Alice Oglethorpe

<h1> Wellness Claim #1: Sitting Is the New Smoking </h1>

Promoters say that sitting all day can kill you (or, at the very least, pile on the pounds); as a result, every office has at least one person with a mild standing-desk superiority complex.

The truth: Standing wont burn more calories. The difference in metabolism between sitting and standing is almost zero, says David Rempel, M.D., a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Standers also have more foot, leg, back, and joint pain, especially when people go from never standing to doing it for eight or more hours a day, says John-Paul D. Hezel, M.D., a sports-medicine physiatrist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Try this for wellness: Instead of thinking stand, think dont sit all day. Get up and move for five or ten minutes after every 45 spent sitting. Treadmill desks arent the solution. Research found that peoples memory and concentration were worse when they used them.

<h1> Wellness Claim #2: Vaping Cannabis Is the Ultimate Natural Medicine </h1>

The claim is that you can enjoy all the benefits of marijuana, like relaxation and pain relief, without any of the toxins that result from burning it.

The truth: If the vaping deaths this past summer havent made things clear, how about this: Vaping any compound isnt healthy, says Michelle Peace, Ph.D., an associate professor of forensic science at Virginia Commonwealth University. And while cannabis may be useful for certain medical issues, vaping it puts you at risk for others.

Try this: There are other ways to take cannabis, such as in edibles. Though if sleep, anxiety, and pain are your problems, figure out whats causing them and tackle that before turning to a drug.

Businessman doing yoga in office next to laptop

<h1> Wellness Claim #3: Corporate Meditation Programs Help You Work </h1>

Meditation and mindfulness reduce the mental chatter that can leave you exhausted and unproductive. And these practices can be helpful. The question is whether they truly provide the benefits when corporationsincluding Google, Apple, and Nikeprovide opportunities to learn and practice these.

The truth: When companies offer these programs, the message employees hear is that stress is their fault, says Ronald Purser, Ph.D., author of McMindfulness. This takes pressure off the higher-ups to truly reduce burnout, he says.

Try this: Take advantage of a corporate meditation class to learn the techniques. But then use some of that newfound clarity to ask the company if there are other ways it can help cut down on employee stress overall.

<h1> Wellness Claim #4: XYZ Food Prevents Cancer </h1>

Study after study reports very small, isolated findings, like how a fill-in-the-blank superfood fights the Big C.

The truth: No single food will end cancer. And these studies tend to involve taking some extract from a fruit or vegetable and injecting it into mice, says Saad Khan, M.D., an assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Try this: Eat produce. Dont smoke. Exercise. Its not sexy, but it works.

<h1> Wellness Claim #5: Oil Pulling Can Help Your Teeth and Breath </h1>

Practitioners say that using a tablespoon of oilmost often coconutlike mouthwash for about 20 minutes pulls out toxins. This whitens teeth, prevents cavities, and freshens breath.

The truth: Thats a long time to do something thats too unconvincing for the American Dental Association to recommend.

Try this: Fewer than a third of Americans floss daily, so invest your time in that.

<h1> Wellness Claim #6: IV Vitamin Drips Fend Off Disease </h1>

IV lounges want you to sit back, relax, and have nutrients injected into your bloodstream for more energy and better immunity.

The truth: Unless youre severely malnourished and in a hospital, theres nothing superior about getting IV vitamins, says Abby Langer, R.D., owner of the Toronto-based Abby Langer Nutrition.

Try this: Eat decent food. People who have actual deficiencies can benefit from taking a vitamin, but everyone else is getting adequate nutrients through the food they eat, says Langer.

<h1> Wellness Claim #7: MCT Oil Manages Your Energy and Weight </h1>

Can a splash of MCT (medium-chain triglyceride) oil in your morning coffee give you more energy, help you focus, and trim your waist?

The truth: MCT-oil fervor is a case of a little good science taken way too far. Though your body absorbs MCTs easily, this does not mean it will use them for energy instead of storing them as fat. The only people who would benefit from eating more MCTs are those with health issues like Crohns disease or colitis, since they are easier on the digestive tract, says Saroja Voruganti, Ph.D., at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The oil isnt dangerous; it just doesnt have the powers people hope for.

Try this: Add milk or cream to your coffee. Both have vitamins and even some protein.

<h1> Wellness Claim #8: You Have to Keep a Water Bottle Handy All the Time </h1>

The best way to treat your body like a temple, banish fatigue, ace your workout, and end headaches for good is to keep it well watered, some wellness influencers claim. Preferably from a trendy water bottle that you sip from every few minutes.

The truth: Hydration is important, but its been made far more complicated than it needs to be, says Douglas Casa, Ph.D., a sweat and hydration researcher at the University of Connecticut.

Try this: Listen to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: The vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide. Which means drink when youre thirsty and stop when you arent.

<h1> Wellness Claim #9: Eating Activated Charcoal Is a Smart Way to Detox </h1>

The claim goes like this: The charcoal in ink-colored croissants, soft-serve cones, and lemonade will remove toxins.

The truth: Activated charcoal is used in emergency rooms for people who have been poisoned, but charcoal smoothies or charcoal whatever isnt going to detox your body, says Langer. Your liver handles toxins. And activated charcoal can interfere with certain meds.

Try this: Treat your liver right. Nourish it with minimally processed foods to keep it healthy.

