Following is a transcript of the video:
Gwyneth Paltrow's "Goop Lab" releases on Netflix in a few days [Jan. 24]. The world is aghast ... well, at least the rational world who realized that Goop is a modern snake oil dispensary that sells ineffective "therapies" which have no evidence. You've undoubtedly seen coverage from a multitude of doctors and writers directing their rage at Goop and exposing them for what they are and rightly so. I agree with those pieces, but that's not what this video is about.
When I started the channel, I decided there's no point in me trying to say the same things as proper journalists because I won't do it as well, so instead, what I want to do is ask the question why is Goop so successful? Why is Netflix allowing pseudoscience in the form of this series or any of the other dubious health "documentaries" on their platform? Why is alternative medicine so popular? Unfortunately, I'm forced to conclude, especially as I've spent the whole day today in the emergency department of a local hospital with a family member, that my own profession has to shoulder a lot of the blame.
Alternative medicine, which is often now rebranded as "wellness" or "complementary" medicine -- I feel this episode is really going to give my fingers a workout, isn't it -- has been around as long as illness itself. But until the modern era, it was all alternative medicine. It was a shot in the dark. Doctors might have told me to drink some mercury, drain out a pint of my blood, and cover myself in leeches. No, thanks. I'll take my chances with the shaman that waves a rooster over my head. It'll do about the same amount of good.
But in the last couple of hundred years, medicine finally started discovering and inventing treatments that worked. In the 20th century alone, we have seen incredible advances in the prevention and treatment of diseases like vaccinations, antibiotics, immunotherapy, primary angioplasty, transplants, anesthesia, life-changing, and life-saving things, so why are the quacks and the Goopists still enjoying a roaring success? In fact, why are we seeing a rise in the adoption of alternative medicine? Why is the wellness industry valued at $200 billion? Because modern medicine is failing people.
Make no mistake. Goop operates exactly the same way as anti-vaxxers and naturopaths by sowing seeds of doubt in conventional medicine, but that approach only works because medicine gives the quacks so much ammunition. Now, some of this is through no fault of the people working within medicine. Doctors and scientists are, for example, often unable to make definitive statements about things. That's how science works. As a profession, we've, perhaps, failed at communicating the fact that uncertainty is not necessarily a bad thing. It means we're continually challenging our own beliefs. We may not say, "Hey, this is guaranteed to work," but more something like, "Well, there is some evidence that this may be beneficial in a certain group of people."
However, celebrity influencers have no problem being absolutely definitive in their endorsement of a coffee enema or a detox tea or their belief that their son got autism from a vaccine. They don't have to adhere to the scientific standard and exploit the lack of consensus within the scientific community on topics like diet as "science" doesn't know what it's doing. Another way in which it's not a level playing field is the power of an emotional anecdote over the presentation of actual trial data which has a lot to do with how our brains are wired. While individuals can blog about their experiences, which can be very persuasive, of course, doctors can't share their patient stories.
These problems are hard to counter, but there are many things in medicine that we're not doing well. Over-investigation and overdiagnosis are getting worse and worse. Doctors practice what's called defensive medicine, paralyzed by the fear of missing a diagnosis which you might think is just because of litigation. Although that clearly is a big part, especially here in the West, actually it's because a doctor's greatest nightmare is failing to spot an important diagnosis as the patient might come to harm, and so they send off test after scan after scope after specimen, exposing the patient to often unnecessary and perhaps greater risks than they would have got otherwise.
They're not doing this out of incompetence or some nefarious motive, but the whole system is geared towards testing. I work in the U.K. where I don't get any extra money for doing extra tests, but yet the same practice happens here, and the result of over-investigation and people being extra cautious is patients being labeled with inconclusive diagnoses and ending up having treatments and operations they might never have needed in the first place. I'll do a video on just that topic some time.
