By Schuyler Corrigan

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January 16, 2023

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With the beginning of a new year, it’s common to set health goals and find inspiration and guidance from outside sources. Social media is usually the first place people are presented with wellness trends or bite-sized health tips, but this can easily send folks into an unsuccessful spiral of following health advice on social media that is not appropriately tailored to their personalized health needs. With the best intentions of improving their health, it’s easy for people to become consumed with click-bait health hacks that are ultimately not supportive. 

 

Realistically, health education and health care affect 100% of people, and the vast majority of people are experiencing at least one health issue. The healthcare industry in the US can be difficult to navigate, overly complicated for simple issues, and inaccessible or unaffordable to many people. Thus, the health and wellness corner of social media has exploded in the past 5 years with health professionals and non-professionals offering snack-sized bits of wellness content for easily accessible, free pieces of advice. But this advice is often stand-alone, and not appropriately positioned to work best for your individual needs.  

 

While a small niche of social media posts are created for the overall benefit and education of their audience (1), the majority of social media content is created to gain followers, increase brand awareness, and sell products. 

 

Read More: Perks of a Naturopathic Wellness Visit

The Spiral of Sporadic Consuming:

When you consume a slow drip of sporadic health information over several months or even years, it is almost guaranteed you will be spending just as much – if not more – money on supplements, subscriptions, diet plans and other resources than you would be working with a naturopathic doctor or nutritionist.  It may seem harder to commit financially upfront to a nutritionist, herbalist, or naturopathic doctor, but all said and done they are creating an individualized, highly researched, and targeted plan, just for you at the same – or even less – cost over time. They can track your progress, be available for questions, change your supplements and diet as your health changes, and be a tandem resource along your journey. 

 

Remember, the influencer or poster who shares information about what worked for them and claims should work for you, too, does not have your health history, genetics, digestive health, stressors or array of other health inputs that you have. So much affects your health and your treatment plan that is different from someone else. This is why when you start a raw foods diet and end up feeling worse, or try several supplements that only add another symptom, you feel inclined to move on to another solution too quickly. 

 

You need to make healthy choices based on your history, current health needs, lifestyle, and capabilities.

What’s the alternative?

If your goal is to educate yourself on realistic, safe, and effective ways to improve your health, then we recommend starting with a plan and a professional guide. This means writing out your health goals, understanding your current state of health, getting clear on your resources, and feeling realistic about your intentions. When working with a nutritionist or naturopathic doctor, these professionals can keep track of all of the details of your plan and offer professional, well-researched, and specific recommendations to help you reach those goals in a very directed and straightforward way while also carefully tracking your progress. 

 

In the long term, this can actually save you time and money, and give you peace of mind that you’re not blindly following the next unsuccessful trend, diet, or supplement. 

 

If you’re feeling overwhelmed at all of the conflicting health information available and want to get more clarity on what will work best for your body and health goals, consider scheduling an appointment with one of our naturopathic doctors at Richmond Natural Medicine.  

 

References:

1. Social Media and Health Care Professionals