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30 People Who Decided To Spread Their Medical ‘Knowledge’ Online And Got Shamed For It (New Pics)
When we go to see a doctor, we can rest assured knowing that they are qualified to be treating illnesses, prescribing medicine and diagnosing diseases. They have completed at least a decade of education after high school and have endured rigorous training and testing to ensure that they know what they’re doing.
When we log onto the internet, however, anyone with a keyboard and an opinion can feel free to spout whatever medical misinformation they like, so we should take everything we read online with a grain of salt. Thankfully, there is one page that’s dedicated to calling out irresponsible and inaccurate medical advice that’s shared online: the Bad Medical Takes Twitter account.
We’ve gathered some of the most ridiculous, hilarious and alarming posts Bad Medical Takes has shared down below, so you too can enjoy hearing all of the wacky ideas ignorant people felt the need to share online. Be sure to upvote the claims you wish were posted satirically, and then let us know in the comments what the worst medical advice you’ve ever received was. And then if you’re interested in another Bored Panda article featuring medical takes that are definitely not doctor approved, you can find our last story on the same Twitter account right here.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Colin Timp 3 years ago
So nobody's ever died in childbirth or from pregnancy complications? Nobody has ended their life from post-partum depression?
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The Bad Medical Takes Twitter account initially launched in March 2020, which I can only assume came in response to all of the misinformation that was rapidly being spread about the COVID-19 virus. When the pandemic began, everyone on the internet suddenly turned into a medical professional, and with billions of desperate people around the world searching for hope and answers, false claims spread like wildfire.
But I can’t put all of the blame for bad medical advice running rampant online on the pandemic. The internet has been saturated with fake news long before 2020, so it only made sense for medical advice to make its way into the same category. But the difference between reading fake news about a politician and being told to shoot bleach into your veins is that the latter is extremely dangerous. So false medical claims deserve to be called out and shut down even more than your run-of-the-mill fake news.
You might be wondering how anyone in the world could possibly believe the claims shared on this list in the first place, and I’ll be honest, I’m wondering too. So to try to gain some insight on the topic, I consulted an article from Medical News Today exploring just how these false claims are perceived as credible information. And it turns out that there are certain factors that can cause a person to be more or less susceptible to believing medical misinformation.
One 2021 study found that people with a lower education level and individuals who have less knowledge of healthcare issues are more likely to believe inaccurate medical claims. Also, people who have a lack of trust in the healthcare system are more inclined to view alternative treatments positively and more likely to believe false medical claims. The study also found that participants who believed one false medical claim were likely to fall for even more as well, so perhaps they are just more gullible than the average person.
#7
Aunt Riarch 3 years ago
There's only one person in this exchange who I wouldn't trust not to drool
#9
Buren 3 years ago
I'm about to commit massive butchery to the extension of my central nervous system this afternoon.
$cagsy 3 years ago
Like an antenna? If that's true, why do punk rockers get a bad reception wherever they go?
Bored Retsuko 3 years ago
Is that why Buddhist monks have such looong hair, to heighten their awareness? ... oh wait no, they shave...
TheAquarius1978 3 years ago
Christ how the f**k can these morons be able to breeth and use a Key board at the same time with that brain power......
Headless Roach 3 years ago
Well, if they breeth instead of breathing, it may be a clue to why their brains are malfunctioning.
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Amy 3 years ago
If you've gotten your covid shot as well, you'll never have bad reception! (Shouldn't have to say this but I'm joking.)
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Daniel Atkins 3 years ago
I get the feeling that this follows a post or is followed by a post selling essential oils.
Red rockin lobster 3 years ago
2 days ago I've cut 15 cm of my nerv extension and I don't know how I got to work this morning. I was falling on people in the metro, felt like a ping pong ball
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
They've mistaken hair for neurons. but I do not mistake them for being a moron.
Gretchen Esquilin 3 years ago
My hair almost touches my butt & all I've managed to do w/ it is strangle myself multiple times throughout the day. LMAO
ShaZam Beaubien 3 years ago
That would mean hair cuts would be painful. I've never heard cries at the beauty salon. Never mind, I take that back.
