2026 Insight Report

Health and the environment

There is a rapidly expanding body of evidence that the environment is no longer just a backdrop for health—it may be a driving force. Recent analyses show that exposures to pollutants, chemical mixtures, and environmental stressors are significantly associated with chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

In one specific example, new population studies found that communities with higher concentrations of environmental microplastics exhibit elevated rates of non-communicable diseases like stroke and high blood pressure. Laboratory and animal research further suggest that microplastics may act as carriers for toxic chemicals, disrupt the microbiome, trigger immune dysfunction, and contribute to systemic inflammation.

Your approach to the art and science of addressing environmental and lifestyle factors is increasingly relevant. We’re here to help with professional-quality products that support the body’s healthy filtration and waste elimination systems, and with resources that help educate patients.

New Challenges for your Patients

Your patients are navigating a uniquely challenging moment: many are stuck in perpetual doom-scroll mode, exposed to a constant barrage of alarming headlines that amplify anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

At the same time, rising tariffs, inflation, and economic uncertainty have eroded consumer confidence and led many households to pull back on discretionary spending, making wellness services feel less affordable.

Meanwhile, the online health-and-wellness ecosystem is crowded with venture-backed supplement brands trying to lure your patients away with promises of quick fixes and miracle outcomes. Despite their glossy packaging and influencer-driven marketing, these companies are often far more focused on profits than on patient outcomes.

And if all that isn’t enough, the rise of artificial intelligence and automation is beginning to reshape the job market—displacing large numbers of workers and forcing major occupational shifts, fueling anxiety about employment security and adding yet another layer of stress to an already strained population.

With every challenge comes opportunity. In fact, patients need you now more than ever. They face mounting stress, economic strain, and confusion about who to trust — but you take the time to listen, educate, and guide them on a journey toward better health. You provide something algorithms, ad campaigns, and quick fixes never can: genuine human connection, practical guidance, and meaningful outcomes that help patients build healthier, fuller lives.

FDA Actions

While public attention has focused on high-level healthcare policy, two recent FDA actions are of more immediate and practical concern to the healthcare professionals we serve. One involves increased enforcement against unapproved thyroid medications, and the other relates to how the FDA regulates homeopathic products. Both developments underscore the agency’s evolving approach and its potential impact on practitioners who prescribe, recommend, or dispense natural therapies.

In August, the FDA announced it was taking enforcement action against manufacturers and distributors of certain natural thyroid medications, raising questions from many practitioners about whether thyroid dietary supplements could be next.

For the past several years, we’ve kept you up-to-date on the FDA’s actions related to homeopathy. You can read our general analysis here, and see how/when things changed here.

Over the summer, a federal judge issued a ruling in the lawsuit related to the FDA’s regulations around homeopathy. It’s a complex ruling, so we broke down its significance for you and your practice.

Vaccines, CDC and the WHO

Vaccine policy became one of the most complex and widely debated areas of public health in 2025. HHS continues to affirm vaccines as an essential tool for disease prevention but restructured its vaccine advisory process, reduced mRNA-development funding, and expanded exemption pathways.

Supporters argue these moves rebuild public trust and accountability, reduce conflicts of interest, and expand patient choice. Critics warn that these actions weaken transparency, disrupt data flow, could lead to increases in preventable diseases, and risk politicizing a historically evidence-driven process.

Adding to the controversy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has undergone major reorganization—pausing regular flu-data reporting—and the United States has formally initiated its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, a move framed as reclaiming policy independence but criticized as reducing U.S. influence in global health coordination, weakening early-warning systems, and potentially limiting access to international vaccine-strain data.

These are potentially tricky waters as you’re working to build or maintain patient trust while balancing treatment philosophies, risks, individual choice, and evidence-based guidance.

The Big Picture

Under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a major initiative this year that frames chronic disease as a “root-cause” crisis and calls for sweeping reforms to food systems, environmental policy, and health-care delivery.

At the same time, critics argue that HHS is drifting away from evidence-based prevention and public health science through research cuts, reduced transparency, and staff reductions at key agencies. Further complicating the picture are new policies that incentivize domestic prescription drug manufacturing and the administration’s partnership with Pfizer to create a government-backed portal selling drugs directly to consumers.

It’s difficult to reconcile some of these actions with RFK’s statements that conventional medicine ignores root causes, neglects prevention, and remains overly influenced by Big Pharma — all of which leaves holistic practitioners navigating a healthcare landscape defined by both promise and profound uncertainty.

This moment calls for clarity and confidence in your clinical approach. As national policy debates oscillate between prevention rhetoric and pharmaceutical expansion, holistic practitioners like you can differentiate yourselves by demonstrating the measurable value of personal, root-cause, lifestyle-based care — grounding your work in credible evidence, transparent communication, and successful patient outcomes that endure.

Insight

Be encouraged! In the midst of policy turbulence, patients are increasingly interested in the healthcare you provide. Recent surveys show that 7 in 10 consumers take a proactive role in managing their well-being, and more than half are willing to invest significantly in nutrition, mental health, and integrative care.

We’ll continue to do our part to support you: providing products you can rely on and creating resources that reinforce your value to patients and help you educate them– like this one that differentiates between professional-grade products and those sold online.