Mental Health trends of 2024: Do they actually work?

By Berglind Bjornsdottir, intern

Every year we see new trends and a list of new things to try for a better mental health and 2024 is no exception. My question is: do they actually work? And if so, why do people and mostly influencers endorse these trends so much?

To answer my question, I explored three of the top mental health trends in 2024 and the mechanisms behind them. These trends include 1) Winter bathing/Saunagus, 2) Hot Girl Walk, and 3) Fermented Foods.

Winter bathing/Saunagus

If you live in Copenhagen (or Denmark in general), I assume you’ve heard about winter bathing and saunagus. In fact, people praise it to the skies. Specifically, the mechanisms behind these two trends are different in the sense that one includes staying in the cold while the other challenges you in the heat.

One of the biggest benefits of winter bathing involves the cold water activating the body’s “fight or flight” respond. For some people, it can also widen “the window of tolerance” by staying in this fight or flight mode, which can apply in other situations as well. The cold plunge also enables the release of stress hormones which is beneficial to our mental health.

Saunagus on the other hand involves spending time in a hot sauna where a “gus master” coaches you through the hot experience with essential oils, meditation, and breathing techniques. The mediation and breathing technique aspect of it can easily be related to better mental health and psychotherapy. When we experience anxiety or other uncomfortable feelings, using the right breathing techniques can work wonders. The selected oils can moreover have calming or refreshing effects, based on which essential oil is chosen.

It’s important to emphasize that if it is your first time trying either winter bathing or saunagus: take it slow. Only spend a couple of seconds in the cold water at first and listen to your body. The same goes for saunagus, if you start feeling dizzy or the heat is getting to you, take a break, step outside the sauna, and drink some water.

What both trends have in common is that they force you to get out of your head and into your body – benefitting your mental health greatly in many ways.  We are often so preoccupied with what is going on in our own head that we forget what is happening in our body. This can help us be more aware of ourselves in different settings as well, which can improve mental health and reduce stress, anxiety etc in some. What’s more, winter bathing and saunagus not only heightens feelings of happiness, it can also promote a sense of community.

Hot Girl Walk

The Hot Girl Walk has been blowing up on TikTok and Instagram since 2023, but what is it? The Hot Girl Walk involves going for a four-mile outdoor walk (6,4km) while listening to an inspirational podcast, audiobook, or motivational songs. While the original idea states walking four miles, it can seem ambitious for many on a busy schedule, and therefore the four miles are only stated as a benchmark. What matters the most and what makes Hot Girl Walk different from a regular walk outside is that while walking, you’re only allowed to think about three specific things: 1) what you’re grateful for, 2) your goals and how you want to achieve them, and 3) how hot you are.

The Hot Girl Walk is an easy and accessible way to implement motion to your everyday life which has been proven to be good for our physical health. Walking combined with positive thinking can help us feel better about ourselves, which then can improve our mental health. What’s more, The Hot Girl Walk is for everyone.

Despite some obvious benefits, The Hot Girl Walk has drawn some criticism for being more about showing-off attitude and wealth, rather than well-being. While the idea behind Hot Girl Walk is empowerment, social media sometimes takes it too far and the Hot Girl Walk trend has in many ways evolved into something not so mentally healthy: Comparison.

With that being said, both sides have a point. Even though The Hot Girl Walk can be a great and easy way to implement more positive forward-thinking and motion to your everyday life, it is worthy to note that The Hot Girl Walk can by no means serve as a solution to every problem we encounter.

Fermented foods

Our gut has for many years been referred to as our second brain. We often hear people give us advice on following our gut feeling and more recent studies have proved that “old tale advice”. According to these studies, the brain and the gut are intimately connected and send signals back and forth. Furthermore, these studies suggests that imbalance in our gut microbiota can disrupt these signals and potentially lead to mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, and neurodevelopmental conditions. This link can be explained as various of our neurotransmitters, like serotonin, also known as “the happy hormone”, influence our mood, sleep, and appetite, are primarily produced in the gut.

Here is where the fermented food come into the picture. Eating fermented foods, such as kimchi, yoghurt, and kombucha, can work as an effective tool for changing your microbiome as it releases beneficial bacteria into our gut, which then help create neurotransmitters that boost our overall mood.

On a more critical side, I must mention that general evidence for fermented foods improving our mental health is relatively weak. Understanding how our diet affects our health and how mental health conditions arise is complicated and when adding the two topics together, it doesn’t get simpler. Even though evidence is considered weak, it’s not because studies have failed to find an effect – it’s because there haven’t been done many studies yet.  

References

Cleveland clinic. (2024, 15, March). Benefits of Fermented Food for your Mental Health. Cleveland Clinic. https://newsroom.clevelandclinic.org/2024/03/15/benefits-of-fermented-food-for-your-mental-health

Holland, M. (2020, 2, March). The Danish trick to “shock” your body into happiness. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200228-the-danish-trick-to-shock-your-body-into-happiness

Hot Girl Walk. (n.d.). What is the Hot Girl Walk?. Hot Girl Walk. https://hotgirlwalk.com/pages/our-story

Newman, T. & Gill, S. (2024, 18, March). Can fermented foods support mental health?. Zoe. https://zoe.com/learn/fermented-foods-mental-health

Pullar, Jess. (2024, 8, January). The ‘Hot Girl Walk’ Is All Over TikTok—But What Exactly Is It?. Elle. https://www.elle.com.au/life/health-wellness/what-is-the-hot-girl-walk-27105/

Smith, M. (2023, 19, July). Turns out your ‘gut feelings’ are real. How gut and mental health are connected. Loma Linda University Health. https://news.llu.edu/health-wellness/turns-out-your-gut-feelings-are-real-how-gut-and-mental-health-are-connected