Social media users are increasingly surrounded by people promising to improve their health, sleep, digestion, hormones, stress levels and even life expectancy. On Instagram and TikTok, wellness creators offer explanations for everything from persistent fatigue to abdominal bloating, often recommending supplements or lifestyle changes as solutions.
Within seconds, a video might blame cortisol for a swollen abdomen, attribute a person’s mood to their gut microbiome and promote a supposedly revolutionary supplement that promises to address both.
Some of these creators are doctors, dietitians and scientists who use social media to make research more accessible. Others have less clearly established credentials but impressive-sounding titles, such as wellness coach, hormone expert, gut health specialist or longevity mentor.
On social media, however, these different voices often compete on equal terms. Medical professors, nutritionists, supplement sellers and people promoting unproven treatments can appear in the same format, with the same limited time to capture an audience’s attention.
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The result is a growing challenge for users trying to distinguish evidence-based health information from commercial claims and pseudoscience.
Greece steps up scrutiny of wellness providers
Greek authorities have begun examining cases in which wellness advice crosses into the provision of health services.
The National Transparency Authority has drawn up an inspection program covering 118 facilities and service providers following an investigation into online references to medical services.
Preliminary findings include facilities where products used in cosmetic procedures were found, as well as providers offering bioresonance, colon hydrotherapy and lipolysis services. The inspections also identified a provider of the recently much-discussed practice known as “quantum biofeedback.”
The National Organization for Medicines (EOF), Greece’s medicines regulator, has also intervened over the online promotion of prescription weight-loss drugs by health professionals and celebrities or influencers, sometimes presented as public information.
Meanwhile, the Hellenic Association of Dietitians and Nutritionists has announced that 10 cases involving alleged illegal practice of the profession have been referred to prosecutorial authorities. Much of the activity in question was identified on Instagram and Facebook.
The phenomenon is not unique to Greece. It reflects a broader international market in which health advice, personal branding and product promotion increasingly overlap.
A $1.8 trillion wellness industry
Behind the growing wellness culture lies a vast commercial market. McKinsey has valued the global consumer wellness market at $1.8 trillion a year.
The promise is no longer simply to stay healthy, but to remain constantly “optimized.” Consumers are encouraged to track their sleep, steps, recovery, stress and glucose levels, monitor their metabolism, identify supposed deficiencies and find ways to improve their bodies—even when they are not ill.
Under this approach, the body is treated as a project that always needs further improvement rather than something that can simply be considered healthy.
The commercial risks are illustrated by cases involving prominent figures in the international wellness industry.
The wellness entrepreneur who falsely claimed to have cancer
Belle Gibson was once a high-profile figure in the international wellness scene. The young Australian claimed she had brain cancer and was treating it through diet and alternative therapies.
She built a substantial following, launched an app, published a book and turned her personal story into a business.
The central claim, however, was false: she had never had cancer. An Australian court found that she had engaged in misleading conduct and fined her 410,000 Australian dollars in 2017.
Dispute over personalized fitness programs
In the United States, fitness influencer Brittany Dawn Davis sold exercise and nutrition programs advertised as personalized. The state of Texas alleged that many customers instead received generic or nearly identical plans.
Some of her clients had histories of eating disorders. The case was resolved in 2023 through a $400,000 settlement.
Both cases illustrate the potential consequences when health-related claims and commercial promises are presented to consumers without the transparency they expect.
When pseudoscience borrows the language of science
Misleading wellness content does not necessarily look unscientific. Instead, it can imitate the appearance and language of legitimate research, using screenshots of studies and technical terms such as microbiome, cortisol, inflammation and insulin resistance.
Modern pseudoscience does not always need to reject science outright. It can borrow science’s vocabulary and presentation to make unsupported claims appear credible.
For the average user, checking those claims can be difficult. It takes time and specialist knowledge to determine whether a study is reliable, whether its findings have been clinically validated or whether a content creator has selected research simply because it supports a product being promoted.
A systematic review of 39 studies, published online in 2025 in the journal Health Communication, examined wellness misinformation on social media.
The researchers identified a pattern in which influencers and recommendation algorithms can amplify the circulation of unverified health claims. Personal experience was particularly important: the statement “I tried it and it worked” can be more persuasive than a reference to scientific literature.
How influencers build trust with their audiences
The influence of wellness creators extends beyond the information they share. It can also stem from the sense of familiarity they cultivate with their followers.
When users watch an influencer prepare breakfast, go to the gym, discuss a breakup, share insecurities or show parts of their home and family life, they can develop the impression that they know the person.
Researchers describe this one-sided sense of familiarity as a parasocial relationship.
When the influencer eventually recommends a product or treatment, the recommendation does not come from a stranger. It draws on trust that has already been established through repeated exposure to the creator’s personal life.
That relationship can make commercial recommendations more persuasive, even when the claims behind them have not been adequately verified.
Why telling users to distrust the internet is not enough
The obvious response to misinformation might be to tell people not to believe everything they see online. But that advice is limited when unreliable content does not necessarily look unreliable.
A post can be polished, calm in tone and filled with scientific terminology. Expecting every user to conduct extensive research and verify every claim places a burden on individuals who may lack the time or expertise to do so.
The answer is not necessarily to remove doctors and scientists from social media. On the contrary, their presence may be more important than ever in a space where evidence-based information competes with unverified claims.
Responsibility also extends to the platforms that determine what users see, the companies that pay content creators, professional associations and public authorities.
These groups have a role in addressing situations in which personal opinion becomes a medical claim or advertising is presented as public information.
The central problem is not simply that so many people are willing to offer health advice. It is that social media algorithms can place doctors, coaches, influencers and supplement sellers side by side, leaving users to determine which claims deserve their trust.