Actress and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow has been urged by NHS to basically shut up after spreading some less-than-accurate facts about Covid.
The medical director of NHS England has urged Paltrow to cease “spreading misinformation after she suggested “intuitive fasting,” infrared saunas, and herbal cocktails as treatments for long Covid-19 effects.”
Some of her other ‘healing remedies’ for Covid include kimchi and kombucha. Understandably, the NHS are not impressed.
The blog post that caught the NHS’ attention shares Paltrow’s experiences with Covid, revealing that she suffered “really high levels of inflammation” and “long-tail fatigue and brain fog.”
She said: “I turned to one of the smartest experts I know in this space, the functional medicine practitioner Dr. Will Cole. After he saw all my labs, he explained that this was a case where the road to healing was going to be longer than usual. So we’ve been doing a version of a protocol he outlines in his forthcoming book, Intuitive Fasting.”
Paltrow then mentioned she takes “sugar-free kombucha and kimchi, coconut aminos, and herbal non-alcoholic cocktails, as well as a selection of supplements.” In the blog, she also added: “I’m doing an infrared sauna as often as I can, all in service of healing.”
Wellness is a topic that’s skyrocketing in online communities and everyday chit-chat between girlfriends over a healthy brunch. While many people claim to be “wellness gurus,” whether as a social media influencer or a smart friend with the latest ‘proven’ advice, it’s important to remember that miscommunicating anything health-related (including skincare) can have detrimental effects and “serve conspiracies to the masses.”
Professor Stephen Powis recently told the BBC: “We need to take long Covid seriously and apply serious science.” He also brought attention to the duty of care and responsibility of influencers and those with a large following to not spread misinformation about something as serious as Covid.
So glad she did pic.twitter.com/np3teWBtLN
— layan (@gogocaptin) February 28, 2021
“Like the virus, misinformation carries across borders and it mutates and it evolves. So I think YouTube and other social media platforms have a real responsibility and opportunity here,” he explained.
He also commented: “In the last few days I see Gwyneth Paltrow is unfortunately suffering from the effects of Covid. We wish her well, but some of the solutions she’s recommending are really not the solutions we’d recommend in the NHS.”
Everytime I see anything about Gwenyth Paltrow it’s just weird
— Lauren Tlapa (@laurentlapa) February 23, 2021
