7 Terrible Health Tips From Gwyneth Paltrow
But when it comes to health tips, the site is full of dodgy datum, with unfounded warns about things that are safe like bras and sunscreen and zealous promotion of things with little-to-no proved benefits like cleanses and vaginal steaming. Some of the alternative medicine practises on the site could even be dangerous.
In a statement provided to Business Insider, Goop said that readers should consult their doctors before “making any changes in[ their] medical routine.” A similar warning appears at the very bottom of many posts, clarifying that they intend to “highlight alternative studies” and that “the views of the author … do not inevitably represent the views of Goop.”
“Goop regularly shares perspectives and insights from a range of experts in the area of health, wellness, and other fields, ” Goop said in the statement. “The thoughts shared … stimulate debate and conversation on a variety of topics for the consideration of our readers.”
Yet some of these “insights” are scientifically indefensible.
We looked into the facts behind some of Goop’s most dubious claims.
Myth No. 1: Get sting by bees can safely reduce inflammation or heal an old injury .
Shutterstock
Paltrow herself lately admitted to the New York Times that she is generally “open to anything.” This now includes being stung by bees on purpose.
“I’ve been stung by bees. It’s a thousands of years old treatment called apitherapy, ” shetold theTimes. “People use it to get rid of inflammation and scarring. It’s actually pretty incredible if you research it. But, human, it’s painful.”
It’s painful because people get stung by live bees during an apitherapy session. The practise can also involve merely employing bee venom, but that stings, too.
Paltrow also wrote in a post on Goop that she received “‘bee venom therapy’ for an old injury and it disappeared.” The remainder of the article recommends various products and practises having to do with bees, including apitherapy.
No randomized, controlled trials( the gold standard of scientific studies) have shown apitherapy has any health benefits in humen. This lack of proof is why Dr.Clay Jackson, vice president of the board of the American Academy of Pain Management, told Business Insider that people shouldn’t try apitherapy as their first option for problems without consulting their doctor.
“Many people are allergic to bee venom and also there have been reported side effects, such as hemorrhagic strokes, ” Jackson said. “Some people erroneously assume that because something is natural, it has no side effects, and that is not the case.”
Myth No. 2: Underwire bras might cause breast cancer .
Victoria’s Secret Angels Stella Maxwell, Lily Aldridge, and Elsa Hosk in SoHo on July 26, 2016. Jamie McCarthy/ Getty Images for Victoria’s Secret
Another false claim on Goop thatunderwire bras could has become a cause of breast cancer has been repeatedly refuted by top experts and organizations. The writer of the post, Habib Sadeghi, is not an oncologist but a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine at an integrative health center in Los Angeles.( He’s previously come under flame for a Goop essay advancing the idea that negative wordscan change thephysical structure of water .)
As the nonprofit BreastCancer.org points out on its website, merely one scientific study has specifically looked at the possible connect. Its title, in part? “Bra Wearing Not Associated with Breast Cancer Risk.”
The American Cancer Society has an entire article dedicated to refuting this claim.
Dr. David Gorski, a breast cancer surgeon, also wrote a thorough takedown of this myth for Science-Based Medicine, referencing the same survey that BreastCancer.org mentioned 😛 TAGEND
According to this study, there was no increased risk of breast cancer due to wearing a bra, a result that, to breast cancer specialists, was about as surprising as the observation that the sunlight rises in the east and situateds in the west, water is wet, and gasoline flammable.
Myth No. 3: Detoxing is important to get chemicals out of your body .
A Goop post titled, “Does Detoxing Really Work ?” is an interview with environmentalist Rick Smith, who does not have medical develop. He purports that we need to cleanse our bodies in order to rid them of “post-1 950 synthetic toxins that we ingest, exhale, and absorb through our skin, on a daily basis.”
The Goop staff andPaltrow go on a group detox every January, during which they drink tons of lemon water, use infrared saunas, and “just say no to: alcohol, caffeine, added sugar, gluten, dairy, soy, corn, and nightshades( white, blue, red, and yellow potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant ). “
Eating healthy is great, and no one will harm themselves by removing the foods suggested by the Goop cleanse from their diets. Butthe idea that detoxes or cleanses remove toxins from your bodyborders on nonsense. The whole conception of cleanses is unsupported by research and does not match up with what we know about the human body.
Toxins do not “build up” inside you( with the exception of actualpoisoning, of course ). “The body is constantly filtering the toxins in alcohol, food and medications , not storing them, ” dietitian Maria Adams told NPR, in a great piece debunking detoxing. “So they’re not going to build up.”
Why? Because your body has “its own amazing detoxification systems: the liver and the kidneys, “Ranit Mishori, aGeorgetown University School of Medicine doctor, told NPR. “Unless there’s a blockage in one of these organs that do it day and night, there’s absolutely no need to help the body get rid of toxins.”
Indeed, areview of the research on detox diets last year concluded that “there is no obliging proof to support the use of detox diets for weight management or toxin elimination.”
