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In the last few weeks, all of

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us have been bombarded with social media

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posts, ironically, about TikTok, a social media

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platform by ByteDance, possibly being shut down

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or being forced to be sold as

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per the United States government. And

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in that light, before we say goodbye to this

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app that helped some of us get through the

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pandemic by checking out cool little recipes and

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dance moves, I figured let's go ahead

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in healthcare and talk about some of the

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healthcare trends that have flooded through TikTok recently.

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I've done this topic before where there have

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been some dangerous things, this time we're going

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to be talking about some trends that are

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actually kind of positive and others that we

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want to be able to warn our patients

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about. I'm Dr. Niket Sonn, Polyurethrhenyl-neighbor internist and

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gastroenterologist, and join me while we review some

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of the positive and negative trends on TikTok

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before it goes away forever. This

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pretty much means we're going to be back to

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Facebook. Remember how we used to check into places?

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Ooh, cringe. Now, before we jump

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into any of these trends, whether they're

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positive or outright negative, remember

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some of the ones that are actually good

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for you. You want to still do your

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research and due diligence before you follow anything

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you hear on social media. 95% of

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the time they're trying to sell you something, and the rest

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of the time it's just hocus pocus. And

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so if there is an exercise challenge or some

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form of healthcare trend that is positive, you want

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to speak to your physician and make sure you've

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read through everything before embarking on it.

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And that brings me to my first topic. The

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big actual trend on TikTok these days are

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walking pads. Now, I'm not saying to any

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of you to go out and buy a

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walking pad, but it's become kind of a

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viral sensation for people who work at home.

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Since the pandemic, many people are

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staying home or working from home,

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and therefore getting physical fitness is

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difficult. The walking pad movement became

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a huge thing, kind of along with the

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Stanley cups, but that's a different topic for

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a different day. is

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a health care trend that primarily started

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as trying to sell you cheap affordable

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walking pads. But what it ends up

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doing was getting people into fitness. And

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so the take-home lesson from this TikTok

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trend is walking, getting movement, and getting

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those 10,000 plus steps, which

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if you've fallen in my previous podcast is

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just an arbitrary number. But again, increasing your

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output, calorie burning, all these things are positive.

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And so that is one TikTok trend that

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I can technically recommend. It's probably better to

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just go out and get some walking in

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a nice fresh air environment or at the

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gym. You don't necessarily have to buy a

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walking pad for this, but encouraging people to

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exercise and get their heart rate up is

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a positive and a win-win. Now

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another great trend comes from our dermatologist

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hauling all over TikTok. There are numerous

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dermatologists who are out there teaching about

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your skin. It is your largest organ

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and they teach a lot about different

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ways you can take care of it.

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In addition to moisturization and various ideas

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for things like acne, they also have

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some great skincare guidelines that have been

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coming more and more common because of

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their TikTok influence. The first

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comes from one of our derm

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gurus about the ABCD for skin

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checks. Looking at lesions and moles

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that might be asymmetric for A,

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B for irregular borders, C

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are they changing in color or shape or

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size, and D if there's any difference in

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their appearance. In other words, high-risk lesions for

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skin cancer. And so because of this, a

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lot of people have been looking at their

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lesions, looking at their moles, and checking their

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partners to see if they have some questions.

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The great thing about this isn't that

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we're trying to get people out there

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to go ahead and figure it out

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themselves. What it's doing is it's asking

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people to look, get curious, and most

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importantly make appointments with their physicians to

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get checked out because prevention is worth

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a pound of cure. Now the next

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really positive trend that's come about from

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the dermatologist besides moisturization, getting your moles

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checked, and so forth has to do

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with the fact of sun protection. Now

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we cannot say this enough, you need

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to wear sunscreen. And the TikTok trends

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actually came about from promoting moisturizers that

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have sunscreen put in. And so what

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they've done is they've basically started a

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trend and people are taking care of

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their skin and wearing more sunscreen to

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prevent skin cancer. And so remember these

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sunscreens will block UVA rays and UVB

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and they're telling people to go ahead and apply it

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regularly every few hours when you're out in the sun

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to prevent you from getting wrinkles, from

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your skin breaking down, from it getting

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damaged and red, but also to prevent

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future skin cancer as well. Because reducing

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sun exposure reduces 90% of

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the visible signs of aging and so by doing so,

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you feel better, you look better. Now most of us

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in healthcare are laughing because we never really get to

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see the sun. So none of us are going to

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look really that old anyway and we're probably going to

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be like the Cullens from Twilight. We just look like

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we never age. Now the next trend

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has to do with fiber. You see 2023

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was a big year for weight loss drugs.

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Between Munjaro, Ozimpic, Wigovi and Zepbond, the

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United States were hit with a great

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deal of medications to help lose weight

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and of course a lot of media

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coverage was around people like Kim Kardashian

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and the like who were using these

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medications to lose weight. Well of course

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this hit tech talk and what ended

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up happening was people realized that these

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GLP-1 medications are extremely expensive and we're

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talking thousands of dollars a month. And

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so it sounded too good to be

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true. Take an injection, you end up

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losing weight, but because the cost people

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looked for affordable options and it gave

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rise to the birth of an unfortunate TikTok

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trend called Budget Ozimpic. And so what people

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were doing was using things like Miralax and

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other laxatives to basically cause them to lose

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a lot of stool weight as well as

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water weight. In addition the weight loss is

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temporary because it's just fluids and more importantly

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laxative abuse is dangerous, you can reduce your

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bicarb and cause other electrolyte abnormalities and so

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it's not a trend that we can ever

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recommend and Budget Ozimpic is one of the

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2023-2024 TikTok trends that needs to go away.

