Stop listening to social media “health” stars
The next time you’re scrolling through Instagram, see how long it takes you to stumble upon a young, attractive, and confident influencer offering a wide range of health tips and medical advice – maybe even pushing products, supplements, drugs, and other prescriptive behaviours and lifestyle interventions – with the promise of solving your long-standing health problems.
It won’t take long.
While their advice may seem simple and compelling, and the outcomes they promise appear to be the solution you’ve been seeking, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing every word they say without taking a second to check their medical pedigree, qualifications, or credentials.
This is a big and growing problem, according to Dr Max Pemberton, an NHS GP and psychiatrist who ran eating disorder clinics for a decade and witness first-hand the devastating impact influencers can have on an individual’s health.
He is deeply concerned about the rising trend of people turning to social media as their first port of call for medical advice, because almost all influencers, despite their popularity, lack the medical training and expertise necessary to provide safe and accurate health guidance.
This growing reliance on unqualified sources can lead to serious consequences, such as misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatments, and even harmful health outcomes. The problem is exacerbated by the allure of easy-to-digest advice from figures who appear trustworthy but often oversimplify complex medical issues.
Dr Pemberton also warns of the damaging longer-term societal implications of this trend. The public’s trust in doctors and other qualified healthcare professionals is being eroded, so the spread of misinformation on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok not only endangers individual health but also risks the broader credibility of medical institutions.
In a world where social media is all-pervasive with no signs of its ubiquity being reversed, Dr Pemberton urges you to seek guidance only from your GP or other accredited medical practitioners and to be sceptical of health tips from influencers, no matter how convincing they seem or how many followers they have.
