Are You a Victim of the Wellness Industry?

Wellness, as used today, was first defined by the biostatistician, Halbert L. Dunn, in the Canadian Journal of Public Health in 1959 as, “an integrated method of functioning which is oriented toward maximizing the potential of which the individual is capable, within the environment where he is functioning”.  

As defined by Dunn, wellness helps.  But when wellness is hijacked by people who don’t know what they’re doing, wellness harms.

These days there’s no agreed-upon definition of wellness. 

Wellness has ballooned into a trillion-dollar global industry filled with grifters who put profit over people.  They draw you into an endless cycle of optimizing your health by treating problems you didn’t know you had, or may not have at all.  You’re told you need wellness to enhance, boost, and optimize your health, but, instead, you’re misdirected by the same old bait-and-switch, just another hustle, and a tired sales pitch.   

It’s not your fault you’re sick. 

The wellness industry places a strong emphasis on self-responsibility and ignores the context within which we must operate.  If you’re sick, it’s your fault, you must not be doing enough coffee enemas, or taking the right supplements and probiotics, or whatever.  The fact that you’re working multiple jobs to make ends meet, cannot always afford fresh fruits and vegetables, and live in a polluted area is relegated to irrelevance. 

Our policies and systems support profit, not our health, safety, and well-being.

Our environmental policies aren't built to guarantee clean air and water and safe food, they’re built to protect profits for fossil fuel, chemical, and industrial agriculture industries.  Our housing system isn’t built to provide affordable, safe spaces for people to inhabit, it’s built to reward investors and developers.  Our healthcare system isn’t built to provide affordable quality care, it’s built to maximize profits for insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and hospitals.  Our food system isn’t built to nourish us, it’s built to maximize profit for large agribusinesses and food manufacturers. 

Chronic disease rates keep increasing because of these policies and systems.  

If we keep voting for parties and so-called leaders who reinforce these policies and systems, the outcomes won’t change. 

People with chronic illness are particularly vulnerable to predation. 

The broken systems within which we operate, a lack of understanding of the role of nutrition in human health, and a lack of critical thinking skills and science literacy leave many of us vulnerable to predation by the wellness industry.  When chronically ill patients are left with no relief and more questions than answers because healthcare is inaccessible, unaffordable, rushed, confusing, and/or dismissive, they become exhausted, desperate for relief, and vulnerable to emotional manipulation and predation.  That’s when grifters and peddlers of pseudoscience slither in, seducing these care-starved people with sales pitches disguised as care.

Beware.  A member of your own patient community might grift you. 

As but one example of many, for people suffering from Sjogren’s disease, a serious systemic autoimmune disease associated with a profound loss in quality of life, there’s a self-described “professional patient” on Instagram and YouTube misleading and grifting Sjogren’s patients.  She has a sense of humor and a talent for describing the lived experience of Sjogren’s, so I can see why her following is growing rapidly.  

She’s got a pinned post on Instagram that’s an obviously wrongly labeled diagram of a “healthy cell” paired with a very inaccurate depiction of a “cell in Sjogren’s disease” that better resembles a cartoonish fried egg.  She labeled the nucleus as the cytoplasm and vice-versa, showing a lack of knowledge of basic cell biology.  As of the publication of this article, the post had 328 likes.  

In the caption, she tells her followers, “If your doctor still doesn’t take you seriously, save this.  Screenshot it.  Bring it to your next appointment.  Or send it to the person who told you, 'it’s just in your head.’”.  

I shared a screenshot of her cartoon and caption with my healthcare provider who responded:
“When patients bring me information that I know is inaccurate, my response is two-fold. I am skeptical of the source, but I also have empathy for patients who are trying to advocate for themselves in a confusing online environment. I will often ask, ‘What are you hoping I take from this?' to shift the focus back to their personal health goals and open a conversation. From there, I can gently caution them about unreliable sources and the risks of following advice from online ‘experts’ or influencers who may be misinformed or, worse, intentionally misleading for their own profit.

Unfortunately, health misinformation itself does patients a real disservice. It can mischaracterize their illness, create inappropriate or unrealistic expectations for treatment, and ultimately undermine one of the most important elements of their health journey: the relationship between themselves and their provider.” 

In the caption, this (im)poster also provides 3 scientific citations, presumably to lend credibility to her "complete hack job on cell biology”, as another trusted medical doctor put it.  Being able to read and cite a scientific paper doesn’t mean that the science has been interpreted and communicated accurately.  It takes years of education, training, and skill to correctly and responsibly interpret and share scientific data.  Importantly, the Sjogren’s literature is filled with myths and misconceptions that we’re actively trying to counter, not to unknowingly, or worse, knowingly perpetuate.  Dr. Sarah Schafer, a Sjogren’s patient and medical doctor, has been publishing accurate, credible information on Sjogren’s disease and how to advocate for Sjogren’s on www.sjogrensadvocate.com for the last 7 years.  

And, as is all too often the case, this patient influencer does not stop at sharing scientifically inaccurate information, misleading her followers.  She also grifts them.  In the caption of her Instagram video titled, “Is Gut Health Just Voodoo?” she writes, “I used to think gut health was basically a conspiracy theory…until it changed my life with Sjogren’s”. 

She goes on to promote supplements from Plexus, a multi-level marketing company, claiming, “within a month my energy skyrocketed, my skin cleared, my pain dropped, and I went from 12 Tylenol a day to barely needing it at all. I’m not a rep. I don’t sell it. I just believe in it—and I think its the #1 thing that’s allowed me to stay prescription-free for years. So I’m curious…Do you still think gut health is just hype? Or have you seen changes when you focus on your gut? Comment INFO and I’ll DM you details about the program I use.”  

She says she doesn’t sell Plexus.  But as of publication of this article, 11 of the 28 products listed in the “Gut Goals & Glow-Ups: The Supplements You Actually Need to Feel Like You Again” section of her Amazon affiliate shop just happen to be Plexus products.  Hmmm…

Your gut is where you break down and absorb nutrients, the building blocks your body needs to function properly, grow and repair.  If your gut isn’t healthy, you won’t be healthy.  So, if you’re struggling with Sjogren’s and your gut, you probably shouldn’t buy Plexus.  Instead, contact someone trustworthy and knowledgeable, like Sjogren’s patient and registered dietitian, Cristina Montoya, www.arthritisdietitian.com.  I’ll be doing a bimonthly Instagram live series with her called “Spicy Chats with Bexi and Cristina” starting September 17th at 5 pm PDT / 8 pm EDT.  Follow @bexiphd and @arthritisdietitian for reminders.

Finally, what has been your experience with the wellness industry?

Let me know in the comment section below.

A version of this blog post is published in my local newspaper, The Davis Enterprise.

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