Health & Beauty

PSKF recently completed some trends and product ideation consultancy for a client around the subject of Baby Boomers. Here are some of the best blogs we monitored for inspiration (in no particular order):

* 20plus30
* Boomer
* Aging Fabulous
* Time Goes By
* Libido & Health
* Changing Aging
* The Boomer Blog
* The Boomer Chronicles
* Older But No Wiser
* Aging Maven
* Always Question
* Auxiliary Memory
* GenPlus
* Aging Hipster

Kids today are increasingly prone to social, mental and environmental stresses that lead to hyperactivity, ADD, frantic multitasking, and distraction. How can this tide be turned? A program in Bangkok, Thailand called the “Mind and Self Grooming Day Camp” is helping children deal with these problems by teaching them meditation. Using a custom tailored approach that cuts the meditation exercises down to easy 15 to 20 minutes segments, the camp turns meditation into games that kids can enjoy and relate to. The program has helped students deal with problems at school and to stay relaxed and focused amidst our fast paced over stimulating modern society.

[via Bangkok Post]

While there’s something rather perverse about naming this semi-anthropomorphic stress toy “Sweety”, as a device, it does serve a purpose. Sweety is a virtual friend who can help people understand and deal with stress. It will listen to your problems and try to work them out. Soothing color patterns will play as a kind of biofeedback to help illustrate or calm your tension. The level of contact increases as it will invite you to play interactive games by manipulating its soft body. And if it all gets to be too much, you can beat the crap out of it. Interesting concept, but perhaps it shouldn’t be so cute looking. I’d feel bad laying a hand on this thing.

[via Yanko Design]

If you doubt the effectiveness of Nintendo’s Wii system for getting in shape - think again. Micky DeLorenzo, the man who lost 9 pounds only “working out” with Wii Sports has beat his former personal best. DeLorenzo worked out solely using the new Wii Fit, and after 45 days he dropped a whole 15 pounds. In the process his body fat dipped down to 18.4% from 20.8%.

Engadget reports:

Of course, DeLorenzo admits that doing anything involving movement an extra 60 minutes a day will result in some weight loss, but he seems pretty sold on the benefits of Wii Fit, saying that it made it “especially easy” to work the training into his daily life.

[via Engadget]

We’ve covered a number of public bike share systems in the past. Montreal is now introducing a system of their own that enables users rent an aesthetically reasonable bike from any station within the network and return it to any other station of their choice. Aptly called the Public Bike System, the setup differentiates itself from similar concepts in the amount of trust it relinquishes to the public and the efficiency in its construction.

The entire system is run on solar-power, uses wireless communication, and is completely modular. Stations can simply be dropped off at any destination with next to no infrastructure required. And because all the bikes are include RFID tags, both users and management can find out in real time the number of bikes and parking spots currently available at any station. This ability to monitor its inventory in real time, coupled with the modular station components is where this system really shines. When additional bikes or parking spaces are required, additional bikes can be deployed and the stations be expanded in a matter of minutes, leaving no trace of their presence once removed.

Users are able to choose the specific bike they want and can pay by either by debit, credit, or a special members card. They can even report damaged bikes through the touch screen pay stations.

Public Bike System

Mintel estimates that the natural and organic personal care product market has grown by 35% since 2005 and is currently valued at $465 million. The success of this burgeoning market has been enjoyed by both major brands like Wal-Mart and smaller boutiques. The latest entry in this marketplace, mastihashop caught our attention.

The brand recently opened an outpost in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and showcases a wide range of products featuring mastiha, a therapeutic cure-all long hailed in the East. Mastiha is an all-natural antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial resin harvested from the sap of trees found exclusively on the Greek Island of Chios.

Sisters and co-founders Artemis and Kalliopi Kohas, who spent summers in Chios, selected a sleek and natural design for their shop to reflect both mastiha’s tradition and modernization. Artemis Kohas told Peep Insights that the versatile mastiha has over 300 known applications and has been used in remedies for over 2,500 years. The Orchard Street store features a wide range of mastiha products, from homeopathic remedies to beauty products. Some favorites include the mastiha infused soaps, the mastiha chocolate bars, and the Korres mastiha oil hair products.

As a nutritional supplement and beauty product, the resin freshens breath, fights plaque and gingivitis, heals and regenerates skin, eases digestion and strengthens hair and nails. It is found in everything from chewing gum to toothpaste, wine, ice cream and cosmetics.

Mastihashop
145 Orchard Street
, New York, NY 10079, (212)253-0895

Contributed by Peep Insights

China accounts for roughly 30 percent of the smokers in the world and as in other developing countries, cigarettes can be an important social currency. However, we’re not quite sure what to make of a manufacturer who has produced mobile phones that are modeled after a some of China’s most famous cigarette brands. Whatever their intent, the phones look remarkably similar to real cigarette cartons and come equipped with a 1.5 inch screen and camera.

[via Virtual China]

Can’t afford the insanely high cost of health care in the United States? You may want to join the growing number of medical tourists who are flocking to Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. The Bumrungrad looks and feels more like a hotel or a high end mall than a sterile hospital. They offer world class service at a fraction of the price it would cost in the US.

Fast Company profiles this global hospital and the growing medical tourism market:

The phrase “medical tourism” was once used to describe early retirees jetting in to Bangkok or Bangalore to have a little work done before recuperating on the beach. That image doesn’t jibe with the numbers today. As many as half a million Americans streamed abroad last year in search of affordable alternatives for hip replacements or prostate surgery. And they went not for the postsurgical tanning but for the savings: up to 90% off the going rates in the United States. They went because 47 million Americans lack insurance and can’t pay for surgery to fix a bad back or clogged arteries. Or because they have insurance but can’t begin to pay the soaring deductibles a major surgery entails. They’re fleeing a system that is by far the most expensive in the world and growing more so by the hour, with diminishing returns in quality of care.

Fast Company: “Why Americans Are Going Abroad For Health Care”

The Alter-G is a state of the art new treadmill that uses air pressure to reduce the runners body weight. Elite athletes use it to push their body past it’s natural limits, but it is equally effective at enabling over weight and aging individuals quicker recovery from injuries and surgery and overcoming medical challenges that may limit their movement.

In the below video, Tom Allen, a representative of the company sits down with us to explain just how the machine works and who it benefits.

Alter-G