Does tracking your health data make you healthier?

From monitoring sleep patterns to scanning your whole body, an increasing number of healthy individuals are privately tracking their physical data to stay in shape. But what are really the benefits? Influencer Kim Kardashian shocked fans this November when she revealed she had been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm that was spotted during a full-body scan at a private clinic. She first posted to her 354 million fans about these scans in August 2023, prompting some media outlets to call the practice the “latest wellness status symbol”. Although there is no official data on the number of clinics providing entire body tests to seemingly healthy individuals, the offer is growing and has spread from North America to the rest of the world. In Switzerland, where private clinics, hospitals and luxury wellness centres have been offering preventive health treatments for decades, at least five different start-ups offering full-body scans have popped up in the last three years. These clinics ...