Gwyneth Paltrow’s health brand 'Goop'

[MErmaid]

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opini...th-paltrow-s-goop-wage-war-science-ncna801436

IMO I liked this article because it represents how the lack of good honest science created the tug of war consumers feel with “wellness brands” vs Big Pharma. Big Pharma has burned us with some questionable studies, and a general lack of trust was created with surging price increases. Wellness brands are gaining ground in establishing a place in our homes, even if many are not scientifically proven.

I was thinking our new site could, as one of our strategies, could debunk both big Pharma and wellness brands when appropriate. In this way we could use pure clean science as a way to educate and inform, with an unbiased judgement. I feel there is a strong need in the marketplace for an honest debate, especially when Big Pharma spends more money on marketing than R&D.

So our new site could have a niche market, in that we are open to understanding both the Big Pharma and “wellness brands” perspectives, but use pure science to debunk or affirm the credibility of each individual “product”. I realize some of us may not view being open minded to new ideas as a priority (per our poll), but I think that being open minded and unbiased is essential to debating/debunking.

 

[Little Bluestem]

especially when Big Pharma spends more money on marketing than R&D.

I did not know that. How appalling!

I do not think all "wellness brands" should be dismissed out-of-hand, just because they do not charge enough to be able to afford research studies. I have found some to be very helpful.

ETA: Augh! I am going to have to make a bunch of posts to get myself off of moderation.

Edit Again: Well, it looks like the moderation is very fast!

Now that I have read the article, I want to say that I had never heard of Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop brand. It sounds pretty dubious. That doesn't mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater.

 

[BurnA]

I did not know that. How appalling!

Do we know if it's true?
I am sceptical.

 

[Woolie]

I like your ideas, @MErmaid.

But I disagree that lack of faith in big pharma is the primary cause of this problem. Its part of human nature to seek cures, and if there aren't any from medical science, we go elsewhere. No amount of improving conventional medicine will ever change this.

 

[April]

Merged thread

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NHS England CEO Simon Stevens has accused, quite rightly, Gwyneth Paltrow's 'dubious wellness products and dodgy procedures' of being potentially damaging to health, as well as her Netflix series spreading misinformation and pseudoscience. Maybe he should take a look at his own organisation - plenty of quacks and charlatans operating there!

 

[Trish]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51312441

BBC news item on this:

Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop series on Netflix slammed by NHS chief
Gwyneth Paltrow's new Netflix series poses a "considerable health risk" to the public, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens has said.

The Goop Lab, filmed at the headquarters of the actress's wellness brand, Goop, explores the effectiveness of alternative therapies for physical and mental illnesses.

Netflix says the series is "designed to entertain, not provide medical advice".

Mr Stevens accused it of spreading "misinformation".

A spokeswoman for Goop said it was "transparent when we cover emerging topics that may be unsupported by science or may be in early stages of review".

The controversial health and wellness series debuted on the streaming platform on Friday 24 January.
...

Mr Stevens took aim at the "dubious wellness products and dodgy procedures" featured in the series, while speaking at an academic event in Oxford on Thursday.
...

 

[James Morris-Lent]

I wonder what he thinks about the lightning process...

 

[April]

Not to mention MUS.....

 

[wdb]

I hope Netflix is reading the reviews.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11561206/ratings

 

[rvallee]

I mean, sure, but right back at ya. Clean up your own quacks if you're gonna call out competing quacks. Pseudoscience legitimized is still pseudoscience. How about no pseudoscience instead?

Just find a STOP mat, jump on it and don't let it affect you. That's it goes, right?

 

[large donner]

I wonder what he thinks about the lightning process...

Gwynth needs to gets published in the BMJ then it will all be ok.

 

[DokaGirl]

Gwynth needs to gets published in the BMJ then it will all be ok.

 

[Snowdrop]

You have to wonder at Netflix. They do some really horrid stuff on health related issues. Someone in charge of production must be very clueless there.

At least though the IMDb page gives 'The Goop Lab' a 2.1 rating which is at least something.
The comments are scathing of both Goop and Netflix.

I hold out no particular hope that Netflix will learn from this debacle.

 

[Diluted-biscuit]

You have to wonder at Netflix. They do some really horrid stuff on health related issues. Someone in charge of production must be very clueless there.

At least though the IMDb page gives 'The Goop Lab' a 2.1 rating which is at least something.
The comments are scathing of both Goop and Netflix.

I hold out no particular hope that Netflix will learn from this debacle.

the controversy probably just increased viewing numbers. Season 2 is likely......

 

[rvallee]

Paywalled but important article: Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘Goop Lab’ is horrible. The medical industry is partly to blame.

Bit too much emphasis on the women side, which is correct but not the whole thing, rather than chronic health issues, but overall this is an important point. And there are few medical institutions with more to blame for this than the NHS, a bastion of psychosomatic pseudoscience currently trying to both fight pseudoscience while actively promoting its own brand.

In the past few years, as a surgeon, I have become increasingly aware of the scourge of the wellness industry. I am seeing patients who opt for diets, supplements or magical therapies instead of the less seductive — though scientifically grounded — medicine I have to offer. Like everyone else, I, too, am constantly bombarded with messages in advertisements and from well-meaning friends as to how this diet or that vitamin is the key to health, longevity, beauty and status.

