Suzanne Harrington: The A-Z of wellness woo dominating social media this year 

Suzanne Harrington looks at the wellness nonsense dominating social media this year 

January always brings a fresh wave of viral health hacks promising weight loss, better sleep and youthful skin. Most are useless. Some are dangerous.

It's January, a time we traditionally drive ourselves mad trying to become healthier — especially now, given how we are all far more health-conscious and nutritionally aware than previous generations.

Many of us are the Worried Well, constantly tweaking our health and nutrition for optimum results — we have become so much better at self-care.

But would you take health or nutrition advice from TikTok? Would you get caught up in an online health trend that may have zero scientific basis?

After all, TikTokkers are not doctors or dietitians — they’re just people uploading stuff. Yet the short answer is yes, we do take health advice not just from TikTok, but from a variety of non-medical online sources — especially if we are digital natives.

A 2024 MyFitnessPal/Dublin City University survey found that 87% of 2,000 TikTok users — Millennials and Gen Zs from the US, Canada, Australia and Britain — routinely take health and nutrition advice from social media.

Suzanne Harrington Photo: Andrew Dunsmore/Picture Partnership

Yet only about 2% of this advice aligns with public health guidelines. Yikes.

From the current US “health secretary” to the woo-woo gurus all over the internet, there’s an awful lot of fake health news out there.

Ideas such as natural is always best, that vaccines are dangerous, that modern medicine is not to be trusted, and how anecdotal is presented as empirical — that is, if something works for you, it will work for everyone. (It won’t).

Below is a selection of junk ideas being shared as legitimate health and nutrition advise. Many are harmless. Most are useless. None are scientifically efficacious. So before adopting any, ask yourself: What are the credentials of the source? Does it align with the expert majority findings? Does it sound too good to be true? Or does it sound insane?

Avoiding seed oils

Eight seed oils — canola, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, soy, rice bran, sunflower and safflower — high in omega-6 fatty acids are accused of “breaking down into toxins” when used for cooking, causing inflammation, weakening the immune system, and contributing to chronic illnesses. Rubbish, says the American Heart Organisation. Seed oils are good for you. Do not avoid.

Beef tallow skincare

Rubbing melted cow by-product on your skin is not, according to dermatologists, a good idea. It blocks pores, can go rancid, and can cause allergic reactions. There’s no data supporting its efficacy in the treatment of acne, or any other skin problem.

Instead, they advise use petroleum jelly — which is tried, tested, safe, and cow-friendly.

Borax water

Borax contains the chemical element boron. It’s found in insecticides, cleaning products, tooth whiteners, and fertilisers.

And now we are being told to drink a pinch of it in our glass of water to treat arthritis, mouth sores, swollen tongue, painful eyes, menstrual cramps, urinary infections, low libido, and if you need a testosterone boost or have cancer.

However, unless you’re a zebrafish or a South African clawed frog, for whom boron is an essential nutrient, there is zero evidence backing any of these claims. It’s probably not good for you.

Bovine colostrum

Bovine colostrum, the nutrient-rich liquid produced by lactating mother cows, is designed for newborn cows, not adult humans. It is currently being peddled as a super-supplement cure-all by platforms such as Goop, unsupported by even a shred of evidence. It’s fantastically unethical and expensive.

Carnivore diet

Like the Atkins or Keto before it, this latest fad of eating only animal fat and protein is a terrible idea, says the British Heart Foundation. Risks include cholesterol, blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke. Not to mention constipation and bad breath. It’s disgusting, and it won’t make you ripped. Stop it.

Chia water

You soak chia seeds — which are highly nutritious — in water until they become gel, then drink the frogspawn with lemon, to relieve constipation.

Technically, this can work — but so can eating all kinds of fibre, fresh fruit and veg, fermented foods, and drinking lots of water. If you have an inflammatory bowel condition, be super cautious.

Chlorophyll water

This is soluble chlorophyll, which you can buy in flavoured water. It promises everything from better skin to improved gut health, although again there is no evidence to support this. And it doesn’t cure cancer. It may be helpful for constipation, but too much can cause diarrhoea.

Collagen supplements

Again, a hugely hyped and lucrative product promising everything from better sleep to springier skin. To date, the European Food Safety Authority has not given credence to any health claims for collagen supplements.

There are no known negative side effects to taking collagen, which comes from animals and fish (and is found in gelatine-containing foods such as jelly, sweets, marshmallows) other than wasting your money; even more so with “vegan” collagen, which doesn’t contain collagen – just collagen-boosting ingredients like vitamin C, amino acids, and minerals that help your body make its own collagen, which it stops doing as we age. Collagen consumption cannot currently reverse this.

Detoxing

This is something you do in a supervised medical setting if you are addicted to alcohol or drugs. For everything else, your liver and kidneys will do the job for you. Unless you’re actively addicted to alcohol or drugs, you are not full of “toxins”. By all means do a juice cleanse for a day or two, but it’s not a “detox” because you are not “toxic”.

Electrolyte drinks

Again, unless you are experiencing serious dysentery or diarrhoea, or are cycling or running across sub-Saharan Africa, it’s unlikely your workout in the air-conditioned gym will require you to need electrolytes.

