tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/the-goop-lab-80909/articlesThe Goop Lab – The Conversation2020-02-20T08:51:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1318472020-02-20T08:51:27Z2020-02-20T08:51:27ZThe online wellness industry: why it’s so difficult to regulate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316241/original/file-20200219-10991-jkeyby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4486%2C2667&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Netflix recently released Gwyneth Paltrow’s new six-part series, <a href="https://goop.com/the-goop-lab-netflix/">The Goop Lab</a>. Each episode explores an area of the wellness industry, including psychedelics, cold therapy, lifestyle interventions, female pleasure and sexual healing. The series has received <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2230459-goop-lab-on-netflix-shows-how-easy-it-is-to-fall-for-bad-science/">criticism from the scientific and medical community</a> with experts concerned about Netflix legitimising pseudoscience and misinformation. </p>
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<p>The backlash is unsurprising given that Paltrow’s brand has become synonymous with controversial products and treatments, such as jade eggs, Psychic Vampire Repellent and vaginal steaming. These concerns are accentuated given that Goop is valued at <a href="https://fortune.com/2018/03/30/gwyneth-paltrow-goop-series-c-valuation-250-million/">over US$250 million</a> and represents part of the burgeoning billion-dollar wellness industry. The difficulty in regulating Goop’s controversial content, however, points to larger difficulties in regulating online health and wellness influencers. </p>
<p>Influencers document their lives and lifestyles on social media. The most lucrative health and wellness influencers achieve fame through <a href="https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509530175&subject_id=1">curating an online persona on social media</a> rather than through professional expertise. Although celebrities have traditionally been presented as inaccessible, by approaching everyday health and wellness issues, Paltrow is able to emulate social media influencers, whose public appeal is grounded in the perception of being ordinary, relatable and accessible. </p>
<p>Paltrow’s trust and credibility as a wellness guru stem from her apparent vulnerability. Strategic confessions that commodify pain and loss are designed to establish trust and intimacy. In the Netflix series, Paltrow reflects on the trauma induced by the emergency caesarean she had following the birth of her daughter, how terrible she feels during a “cleanse” and on her experiences “metabolising” pain. These communicative techniques set Paltrow apart from the jargon and professional distance required of medical professionals.</p>
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<span class="caption">Jade eggs for your yoni? Show us the evidence, say scientists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/three-jade-eggs-development-intimate-muscles-278212919">Gusak/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>The triumph of opinion</h2>
<p>Influencers claim to provide opinions rather than facts. They are able to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1440783319846188">monetise their personal lives and opinions</a>, profiting from advertorials linked to stories of self-discovery and transformation. These self-documented journeys are difficult to verify. </p>
<p>Influencer marketing is relatively inconsequential when it comes to fashion, but advertorials based on personal experience are more problematic in the health and wellness sphere where unverified stories can negatively affect people’s health. In the second episode, for example, when one employee claims that cold therapy helped ease her anxiety and depression, anecdotal evidence is used to demonstrate the therapy’s validity. These stories of self-recovery can be deadly when they inspire people with cancer to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-scandal-that-should-force-us-to-reconsider-wellness-advice-from-influencers-117041">reject conventional medicine in favour of alternative treatments</a>.</p>
<p>Despite Goop’s disclaimer that the “series is designed to entertain and inform – not provide medical advice”, its content is designed to influence. The stories and experiences documented online drive consumers to the company’s website as they seek alternative ways to improve their wellbeing, enabling the company to “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/magazine/big-business-gwyneth-paltrow-wellness.html">monetise those eyeballs</a>”, as Paltrow declared. </p>
<h2>The placebo effect</h2>
<p>Part of the appeal of the wellness movement can be understood by the placebo effect. The placebo effect is a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment. The benefit cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself (the drug or treatment in question), but to the patient’s belief in the treatment. </p>
<p>Goop exploits the placebo effect, blurring the line between scientific research and folk knowledge, to attain credibility. Scientific concepts, such as blood platelets, microdosing, quantum theory’s double-slit experiment, molecules and subatomic particles, are used to validate the therapies canvassed in the series. </p>
<p>Scientific language is cherry picked as part of Goop’s marketing strategy to create products designed to make consumers “feel good in the modern age world”. A case in point is Goop’s <a href="https://goop.com/wellness/mindfulness/wearable-'stickers-that-promote-healing-really/">body vibe wearable stickers</a> that claim to “rebalance the energy frequency in our bodies”. Although Goop was <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/nasa-goop-spacesuit-stickers-gwyneth-paltrow-body-product-a7803246.html">forced to remove claims</a> that the patches were made with the same conductive carbon material Nasa uses to line space suits so they can track an astronaut’s vitals. The idea that people might feel better after wearing the stickers is harder to verify.</p>
<p>The Goop Lab uses Paltrow’s celebrity status to promote lifestyle interventions and alternative therapies. Presenting Paltrow as a friend and equal, strategic confessions and scientific language are interspersed to foster trust, intimacy and credibility. But opinions and anecdotes cannot replace evidence-based therapy. </p>
