benevolent impact.
Zenity CALM stands as a bridge between eras: Magnolia wisdom refined
into modern ritual, DHH-B lineage translated into contemporary calm language - supporting the return to composure without sedation, and the cultivation of a Diamond Mind in a world that profits from your activation.
Because the most luxurious power is not domination.
• It is coherence
• It is calm that can hold the world
• It is serenity that becomes destiny
As a special gift, use coupon code MonarchVisionary for 5% off all Zenity purchases to restore your vitality as you realize your optimized embodiment at www. zenitybiolabs.com
Visit www.MonarchVisionary.com to receive regular updates through our newsletter.
This article is for educational and lifestyle purposes and is not medical advice. Dietary supplements are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. Use only as directed on the label; consult a qualified clinician if pregnant/nursing, taking medications, or managing a medical condition.
$31,000,000 USD
MANSION OF THE MONTH
THE MOKULUA ESTATE IS A BREATHTAKING OCEANFRONT SANCTUARY SET WITHIN THE PRESTIGIOUS LANIKAI NEIGHBORHOOD. THIS EXCEPTIONAL PROPERTY OFFERS UNOBSTRUCTED VIEWS OF THE MOKULUA ISLANDS FROM NEARLY EVERY VANTAGE POINT.
With over 150 linear feet of ocean frontage and a private gated entrance, the estate provides an ideal blend of seclusion, security, and harmony with its natural surroundings.
Encompassing more than 10,000 square feet of refined indoor/outdoor living space, this state-of-the-art residence, designed by award winning architect Jim Jennings showcases dramatic ocean and mountain vistas throughout.
A guest house and caretaker’s quarters ensure ample accommodation for family and guests. Direct ocean access from the backyard invites an active island lifestyle, from swimming and snorkeling to kayaking, surfing, fishing, or simply relaxing by the pool in your own tropical paradise.
This is a rare, Once-In-A-Lifetime offering you won’t want to miss.
MANSION OF THE MONTH
$23,000,000 USD
BEDROOMS 6 | BATHROOMS 6 FULL AND 2 PARTIAL | INTERIOR
Located in the gated Gros Ventre North subdivision, in the heart of Jackson, Wyoming, is this newly constructed architectural masterpiece. Boasting exquisite craftsmanship and attention to detail, this home offers an unparalleled living experience amidst the breathtaking backdrop of the Teton Range.
At the heart of the main level is the expansive Great Room adorned with vaulted ceilings and exposed steel beams. Gather around the floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace or express your culinary creativity in the chef’s kitchen, outfitted with top-of-theline appliances, tailor-made finishes, and a butler’s pantry.
Floor-to-ceiling windows and telescoping doors flood this room with natural light and provide seamless access to the expansive deck, complete with a covered outdoor dining area, a built-in grill, and an outdoor fireplace, perfect for entertaining against the backdrop of Wyoming’s natural splendor.
Step into opulence as you enter the spacious Primary Suite. Featuring his and her walk-in closets and a spa-like bathroom complete with a double vanity, double showers, a freestanding bathtub, and an outdoor shower, this retreat boasts privacy and comfort.
Relax and unwind on the private deck, offering a sweeping panorama of the Teton Range, or enjoy the warmth and comfort of the double-sided fireplace perfectly situated in front of a built-in reading nook. There is a private office located between the Primary Suite and the Great Room, designed for productivity and inspiration. With a private covered deck offering sweeping views of the surrounding mountains, this office becomes a private retreat within the expansive home.
Adjacent to the office is the mudroom, a transitional space crafted with custom millwork and thoughtful design elements. Here, gear, jackets, and shoes find a styl-
ish home, keeping the main living area pristine and clutter-free. Adjacent to the mudroom, is the upstairs laundry room and an additional coat closet to meet all your storage and cleaning needs. At the center of the home where the main level and lower level meet is a causeway flanked by expansive two-story windows which saturate the home with natural light while providing endless views of the surrounding wilderness.
Located on the lower level is the entertainment and media room. Unwind in the sprawling Media Room, equipped with a full-sized wet bar featuring a wine fridge, ice machine, and dishwasher.
Built-in shelves offer ample space for entertainment, books, and art. Indulge in recreation and relaxation within the gym and sauna, with seamless outdoor access to the meticulously landscaped backyard and built-in hot tub, creating an oasis of luxury and relaxation.
Additionally, attached to the Media Room is a spare Flex Room with an en-suite bathroom that is perfect for supplementary accommodations for guests. The south wing of the lower level is the dedicated guest wing, with four en-suite bedrooms, each offering incredible wilderness and mountain views.