For doctors such as myself, the rise of this brand of wellness is distressing. However, medicine as a profession and a science has no doubt played a part in the genesis and growth of big wellness. For virtually the whole of its existence, medicine has disenfranchised women and, to varying degrees, continues to do so. Even as medicine has modernized with an emphasis on autonomy and resolving bias, it remains, at times, paternalistic and patriarchal. It comes as no surprise then that women are overrepresented in the wellness industry, both as consumers and providers.

If you feel excluded by medicine, why wouldn’t you look elsewhere? The wellness industry has filled a gap in health and well-being that the practice and science of medicine have left wide open. The wellness industry purports to be everything that conventional medicine is not; egalitarian, hopeful and accessible. Even though it is elitist, privileged and full of falsehoods, it does not matter to those who seek its comfort. It’s offering something that my profession, despite advances and improvements, has not been able to deliver consistently.

Last month, the head of Britain’s National Health Service delivered a stinging assessment of the growth of the wellness industry and the harms that the willful ignorance of science is bringing. Although it is entirely appropriate that health-care professionals fight the rising tide of medical misinformation, if we do not recognize and address our own role in its creation, the fight will be futile. Medicine needs to understand that we have contributed to the Goops of the world. The elevation of expensive and even harmful remedies is in part our own doing.

To truly ensure people’s safety, medicine must of course denounce dangerous, unnecessary and expensive snake oil, but it must also turn our attention inward and provide care that people need and want, communicated with compassion and supporting their autonomy. If we are to ensure that people are protected against medical half-truths and harmful remedies, my profession must move far away from the patriarchal practices that have alienated so many. Medicine has helped create this problem, and we must do better to be its solution.

 

[Sisyphus]

You have to wonder at Netflix. They do some really horrid stuff on health related issues. Someone in charge of production must be very clueless there.

At least though the IMDb page gives 'The Goop Lab' a 2.1 rating which is at least something.
The comments are scathing of both Goop and Netflix.

I hold out no particular hope that Netflix will learn from this debacle.

They’re not clueless, they’re Hollywood. That’s a long way below clueless.

 

[Mij]

Merged thread

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Not sure where to post this considering the source.

Gwyneth Paltrow felt 'amazing' after blood-filtering treatment

"The Hollywood actress-turned-wellness guru, 53, has revealed she turned to a therapy called therapeutic plasma exchange to cleanse her blood of toxins such as microplastics and mould - and the Iron Man star felt "amazing" afterwards.

According to the Daily Mail newspaper's Richard Eden in his Eden Confidential column, she said: "I'd been going through lots of health stuff with that kind of ambiguous chronic stuff that medicine normally has a harder time dealing with: chronic fatigue, brain fog.

"I was so interested in this idea that we could filter out things in our blood that were making us more sick.'"

She added: "'I felt amazing after. I felt this immediate unburdening and clarity and lightness."

The publication reports Gwyneth underwent five sessions of the treatment at a clinic in Chicago, Illinois with the final cost totalling around £36,500.

Gwyneth - who shares a lot of wellness advice through her Goop website - previously admitted she's always keen to try new treatments even if critics can "get really reactive" over her choices."

​

 

[Kitty]

I can hear my granddad muttering "More money than chuffing sense" from behind the Green 'Un.

 

[Mij]

I saw this message written on X by an MD Specialist in Regeneration Medicine(stem cells) Board-certified: Sports & Family Medicine.

What on earth is this treatment?

"Gwyenth Paltrow had been struggling with Long COVID for several years. After trying countless different therapies, she finally found something that worked: TPE, or therapeutic plasma exchange.

-This has been around since the 1950s and 1960s.
-There’s nothing NEW about it.
-Traditionally it was done in hospitals since the 1980s.
-Only until recently has TPE been made available in an out-patient setting.
-Traditionally it was used to treat some rare diseases like Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), Myasthenia gravis (MG), Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and Waldenström macroglobulinemia.
-Since 2020, TPE has been established as a therapy for neurologic, hematologic, renal, and autoimmune disorders, and is also used in functional/advanced medicine settings for toxin and inflammatory burden reduction.

I am adding this procedure at my Miami office beginning in 2 weeks.

If you are looking to remove:

-autoantibodies
-Immune complexes
-Cytokines & inflammatory mediators
-Paraproteins Toxins bound to plasma proteins
-Microplastics
-COVID spike proteins / Long COVID
-Mycotoxins, Mold
-Heavy Metals (Mercury)

TPE essentially replaces 20% of your ‘dirty plasma’ with clean ‘healthy toxin-free plasma.’ Even one round has monster potential to help.
Completing this 6x should remove roughly 100% of the toxins from your body".

 

[forestglip]

What on earth is this treatment?

"Gwyenth Paltrow had been struggling with Long COVID for several years. After trying countless different therapies, she finally found something that worked: TPE, or therapeutic plasma exchange.

Here's one study:

Plasma exchange therapy for the post COVID-19 condition: a phase II, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial (2025, Nature Communications) (Thread)

In a phase II, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial, fifty subjects with PCC [post-COVID-19 condition] were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive six sessions of either TPE or a sham plasma exchange and were followed for 90 days (ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT05445674).

There were no diferences between groups in any of the efficacy parameters evaluated. Whereas TPE is safe, it did not lead to any discernible improvement of the PCC in this clinical trial.