Waite Forit 3 years ago
Hair actually is alive - but only the section of it that is in the hair follicle.
Aidan Pite 3 years ago
"Longer hair gives you extra sensory capabilities and heightened awareness" Well I have a dread that goes down to mid-calf, shouldn't I be able to connect to alien intelligences by now?
Powerful Katrinka 3 years ago
And long toenails? They confer the ability to move things with your mind.
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Randy Klefbeck 2 years ago
Please explain then, how is it that your brain can be completely inactive, your body can be completely inanimate, and your hair will continue to grow post-mortem?
Bad Alchemy 3 years ago
Well, I suppose it's possible that hair is part of the OP's central nervous system, and may indeed make up the majority of stuffing inside her skull.
Joshua Moore 3 years ago (edited)
So if I shave my head, is that why I'm a neurotic mess and I should let my hair grow nice and long, then all of my feelings and emotions will then fall into place and I will be one with myself?
Kellie Whyte 3 years ago
Hmm that's weird, because I found that having long hair gave me extra irritably capabilities.
EJN 3 years ago
You are right to assume that hair is not dead (though part of it is). However, the only time my very long hair ever spoke to me was when I was in bed and the hair got underneath me and then I tried to roll over, almost pulling it off (out of) my head; it told me it was time for a serious cut.
Christina Dutta 3 years ago
So women have superior sensory capabilities and heightened awareness compared with men, as the average woman has longer hair than the average man?
JoJo Anisko 3 years ago
Idjit. If that was true, getting a haircut would result in exsanguination
Rachel Smith 3 years ago
If that was true hair cuts would be excruciatingly painful. Also hair is literally just keratin, it is not alive.
Chauncy Franklin 3 years ago
So my brilliant but balding husband is also losing his "heightened awareness"? How am I going to break it to him?
Captain Panda 3 years ago
Shes only saying this cuz her pubic hair is moving...cuz it's alive...with crabs! haha
Autumn Rose 3 years ago
Holy s**t! I must grow my hair long, I do not want to be dumb, deaf and blind. I know that isn’t politically correct but I’m old school and those words just jumped from my brain to the keyboard. I have shoulder length hair.
Gabi 3 years ago
Intuitively this seems right, that our hair and nervous systems are intimately linked. When we sense danger, our hair will rise up on our necks and scalps. In the animal kingdom, dogs’ hackles rise when they are scared and preparing for an attack, and cat’s whiskers give them a lot of information about their environment, even in the dark. Conversely what is happening in our nervous system can effect our hair’s condition. Our hair can turn grey or even fall out when we have a big shock. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aaanativearts.com/native-american-long-hair-extrasensory-perception/amp
Gabi 3 years ago
Actually.https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aaanativearts.com/native-american-long-hair-extrasensory-perception/amp On conducting a test to find out what went wrong, the older native American recruits said that after undergoing a military haircut they could no longer sense the enemy, they lost their intuitive powers and couldn’t access subtle extrasensory information. So more native American men were recruited and this time they were allowed to keep their hair long. On comparing performance of men with short military haircuts and ones with long hair, they found out that long-haired men were far better and more skillful in tracking and sensing the enemy. This resulted in an order that the Native trackers should be allowed to keep their hair long. Hair is an extension of the nervous system. It can be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves, a type of highly evolved ‘feelers’ or ‘antennae’ that transmit vast amounts of important information to the brain stem, the limbic system, and the ne
Lead author of the study, Dr. Laura D. Scherer of the University of Colorado School of Medicine shed some light on the value of this study’s findings. “Inaccurate information is a barrier to good healthcare because it can discourage people from taking preventive measures to head off illness and make them hesitant to seek care when they get sick,” she explained. “Identifying who is most susceptible to misinformation might lend considerable insight into how such information spreads and provide us with new avenues for intervention.”
