CNN —
Netflix’s new series “Apple Cider Vinegar” certainly takes aim at wellness influencers, but the Western medical system isn’t safe from criticism either.
The show is a dramatization of the story of Belle Gibson, a convicted Australian scammer who claimed she had terminal brain cancer who is played by Kaitlyn Dever, and the impact she had by selling books and an app that claimed clean eating made her well again.
Also featured is a fictionalized representation of one of the people Gibson impacted named Lucy. In the show, her character stops her cancer treatments in hopes that Gibson’s method will cure her in a more compassionate way than the hospital system.
Show creator Samantha Strauss said the character of Lucy was important to depict what a lot of people feel when fighting a disease: not listened to, not in control and not acknowledged as a full person.
“So, it makes sense we want to put our faith in the hands of someone (likely beautiful) on the internet,” Straus said in an email. “We know they’re selling us something, but when you’re terrified that you’re sick and dying, or that someone you love is sick and dying, you can’t put a price on hope.”
The problems depicted in the show are not just a work of fiction. There is a real need for more widespread preventative and lifestyle treatment in the US medical system, said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
“There are many patients who are suffering from auto immune diseases, chronic pain diseases, other chronic diseases where their regular medical system has failed them,” he said. “It’s basically just doing kind of Band-Aid fixes to get them past their symptoms.”
Doctors often know that patients feel gaps in care
“It’s entirely understandable that people are starving … for information around healthy eating,” Mozaffarian said.
Diseases that the scientists know are connected to diet –– including diabetes, heart disease, depression and gut problems –– are rampant, he said. And not enough funding has gone into research about how other health problems are connected to what you eat, Mozaffarian said.
That means many times you go to see a doctor they aren’t going to have a lot of current information on how foods or behaviors impact your concerns, he said.
“You have this perfect storm of widespread disease, widespread confusion and widespread desperation for information,” Mozaffarian added. “And while that craving for better nutrition information can be a good thing, it also leaves people open to people with half-true or completely false health claims to step in.”
In addition, people don’t always feel comfortable bringing their wellness practices to their doctor, said Dr. Summer Allen, a family medicine physician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
“They don’t feel like they’re going to have someone give them an open mind or try to understand what’s drawn them to a certain behavior or to a certain lifestyle or health,” she said.
Traditionally, medicine has worked in a paternalistic way, she said. You explained your symptoms to your doctor, they told you what to do, and you did it.
“That’s just not where we’re at from a society standpoint, given just the abundance of knowledge and information we have now, and also because people really are experts about their body and what they’re experiencing,” she said.
It can be tempting to turn to often beautiful influencers to help you solve wellness problems, said show creator Samantha Strauss. Ben King/Netflix
Respected resources exist but can be hard to access
Ideally, everyone would have a team of health care providers who collaborated with you and could help guide you in the behavioral changes to improve your health, but unfortunately, that isn’t always easy, Allen said.
But as some professionals in the field advocate for a more whole-person approach, there are things you can do to connect with resources who can help you integrate prevention, behavior and alternative approaches into your care, she said.
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine has a certification for doctors who specialize in lifestyle behavioral interventions, and you can search for a doctor near you in the database, said Dr. Jonathan Bonnet, a lifestyle medicine-certified physician and clinical associate professor (affiliate) at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Not all insurance plans cover it, but nutritionists are also really helpful for wading through what nutrition “hacks” are worthwhile and what you should focus your diet on for better health, Mozaffarian said.
Striking a balance
The truth is, the things that are shown to be most important to your health aren’t exciting and they aren’t a product you can buy, Bonnet said.
“If anyone is telling you, hey, this is going to change our world and cure everything, that would be more suspect,” Bonnet said. “The larger the claim, the more suspicious I would be.”
Sleeping well, eating whole foods, getting physical activity, reducing your stress and maintaining close relationships should be your biggest priorities –– whether you are fighting a disease or not, he added.
When a new hack or wellness trend pops up, Mozaffarian recommends utilizing a triangle of trust, that is three sources that you trust sharing positive information about it. They could be a government source, a university site, a trusted physician or even studies in a medical journal, he added.
But you don’t have to choose between traditional or alternative medicine, Mozaffarian said. They can work together.
“There are some really good functional medicine doctors who have spent their careers thinking about these things and trying to go to the root cause of disease,” he said. “But there are also a lot who don’t know really what they’re doing.”
And practices that are seen as outside the US medical system, like acupuncture and meditation, actually do show real scientific benefit, he added.
“There have been randomized trials showing that they make a difference in people’s lives and sometimes even beat out medicines for certain conditions,” Mozaffarian said.
Whatever practices or supplements you try, just be sure to tell your doctor about it, Allen said. Some patients are scared to disclose alternative methods they have tried, but it is important that your doctor know so they do not prescribe anything that is harmful when combined with what you are already doing, she said.
Spoiler alert ahead
At the end of the show (spoiler alert), next to depictions of the downfall of a wellness scammer, the audience sees Lucy going for her chemotherapy treatments while also doing yoga, taking ice baths and meditating. Balance is key, Strauss said.
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Clarification: This story was updated to more precisely describe the lifestyle medicine specialty.
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