The garage is a haven for recreation enthusiasts, with expansive storage solutions ensuring that every vehicle, tool, recreational equipment, or seasonal gear finds its designated place. This six car garage bay designed to provide maximum utility and with over 1,500 square feet this space can easily house all of your standard and recreational vehicles.
BLENDED WITH NATURE IN THE HEART OF SAGAPONACK
A STORYBOOK ESTATE IN THE HEART OF SAGAPONACK
Set on three enchanting acres in Sagaponack, “Whimsy Farm” is a one-ofa-kind estate blending Hamptons farmhouse charm with French countryside elegance and Palm Beach flair. From the
original barn-turned-great room to the lush, sculpture-filled grounds, saltwater pool, dual kitchens and separate guest quarters, every detail invites relaxation, celebration and timeless style.
PROPERTY DETAILS
790 Sagg Road, Sagaponack, New York
5 Bedrooms | 6 Bathrooms
$6,995,000
Listed by Douglas Elliman Adam Hofer adam.hofer@elliman.com 631.236.8659
In Search of Solace Vine Finds
OREGON'S WINE COUNTRY FLEXES ITS WINE MUSCLE WILLAMETTE VALLEY
WILLIAM SMITH
@willismith_2000 COPY EDITOR & CONTRIBUTOR
THERE IS A DISCERNIBLE AND DIFFERENT VIBE HAPPENING IN OREGON’S WILLAMETTE VALLEY.
While the headwinds impacting the wine industry are nearly universal – declining and shifting consumer patterns of consumption, tariffs, climate change, risings costs, and consolidation – in many places they take on an ominous tone that points to a state of somewhat inevitable decline.
In Oregon, those same challenges seem differently assimilated. They feel couched in a cloud of exuberance – an exuberance for an American wine-growing region that is coming into its own and is emergent and not in a state of retraction or decline. It’s a muted exuberance to be sure -- Oregon’s producers are not isolated from the industry’s headwinds – but there is a palpable optimism in the air.
There is reason for the optimism when you taste the wines emerging from the region. Some are doubling down on what the region is already well known for – Pinot Noir – but seeking to excel further still. Others are taking advantage of climate change and planting in places throughout the region that were considered inhospitable to viticulture just a few
decades ago. Still others are seeking to diversify the wines for which the region is already well regarded, planting experimental blocks of different varieties and others, going all in on sparkling.
The joy of visiting the Willamette Valley and its wineries is that despite a few bottlenecks of traffic that can be experienced during peak transit hours in the valley’s population centers, it’s a bucolic jaunt from venue to venue though a vast and verdant region. The Valley itself –and the Willamette Valley AVA – is 150 miles long by 60 miles wide containing some 3.4 million acres. About 30,000 of those acres are planted to some 900 vineyards and 700 different wineries. In other words, visiting requires advance planning to maximize your time and experiences.
Here are a few of my favorite producers and experiences to either assist you in your planning of a trip, or more immediately perhaps, in creating a stellar line up Oregon wine for your own collection and enjoyment. I’ve also recommended a few centrally located properties (see accompanying story starting on page 172) to consider if you’re doing more than just a daytrip from Portland.
As always, Salud!
MARTIN WOODS WINERY
Evan Martin is a genius winemaker. He creates wines with fruit sourced from trusted growers from the region’s top vineyards and these wines are the epitome of the optimism and potential of what Willamette Valley can produce. His small production facility is down a long dirt road and if you’re lucky, Evan might be available to host a tasting in the cellar or more intimately, in his home. He creates a truly exceptional and complex Pinot Noir from the Jesse James Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA, a luscious rosé of Cabernet Franc from the Eola Springs Vineyard, and he is one of the area’s winemakers leaning into Aligoté with great success. The 2023 Aligoté from the Chehalem Mountains is in the top five of the 100+ wines I
REX
If there is a solitary, not-to-be-missed, wine experience on a trip to the Willamette Valley, it is the Somm’s Table Experience at Rex Hill’s tasting room in Newburg. A stunning modern edifice of wood, glass and steel, and set alongside the substantial production facility of sibling winery, A to Z Wineworks (whose quaffable rosé of Sangiovese I have written about previously), the setting is simply stunning. The Somm’s Table Experience allows you to taste some of Rex Hill’s limited release wines – a gorgeous array of Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays from the Willamette Valley – as part of a paired five-course culinary journey. Not only were the wines spectacular, but the innovative, Pacific Northwest-inspired cuisine was exceptional.
GRANVILLE WINE CO.