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It reminds me of the

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trend from years ago called Internal Shower or

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Car Wash where people were eating a whole

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bunch of flax seeds that were soaked in

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water. That's great, that's wonderful. Go ahead and

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do that, that's cyber. Just eat more. fiber.

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That's all it is. But unfortunately, shortcuts are always

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going to be thought after. Now the next TikTok

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trend that had no basis in science was something

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called mouth taping. You're going to see people who,

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you know, videotape themselves sleeping with their mouth shut.

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And it's always funny to me that a person

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would actually set up a camera, videotape themselves, and

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then edit it. Mouth taping

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was done to encourage nose breathing,

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which some people believed treated insomnia,

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snoring, and even some crazy touts

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like high blood pressure and depression.

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It became so popular that people started doing

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it when they were running and other people

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started buying products that were touted for mouth

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taping. However, here's what we got to

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remember. There are some benefits

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to breathing through your nose. For example,

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there's some evidence that says maybe you'll

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have better oxygen intake, but mouth taping

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and closing your mouth does absolutely nothing

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for sleep apnea, insomnia, and other real

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medical conditions. In fact, mouth taping can

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be problematic for people who have obstructive

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sleep apnea or nasal deviations. And people

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who snore probably already have those to

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begin with. So mouth taping is another

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dangerous TikTok trend that needs to go

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away. If you or your actual partner

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are snoring, you need to see a

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physician to find out why they're snoring

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and then find out ways to treat it.

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Now Lana Del Rey came out with a

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great song called Summertime Sadness. And basically TikTok

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found a way to turn this into a

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trend. What essentially happened was

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they used this song to allow

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TikTokers to post about their anxiety,

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depression, and general sadness during the

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summer months. Now normally, seasonal

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affective disorder, which is now known as

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major depressive disorder with seasonal pattern. I

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still don't know why the DSM fact

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changed it. Sad was a great little

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abbreviation. But anyway, it's usually associated with

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the winter. Some patients, however, can experience

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changes in their mood, sleep

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and mental health during the summer. And though

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posting about it is not enough to get

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treatment, and TikTok is by no means a

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therapeutic modality, using the summertime

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sadness trend did allow for more

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people to learn and understand that

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something known as sad isn't just an

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emotion, but it's actually a form of

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depression. trend that's overall pretty safe

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and allowing people to get more information and

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access to care in my books is a

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win-win. And for those of you who do

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have patients with major depressive disorder with seasonal

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pattern or the old disease known as seasonal

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affective disorder, the best thing to do is

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have them come in, speak to them, and

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then of course work with your psychiatry colleagues

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to get them the best form of treatment.

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Now another TikTok trend that again doesn't really

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do much but it doesn't necessarily hurt either

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is the onion water trend. Now you might

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be wondering what does this have to do

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with? Well we just came out of

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the winter months and onion water is

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a very common Caribbean tradition which

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is a natural cold and flu remedy to

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help the body heal faster and fight congestion.

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What the trend does is recommend cutting up

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a bunch of red or yellow onions, mixing

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them with water, boiling them, and then letting

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them sit in the fridge overnight so all

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those good nutrients come out into the water

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and then you drink it like a tea.

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Many people believe that onions themselves

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are loaded with essential nutrients, vitamins,

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and antioxidants. The most important thing

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to remember here is that it's hot

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water and onions are a great source of

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vitamin C. So essentially what they're doing is

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they're just drinking tea. Now there's no

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harm in this, there's no negativity with it,

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but again we should also make sure that

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our patients understand the reason it makes you

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feel better is because the vitamin C and

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the hot water. And we also know that

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vitamin C may not necessarily help with reducing

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the cold or preventing colds, it might just

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help with a little bit of an antioxidant

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effect and the jury's still out there. The

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reason why it helps with the congestion and

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it's been used for so many eons in

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the Caribbean is the hot water actually helps

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break up the mucus and the congestion just

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like if you were to have a bowl

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of chicken soup. Now is this

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a trend that you'd recommend? Probably not, I think

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the best thing to do here is probably just

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drink some warm tea or perhaps some soup, but

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it has the same effect. No negativity

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there except maybe a little halitosis. This

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kind of goes along with the same trend

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of garlic and honey. This was another one

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in which patients on TikTok are putting up

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a lot of raw garlic. garlic mixing

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it with honey. Now here's why. Garlic we

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know is an antibiotic. It has some antiseptic

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effects because it has an ingredient known as

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alyssanin. Now studies have suggested that this can

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help with some bacteria but again the research

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is so so few and so far between

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that you can't tell someone hey you've got

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some cellulitis from some garlic on it. It's

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not going to work. And if

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you watch the videos patients are taking a lot of

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raw garlic, mixing it with a lot of honey, letting

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it sit and then they're eating it. Overall

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as long as it's kept in the fridge and

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it's not containing any major negative outcomes there's

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no gas bubbles developing and the container

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itself is not starting to swell. In

10:35

other words concerns for things like contamination or botulinum

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it's not really that big of a deal. But

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it's important that we caution our patients to let

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them know that they're probably not going to get

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a great deal of return on this specific investment

10:47

except for probably some pretty bad breath. But

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personally I think all food should have garlic and

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onion in it simply because of the fact that

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it tastes amazing. And with that ladies and gentlemen

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brings me to the end of this podcast. I'm

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Dr. Nikesh Van Pahl wishing TikTok a possible goodbye

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or a possible hello. We're not sure what's going to

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happen to it but at the end of the day

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it's important for us to know the things our patients

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are learning from these social media outlets and we

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can take a lot of care of them. Thank

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you.