Doctors are under pressure to see more and more patients, meaning they spend less and less time with them, when often all that's needed is a proper chat and reassurance instead of the prescription of a pill. What makes it even worse is the doctor's eyes might be fixated on their computer screen instead of on the patient. Doctors, themselves, cite electronic health records as one of the main reasons they no longer enjoy their jobs. They can't concentrate on the whole reason they went into medicine -- their patients. Lest the hospital come down on them like a ton of bricks. We're not clicking all the requisite boxes on the computer. When a holistic healer can spend 30 minutes listening to a patient, is it any wonder the person derives a better experience from them even if the magic beans that they've been sold are completely useless?
Then what about our treatment? Effective therapies sadly often come with unpleasant side effects. Homeopathy does nothing and hence has no side effects. Chemotherapy can cure cancer, but it makes you feel like crap, so homeopathy might appear safer even though it actually isn't. Although I'm lucky enough to work in a country where nobody goes bankrupt due to medical bills, the same can't be said for millions of people around the world. America, of course, being the most notable, leading to doctors being labeled, shills for big pharma, who are only interested in money.
Goop is clearly aimed at women who have historically been poorly treated by medicine. Other groups have also been particularly badly served by medicine, like those with chronic pain, for example. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to treat that condition, and with limited options, often opiates are prescribed, which has, in part, led to the devastating opioid crisis. It's hard to blame desperate people from seeking out other options. I know many of my medical colleagues have anger directed at Gwyneth and her Goopy minions and they should. I do, too, but her success is a symptom of our shortcomings. I'm not trying to portray myself as above any of this. I'm no different to any other doctor, but we're individuals. We want to do better, but the system makes it hard, and I think it's getting worse.
Many things are out of our control like when pharmaceutical companies don't release complete data on a drug or a device company on their device. We're just as in the dark as you. If you've watched this far, let me give you one take-home message. I've highlighted just some of the many problems affecting modern medicine, but the solution is not to turn to quacks like chiropractors or snake oil peddlers like Goop. While medicine isn't perfect, it's still the best and safest option for any serious health condition. Alternative medicine is not harmless. Remedies that aren't subject to safety testing like normal medications are land people in hospitals or worse the mortuary every day. But worst of all, alternative medicine lulls people into a sense of security that they're doing something about their health and that can mean they neglect the opportunity to receive actual medicine. Study after study shows that these people die sooner.
I'm not going to tell you whether to watch The Goop Lab or not. The reviews are out and about what I expected -- lots of mumbo-jumbo about energy healing and psychics -- but also accounts from people about how the conventional medical system in America, as far as I can tell, has failed them. There's an episode featuring Wim Hof and his method of breathing exercises and cold exposure, something that I've made a video on myself and tried extensively, which actually has a bit of science to talk about. I'm hoping that they will avoid the woo that's often overlaid, but I'm not holding my breath.
The very existence and success of companies like Goop depend on an anti-science, anti-intellectual, hocus-pocus standpoint just like flat earthers. They're based around naturalistic fallacies like the appeal to ancient wisdom and emotive anecdotes instead of evidence. They reject the scientific model, the very thing that has extended life expectancy by 40 years in the last century and seen millions of children's lives saved, but they readily adopt science-y sounding language to appear credible. Buzzwords like microbiome, stem cells, regeneration are all thrown around. They want it both ways. They want to attack science for not having all the answers, but they clothe themselves in the robes of scientific respectability with their language.
Goop wants you to mistrust science. Goop ignores the fact that actually the greatest predictors of health are social factors like poverty and education. They promise a world of wellness provided you can pay. Let's be clear. They and the other charlatans are not out there to help you. They're there to make money. For all of medicine's failings, it's still a huge success story of the modern era and your safest option if you're sick. If you're not sick and you find yourself turning to Goop for wellness, I'll give you a definitive statement even though I said earlier on doctors often can't do that, but a diverse diet of real food with plenty of veg, regular exercise, good sleep, and good company is a darn sight cheaper than Goop products and will bring you immeasurably more wellness. I guarantee it.
, is an interventional cardiologist, internal medicine doctor, and university researcher who makes science videos and bad jokes. Offbeat topics you won't find elsewhere, enriched with a government-mandated dose of humor. Trained in Cambridge; now PhD-ing in London.