"I've made no mistakes. I'm never learning from them. I got no regrets. I wanna do it again."
"I've made no mistakes. I'm never learning from them. I got no regrets. I wanna do it again."
I'm worried about the trust that people put into celebrity wellness experts like Gwyneth Paltrow.
This week’s soundtrack: The Faint - “Take Me To The Hospital”
Gwyneth Paltrow is on trial right now for a 2016 ski crash in Utah in which she ran over a senior citizen. I feel bad for the guy, but, let’s be honest: that is an objectively funny thing. A movie star barreling down a ski hill, only to slapstick-style run over an old man.
Paltrow has become richer and arguably more well-known in the broader zeitgeist for goop – her “wellness” empire – than for her acting. Because of this massive empire, her recent comments about her diet and long COVID have plenty of people in the scientific establishment worried.
If you’re not following, Paltrow claims to deal with long COVID via eating a specific diet. This, on its own, is not a bad thing. In fact, her diet seems pretty normal for a person trying to be healthy (lots of vegetable and whole foods, not a lot of processed foods, etc.), but I think the method by which she got there is the problem. Paltrow – as seemingly is the case in the current attention economy – spoke about this on a podcast with her doctor, Will Cole. Again, this would be a normal and healthy thing, were Cole a nutritionist or a medical doctor (the ones licensed with MDs). He is not. He is “Dr. Will Cole, DNM, IFMCP, DC.” Doctor of natural medicine, a functional medicine certified practitioner and doctor of chiropractic medicine. None of these acronyms indicate a certification to practice medicine as most of us think of it. Cole got his DC at Southern California University of Health Sciences, which is not affiliated with the University of Southern California (a major and well-regarded university which does, in fact, have a full-blown medical school).
(An aside: Functional medicine and natural medicine – and the certifications therein – are not without value. Plenty of people who have gone through traditional medical paths – people with RNs and MDs and the like – are also certified by the Institute for Functional Medicine. Functional medicine can help people a lot by treating root causes rather than treating symptoms immediately, but do not mistake it for being an actual doctor or an internist or a specialist. It’s not an MD degree.)
What Dr. Will Cole, DNM, IFMCP, DC is, more than a traditional doctor, is a brand. Not unlike Paltrow herself, he’s built his business with soft lighting, a podcast and adjacency to regular old fame. He’s not unlike Dr. Phil (the patron saint of this world) or that weird guy with the long hair who hangs out with Alex Jones. He plays the influencer game well, but that gets really dicey – and potentially dangerous – when we’re talking about health.
Again, Cole’s nutrition advice is not inherently bad for Paltrow (though actual dieticians have some issues), but that’s because it’s just a healthy diet (An army of real life dietitians could’ve told you that). And I don’t doubt it helps her; eating healthily is good and usually makes people feel better! But, it’s not a way to manage long COVID – a thing that is fairly new and there is still science to be determined about it.
I’m not treading particularly new ground here and there is certainly a potential for gendered stupidity re: the term “influencer,” but Paltrow’s status as a person who knows things is a pretty obvious picture of how our civilization has gone wrong. But, of course, she is more symptom than disease, as the broad institutional mistrust involved turns people to her and Jones and other such “outsiders.”
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Skepticism and conspiracy have gotten conflated a lot in recent decades. In fact, the term “skeptic” is used by conspiracy theorists as a euphemism for their own wild-eyed ideas. They’re “just asking questions” about decided science or established facts. It is, in a way to make sense of their own worldview or that nonsensical. Where conspiracy theorists and “wellness” intersect is the twofold notion that the free thinkers know better than institutions and that the free thinkers see the world in a more ordered fashion.
Which is where Paltrow’s – and Jones’ and the cadre of similar hucksters – whole steez comes in. goop became somewhat (in)famous in a different judicial situation when the company had to pay $145,000 for the false claims it made about its very silly vagina eggs. The idea that said eggs could “balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles, prevent uterine prolapse, and increase bladder control,” of course, is ridiculous, but it does really sound good. Doesn’t it?
The conflation between health skepticism and medical conspiracy is a bummer. Skepticism is key part of any civilization’s continuing evolution and conventional wisdom requires a constant line of conversation and inquiry into its validity. New fixes to old problems can come from different places, but established science is science. The western scientific establishment does downplay non-western solutions too often and the practice of science itself, hopefully, means that is evolving. The criticisms of big pharma and a commodified and broken (and largest sexist and racist) American health care system are definitely well-founded, but they are not complete. Again: settled science is science. And critical thinking about institutions should not mean that those institutions should be thrown out entirely.
Paltrow and Cole, for all of their faults, are not even close to the worst offenders in the free thinking medical world (Jones comes to mind first, but the entire anti-vaccine movement is wildly dangerous); they are mostly harmless snake oil salespeople. The problem is not that someone buys a vaginal egg or eats more vegetables. The problem comes in when they expect to be cured of bladder problems (in the former example) or long COVID (in the diet example) when the people selling these ideas or products cannot come through with those promises.
GovExec Daily
Last week, we restarted our series in which producer Adam Butler and I talk about a topic, instead of having a guest. Our jumping-off point in this latest episode was a study that outlined what makes orgs have an effective remote plan, but it was mostly a conversation about what has worked for us in remote work. Not shockingly, it’s been a very popular episode because people actually care about remote work (and the threat of it going away). It truly is a new normal.
I also wanted to highlight a conversation I had with Dr. Stuart Shapiro about his book Trump and the Bureaucrats: The Fate of Neutral Competence. I’m also tired of talking about Trump, but the book is very interesting and speaks to the threats to the professional civil service as an institution.
Lulu Update
I was talking to a friend last week about my poor sleep schedule and how much Lulu contributes to my feeling wiped out any day. In short, Lulu uses me as a pillow – yes, she sleeps in my bed – and she somehow gains the density of a neutron star when she sleeps, thus making it hard for me to move her. My friend suggested that I train Lulu to not sleep on the bed with me, but I am weak and mostly sleepy when this is a problem. But, instead of saying that, I just claimed that Lulu is a “sleep terrorist and there’s no negotiating with terrorists.”
Relatedly, here is her sleeping on my legs over at Instagram (click to hear her snore like a lawnmower):
A Recommendation: Weekend napping
As you can imagine, my wonky sleeping means that I am often very tired on weekends. Despite her best efforts, Lulu’s sleep terrorism cannot stop me from getting on the couch, stretching out and snoozing like a baby right around mid-afternoon on a Saturday or Sunday. It’s truly invigorating.
Five stars, A+ to napping on a weekend day.