Same goes for your half-hour sauna. However, Americans spend $10bn on sports drinks every year.

We already have too much sodium in our diets — so unless you are dangerously dehydrated, stick with water. Suck an orange at half time.

Garlic sinus cleanse

Sticking garlic up your nose to clear your sinuses? The idea is that the garlic will alleviate congestion by causing mucus to rush from your nose. Please don’t, say ENT doctors. All it will do is irritate the hell out of your nose.

Garlic where the sun don’t shine

Whether inserted in the rectum to treat piles, or in the vagina to treat infection, sticking garlic anywhere except in your dinner sounds like a terrible idea. However, garlic has medicinal properties. Read more here. on its potential.

Proceed with great caution.

Gluten free

Just 0.7%-1% of the global population has coeliac disease, an auto-immune disease which causes sickness when gluten is eaten. A further 6-13% have non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) which can cause bloating, fatigue, brain fog, and discomfort after eating gluten, without the auto-immune reaction of coeliac.

That leaves 83% us who are neither coeliac nor have NCGS, but often go to great lengths to avoid it. The problem may lie with ultra-processed foods — as a study from the University of Melbourne shows, it’s unlikely you have a gluten allergy.

Hair training

If you gradually reduce washing your (caucasian) hair, you can “train” your scalp to produce less oil over time. Like your sebaceous glands are a puppy.

Scalp oil production is not a trainable puppy — it’s linked to hormones, seasons, age, your levels of hydration. Again, there’s zero scientific evidence to back this one up.

Lemon Coffee

A miracle combination for weight loss, headache relief, collagen production, and increased mental and physical performance. Not even proper coffee — just a spoon of instant, juice of half a lemon, and a glass of hot water. Complete and utter nonsense.

Lettuce water

Boiled lettuce water contains lactucarium, a sleep inducing compound. However, you’d have to drink litres of it for it to actually have even the smallest impact. And then you’d be up all night peeing.

Mouth taping

Taping your mouth closed at night promotes nasal breathing (because with your mouth taped shut that’s your only option), which in turn reduces snoring, dry mouth, filter and warms inhaled air, and produces helpful nitric oxide. That’s the theory.

The reality is that if you have sleep apnea or any related conditions, it can be harmful. Until there is a shred of science to back this idea up, a UCC physiologist suggests a more obvious use for mouth taping.

Oatzempic

Instead of Ozempic, which contains the proven weight-loss hormone semaglutide, simply mix some oats, water, and fresh lime juice as a DIY meal-replacement shake. The weight will fall off.

No, it won’t.

Okra water

Another miracle cure-all — diabetes and weight management, improved bone, skin and heart health, lowered cholesterol, boosted immunity, pregnancy support, enhanced vision, improved memory, and a preventer of constipation. All from a glass of slimy okra water. Why then aren’t they using this in every hospital in the world? The truth is that yes, it’s good for you — nutrient rich, easy to prep — but it’s not magic. Manage your expectations.

Raw milk

Before it became political — quack in chief Robert F Kennedy Jr endorses it — raw milk just meant unpasteurised cow’s milk, perfect for baby cows, but potentially harmful to humans. Its perceived health benefits when unpasteurised are improved immunity and a better nutritional profile.

Harvard School of Public Health says human adults do not need a liquid designed for babies of a different species, whether raw or cooked.

Sleepy girl mocktail

If you mix tart cherry juice (which contains melatonin, associated with circadian rhythm regulation) with a dash of magnesium powder and some probiotic soda over ice, and drink half an hour before bed, you’ll be a sleepy girl. Does it work on boys too? Does it work at all? While magnesium has long been associated with better sleep, there’s no real evidence to support this.

However, it won’t do you any harm — apart from, like the warm lettuce water, having to get up to pee.

Urine drinking

An ancient practice — dating from the times of leeches, bloodletting, incantations, and amulets — is enjoying an online moment.

Urine therapy — urophagy — is the practice of drinking one’s own urine. Mmmmmm. Not because you’re lost in a desert dying of dehydration, but because of its numerous health benefits. Except there are none. There is no science to support this, other than to dispel the myth that urine is sterile.

It’s not. It’s full of stuff your body is designed to process and expel as waste. I repeat — urine is a waste product. Do not drink it.

People drinking it online are doing it for likes and shares.

Vaccine aversion

The biggie. The political one, the one that’s causing 21st-century children in wealthy countries to die of measles because of online stories about people such as Bill Gates injecting microchips into your eyeball or whatever.

Vaccines have eradicated or reduced small pox, TB, polio, yellow fever, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, chickenpox, cholera, ebola, flu, hepatitis A and B, lyme disease, malaria, tetanus, typhoid, rabies, whooping cough. And most recently covid. Like paracetamol, vaccines do not cause autism.

Vaccines cannot be replaced by the use of bleach or horse medicine. Vaccines are developed by scientists, not people with a YouTube channel who have “done their own research”. They’re the reason many of us are alive.

Zzzzzzz tracking

Thanks to our ongoing obsession with something called sleep hygiene, we have taken to wearing devices, or even placing devices under our mattresses, to track everything about our sleep: Oxygen levels, heart rate, movement, REM.

And guess what? It’s linked to orthosomnia. Maybe ditch the tracker and have an early night with a book.