Health Wanted: Wellness in the New Year
HEALTH WANTED, a weekly radio show and podcast produced in partnership with WABE, brings need-to-know public health headlines and breaks down the science behind trending topics.
The Episode
The topic: Juice cleanses. Vitamin supplements. Ice baths. The multi-billion-dollar wellness industry in the United States pushes out products and trends that claim to improve health, but many lack the necessary evidence to back up those claims. This week on Health Wanted, host Laurel Bristow is joined by Atlanta comedian, writer, and actor Hannah Aslesen to explore current wellness trends. Then, guest Johnathan Stea, PhD, joins to break down the science (or lack thereof) behind wellness industry interventions.
The takeaway:
- The wellness industry is worth $480 billion in the U.S. alone and $1.8 trillion worldwide. It encompasses everything from supplements and diets to essential oils and infrared therapy—all of which have varying levels of scientific evidence backing up their benefit to health.
- Products that claim to “detox” your body are never doing what they claim—removing toxins is the liver and kidneys’ job! So, you can skip the celery juice and coffee enemas.
- Dietary supplements, including multivitamins, often have little evidence to back up their claimed benefits and are not regulated by the FDA. Green powders that state they are full of various vitamins and minerals have been hugely popular on social media, but their health effects are likely minimal. Their formulations are also proprietary, meaning you do not know how much of any given ingredient you are ingesting.
- There are some wellness trends that have scientific merit! Taking ice baths or cold plunges can help reduce inflammation in the body and accelerate recovery for sore muscles. There is also evidence that infrared light therapy can increase blood flow and relieve pain.
The Interview
The guest: Johnathan Stea, PhD
The key takeaways:
- Many people believe that misinformation and pseudoscience is harmless, but it can cause harm when it begins to affect people’s health decisions, like skipping out on vaccines or needed medications because of perceived “toxicity.”
- Pseudoscience wellness products can be harmful in three different ways:
- They can cause direct harm to health, especially when products are unregulated and not tested for safety.
- They can cause indirect harm when people choose them over evidence-based treatments, wasting money and potentially worsening their symptoms.
- They can cause harm at a social and societal level by undermining public health and patient care practices.
- To avoid falling for pseudoscience, it is essential to learn the language that the wellness industry uses and what red flags to look out for, along with increasing scientific literacy. This can be difficult even for medical practitioners, and it can be hard to differentiate between what is true or not on social media.
Catch the full episode of Health Wanted by:
- Streaming at WABE.org or on the WABE app
- Subscribing on Apple or Spotify
- Watching on WABE's YouTube channel