One of the most notable factors contributing to the spread of medical misinformation online is distrust in the healthcare system, and it might be becoming worse and worse over time. One survey reported that between 2017 and 2018, there was a 20% drop in the amount of trust the American public holds in their healthcare system. And globally, there was a 4% decrease in citizens’ trust in their healthcare systems. When people don’t trust the professionals, they start seeking outside, unverified information, which is likely informed by their own views and biases.
“We have witnessed a concerning shift over the last several decades where policy decisions seem to be driven by ideology and politics instead of facts and evidence,” American Medical Association president Dr. Patrice A. Harris said during a national address. “The result is a growing mistrust in American institutions — in science — and in the counsel of leading experts who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of evidence and reason.”
#13
Susie Elle 3 years ago
Why is everyone talking about salts and nobody mentions the bacteria and viruses in ocean water
Another factor that might be exacerbating the issue of false medical claims online is the appetite that social media platforms have for fake news. While social media can be great a tool for sharing news and awareness of social issues, it can also be extremely hard to fact check what is being spread, and the more outlandish a claim is, the faster it will be circulated. In fact, one 2021 study from the NYU School of Global Health found that people who were primarily or exclusively using social media to track pandemic-related information were less likely to be practicing the most up-to-date public health safety practices. And another study from GoodRx found that being exposed to false medical claims online can negatively affect a patient’s health literacy.
#17
M O'Connell 3 years ago
If sex without reproduction is unnatural and a phenomenon less than 100 years old, why is prostitution the "oldest profession"?
Inaccurate medical information being circulated online is not only relating to COVID-19 and the vaccines being used to prevent it. Users might find misinformation about anything from smoking and drug use to claims about other vaccines, like the HPV vaccine, causing various health issues. Thankfully, many users don’t actually trust the claims they see, as only 6% of people said they trust information about COVID on social media sites in one survey, but it is still concerning how rapidly these claims spread. In fact, medical misinformation sometimes makes it to 87% of users’ feeds on social media sites. Even if only 5% of these people believe the claims, that could lead to devastating consequences.
#19
Ovata Acronicta 3 years ago
Yes. I'll get the flu vax in the other arm from the cov booster just to annoy Nathan in particular.
#20
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
So all that time scientists spent working out blood types and they could have just broken it into male and female blood? Thankyou random person on the internet!
So what are public health agencies supposed to do to limit the spread of false claims online? Is it their responsibility to monitor social media? Well, it’s a delicate issue. “Social media can also be volatile: false information, sometimes maliciously created, spreads rapidly,” the Frontiers in Public Health authors wrote. “Thus, measures to counter misinformation and disinformation on social media channels during an emergency are necessary. Given that government censorship can deeply aggravate already existing mistrust, measures other than content removal is needed, as the public shares and reacts positively to factual information, especially if posted by public health agencies.”
#22
Serial pacifist 3 years ago
Oh my God, this person deserves to be locked in a cage with two male primates and rubbed with estrogen, just to see what kind of offspring they would produce.
#23
But Nobody Came. 3 years ago
sometimes i wonder how these people come up with such creative ways to be dumb
In 2021, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory on medical misinformation, calling for actual healthcare professionals to use their own social media platforms to cut through the false claims and spread truth online. He also asked that healthcare agencies partner with trusted community members like church leaders and clinicians to make sure that the public hears accurate information from people they trust. He also noted that this issue cannot be solved overnight. Combatting medical misinformation online will be a long-term effort, so hopefully, over time, the public’s health literacy will be increased. And false claims online will become a thing of the past.
#27
Ovata Acronicta 3 years ago
Ah, no, you're thinking of one of those substandard mannequins for drawing references.
If you're not in the medical field, I hope you are getting a kick out of these ridiculous claims, and if you are a healthcare professional, I just want to apologize on behalf of the general public. I promise we don't all think this way. Keep upvoting the posts that you find most hilarious and facepalm-worthy, and then let us know in the comments what the worst medical take you've ever heard was. And if you're interested in laughing at even more horrible medical advice, don't forget to check out our last article on the same topic right here.
