Why Are We Treating Tech Burnout With… More Tech?

Kelsey Eisen
·5 min read

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Like a lot of us, I often find myself fried from days spent staring at my computer screen and nights circling back to emails I haven't answered. So when I heard that the Sanctuary Beach Resort in Monterey Bay, California, offered a package known as the Burnout Recovery Journey, I had to try it. When I arrived, I was happy to find the kinds of treatments on the spa menu I've been seeing more and more of lately: science-based offerings like infrared light therapy, IV drips, and electromagnetic pulse therapy. My outstanding massage took place on something called a Pulsed Electromagnetic Field mat. I was grateful that the hotel offered signal-blocking phone bags for the ultimate unplugging experience. Then I realized the irony: I was treating my burnout with…more tech. One has to wonder: How did we get here?

In Europe, spa traditions have blended health and wellness for centuries, as evidenced by a long-standing enthusiasm for homeopathic medicine and a predilection across the continent for “taking the waters” as a cure for ailments. Hungary's health insurance reimburses citizens for using the country's legendary thermal baths; France's covers many herbal remedies and acupuncture; Switzerland's allows for traditional Chinese medicine procedures. But the US has historically emphasized the individual's responsibility for their own health, eschewing Europe's more community- and environment-based models. Much of this tendency can be traced to the 1910 Flexner Report, a notoriously sexist and racist document, backed by the Carnegie Foundation, that encouraged medical schools to educate future doctors solely on treating pathologies, completely ignoring overall wellness.

“The US system is built all around disease care,” says Darshan Shah, MD, a board-certified surgeon and the founder and CEO of Next Health, a Los Angeles–based chain of medical health optimization centers that provides treatments for the Four Seasons Resort Maui spa. “Anything outside of that does not get approved by the FDA.” Such a system rewards advancements like easily patented pills and surgeries over preventive wellness, which is unprofitable by comparison—a fact that's less an issue for Europe's publicly funded health care systems.

So why is America hopping onto the preventive health trend now? Shah believes, to use a well-worn phrase, that Americans are sick and tired of being sick and tired—and of the endless game of whack-a-mole they so often have to play to get health problems treated. “Americans see that European destination spas are places to actually get healthy and want to find that for themselves,” he says. I can't help but wonder whether our uniquely American culture of avowed techno-optimism is also partly responsible: We embrace the driverless car, the soy-protein-based meal replacement, the Kim K–endorsed salmon-sperm facials—and we love keeping up with the Joneses. This past summer I got a poolside vitamin IV treatment, and instantly two people who'd seen me receiving it called the nurse over to book their own.

Twenty years ago it might have been confusing to hear that some of the most famous people in tech and science, like Larry Ellison and Dave Asprey, the “father of biohacking,” had gotten into the spa business; nowadays it sounds par for the course. From the most exclusive resorts to neighborhood spots, many spas seem less like the lavender-scented, Enya-pumping spaces of yore and more like futuristic medical labs. Several of the biggest names in the game, like Sha Wellness Clinic, have built their popularity on such offerings as genomic testing and biofeedback therapies. Spas can biohack your trauma with psychedelics in the morning and map your personalized genetic wellness plan in the afternoon. Americans no longer visit spas only for a hit of temporary relaxation, but to invest in our long-term well-being, because the health care we have—“disaster care,” as Shah calls it, for its focus on accidents and cancers—doesn't do it. We want to live longer, age more slowly, and learn to manage our own mental health more effectively. Americans aren't looking to just survive. We want to optimize and thrive.

Getting into science-based wellness can be intimidating. I asked Shah how to cut through the marketing noise and find legitimate establishments that suit your needs. He recommends going only to facilities that employ someone with a medical license, such as an overseeing doctor or medical director; conducting your own research on a provider's claims; and speaking to someone in the scientific community, like your physician, about whether the treatment is effective, safe, and—importantly—worth the often high cost. Maybe someday these science-based treatments won't be categorized as luxury services. But until then, they just might be worth the investment.

This article appeared in the March 2025 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.

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