Forty years of the Berkeley Wellness Letter
- 3 min. read ▪ Published
In October 1984, the first edition of The UC Berkeley Wellness Letter gave its readers a guide to picking out a pair of running shoes, the science of Nicorette gum, advice on selecting and storing tofu, and other lifestyle tips pertaining to health—packaged in an eight-page printed newsletter. Two years of thought and planning by UC Berkeley faculty and staff went into the newsletter’s inauguration. And despite the lengthy planning process, some members of the faculty were worried they’d run out of things to say after a few monthly issues.
“It turned out, we just never ran out of things to say,” says Dale Ogar who has now been managing editor of The Wellness Letter for four decades; first at UC Berkeley and in partnership with its new publisher Wellness Health Media since 2021.
It took just a few years for The Wellness Letter to amass a million subscribers and claim national awards for excellence in reporting on a wide variety of health topics—from diet and fitness to self-care, disease prevention, and mental health.
The COVID pandemic hit the publication hard, resulting in the suspension of publication of the newsletter in September 2020. But current publisher Stuart Jordan relaunched the letter as a digital publication in January 2022, which allowed the editorial team to expand the scope of the articles, provide links to sources, and react more quickly to the ever-changing world of wellness.
Since that first 1984 issue, The Wellness Letter has brought information to the public focused on the preventative side of health, emphasizing areas of our well-being not limited to medical treatment: diet and nutrition plans, healthy recipes, fitness guides, and stress and mental health tips. The latest science informs these articles, which are then vetted by an editorial board composed of faculty from the School of Public Health—including Dean Michael C. Lu—plus health professionals from UCSF and the Bay Area medical community.
Oftentimes, that vetted information goes against the grain of popular belief of the time. For example, issues of The Wellness Letter have reported that coffee might actually be good for our health. And vitamin C pills don’t prevent colds or cancer.
But debunking health myths and informing the public serves only half the purpose of The Wellness Letter. The other half pertains to the students. “The mission from the beginning has been to bring the public well-vetted information,” says John Swartzberg MD, FACP, professor emeritus and chair of the editorial board. “And at the same time, revenues go to the students to support their education.”
Over its 40-year history, The Wellness Letter earned millions of dollars in subscription revenues that have helped the School of Public Health support students, while providing its evidence-based information to the public. “It’s a win-win,” says Swartzberg. “It has helped us train more public health professionals while at the same time getting good information out to the public about their health.”
Today, The Wellness Letter publishes new issues monthly, with archival stories continuously available to subscribers.
Learn more about The Wellness Letter and how to subscribe at wellnessletteronline.com.