I love Chardonnay and, in the Willamette Valley, while it is dwarfed by Pinot Noir in terms of acres planted to vines, its reputation for quality and terroir-specific expression is exploding. In fact, I would argue that the Chardonnays coming out of Oregon are among the very best being produced in
the United States. Come at me, but first try Granville’s 2023 Latchkey Vineyard Chardonnay from the Dundee Hills AVA. Granville produces a handful of Chardonnays, but the one from the Latchkey Vineyard is sublime. Dryfarmed in the unique soils of the area, the fruit shines in notes of lemon zest and white flowers and a judicious use of new French Oak barrels elevates it further. What I loved most were the hints of salinity and stone. This was my favorite Chardonnay among the more than 50 sampled during my time in the Valley. Tastings are by appointment-only at their estate in Dundee.
WILLAMETTE VALLEY VINEYARDS
If a grand and largess experience is desired on your trip, there is perhaps no better way to indulge for a few hours than at the estate of Willamette Valley Vineyards (WVV) in Turner. Founded in 1983, the scale of WVV is immediately impressive as one drives up to the tasting room and through meticulously tended-to vines on both sides of the drive. Various wine tastings, food pairings, and tours of the cellars and production facilities are offered. Especially popular with guests is the Pinot Noir Clonal Blending Experience where you
tasted from the Valley last year.
HILL WINERY
In Search of Solace Vine Finds
don’t just learn about the clones of Pinot Noir, but you take home a bottle of the wine you’ve blended.
BEAUX FRÈRES
Sitting on picnic tables under the porch of what was a barn – and is now the production facility – at Beaux Frères feels like visiting old friends. No pretense. Nothing fussy. Just spectacular wines that speak for themselves. Beaux Frères has developed a true cult following for its impeccable Pinot Noirs that speak powerfully to the unique terroir of their various vineyard sites across the Willamette Valley and the diversity of Pinot Noir clones that are utilized. Tastings, which are by ap-
pointment-only, allow you to taste and compare bottlings of the same vintage from their sites. The limited production 2023 Sequitur Vineyard Pinot Noir (just 387 cases produced) is profound and unique, expressing itself with bright acidity and herbal notes that linger with fresh brambles.
ALEXANA WINERY
Dr. Madaiah Revana is one of a handful of vintners who’ve sought a presence in Oregon in addition to established production in other parts of the world (perhaps Willamette Valley’s most wellknown example is Jospeh Drouhin). Revana’s estate in Oregon is the Alexana Estate Vineyard in the Dundee Hills.
The tasting room is modern and intimate, with extensive outdoor seating to take in the views. And in addition to Alexana’s well-regarded Pinot Noir and Chardonnay bottlings from the Willamette Valley, guests can also sample wines from Revana’s other estates in Napa and Argentina. But what caught my fancy was the Alexana 2024 Hillsides Pinot Gris. Pinot Gris is the second largest grape variety planted in the Willamette Valley and while finding single varietal bottlings is not difficult, the Alexana Pinot Gris is a standout. A stern backbone of salinity creates a brightness to flavors of tart apples, bosc pear, melon, and chamomile.
LUXURIATING IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY
ATTICUS HOTEL
atticushotel.com
The beautifully appointed, independently owned boutique property is located right in downtown McMinnvile – both a perfect launching point for daily excursions into the Willamette Valley and within walking distance to many restaurants and shops for other desired excursions. Thirty-six luxury rooms and suites spread across four floors, all with gas fireplaces, create a haven for slumber and relaxation. Quaint touches like loaner bicycles parked out in front of the hotel, local artist’s work on display, and Pendleton robes create that perfect warm Pacific Northwest embrace. The hotel’s own Cypress Restaurant and Bar is intimate, and the Mediterraneaninspired fare flawlessly executed. The same owners of Atticus also operate
nearby Third Street Flats for those seeking an apartment-like experience. Rates from $371.
STONEYCREST COTTAGE AT DURANT VINEYARDS
durantoregon.com
There is something truly memorable about waking up and enjoying your ritualistic cup of coffee among verdant vines, with only the sounds of nature to accentuate the morning. Durant at Red Ridge Farms offers its Stoneycrest Cottage for just such an experience. Set into their Stoneycrest Vineyard block and just a short drive from their tasting room in pastoral Dayton, the well-appointed two-bedroom, two-bath cottage – and especially its wide porch overlooking the vineyard and with views of Mt. Hood– is dreamy and pure escap-
ism. Outdoor seating and a gas firepit beckon for gathering and sharing the perfect bottle from the day’s explorations. Guests also enjoy complimentary tastings at Durant’s tasting room – try the Pinot Gris! Inquire for rates.
