In a better world, Gwyneth Paltrow’s claim to fame would have remained her acting career. Here in our world, she’s caught the public eye with something much more serious: her strange attachment to alternative medicine.
Since 2008 (when it was a weekly email newsletter) the self-proclaimed “lifestyle brand” has been delivering New Age health advice to those who’d listen, meeting occasional criticism over practices like vaginal steaming and an ill-fated “food stamp challenge” attempt. Most recently, Gwyneth and her team met Dr. Jen Gunter’s criticism with a response posted on the Goop blog refuting the claim that they were promoting dangerous pseudoscience. A large part of this response was authored by Dr. Steven Gundry, who recently declared while speaking that swallowing one Aleve is akin to “swallowing a hand grenade,” but sure—let’s run with it for now, shall we?
For someone who spends so much time claiming that the medicine and products we’re recommended by doctors are dangerous, negligent, or even cancer-causing, Gwyneth is quick to deny that her website rails against proven medicine. She claims trust in what she calls “Western medicine,” but questions that and everything else in our lives on a regular basis. If you believe Goop’s health blog, everything is making you sick. Just searching the for the keyword “toxic” on the website brings up post after post fearing that our clothing, our mani-pedis, our deodorant, and even our cell phones are killing us. Goop has taken a healthy interest in doing one’s own research to an entirely new level, and its advice about managing personal health can be downright dangerous.
When it comes to actually debunking the often ridiculous advice that Goop prescribes for imagined problem after imagined problem, there are plenty of doctors on the case. Dr. Jen Gunter, mentioned earlier, is one of them. There’s an entire section of her blog dedicated to Goop’s bad advice. We’re looking at a lot of qualified people who show an interest in explaining why the content is wrong—but why do people, even some well-educated people who should know better, listen?
The reason is simpler than you’d expect, and perhaps more despicable. Homeopathy, alternative medicine, and New Age health advice has always maintained some kind of popularity. Oftentimes these pseudosciences have set their sights on a wealthy, educated population, and found an impressive audience. The anti-vaccine movement thrives in that subset, and for good reason: these are people who feel their individuality and freedom of choice is very important, and who are inclined to do their own research. The trouble is that the most accessible research isn’t always the most credible. Those people who don’t have experience in research will sometimes see only one or two fringe studies which claim the worst of medical practices—even studies which have already been debunked—and use them as reference.
Taking agency in your own health is a good thing, don’t get me wrong. The number of people whose neglect of themselves has seriously affected their health, often in irreversible ways, is extraordinarily high. But in the world we live in, where there is a wealth of information and not many information-savvy people to work through it, it can be difficult to settle on what’s true. For many people who subscribe to alternative systems of medicine and less-than-proven methods, their turn to the ways of New Age health advocates and homeopathic “doctors” is a last ditch effort.
The homeopathy industry, like many other industries within the realm of alternative medicine, capitalizes on every mistake the healthcare system makes. I will be the first to stand up and explain how flawed the medical-industrial complex we have created is, and within it there are many people who fall through the cracks or who are improperly treated. Unfortunately, those are often the first people who turn to potentially damaging alternative care.
In the annals of Goop’s health blog you can find reference after reference to chronic pain and chronic illness. The website and its contents have a target audience, and that audience is women, as they themselves have discussed. The truth is that chronic pain and illness are both often poorly understood or treated in practice. Women, too, are constantly reporting being treated poorly or disregarded by their doctors; there are stories upon stories of chronically ill women whose illnesses were ignored for years by doctor after doctor. There is a serious problem with institutionalized sexism in the medical community, and countless chronic disorders which are common in women are under-researched as a result. Is it any surprise, then, that many of the people who fall into the alternative medicine trap are women and the chronically ill?
These women are afraid. They feel disregarded and unheard, they have been told again and again that they are whiny, oversensitive, or even lying. The idea that medicine has been wrong the whole time—that there is, in fact, a simple and easy to understand treatment or even cure—is naturally compelling. Being promised that something can help them, especially when that thing is as simple as a “detox” or a “cleanse,” gives them hope.
Alternative medicine promises all of these things and more, and as a result its industry is growing rapidly. These people do not want to help you. They want money, and they are willing to get it through any means necessary: even friendly-looking Goop is trying to tell you that you have a hidden yeast infection or a parasite that your doctor just hasn’t seen. You can find links to Goop’s shop in nearly every article posted. The same online store that’s selling you $240 sunglasses also boasts a “wellness” section consisting of nearly one hundred items.
There is no harm in taking your health seriously and doing your own research. There is no harm in questioning what you’re told. There is harm, massive harm, in the pursuit of poorly researched and unsafe alternative medicine. We live in a world where chiropractors are claiming to cure asthma, medical doctors are becoming less widely trusted, and the lack of understanding and communication between scientists & the average person has given way to confusion and fear. Those who sell alternative medicine are willing, prepared, and even determined to take advantage of you in this environment. The desperate and afraid, those willing to take a chance to find peace of mind, are so inclined to buy into this—and they do.
People today are faced with a strange and important responsibility: the care and maintenance of their own education about themselves and their lives. In a time in history during which we are suddenly able to access immense amounts of information, many of us haven’t yet learned the skills necessary to filter it and understand it as it applies to our lives, nor to discern truth from myth. The Goop phenomenon and the rise of dangerous medical myths, alternative medical practices, and profiteering pseudoscience only further proves that we have to learn how to be better. Otherwise. . . Well, otherwise, we’ll be stuck buying psychic vampire repellent forever.
Secondary Thought 