Social Media and Health Trends: Separate Fact from Fiction

These days, it’s not uncom­mon to see peo­ple turn­ing to ​“Dr. Tik­Tok,” ​“Dr. Insta­gram,” or ​“Dr. YouTube” for health­care advice. In the last year alone, a whop­ping 86% of Amer­i­cans looked to online plat­forms for health-relat­ed guid­ance (instead of con­sult­ing a health­care professional). 

But when it comes to social media and health, take advice with a [major] grain of salt. The peo­ple giv­ing advice might not be qual­i­fied to do so. Their claims are often either mis­lead­ing or may be com­plete­ly incor­rect. In some cas­es, their advice won’t actu­al­ly help – or could even be dangerous. 

So, how can you tell the truth from the noise? 

Study Up on the Source

Since so many peo­ple are turn­ing to social media for med­ical advice, some physi­cians have stepped into the game in a bit of a ​“if you can’t beat ​’em, join ​’em” strategy. 

Reach­ing out to your own provider per­son­al­ly is always the best option. How­ev­er, if you’re using Tik­Tok as a jump­ing-off point, stick to real physi­cians – not influ­encers with­out credibility. 

Find­ing real med­ical experts on Tik­Tok is actu­al­ly fair­ly sim­ple. Start by look­ing at their bios. If they haven’t list­ed any cre­den­tials in their bios, be extra cau­tious. You can also look up or con­firm cre­den­tials on sites like Doc Info or the Fed­er­a­tion of State Med­ical Boards. 

Also, dig a lit­tle deep­er to see if the per­son works for a for-prof­it com­pa­ny or sells health prod­ucts. Their ​“advice” could actu­al­ly be a sneaky effort to get you to buy something. 

Look at the Sci­en­tif­ic Evidence 

Take a look at the evi­dence that your favorite influ­encer is using to back up their claims. If there’s no evi­dence at all, keep on scrolling. But even if they do present evi­dence, go a lit­tle deep­er. (And if the thought of doing research is already mak­ing you have flash­backs to pan­ick­ing over chem­istry tests, don’t wor­ry – there are plen­ty of easy ways to spot sketchy evidence). 

Look out for these red flags: 

• The claim is only based on one study 
• The study wasn’t con­duct­ed by a trust­wor­thy orga­ni­za­tion (like the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion or the Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health) 
• There were only a few peo­ple used in the study, but the researchers did not acknowl­edge it 
• There wasn’t diver­si­ty in those who were studied 
• The study wasn’t per­formed on peo­ple – just on ani­mals or cells

Addi­tion­al­ly, keep those eye­brows raised if a study was fund­ed by a for-prof­it com­pa­ny. The com­pa­ny might be skew­ing the research so that you think a prod­uct they want you to buy is trustworthy. 

Also read: Do Tik­Tok Health Trends Actu­al­ly Work — And Are They Safe?

Get It on the Research 

While you’re at it, do a lit­tle inves­tiga­tive work on your own. This is a crit­i­cal step in weed­ing out claims that could put your health at risk and iden­ti­fy­ing peo­ple who don’t always give the most trust­wor­thy advice. For­tu­nate­ly, you can do this pret­ty eas­i­ly: A quick Google search can help you spot trends that like­ly won’t work or are risky. 

For exam­ple, some Tik­Tok­ers have sug­gest­ed bathing in or drink­ing water mixed with a pinch of borax (a chem­i­cal often used in clean­ing and laun­dry prod­ucts) to relieve joint pain, reduce inflam­ma­tion, and remove par­a­sites. But a search for ​“is borax safe?” imme­di­ate­ly debunks those claims. You can quick­ly learn that ingest­ing or soak­ing in borax can cause seri­ous prob­lems, like vom­it­ing or rash­es in the short-term, or ane­mia, seizures, and even kid­ney dys­func­tion when used long-term. 

Be Skep­ti­cal About Peo­ple Advis­ing Major Life Changes

If some­one is giv­ing a sug­ges­tion that would require dras­ti­cal­ly chang­ing your lifestyle, take a step back – espe­cial­ly when it comes to chang­ing your diet. 

Com­plete­ly cut­ting out a food group, stick­ing only to one type of food (like the car­ni­vore diet or ​“the Lion Diet”, where you elim­i­nate every food except cer­tain types of meat), or severe­ly lim­it­ing calo­ries might sound great for quick weight loss. But these diets can actu­al­ly sab­o­tage your health. You might not get the nutri­ents or ener­gy your body needs to stay healthy. Plus, quick weight loss often leads to gain­ing it right back. 

Nutri­tion­ists and med­ical pro­fes­sion­als know that there are no absolutes when it comes to cut­ting out foods (unless you have an aller­gy or med­ical con­di­tion that requires it) and that los­ing weight quick­ly can back­fire. So, if some­one is promis­ing that you will ​“feel bet­ter and lose 10 pounds in 10 days” by sig­nif­i­cant­ly alter­ing your diet, don’t go emp­ty­ing your fridge right away. 

Also read: What Social Media Influ­encers Get Wrong About Skin­care Routines

Pay Atten­tion to Their Language 

The lan­guage some­one uses when giv­ing their advice can pro­vide some major clues about the trust­wor­thi­ness of their claims. Be on the look­out for: 

• Buzz­words and phras­es like ​“the only truth,” ​“mir­a­cle,” or ​“nutri­tion secrets” 
• Label­ing foods or habits as ​“tox­ic” or ​“garbage”
• Advice that claims to pre­vent or cure some­thing – reli­able researchers and jour­nal­ists won’t say that one thing def­i­nite­ly caus­es anoth­er unless they are 100% sure. They’re much more like­ly to say, ​“this diet has been asso­ci­at­ed with a low­er risk of dia­betes,” than ​“this diet will elim­i­nate your risk for diabetes.” 
• Phras­es like ​“Big Phar­ma,” that sig­nal that the per­son might believe in con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries and not trust sci­en­tif­ic evidence 
• Lots of jar­gon – trust­wor­thy providers want peo­ple to under­stand what they’re talk­ing about, while some­one try­ing to sell a prod­uct or pro­mote unproven advice might want to seem more knowl­edge­able than they are

Also, watch out for their tone. Experts are gen­er­al­ly clear and calm when they talk about com­plex health con­cerns, where­as Ins­ta-experts might speak much more dra­mat­i­cal­ly or with exag­ger­at­ed confidence. 

At the end of the day, remem­ber that just because some­thing is trend­ing on social media doesn’t mean it’s good advice. Approach any health advice with a healthy dose of skep­ti­cism, and trust that lit­tle voice in your head if it’s telling you that some­thing is too good to be true. 

Reach out to your Duly Health and Care pri­ma­ry care provider if you’re look­ing for the truth about health advice that’s cir­cu­lat­ing on social media. They can help you fur­ther under­stand the claim and give you the advice that best meets your needs.