THE ALLISON INN & SPA
theallison.com
Just 18 miles from downtown Portland, the expansive Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg bills itself as the Willamette Valley’s “sole full-service resort and spa” and offers 77 deluxe guest rooms and eight suites. Impeccable design choices bring the outside into every room – expansive windows, judicious use of wood and leather, and muted earth tone fabrics. James Beard 2026 Semifinalist for Best Chef of the Northwest and Pacific, Executive Chef Jack Strong, helms the
ATTICUS HOTEL
farm-to-table focused kitchen at the on-site Jory restaurant, which also has a strong focus on local wine offerings. And of course, the on-site spa offers a full array of requisite indulgences. It may be admittedly hard to leave the property’s comforts, but nearby vineyards await. Rates from $379.
TRIBUTARY HOTEL & SPA tributaryhotel.com
“Envisioned as a sanctuary of slow,” the McMinnville-based Tributary Hotel & Spa is the first and only Relais & Chateaux flagged property in all of Oregon. Housed in a century-old brick building in the historic downtown that once housed a hardware store and later, a ballet school, the hotel opened in 2022. A calming, Pacific Northwestinspired color palette dominates the property, creating serene environs for both before and after exploring local wineries. Luxurious linens and locally produced amenities in each room, many with fireplaces, add to the vibe the property seeks in creating a sense of place for guests. Oenophiles will appreciate the Zalto wine glasses in each suite. The hotel’s restaurant, ōkta, celebrates local purveyors and producers and has an impressive wine cellar. The onsite spa is somewhat limited but elegantly focused. Rates from $800.
THE INN AT DAYTON theinnatdayton.com
A mere 12 guest rooms are tucked inside the renovated historic brick building in downtown Dayton which opened in the summer of 2025. High ceilings and seethrough fireplaces create intimate spaces in each suite. Crisp, luxury linens, plush robes, marble accents, and Restoration Hardware furnishings add to an elevated but unfussy milieu. While in Dayton, dining at the heralded Joel Palmer House is a must, as is asking their Head Sommelier, Levi Seed, to select your wines. Rates from $199.
STONEYCREST COTTAGE
THE ALLISON INN
TRIBUTARY HOTEL & SPOA
MONARCH VISIONARY
HEAL YOURSELF AND HEAL THE WORLD
SPIRITUALITY FAITH QUESTIONS GROWTH · FOCUS
THE VINE OF
REMEMBRANCE
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children.” - Nelson Mandela
HERE IS A VINE IN THE AMAZON THAT CLIMBS LIKE A PRAYER.
It does not hurry. It does not conquer. It spirals - patiently - around the rainforest’s ancient pillars of wisdom, as if it remembers what modern life forgets: that healing is not an event. Healing is a relationship with reality.
To the Indigenous lineages who have safeguarded this medicine through centuries of conquest, displacement, and spiritual criminalization, Mother Ayahuasca is not a “psychedelic.” She is a living intelligence - a sacrament of the Earth that restores a human being’s capacity to feel, to see, to belong, and to remember the path to realizing purpose.
An elixir that clears the trauma pathways for the DNA to once again commune with the planetary consciousness grid, through the illumination of the senses.
Today, as the world’s most influential humanitarian institutions finally elevate childhood trauma as a global emergency, the Vine’s message becomes more urgent, not less:
• You cannot build a peaceful civilization on a dysregulated nervous system.
• You cannot sustain love, creativity, or truth when the body is braced for danger.
• You cannot mature spiritually while your inner child is still holding its breath.
This is why the Amazon and UNICEF belong in the same sentence. One holds the ancient technologies of perception. The other is building modern scaffolding so children may grow without becoming wounded adults who inheritthen repeat - the war of abuse upon the innocent.
AYAHUASCA AND THE TREE OF LIFE NERVOUS SYSTEM
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite.” - William Blake
Within you is the Tree of Life. Its roots are not metaphor. They are your earliest experiences of safety, touch, nourishment, and belonging. Its trunk is the brainstem and vagus - your most ancient circuitry - governing breath, heartbeat, digestion, and the subtle permission to relax. Its branches are memory, language, imagination, executive function. Its canopy is the luminous mind: insight, empathy, moral clarity, and the quiet “knowing” we call intuition.
When this Tree of Life is healthy, the senses become holy again. You perceive beauty without suspicion. You trust your own perception. You feel the world and remain open.
Trauma bends the tree, and distorts the vision.
It does not merely “hurt.” Trauma reprograms perception. It turns the senses into alarm systems. It teaches the body to live as if the past is still happening.
RENEWAL COMMUNITY SUPPORT EXPLORATION · ENERGY
Over time, even success can become a survival strategy - achievement as armor, luxury as insulation, control as a substitute for safety.
Ayahuasca is revered because - when held with integrity – it invites the Tree of Life back into alignment. It restores the inner ecology by bringing what has
been frozen back into motion: grief into tears, shame into truth, fear into breath, fragmentation into meaning.
Indigenous wisdom has always understood that trauma is not only psychological. Trauma is spiritual disconnection from sensation. And sensation is the gateway back to God, and the Universal
source of Almighty Power.
