Editor Alice Keegan examines the growth of influencer advice over medical expertise
Today, wellness influencers, TV personalities and brand owners reach a far wider audience than any credited scientific source. But the question is: How are the seemingly harmless acts of wellness infiltrated by dangerous rejections of modern medicine and skepticism of the mainstream media?
The cultivation of a harmonious mind, body and spirit has been promoted by physicians and intellectuals alike for centuries and across civilisations. It has manifested in various forms, from Eastern meditation, Indian yoga, Chinese medicine and Nordic heat therapy.
In recent years, the wellness culture practiced and promoted by different communities has been co-opted by corporations to function as a new multi-trillion dollar industry. For anything you may want, there is an alternative version out there awash with holistic perspectives, herbal remedies, natural treatments or organic ingredients.
Today, wellness culture is everywhere. While at its roots it may have been about balance, equilibrium and equanimity, it can now be identified in some phrases all too familiar to Gen Z: sea swim, sauna, hike, roast dinner, matcha. How are these well-worn responses to the “your ideal Sunday” prompt on Hinge linked to the global rise of “conspirituality,” a term which describes the meeting of both far-right and far-left extremists under the umbrella of ‘New Age Spirituality’? The answer lies in the actions of some insidious individuals and predatory corporate powers.
Throughout the 2000s we had Gwyneth Paltrow (before she turned her hand to promoting properties on stolen land) spearheading this cultural movement with her company Goop. With social media and influencers as an inescapable aspect of modern life, the "snake oil salesmen" of the past now have the capacity to reach the masses within seconds - from any place, at any time.
Behind the curtain of misguided (micro) celebrities lies distinctly anti-science, anti-medicine sentiments. In a post-Covid, post-truth world, the dangers should not be ignored. The proliferation of misinformation can be deadly, enlivening disordered eating to become endemic across all genders, of misinformation can be deadly, enlivening disordered eating across all genders, disguised as “health kicks” and “protein mania.”
Other devastating health effects relate to the use and non-use of supplements and sunscreen, and especially concerning, inaccuracies concerning cancer treatment.
This phenomenon has played out in Irish pop culture. The Wicklow-born founders of the Happy Pear franchise apologised via social media after they received intense criticism of a video they released claiming that eating mushrooms reduces the risk of getting cancer. In the video, they cited incorrect statistics relating to breast cancer diagnoses and offered viewers inaccurate guidance.
Breast cancer surgeon Dr Liz O’Riordan debunked their claims advising viewers, “don’t believe everything you see.” Organisations such as the Irish Cancer Society also spoke about the misinformation, urging people to only take medical advice from medical professions and registered dietitians. The entire saga was an illuminating example of what happens when alternative medicine goes too far.
Influencers in pursuit of self-promotion and corporate entities are not the sole reason as to why wellness has eclipsed all other forms of self-care and socialising. The cultural shift toward saunas, coffee shops and the great outdoors is an entirely valid response to the fact that in Ireland’s dire cost of living, and even more dire cost of anything discretionary. But has this just meant that the innate capitalistic urges of modern culture and society have transferred their energy and focus to a new space? The price for a 1-hour session in a Dublin sauna is likely to set you back 15 Euro. Often well-intentioned entrepreneurs and online personalities find themselves unknowingly exploited and acquired by the corporate powers that be.
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of holistic health and affinities for natural remedies, I myself love a trip to Holland and Barrett and a swim at the Forty Foot. Yoga, saunas and meditation were God-sends through some particularly challenging physical and mental health moments over the last few years. But an alarm bell rings in the back of my mind whenever I am exposed to the newest life-changing practice or health-revitalising product: the maxim popularised by Derek Beres, “Watch what they say, then watch what they sell.”
Increasingly, we need to watch who is actually saying what, and why they are saying it. Otherwise, we can all become swept up in what appears as harmless “woo woo” but is actually part of what journalist James Ball calls the “wellness-to-facism pipeline.”