Americans seem to be more interested in health. Look at TikTok data on #weightloss, and you’ll see 31,000 new posts in the last seven days.
While it’s great to see this increased enthusiasm, using social media for health advice is like playing a game of roulette. There’s a good chance you’re getting half-truths or misconceptions (or worse, downright bad ideas).
As a heart surgeon and metabolic health coach, I have to sift through online noise all the time.
These are some of the most recent bad health trends I advise my patients to avoid.
Using Ozempic for weight loss
Ozempic has become synonymous with weight loss for millions of Americans. There were more than nine million prescriptions written in the last three months of 2022, making up more than two thirds of all drug prescriptions written in the US.
Although Ozempic isn’t FDA-approved to treat obesity, many doctors write scripts off-label for obese patients. Since chemicals in this drug mimic hormones in the gut, it can suppress your appetite and lead to weight loss over time.
This approach to weight control comes with a number of glaring issues. For one thing, it only treats symptoms, not the root cause. A weekly injection won’t prevent you from eating metabolically unhealthy foods. And as we know, being thin doesn’t make you healthy, despite advertising to the contrary.
You should also know Ozempic was designed to be a permanent prescription for patients. Like cholesterol-lowering drugs and blood pressure medications, you need to stay on the subscription for the rest of your life to maintain the positive effects.
Even if you do stay on Ozempic for life, little research exists on its long-term effects. Some research indicates sagging, aging skin, as well as more serious effects like thyroid tumors.
We know obesity is a solvable chronic condition with the help of basic lifestyle changes. Even high cholesterol and hypertension are controllable and reversible. You don’t need medication to start exercising, for example.
To summarize: getting a prescription for Ozempic isn’t going to fix your health. Could you lose weight? Maybe. Will you still be unhealthy without other lifestyle changes? Yes.
Overdosing on melatonin for sleep
America’s search for sleep has reached a fever pitch. In 2023, a whopping 50 to 70 million Americans have chronic and ongoing sleep disorders, with one in three getting less than six hours of sleep per night.
It’s no surprise why people are looking for help in an increasingly exhausted society. It’s one of the reasons why supplements like melatonin have risen to the top of social media’s #sleephack trends.
But like downing Ozempic for weight loss benefits, taking supplements for sleep misses the point of a metabolically healthy lifestyle.
First, there is no scientific consensus on how much melatonin to take for sleep. Age, gender, and weight certainly have an impact, but most pre-packaged supplements don’t include that information.
And since melatonin isn’t FDA approved, supplements and gummies aren’t always made with quality ingredients. Some products are 83% less powerful or 478% more concentrated than advertised. Others contain doses of serotonin, which could disrupt your body’s normal hormone production.
Just because melatonin is a ‘natural’ substance doesn’t mean you can’t overdo it. Excessive sleepiness and trouble breathing are two of the most common side effects.
Some research indicates an overdose of melatonin could also harm your circadian rhythm. According to Dr. Tiffany Lester, board-certified Integrative Medicine practitioner, extremely large overdoses of non prolonged-release melatonin may result in rebound insomnia.
To be clear, I’m not saying supplements don’t have a place in modern sleep hygiene. But supplements are no substitute for a healthy, integrated lifestyle.
If you’re overdosing on supplements just to close your eyes at night, you need more than multivitamins to fix your circadian rhythm. Instead, you should focus on avoiding blue light at night, establishing a bedtime routine, and adjusting sleep to suit your lifestyle.
If you still want to take certain supplements for sleep, be aware of the dosage amounts and how much you’re consuming. Despite what influencers and celebrities tell you, too much melatonin may have lasting effects on the body.
Hyping ultra-processed foods for health
The food industry is catching up to America’s new dietary zeitgeist. More and more packages are sporting labels like ‘keto’ and ‘low sugar,’ and they’re slowly making their way to online influencers, too.
If you’re active on any social media platform, I’m willing to bet you’ve seen at least one of these influencer marketing campaigns. While the content they create doesn’t always present as an ad, the person behind the screen has still been paid — calling their impartiality into question.
Take the American Beverage group, for example: they paid more than 10 registered dieticians to ‘influence’ their audiences about the safety of aspartame, despite recent WHO research to the contrary.
The Washington Post’s article also mentions Lindsay Pleskot and Jenn Messina, both of whom are registered dieticians. Many of their videos were funded by the Canadian Sugar Institute, even if it’s not clearly indicated on many of their posts.
There is a silver lining to this disheartening trend. The fact that people are searching for food advice shows we’re becoming more health conscious.
Still, we need to understand that processed food isn’t the answer — and many social media ‘influencers’ don’t always have our best interests in mind.
The basic principles of metabolically-healthy eating have not changed:
- We should only be eating whole, real foods, which come from the ground or are fed by the ground.
- Medications aren’t always the best treatment for chronic disease, especially for type 2 diabetes, hypertension, or obesity.
- ‘Near food objects’ like sugary protein bars won’t magically grant you better health.
Unlimited candy and protein chips aren’t the solution to America’s current metabolic health crisis. The scientific basics remain the same: eat real food, move often, and get the right amount of sleep.
Other health trends to watch
Other health trends to watch
As more and more Americans focus on metabolic health, more and more social media posts seem to rise to the call.
Unfortunately, many of these are dubious at best:
- The Hunza diet, which discourages the consumption of animal protein and may result in nutritional deficiencies
- ‘Keto’ processed foods, which despite having no ‘real’ sugar, have seed oils, fake sugars, and other undesirable elements (like artificial colors and flavors)
- ‘Age-blocking supplements,’ which are as expensive as they are blatant marketing gimmicks (because no product can stop the flow of time)
I’d urge you to be cautious about anything that runs against the basic principles of metabolic health. You should also be discerning about what sources you do and don’t trust.
Ask yourself: does the information I’m reading or hearing align with what I’ve learned about health? And most importantly, does the person creating the content I’m consuming have something to gain if I believe them?
Are there any heart health trends we can trust?
Despite what some social media trends would have you believe, there’s no product, diet, or magic pill that can restore your metabolic health. The only solution is a lifestyle change, supplemented with good choices, blood work, and a doctor who gets it.
That’s not to say all social media trends are bad. While most health-related social media trends should be ignored or avoided entirely, there are a few ideas worth listening to.
They include:
- Fasting, which has decades of supportive research and creates many positive impacts on your metabolic health.
- Low-carb diets, which are proven to improve insulin sensitivity and boost weight loss efforts.
- Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), which provide granular data about your blood sugar levels and the impact of environmental influences (like the quality of your sleep).
If you’re interested in learning more about any of these ideas, I encourage you to read my book, ‘Stay Off My Operating Table®.’ In it, I recount my experience as a fat heart surgeon and cover the seven principles of achieving metabolic wellness.