Between Instagram influencers, Reddit zealots, and the pushy guy at the supplement store, some seriously ridiculousand sometimes dangerouswellness trends have moved from fringe theory to health gospel. Here are the new health virtues that shouldn't beand a few tactics you can use to actually improve your life, minus the hype of all those wellness lies.

The 9 Biggest Lies in Wellness

Everything you eat-and plenty of things that you do (even sleep)-can affect the microbes in your gut. Down a fiber-filled salad and they produce helpful waste products that speed digestion along. Narrowly miss a car crash on your way home and your body unleashes hormones with a cascade of effects that can alter the microbes environment and cause digestive distress. Microbes are like the office managers of your gut, involved in all that happens inside you in a day. Nothing goes well if you piss them off. If your gut isnt happy, nobodys happy. It gets grumpy-in the form of gas, bloating, constipation, general discomfort-and nothing good flows from there.

Experts are beginning to see that gut trouble tends to spring from a fairly simple concept: an imbalance of helpful and unhelpful bacteria. The gut contains over a trilliondifferent bacterial organisms, which play a much bigger role in how your body functions than we used to think, says Kara Gross Margolis, M.D., an associate professor at Columbia University Medical Center and spokesperson for the American Gastroenterological Association.

Here are six top triggers that can make a healthy gut go awry:

<h1> Morning Coffee (and Nothing Else) </h1>

Breakfast has come under fire lately for not being the most important meal of the day, as some want you to think. But your gut begs to differ, says Jack Gilbert, Ph.D., a professor at the University of California San Diego and cofounder of the American Gut Project, an investigation into the human microbiome. For your intestines, morning food is critical. The bacteria in your intestine have their own circadian rhythm, he says. This makes their balance shift dramatically throughout the day. For example, microbes that produce tryptophan to help you feel sleepy flourish in the evening. A fiber-filled breakfast feeds the bacteria you require during waking hours, causing them to multiply and release chemicals you need to power through the day. When you disrupt their circadian rhythm, it can lead to the production of chemicals that can make you feel sluggish, says Gilbert.

Eggs first thing, turkey-and-cheese sandwich for lunch, sushi for dinner; sure, this sounds like a healthy diet. But wheres the fiber (as in fruits, vegetables, beans)? You should get 38 grams daily; all those foods have almost none. Good bacteria eat fiber-its like their candy-and when they consume it, they produce short-chain fatty acids, which prevent inflammation and help nerve endings in your intestine move things along, says Gilbert. Without it, expect an intestinal traffic jam. Constipation can bring on bloating, since it gives waste more time to ferment and produce gas.

You may also be missing out on microbes that help regulate mood. Not only does your gut produce 95 percent of your bodys serotonin, but brand-new research links depression and lower amounts of two types of gut bacteria. Scientists dont yet know exactly how to feed these two and are sticking to the eat more fiber mantra, since its a good idea no matter what.

When you fill up on sugar and unhealthy fats-doughnuts, say, or a double cheeseburger-youre feeding your unhelpful bacteria. They then excrete chemicals that lead to inflammation, which can trigger diarrhea, bloating, and constipation.

A steady diet of those fats also messes with a key job of your gut wall. Normally, that wall is lined with a layer of mucus. All that unhealthy fat may thin this protective layer, allowing bacteria to sit right up against the lining of your intestines, according to Gilbert. That unleashes your immune system and sets you up for chronic problems like heart disease and diabetes.

Gas can be caused by the food you eat and the air you swallow if you eat quickly. Some starches and sugars-often good-for-you ones, like those in beans, broccoli, and onions-are poorly digested. So they make it to the colon without being fully broken down. The bacteria there get something to eat but are also more likely to produce gas (more so in some people than others).

Of course, gum chewing and carbonated drinks can cause gas as well. If youre really puffed up, consider an OTC gas-relief product. Theyre thought to reduce the surface tension of air bubbles in your system so theyll dissolve.

When youre anxious or nervous, you may breathe more rapidly and swallow more air, distending your intestines and making you feel bloated and gassy, says Mens Health advisor Felice Schnoll-Sussman, M.D. Plus, you may clench your abs, which can affect bowel motility. Break the tension with whatever it takes-a few deep breaths, a step away from your desk, a set of pushups.

Miss a good nights sleep and you might wind up constipated or bloated in the morning. Your digestive system needs a solid snooze as much as you do. When you dont rest for long enough through the night, your body might not have enough time to digest the food you ate throughout the day, says Dr. Schnoll-Sussman. Dont hinder your gut from working its third shift.

Between the billion-dollar probiotic-supplement push, probiotic additives in food (probiotic chips!), and recent studies linking gut health to everything from mental well-being to cancer, the gut-those 25 feet of intestines sitting inside your core-seems to be the seat of all good health. Despite what manufacturers would have you believe, getting your insides in shape isnt as simple as ingesting a bunch of products.

6 Common Causes of an Unhappy Gut

Politics

Local

World

News

Celebrities

Music

Movies

Entertainment

Sports 

Fashion

Beauty & Health

Relationships & Weddings

Food & Travel

Lifestyle

Domestic

International 

Business

About

Highlights

Selection Criteria

Jury

Terms And Conditions

FAQs

Pulse Influencer Awards

Courses

Careers

Explore categories

Pulse Kenya is the most followed news and entertainment platform in Kenya. It informs and engages young Kenyans around the clock and provides updates by the hour.

Alice Oglethorpe

Articles written by the author

The 9 Biggest Lies in Wellness

6 Common Causes of an Unhappy Gut