So the Vine does not “add” something foreign. It returns what was raped: your capacity to feel life directly.
THE SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS, DMT, AND THE RAINBOW BODY BRIDGE
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.” - Albert Einstein
Ayahuasca’s global fascination often centers on visions. Yet its deeper power is not the imagery - it is the reorganization of reality.
In its most widely described form, ayahuasca is created through a sophisticated synergy of rainforest botany. The brew combines compounds that, together, open an altered state of consciousness - an experience many describe as more real than ordinary reality. That phrase matters, because it points toward a major scientific question:
What is reality, if the brain is a filter?
Modern neuroscience increasingly describes perception as a kind of prediction engine. The brain does not simply “receive” the world; it models it. Trauma changes the model. Like a stain, it biases prediction toward threat. It collapses the range of quantum potential and molds reality to a limited expansion. It dims the creative imagination not because you lack talent, but because your nervous system is conserving energy for survival.
DMT - one of the central visionary molecules associated with ayahuasca and also used in modern conscious-
MONARCH VISIONARY HEAL
YOURSELF AND HEAL THE
WORLD
SPIRITUALITY FAITH
ness research - appears to produce a radical shift in brain network dynamics. Research designs using neuro-imaging and electrophysiology suggest that DMT can increase global connectivity, disrupt rigid network patterns, and temporarily loosen the habitual “self-model” that defines ordinary identity.
Translated into human language: it can feel like the mind becomes less imprisoned by its own toxic loops.
This is where creativity is reborn.
Many people report that after deep, well-integrated ayahuasca work, imagination returns - not as fantasy, but as a guiding spiritual energy force. They write. They build. They reconcile. They see solutions they could not previously access. They reclaim wonder without losing discernment.
This is also where regeneration becomes a serious spiritual-scientific conversation.
QUESTIONS GROWTH · FOCUS
Emerging clinical research around ayahuasca has explored measurable changes in biomarkers associated with plasticity and stress physiology, alongside symptom changes in treatment-resistant depression - suggesting that, in controlled and supportive settings, something biologically meaningful may occur. This does not mean the medicine is a universal cure. It means the state may open a window where new learning becomes possible - where the nervous system can revise its internal map – it’s Star Map.
And this is precisely what ancient traditions meant by enlightenment: not a philosophical belief - a perceptual liberation. The Rainbow Body Bridge
In Monarch Visionary cosmology, the Rainbow Body Bridge is the nervous system becoming refined enough to transmit the higher self.
Not as an escape from the world, but as saturation of the world with radiant truth.
The “bridge” is built in four stages:
• Safety returns to the body (the inner child can exhale)
• Truth rises without annihilating the self (memory becomes teachable)
• Meaning organizes experience into wisdom (pain becomes purpose)
• Service stabilizes the new frequency (healing becomes stewardship)
In this view, the nervous system is not merely tissue. It is a spiritual instrument - a living antenna through which reality reveals itself.
UNICEF,
DR.
NADINE BURKE HARRIS, AND THE GLOBAL TURNING POINT
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”Nelson Mandela
When policy begins to speak the language of trauma, the Vine teaches one human being at a time. UNICEF must protect children by the millions.
That is why the trauma conversation has entered a new epoch: it is no longer confined to therapy rooms. It has become a matter of public policy, education design, community architecture, and planetary survival.
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris helped ignite this mainstream awakening by bringing clarity to what many adults lived but could not name: Adverse Childhood Experiences - ACEs - are not “sad stories.” They are biologically embedding events. They shape stress response systems, learning capacity, emotional regulation, and long-term health trajectories.
RENEWAL
UNICEF is now amplifying this science globally - bringing ACEs-informed thinking into conversations about violence prevention, child protection, and the proven strategies that reduce the lifetime costs of unhealed childhood adversity. This shift is enormous:
• It reframes childhood not as a “phase,” but as the foundation of lifelong neurobiology.
• It reframes education not as information transfer, but as nervous-system resonance.
• It reframes prevention as sacred, because it prevents the future adult from becoming a wounded parent repeating history.
In other words: UNICEF is acting like the planetary crown center of compassion - translating love into systems that protect innocence.
HOW UNHEALED TRAUMA DISTORTS JOY, FULFILLMENT,
AND REALITY ITSELF
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” - Frederick Douglass
Growth, emotional maturity, cognition, and the senses
Trauma is not left behind when the calendar changes. A child grows older, but the nervous system may still be living in the same weather. Unhealed trauma commonly drives:
Growth distortion: creativity and risk-taking collapse into perfectionism or avoidance.
Emotional delay: the adult may have resources, status, intelligence - yet struggle with vulnerability, conflict, intimacy, or regulation.
