The medical director of NHS England has urged Gwyneth Paltrow to stop spreading misinformation after she wrote a blog post suggesting that the effects of long Covid could be treated with herbal cocktails, intuitive fasting and infrared sauna visits.
The actress wrote the post on her lifestyle website, Goop, which often champions the benefits of a number of new-age health and medical treatments.
Paltrow revealed that she caught Covid-19 early on in the pandemic, and had suffered with long-term effects, known as long Covid, including fatigue and brain fog.
She revealed in the blog post that she turned to a “functional medicine practitioner” for advice, and was told the “road to healing was going to be longer than usual”.
On the advice of the practitioner, the Sliding Doors star embarked on a keto and plant-based diet, fasted every day from 11am, and consumed "lots of coconut aminos" and "sugar-free kombucha and kimchi".
She also recommended the supplements from her own brand, Madame Ovary, saying she had been making “incredible herbal non-alcoholic cocktails”, as well as taking regular trips to the infrared sauna – “all in service of healing”.
“I’ve been doing major research and finding some great stuff to support what I’m doing,” she wrote.
However, Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, urged influencers such as Paltrow against spreading misinformation and unproven advice.
“In the last few days I see Gwyneth Paltrow is unfortunately suffering from the effects of Covid. We wish her well, but some of the solutions she’s recommending are really not the solutions we’d recommend in the NHS,” he said.
“We need to take long Covid seriously and apply serious science. All influencers who use social media have a duty of responsibility and a duty of care around that.
“Like the virus, misinformation carries across borders and it mutates and it evolves. So I think YouTube and other social media platforms have a real responsibility and opportunity here.”
