Do you find yourself a little tired at three in the afternoon? Do you crave sweets after a meal? Is your face not sculpted like a Greek statue? Do you experience stress? Have you consumed seed oils in the past three years? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you may be dying.
In just a leisurely scroll on TikTok, you will be assaulted by a barrage of health and wellness terms, “diagnoses,” and theoretical solutions. Issues like “high cortisol,” spiking glucose levels, imbalanced hormones, and “poor gut health” all presuppose a perennial state of homeostasis as an attainable standard of wellness. This vaguely defined golden standard of living can be reached via “detoxing,” extreme dieting, or a supplement available at the link in the creator’s bio. Social media has become an echo chamber of uninformed creators playing a warped telephone game that has divorced scientific fact from at-home wellness solutions.
Social media is an effective way to introduce alternative methods of healing and health through a public forum that does not hold the limitations of traditional medicine (cost, accessibility, and the prioritization of prescription medications). However, it has been taken too far. TikTok and other social media platforms are breeding grounds for misinformation regarding health and wellness, much of which has roots in capitalism and mass consumption.
Forbes reported that Gen Z uses TikTok and Instagram more often than Google to find information, including medical advice. This advice, however, is often rife with misinformation. A 2024 University of Chicago review of “#sinustok” found that nearly half of the 221 TikTok videos they studied — which had over 300 million views combined — contained false information, with over half by non-medical professionals. Lead researcher Christopher Roxbury, M.D., stated that “there is high-quality and factual information out there on social media platforms… but it may be very difficult to distinguish this from information disseminated by influencers that can actually be harmful.”
Most “remedies” advised by such creators are not inherently dangerous, such as drinking more water, eating more protein and fiber, or staying off your phone an hour before bed. However, others can lead to varying levels of harm, from sticking a garlic clove up your nose to reduce decongestion to ingesting Borax as an iron supplement.
In a Guardian article, Dr. Ammad Butt of University Hospitals Birmingham identified the real-world consequences of social media “hacks” he has encountered in his medical practice. He recalls patients with serious diseases, such as thyrotoxicosis or diabetes, who elected to forego their prescription medication for herbal “remedies” found online after being discouraged by videos from taking their medication. Other patients were convinced that, because they showed signs of “tiredness,” a symptom of magnesium deficiency that creators have latched on to, they too must have a magnesium deficiency; the vast majority actually had normal levels.
Health officials and experts have started building platforms to counteract misinformation. However, it is all too easy to fake medical legitimacy. Social media has become home not only to licensed doctors seeking to stem misinformation, but also to fake doctors working to propagate it. Expertise is evidenced by wearing scrubs, slinging a stethoscope around one’s neck, and adding “M.D.” to the end of one’s username. In 2023, Australian content creator Dalya Karezi was found guilty in a legal court for pretending to be a doctor while giving unsubstantiated reproductive health advice on TikTok, where she had 243,000 followers. Viewers must approach every video with a degree of skepticism — even actual health officials can be wrong.
The wellness industry has become driven by profiting off supposed maladies. The root of many health trends lies in the promotion of products. “Anti-bloating” supplements like Bloom Greens powder and Arrae Debloating pills are sold on TikTok Shop — the benefits of which can be gained by simply eating more diverse fruits and vegetables. Wellness is now a proponent of capitalist mass consumption. The only access to “true health” is by buying certain products, like red light masks, castor oil packs, or collagen supplements, none of which have been definitively proven to be effective treatments.
Scams and multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes abound on TikTok, including the company It Works, which promoted its weight loss “skinny brew coffee” and associated marketing scheme to viewers through links in creators’ bios. The products promoted are not FDA-approved and contain a dangerously high level of caffeine. Another scam targeting “gut health” and debloating sold their products and 30-day plans for over 600 USD.
The aestheticization of wellness has led to further barriers. The “pink pilates princess” trend and other visual curations surrounding working out lead you to believe that if you own the right jacket (that $128 Lululemon Define jacket, to be specific), own the right equipment (Bala Bangle arm weights, $81, and Alo yoga mat, $220), use the right skincare (Gisou, Laneige, Rhode, and the like), shop at the right grocery stores (Erewhon, of course), and frequent the right reformer pilates class (which clock in at an average of $85 per session), you too can be happy, healthy, and above all, thin. Those touting the “lifestyle” are more often than not skinny, white, wealthy, and conventionally attractive.
Social media has fashioned the health industry into one driven by profit and fed by misinformation, intentional or otherwise. Our generation, with our overly extensive use of social media as a source of general information, have become proponents of the corruption of the health industry.
Our generation needs to prioritize media literacy, especially when misinformation can be spread simply through word of mouth, and many sources of information are biased towards for-profit companies. Do not rely on TikTok and other forms of public social media as your main source of science and health information. Rather, learn to investigate the science behind a trending idea using reliable, data-backed sources, such as factcheck.org or the Mayo Clinic.
Be aware of your consumption of products hawked by creators interested not in your health, but only your dollars. Be even more aware of your consumption of social media overall: spend your time and your attention wisely, and learn to use rational sense before you hop onto the latest wellness craze.