Cognitive narrowing: attention becomes fragmented; planning becomes exhausting; learning becomes defensive rather than curious.
Sensory constriction: the body becomes less able to register pleasure, nuance, intuition, or subtle joy - because sensation has been associated with danger.
Over time, the nervous system seeks relief. When it cannot find relief through safety and meaning, it often finds it through intensity:
• compulsive consumption
• addictive behaviors
• numbing through work, alcohol, substances, or screens
• chronic anxiety, depression, shame cycles
• and the slow manifestation of stress-mediated illness
This is not moral failure. It is physiology. And it is why luxury alone cannot heal. Because the wound is not a lack of comfort. The wound is a lack of safety inside the self.
MONARCH VISIONARY HEAL
YOURSELF AND HEAL THE
WORLD
SPIRITUALITY
HEALED TRAUMA AND EPIGENETIC REDEMPTION
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
When love becomes biological instruction: trauma imprints, but so does healing.
One of the most hopeful frontiers of modern science: epigenetics studies how environment and experience can influence gene expression.
Your lineage is not only cultural; it is biological. Stress signals can shape hormonal cascades, immune tone, and gene expression patterns associated with inflammation, resilience, and regulation. But nurturing environments, coherent relationships, and sustained regulation practices can also influence these pathways in the direction of stability.
Spiritually, this is the miracle: when healing becomes embodied, the lineage exhales. The body becomes a messenger to the future: “The war is over. You are free now.”
This is not naïve optimism. It is the sacred logic of life: organisms adapt. Systems upgrade. The nervous system is not designed as a prison; it is a living river of astral light flowing from the Heavens to impregnate the Darkness with life.
THE FOURFOLD PATH
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” - Benjamin Franklin
UNICEF’s ACEs-informed evolution as a mythic map for ending generational trauma
FAITH
QUESTIONS GROWTH · FOCUS
The Monarch Visionary Fourfold Path: Initiation, Crystallization, Actualization, Ascension - becomes extraordinarily powerful when applied to UNICEF’s trauma-informed mission, because it turns policy into pilgrimage.
I. Initiation: Naming the Invisible Wound
Initiation is the moment a society stops blaming the individual and starts recognizing the system.
ACEs science is initiation at scale. It names what was hidden in plain sight: childhood adversity is a developmental force shaping adult disease, addiction risk, learning outcomes, and relational capacity.
Initiation is deeply personal. You may be successful and still be carrying a child’s original vow:
• “I must not need too much.”
• “I must not feel too much.”
• “I must be perfect to be safe.”
• “I must achieve to be loved.”
Initiation is when you see that vow, and choose to retire it.
II. Crystallization: Building Protective Factors, Not Just Treating Damage
Crystallization is where prevention becomes artistry. UNICEF’s work highlights a truth often missed in trauma conversations: the opposite of ACEs is not merely “no trauma.” The opposite is positive childhood experiences— mentorship, safe environments, stable caregivers, supportive relationships, belonging, and the daily reinforcement that the world can be trusted.
This is how the nervous system crystallizes into resilience:
• not through motivational slogans,
• but through repeated experiences of safety, rhythm, and care.
Crystallization is the nervous system learning, cell by cell: “I can be here. I can feel. I can grow.”
III. Actualization: Whole-Child Systems and Two-Generation Healing
Actualization is integration in action.
UNICEF’s whole-child framing echoes the deepest spiritual truth: children do not grow in isolation. They grow inside relationships. And if caregivers are overwhelmed, unsupported, or traumatized, the child’s nervous system inherits instability.
Therefore, actualization requires two-generation models—supporting parents and caregivers alongside children; building schools and communities that can function as safe, regulated containers where mental health is not an afterthought but a pillar.
This is the moment policy becomes embodiment:
• a school becomes a sanctuary,
• a counselor becomes a guardian,
• a meal becomes a medicine,
• a safe adult becomes a turning point in a child’s entire timeline.
IV. Ascension: The Planetary Return of Innocence
Ascension is not escape. Ascension is completion.
RENEWAL
When trauma is addressed early, the child does not have to spend adulthood excavating the past. The adult does not have to numb. Creativity does not have to be delayed. Love does not have to be negotiated through fear.
In Monarch Visionary language, this is the return of the Rainbow Crown of humanity: a world where coherence becomes cultural, where compassion becomes infrastructure, and where children grow up with enough inner safety to become the leaders our century has been waiting for.
UNICEF’s ACEs-informed evolution is, therefore, not merely humanitarian. It is consciousness evolution through childhood protection.
