(Photo: IC)
"Are you haunted by the fear of getting old?" my 25-year-old friend asked me yesterday, out of the blue. I could feel the trepidation in his voice.
As a computer engineer, he has been working beyond normal office hours for days. He said, "I finally realized that I'm an adult." Clutching a jar of newly purchased calcium tablets in hand, he sermonized, "We must start paying extra attention to our health. After all, we are no longer teenagers."
We knew each other at college. Back then we frequently pulled an all-nighter for exams as a semester was drawing close, or for movies and parties during weekends, but seldom felt worn out. We ate junk food more often, but never got a stomachache. Time and health seemed inexhaustible.
But all of a sudden, we are becoming a group of tired "adults" and health experts.
My roommate, born in 1990, decided to wean herself off sugar last year. "Sugar makes people age faster," she believes, "and you should quit it, too!" Since she made up her mind, the anxious lady has bought plenty of expensive sugar-free drinks and foods.
Another old classmate of mine - I call her a "shopaholic" - treated me as a "purchasing agent" when I was studying abroad: She loved luxury bags and makeup. But surprisingly, during this year's National Day holidays when I was visiting the US, she sent me a message, "Bags no more! Buy me some anti-aging healthcare and skincare products, please!"
It seems that health issues have become a shared anxiety of the young generation.
According to a report released by a popular medical knowledge sharing portal dxy.cn in 2019, among all age groups, people in the 20s unexpectedly scored the lowest in self-evaluation regarding health in China. And not long ago, a topic called "young people dare not read their medical examination reports" was one of the top trends on China's Twitter-like Weibo. Under this topic, tens of thousands of young people are stating their fears: losing hair, losing sleep, heart diseases caused by staying up late, and so on.
The anxiety of our generation comes mostly from the identity transformation from students to employees, and for some of us from "children" to parents. Health and youth are already too unaffordable for us to squander. We have to shoulder more responsibilities to ourselves, to our family and to society.
Besides, most people of this generation were born when China was following the one-child policy. With parents getting older, as the only one taking care of them, we cannot allow ourselves to be knocked down first.
It is such anxiety that makes many companies sense business opportunities. The healthcare industry has begun to develop products aimed at young people. It was reported in 2015 that young women were the main consumers of many health products, including enzymes, dietary fiber, and grape seed extract. And China Health Care Association predicts that the market size of China's dietary supplements will continue to grow annually at an average rate of 10 percent in the next decade.
That people start taking care of their health at an early age is in fact a good sign. But we should also think about these: Should we only count on health products? Are these products reliable?
As a popular online phrase goes, the young are eating health products while drinking beer, and applying facial masks while burning the midnight oil. Young people are sometimes too dependent on these products to ignore the truly effective ways to stay healthy.
Furthermore, overuse of such products might even be harmful. For example, melatonin, an anti-aging product popular among the young, has its side effects. Overuse for a long term may lead to infertility. Melatonin is also used for dealing with sleep disruption due to jet lag as it is a hormone that helps regulate the sleep cycle.
Healthcare products are not panaceas. It is balanced diet, exercises, abstaining from tobacco and alcohol, maintaining a work and rest balance that can truly keep us young.
This year's Double Eleven shopping festival is around the corner. I think the first thing I will do, after finishing this article, is to delete those health products from my online shopping cart and buy a gym membership.