The spa sector has the knowledge and ability to help make a positive impact on the growing health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, dementia, depression and burnout, according to Michelle Hammond, director of education and research at Spa Business School.

Hammond addressed an audience at the Spa Life UK conference earlier this week, and looked at the top six global health conditions and how the spa industry can help have a positive impact on them.

First and foremost, said Hammond, spas have a tendency to make people feel good – and that in and of itself is important.

“Helping people feel happier helps them make better decisions for their health,” she explained

But taking it one step further, prevention is key to tackling many of these epidemics.

“Prevention is where we, as an industry, can step up and deliver,” said Hammond. “And we need to help the medical system use us more.”

Hammond said she thinks a growing trend will be for companies to offer spa and wellness treatments as a way to help prevent burnout and stress, creating ‘wellness packages’ as a benefit to their employees.

“As an industry, we have all this knowledge – we have all these facilities,” she said.

She pointed to statistics that show the cardiovascular benefits of saunas, as well as the benefit of touch on mood and depression. Spas can also help prevent disease by helping people to manage stress and reduce inflammation, which is key to preventing many diseases.

“Preventing disease and elevating wellbeing centers around these two simple pivots,” said Hammond.

And she said the best place to start is locally.

“If most of us focus on our own staff and our own communities, what a massive difference we can make,” said Hammond. “We need to focus on where we are and move outwards.”

She also advised that making it personal was key to truly motivating people.

“We have to empower people to take responsibility for themselves by seeing and feeling the real difference they can make,” she said. “We have to make it personal. In the wellness industry, nobody does personal better than us.”