INDIGENOUS LINEAGES AND THE WAR ON CONSCIOUSNESS
“To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.”Mahatma Gandhi
The Earth’s wisdom keepers preserved consciousness through generations of pressure. Indigenous peoples did not “discover plant medicine.” They preserved a co-dependent relationship with reality.
They endured the war on consciousness in its most literal forms: land theft, cultural suppression, violence, missionization, spiritual criminalization. Yet many lineages kept their songs, their diets, their ceremonies, their codes.
Why? Because they understood something that modern civilization is now relearning through science:
The nervous system is sacred. If it fractures, culture shatters. When it heals, culture becomes realized.
Their spiritual connection is not sentimental. It is empirical in a different language: they learned directly from the Earth, from the river, from the forest’s pharmacopoeia, from the “womb of the cosmos” that speaks through seasons, dreams, and subtle perception.
Ayahuasca - held properly - has been one of the great technologies for maintaining this connection: not as entertainment, but as apprenticeship to truth.
FROM LUXURY TO LINEAGE: RESTORING SENSE AND PURPOSE WITH THE WAORANI AND SECOYA IN THE HEART OF
AMAZONIA
“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
When childhood trauma remains with age, it is not because you are broken. It is because the nervous system is loyal. It remembers what it had to do to survive. With the proper tools and guides, the
distortions to joy and fulfillment can be cleared - so your success becomes soft again, your love becomes available again, your creativity becomes generative again, your spiritual life becomes lived rather than imagined, embraced rather than rejected.
When you engage the Vine, let it become more than personal healing. Let it become reciprocity through a bond of spiritual destiny.
Amazonian Guardians of the Light is an invitation to work with the Waorani and Secoya (Siekopai) lineages of the Ecuadorian Amazon through Indigenous-guided ceremonial healing and direct wisdom transmission - approached with reverence for sovereignty, ecology, and culture.
Because the ultimate outcome of healing is not a better story about yourself. It is a realized relationship with the spiritual cosmos.
When the Tree of Life within you stands upright again, you do not merely “feel better.” You become rooted as a stabilizing presence:
A coherent nervous system in a chaotic age.
A bridge between chaos and peace.
A protector of innocence.
A carrier of purpose.
In this state, the Rainbow Bridge is no longer theory. It is cosmic destiny.
Visit Amazonian Guardians of the Light at www.GuardiansoftheLight.com
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MOLD YOUR MIND
OUTLOOK
WELLNESS IS ON EVERYONE’S MIND. THE INDUSTRY, WHICH MCKINSEY & COMPANY REPORTS IS CURRENTLY WORTH $2 TRILLION, IS CONTINUING TO DOMINATE OUR COLLECTIVE INTEREST. BUT WHAT DOES WELLNESS LOOK LIKE IN 2026?
As we start to look ahead to next year, the state of wellness is all about growth and expansion. You can expect to find the following in the wellness space: Advancements in longevity (we mean legitimate, science-based ones over viral TikTok moments) and how we approach GLP-1s, traveling with the sole purpose of working out our bodies and/ or minds, and adding nutrients to more interesting and fun drink formats.
PRIVATE
MEMBERS CLUB: WELLNESS EDITION
Private clubs have taken over as our proverbial third space. For 2026, these clubs are expanding more than ever into wellness spaces. Jonathan Leary, CEO and founder of Remedy Place, tells Vogue he sees private wellness members clubs becoming the number one destination for milestone celebrations (think birthdays, bachelorette parties, etc.) and personalized wellness programs that focus on more proactive measures of self-care.
But most importantly, Leary says what will really drive people to wellness members clubs is their hunger for a tranquil space away from all the digital noise. “They are the remedy to so many of the challenges we’re facing in the modern world,” he says. “People don’t feel good,
THOUGHTS MATTER
and people are lonely. The rise of AI and digital connection is only increasing the need for real, in-person experiences.”
“We are all craving something real,” agrees Alex Feldman, cofounder of wellness members club Saint. “The world has become so digitized and screen-obsessed that the most radical thing now is to actually feel something—to put your feet on real stone or to sit in a cedar-clad room with your phone completely out of reach.”
Saint, a private sauna and ice bath studio opening later this year in New York City, plans to lean more into personalized experiences for clients to give a more luxe private experience. “It is not about socializing and stereotypical wellness practices,” adds Amanda Hensen, cofounder of Saint, “but rather an intentional separation from the chaos of city life and an opportunity to reconnect to our inner stillness.”
THE FITNESS TRAVEL BOOM
From the viral UCPA tennis adult summer camp in Chamonix to the ultimate luxe surf retreat with Surf Synergy Costa Rica, taking a vacation to reset will take on a whole new meaning in 2026 with the rise of fitness travel. According to a recent 2025 wellness report done by McKinsey & Company, the demand for in-person services such as boutique fitness classes has gone up in the travel space. The report states that 60% of consumers who traveled for health and wellness treatments in 2024 will continue to do so in future travels, and 30% of those who spent money on such activities would gladly spend more the next year.
