– I’ve caught on to the trend of apple cider vinegar, which is supposed to help with a bloated stomach and many other good things. That’s what Elena Eikeland (21) says. She is a frequent user of TikTok, and there she is greeted by a sea of health advice. Put your legs up against a wall to get less bloated. Bath in the bathtub before bedtime for better sleep. Tape your mouth again to sleep better. Elena Eikeland has tried various health tips from TikTok several times in the hope that it will improve her health. Photo: Ingvild Stuedal Taranger / news – I do everything TikTok says I should do, says Elena and laughs. TikTok is filling up with accounts and people promising that their tips are good tips for you watching. – I am constantly receiving advice to improve my health on TikTok. It is often about the digestive system, acne, wrinkles, collagen and diet. But how can you know which are good tips, which tips are perhaps actually harmful to your health, and which tips simply don’t make any difference? – It is extremely difficult to separate good and bad advice and to know which advice to listen to, says doctor and author Kaveh Rashidi. Who and what should we deal with? Rashidi believes that there has been much more health advice on social media and believes that this is partly because it is easier to express one’s opinion and that “everyone” has become an expert. Kaveh Rashidi says that Norwegians are concerned with perfecting body and mind. Photo: Camilla Alexandra Lie / news – But most of the advice you and I see on Snapchat and TikTok is not from healthcare professionals, but from people we look up to and have a high level of trust in since they are famous, good-looking, funny and cool. He does not necessarily think that is the problem, but rather that the distinction between who we should listen to and who we should not listen to has disappeared. – In the past, it was more natural to listen to people with a relevant education, experience with patients or a protected title of some kind. I think that is a good starting point for health councils. Are you influenced by health advice on social media? Yes! I test various health advice I find on social media. No! I have never tested health advice I get on social media. Show result He has a piece of advice for you who are overwhelmed by all the health advice that appears on the screen. – Filtering out as much noise as possible and dealing with as few sources as possible. My source when I wonder about something is Helsenorge.no. Preoccupied with perfecting body and mind Rashidi says that Norwegians are very concerned with perfecting body and mind, and becoming the best version of ourselves. – In principle, it is positive, but if you have a lot of those characteristics, you become vulnerable to unnecessary advice and perhaps lose focus on where the major health benefits lie. Ida-Kristin Ørjasæter Elvsaas says that trends and advice are spread quickly and widely via social media. She is a research fellow at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Oslo Met. – We should pay extra attention to whether the information or advice we see and hear is reliable, so that we can make good and well-thought-out choices that are in the best interest of our health. Fellow Ida-Kirstin Ørjasæter Elvsaas has worked closely on the project “Behind the headlines”. Photo: Privat She points out that a person’s experience with a product or a well-known person’s talk about a product is not documentation for a product’s effect. – When you hear a claim about the effects of a product or health advice, you should always ask what the basis for the claim is. If the basis for the claim is poor, the claim is unreliable. In recent years, the Faculty of Health Sciences at Oslo Met has worked on a project called “Behind the headlines”. In the project, they emphasize five rules to remember that you can keep in mind the next time you find health advice that you want to test out. A connection is not the same as a causal connection. If researchers, for example, find a connection between colds and the intake of vitamin C, this does not necessarily mean that there is a causal connection, i.e. that vitamin C prevents colds. – Even if you find a connection between a measure and a possible result, it does not necessarily mean that the measure is the cause of the result. This connection may instead be due to coincidence or another underlying factor, says research fellow Ida-Kristin Ørjasæter Elvsaas. Results from a single study are not enough In order to obtain reliable knowledge about a product or measure, several solid and relevant studies must be carried out. – Single studies are rarely enough to draw firm conclusions, says Elvsaas. Small studies can be misleading We should also be skeptical of studies with few participants. – The result may have arisen by chance and not because of a real difference between the groups, Elvsaas points out. Pay extra attention to studies in special groups and animal studies Experiments carried out among animals or in special groups are not necessarily transferable to you. – Always ask yourself whether the comparisons include people similar to yourself or not. Studies that only include animals, or only a particular group of people, may not produce results that are relevant to most people. Theories about how something works do not have to be true in reality. An assumption about an effect of a measure can be misleading. Measures are actions or products used to maintain or improve health. – It may happen that the assumption or theory does not work in practice. An explanation of how or why a measure can work does not therefore prove that it actually works, or that it is safe.
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TikTok contains a sea of health advice – five rules to remember to distinguish good from bad advice – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