#29
#30
Nadia Montera 3 years ago
Extract from Wikipedia : Hexagonal water, also known as gel water, structured water, cluster water, H3O2 or H3O2 is a term used in a marketing scam that claims the ability to create a certain configuration of water that is better for the body. The term "hexagonal water" refers to a cluster of water molecules forming a hexagonal shape that supposedly enhances nutrient absorption, removes metabolic wastes, and enhances cellular communication, among other things. The scam takes advantage of the consumer's limited knowledge of chemistry, physics, and physiology. Gel water is referenced in the version of the hoax in which plants or animal fascia are said to create or contain a "fourth phase" of water with an extra hydrogen and an extra oxygen, despite the simple reality that this compound is neither water, nor stable—in other words it doesn't exist in any practical sense
#33
Henrik Schmidt 3 years ago
No, because if the DO say they're depressed, they'll come down with a slight case of being jailed or just killed.
#36
Ovata Acronicta 3 years ago
Secondary sexual characteristic, not much different from a beard. More useful, but harder to style.
#37
Sian E 3 years ago (edited)
Wasn't there a police officer in the US who touched something in a suspect's car and got a nearly fatal dose of fentanyl poisoning? It was captured by the other officer's bodycam. They had to narcan him twice? Although I do concede that there may be a psychogenic aspect to some poisonings.
#41
Asriel Dreemurr 3 years ago
If this batpoop theory was actually true (which it isn’t) you’d think those meds would be a lot cheaper.
#44
#45
albernistuff 4sale 3 years ago
He's not wrong. This is a commonly repeated study on odour/pheromones and genetic compatibility. This does not mean that a particular someone is your soul mate or even sociologically, emotionally, intellectually, etc compatible; just that the two who found each others' odours palatable would have the highest chance of a genetically healthy child.
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What do you think ?
Aunt Riarch 3 years ago
I've nearly lost the will to live. But I haven't lost the will to slap people round the head
Seedy Vine 3 years ago
Wow, I must've severely underestimated the amount of people out there who are huffing solvents...
Yay Pandas! 3 years ago
I had to quit reading after #10. Too many instances of absolute idiots.
nooneimportant 3 years ago
After this tread me feel the need to go back to primary school to recover the 100 IQ points me lost.
Cathy Jo Baker 3 years ago
I can't read any more than the posted ones... my brain cells are dying...
carol bland 1 year ago
The thinking why is wrong but.. there is something in long hair being linked to better animal instincts.
Celtic Pirate Queen 3 years ago
I had to stop reading. I just can't handle that level of stupid today.
Jonahs Mrs 3 years ago
They are among us and THEY BREED!!!!!! We are doomed as a species and that's without the damage we have done to our planet x
SheamusFanFrom1987 3 years ago
Society these days just makes me want to go "I came to chew bubblegum and kick common sense back into people hard, and I'm all out of bubblegum."
Aunt Riarch 3 years ago
I've nearly lost the will to live. But I haven't lost the will to slap people round the head
Seedy Vine 3 years ago
Wow, I must've severely underestimated the amount of people out there who are huffing solvents...
Yay Pandas! 3 years ago
I had to quit reading after #10. Too many instances of absolute idiots.
nooneimportant 3 years ago
After this tread me feel the need to go back to primary school to recover the 100 IQ points me lost.
Cathy Jo Baker 3 years ago
I can't read any more than the posted ones... my brain cells are dying...
carol bland 1 year ago
The thinking why is wrong but.. there is something in long hair being linked to better animal instincts.
Celtic Pirate Queen 3 years ago
I had to stop reading. I just can't handle that level of stupid today.
Jonahs Mrs 3 years ago
They are among us and THEY BREED!!!!!! We are doomed as a species and that's without the damage we have done to our planet x
SheamusFanFrom1987 3 years ago
Society these days just makes me want to go "I came to chew bubblegum and kick common sense back into people hard, and I'm all out of bubblegum."
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