“People are very engaged in their wellness journey and do not want to pause it when they travel. Instead, they look for destinations where they can continue to train, recover properly, and learn from experts.” says Abdoulaye Fadiga, founder of wellness resort Champion Spirit Country Club. Fadiga, whose
WELLNESS OUTLOOK THE $2 TRILLION INDUSTRY SHAPING OUR LIVES
resort offers a wide variety of high-tech wellness treatments and high-intensity sports activities such as boxing, pilates, and padel, finds that travelers today are looking not only to feel better, but to come home with habits they can integrate back into their daily lives.
“These days people see vacations as an opportunity to try out new potential hobbies or develop existing sporting skills, whether it’s taking part in a surf camp, or doing kung fu training with Shaolin monks,” adds Jenny Southan, CEO and founder of Globetrender.
“This behavior is fueled by a sense that time needs to be ‘spent well’ when away, and that fitness (especially in a group or team dynamic) creates a sense of achievement during an otherwise unproductive schedule.”
THE RISE OF PROTEIN SODA AND FUNCTIONAL NUTRITIONAL DRINKS
The functional nutrition space, according to the same McKinsey & Company’s wellness trend report, has been expanding and experts point to protein sodas leading the way for 2026. Already viral, protein sodas tick off many boxes for consumers when it comes to function, flavor, and convenience.
“Consumers want performance benefits, like sustained energy, satiety, and muscle recovery, but in formats that feel light, refreshing, and easy to incorporate into daily life,” says Alyssa Williams, category insights manager of food, beverage, and wellness at Spate. Williams goes on to explain that these sodas may offer a lower-calorie option (if you opt for the diet soda) and that sensory carbonated experience that fits with modern wellness.
“Think ‘better-for-you refreshment’ instead of ‘post-gym drink,’” she says. “On
social media, protein sodas are trending as part of wellness routines rather than workouts, making them accessible to a much broader audience, from gym-goers to casual wellness seekers.”
Protein isn’t the only nutrient moving beyond traditional drink formats. Williams says to be on the lookout for longevity-focused ingredients such as resveratrol, NMN, and NAD, which has a predicted consumer interest rate of 29.6% year-over-year growth for 2026, to be incorporated into functional drinks as well.
THE GROWTH OF PERSONALIZED RETREATS
Along with fitness activities, McKinsey & Company’s wellness report states that more consumers have been seeking wellness retreats in their travel experiences; experts predict that trend will continue to grow into next year—but with a twist. Laura Montesanti, founder of Synergy—The Retreat Show, tells Vogue that 2026 wellness retreats are all about personalization. Instead of a set schedule and activities with no wiggle room, retreats will start to cater to your wants and needs. “Tailoring programs to each individual’s body, mind, and lifestyle ensures results that feel both authentic and lasting,” Montesanti says. “Practitioners are merging holistic and medical approaches, using pre-arrival assessments and health diagnostics to design bespoke journeys.”
Another growing focus for retreats next year will be emotional wellness. She says we’ll be seeing more programs dedicated to burnout recovery, grief, and emotional regulation.
BETTING BIG ON LONGEVITY
Everyone’s favorite buzzword of 2025— longevity—will continue to trend into next year, but experts say there will be
a greater focus on the science to back it up. “Longevity will become more medical and measurable,” says Jan Stritzke, MD, medical director at Lanserhof Sylt. “DIY peptide mixes and unregulated antiaging hacks are not the future. Evidence-based therapies (supervised by physicians) are.”
“The goal is not just to increase lifespan but to maximize the years lived in good health and independence,” adds Fernando Carnavali, MD, associate professor of internal medicine at Mount Sinai. “People, including medical providers, will embrace and learn more about this concept.”
Dr. Carnavali points to Mount Sinai’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine for its advancements in geroscience, molecular biology, and medicine to prevent or delay certain diseases and functional decline. Dr. Stritzke adds that sleep will become a bigger core in longevity therapy, and new programs, like Lanserhof’s NeuroSleep, will focus on sleep restoration.
THE EXPANDED USE OF GLP-1S
According to Dr. Carnavali, we can expect a major shift in how people use GLP-1s like Ozempic. Right now, the FDA approves GLP-1 use for type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and the reduced risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease. He says to be on the lookout for further approvals in how consumers are able to use them. Oral formulations of GLP-1 may also be on the horizon for those who want a non-injectable option.
Experts agree that weight management will continue to trend into the new year. But he does encourage people to take a more holistic approach. “The injection-only solution is not good enough for the changes needed to be healthy,” he says.