Tamara Smith/ Flickr
Myth No. 4: A vaginal steam with mugwort will balance your female hormone levels . A Goop guide to spas raved about a “V-Steam.” It explained the experience thusly 😛 TAGEND
You sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus, et al. It is an energetic releasenot just a steam douchethat balances female hormone levels.
But ob-gyn Dr. Draion Burch told LiveScience that scientific proof doesn’t back this practice up. He even said that it could cause burns or bacterial infections.
A mugwort plant.daryl_mitchell/ Flickr
Dr. Jen Gunter, anothergynecologist, alsoadvised people against the Goop-recommended vaginal steaming, warning that there is a fragile ecosystem within the vagina that can easily be disturbed. She also pointed out that “balancing hormones … means nothing medical, ” and that, in any case, “steaming your vagina with wormwood or mugwort will not do something to hormones because these plants are not hormones.”
Finally, Dr. Gunter noted, “the people who push V-steams also require a little anatomy lesson … steam isnt going to get into your uterus from your vagina unless you are using an attachment with some kind of pressure and MOST DEFINITELY NEVER EVER DO THAT.”
Myth No. 5: Leap on a trampoline is vastly better for your health than running .
A Goop post about rebounding, which is a fancy word for doing workout on a trampoline, cited a study that reportedly saw the practice is a lot more beneficial for your heart than running.
“NASA has done research on rebound and found that it is 68 percent more effective for cardiovascular health and fat burning than running! ” the story claimed.
Wedid some digging and found such studies. It’s from 1980. The researchers, who were indeed working with NASA, looked at the differences between oxygen uptake and body acceleration when operating vs. jumping.
Their goal was to figure out which one might be better for cosmonauts dealing with the “deconditioning” that happens when they’re weightless.( Your median gym rat, meanwhile, is probably not trying to find the best workout for zero gravitation, so the results are not entirely relevant .)
The 68% number was actually a measurement of the percentile difference in acceleration( as measured at the back) between operating and jumping. It was not a measurement of fat burning.
Furthermore, such studies merely had eight participants, who were all male. That’s too small and homogeneous of a sample to prove much of anything.
The scientists note in their paper that “heart rate and oxygen uptake ranged from resting to virtually maximal levels, regardless of the type of exercise.” In other words: keep it moving, any which way, and you can reap the heart-healthy benefits of exercise.
Myth No. 6: Chemical-based sunblocks are bad for you, and you should only use mineral-based ones .
We don’t recommend spraying it directly onto your face, however. Spritz it in your hands first.Darron Cummings/ AP Photo
Goop recommends sticking only to “clean, ” non-toxic sunscreens. In explaining “Why chemical sunblocks aren’t great, ” Goop says, “Chemical sunscreens employ a potent combining of chemicals like Oxybenzone, Octinoxate( Octylmethoxycinnamate ), Homosalate, Octisalate, Octocrylene, and Avobenzone, many of which are hormone and endocrine disruptors.”
Scared yet? In fact, clinical analyses have found that these ingredients are not harmful to human health.
In a 2011 study on “sunscreen controversies, ” a squad of doctors from Memorial Sloan-Kettering did a thorough review of previous the investigations and found that the only data proving these ingredients were questionable came from animal analyzes, usually with extremely high doses not analyses in humans, or with dosages typically used in humans.
“None of the data published to date conclusively demonstrate adverse effects on the health of humans from the use of sunscreens, ” the authors concluded. The survey noted in particular that oxybenzone hasn’t presented hormone interruption in humans.
A follow-up study from 2014 came to the same conclusion: sunscreen ingredients aren’t harmful to humen, and applying sunblock to avoid skin cancer is extremely important. You don’t need “clean” sunblocks to getthese benefits.
Myth No. 7: Colon cleansing is a necessary style to remove toxins from your body .
Colon cleansing is another practice that Goop swears by, particularly in this post that includes an interview with Dr. Alejandro Junger, who developed the Clean Program cleanse. “A colonic helps with the removal of the waste that is transiting the colon on its way out, ” Junger says.
When patients are preparing for colonoscopies, which screen for colon cancer, they “clean out” their colon by following a liquid diet, but there are not health benefits to that it’s just so the doctor can see your colon better.
Colonics as “cleanses” in which liquid is shot through a tube in the rectum into the colon aren’t necessary and carry serious risks, according to Mayo Clinic physician Dr. Michael Picco.
“Your digestive system and bowel already eradicate waste material and bacteria from your body, ” he wrote for the Mayo Clinic. “[ Proponents] believe that colon cleansing improves health by removing toxins, boosting your energy and enhancing your immune system. However, there’s no evidence that colon cleansing makes these effects. And colon cleansing can sometimes be harmful.”
The side effects, Picco writes, can include dehydration, infections, vomiting, and even bowel perforations.
As a research article in a publication for family doctors noted: “Colon cleansing has no proven benefits and many adverse effects.”
This is an updated version of a story firstpublished in October 2015.
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