The biggest crazes, cons and quacks in wellness

Only 5% of Australians actually follow dietary guidelines, and we prefer weird and wacky wellness therapies.

Did you know that every year we spend around $ 5 billion on health treatments that do very little?

This is the statistic that Dr. Brad McKay, host of Embarrassing Bodies Down Under and local Sydney GP, shakes.

In an interview with Body + Soul’s daily podcast Healthy-ish, Dr. McKay for hating when people waste their money on these alternative therapies.

“Five billion dollars. We could hook that up to Medicare and do a lot of good with it, instead of people eating a lot of dust and having a lot of capsules that don’t work or physical treatments that are really rubbish, ”he said to presenter Felicity Harley in Healthy-ish – Episode The Biggest Follies, Cons, and Quacks in Wellness.

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He says we have to be incredibly demanding online and remember that influencers without accreditation (i.e.

“They’re in every pocket, on every phone, and you can say whatever you want. They do not fall under AHPRA. You have no responsibility to the medical association. They really have a ‘free for all’ unless they say something about COVID, and then they can get closed a bit (there are a few more legal powers there right now), ”he says.

“But really, people can just say anything. They are often very insincere. They don’t really say, hey, you should try this green smoothie and by the way, I have shares in the company too and … I get a share of it. “

He adds that things can go a little wrong here, as infamous “wellness warriors” have claimed over the years that they treat serious illnesses and cancer with “healthy diets” and other strange therapies.

As they share their personal experiences, this has the natural effect of swaying desperate sufferers in search of a way out of their illness, sometimes with catastrophic effects on their health.

“We like tricky things. We like to eat celery on Tuesday and a lot of carrot juice with ginger on Thursday. These weird and strange hobbies and techniques and rituals that sometimes develop give us the false assurance that we are doing everything right for our health, even though it often does nothing at all, ”adds Dr. McKay added.

So – how should you live a healthy life?

Dr. McKay says this isn’t the answer everyone wants to hear, and it may be boring – but moderation is key.

“When you say, hey, you should eat five servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit every day, and maybe a little less meat. Don’t eat too much processed foods … this is stuff we’ve heard of before. So doctors like me sound a bit like a broken record, ”he explains.

“In Australia we find that only about five percent of Australians follow dietary guidelines. So 95 percent of us don’t always do what we’re used to hearing. It’s not that the guidelines fail, but it is we who fail us all if we follow them. “

His only tip if you want to do something for your health? Reduce your alcohol consumption.

“If you lead a healthy lifestyle but drink like crazy on the weekends, it will add a huge increase in the number of cancers for your life. So it is really important to limit your alcohol consumption and not think, ‘If I take multivitamins during the week, I can inject on the weekend’. “

Sad but true!

Learn more about Dr. McKay’s book Fake Medicine (Hachette, $ 32.99). Or follow him on Instagram, @drbradmckay

source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/the-biggest-crazes-cons-and-quacks-in-wellness/