<p>The Goop Lab blurs the line between science and fantasy. Despite the show’s disclaimer that the series does “not provide medical advice”, in combining scientific expertise with folk knowledge and anecdotal experience, the programme obscures the distinction between entertainment and evidence in a way that proves difficult to regulate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131847/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Goop Lab obscures the distinction between entertainment and evidence.Stephanie Alice Baker, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, City, University of LondonChris Rojek, Professor of Sociology, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1302872020-01-28T19:00:27Z2020-01-28T19:00:27ZMarketing, not medicine: Gwyneth Paltrow’s The Goop Lab whitewashes traditional health therapies for profit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312163/original/file-20200127-81395-a6lqkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1576%2C0%2C2916%2C2997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Netflix's new show fails to critically explore the alternative therapies it promotes.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adam Rose/Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Gwyneth Paltrow’s new Netflix series, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11561206/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Goop Lab</a>, Paltrow explores a variety of wellness management approaches, from “energy healing” to psychedelic psychotherapy. </p>
<p>Goop has long been criticised for making unsubstantiated health claims and advancing pseudoscience, but the brand is incredibly popular. It was <a href="https://fortune.com/2018/03/30/gwyneth-paltrow-goop-series-c-valuation-250-million/">valued at over US$250 million</a> (A$370 million) in 2019.</p>
<p>The alternative health industry is worth <a href="https://my-ibisworld-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/au/en/industry/x0015/industry-at-a-glance">A$4.1 billion</a> in Australia alone – and projected to grow.</p>
<p>A key driver of the industry is increased health consciousness. With easier access to information, better health literacy, and open minds, consumers are increasingly seeking alternatives to managing their well-being.</p>
<p>Goop has capitalised on the rise in popularity of alternative health therapies – treatments not commonly practised under mainstream Western medicine. </p>
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<p>Health systems in countries such as Australia are based on Western medicine, eschewing traditional and indigenous practices. These Western systems operate on measurable and objective indicators of health and well-being, ignoring the fact <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JSOCM-08-2017-0049/full/html">subjective assessments</a> – such as job satisfaction and life contentment – are just as important in evaluating quality of life. </p>
<p>This gap between objective measures and subjective assessments creates a gap in the marketplace brands can capitalise on – not always for the benefit of the consumer. </p>
<p>The Goop Lab fails to engage with the cultural heritage of traditional health and well-being practices in any meaningful way, missing an important opportunity to forward the holistic health cause. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gwyneth-paltrows-new-goop-lab-is-an-infomercial-for-her-pseudoscience-business-129674">Gwyneth Paltrow's new Goop Lab is an infomercial for her pseudoscience business</a>
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<p>The uncritical manner in which these therapies are presented, failure to attribute their traditional origins, absence of fact-checking, and lack of balanced representation of the arguments for and against these therapies only serve to set back the wellness cause.</p>
<h2>New to the West, not new to the world</h2>
<p>Many of the historical and cultural origins of the therapies in The Goop Lab are not investigated, effectively <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/whitewashing">whitewashing</a> them. </p>
<p>The first episode, The Healing Trip, explores psychedelic psychotherapy, suggesting this is a new and novel approach to managing mental health. </p>
<p>In reality, psychedelics have been used in non-Western cultures for <a href="https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/docs/default-source/members/sigs/spirituality-spsig/ben-sessa-from-sacred-plants-to-psychotherapy.pdf?sfvrsn=d1bd0269_2">thousands of years</a>, only recently enjoying a re-emergence in the Western world.</p>
<p>In the second episode, Cold Comfort, the “<a href="https://www.wimhofmethod.com/">Wim Hof Method</a>” (breathing techniques and cold therapy) is also marketed as a novel therapy. </p>
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<span class="caption">For the ‘Hof method’ a group of Goop staff members did yoga on the banks of Lake Tahoe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot/Netflix</span></span>
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<p>The meditation component of Hof’s method ignores its Hindu origins, documented in <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/The_Vedas/">the Vedas</a> from around 1500 BCE. The breathing component closely resembles <em>prāṇāyāma</em>, a yogic breathing practice. The “Hof dance” looks a lot like <a href="http://www.taichisociety.net/tai-chi.html">tai chi</a>, an ancient Chinese movement practice. </p>
<p>Whitewashing these alternative therapies represents a form of colonisation and commodification of non-Western practices that have existed for centuries. </p>
<p>The experts showcased are usually white and from Western cultures, rather than people of the cultures and ethnicities practising these therapies as part of their centuries-old traditions. </p>
<p>Rather than accessing these therapies from authentic, original sources, often the consumer’s only option is to turn to Western purveyors. Like Paltrow, these purveyors are business people capitalising on consumers’ desire and pursuit of wellness. </p>
<h2>Only the rich?</h2>
<p>Paltrow describes Goop as a resource to help people “optimise the self”. But many of these therapies are economically inaccessible. </p>
<p>In The Health-Span Plan, Paltrow undergoes the five-day “Fast Mimicking Diet” by <a href="https://prolonfmd.com/">ProLon</a> – a diet designed to reap the health benefits of fasting while extremely restricting calories. The food for the treatment period costs US$249 (A$368) (but shipping is free!). The average Australian household spends just over <a href="https://www.budgetdirect.com.au/home-contents-insurance/research/average-grocery-bill-statistics.html">A$250</a> on groceries weekly. </p>
<p>Paltrow also undergoes a “vampire facial”, where platelet-rich plasma extracted from your own blood is applied to your skin. This facial is available at one Sydney skin clinic for between A$550 and A$1,499.</p>
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<span class="caption">Paltrow’s vampire facial is touted as a ‘natural alternative’ to botox.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot/Netflix</span></span>
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<p>These therapies commodify wellness – and health – as a luxury product, implying only the wealthy deserve to live well, and longer. </p>
<p>This sits in stark odds with the goals of the <a href="https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/constitution">World Health Organisation</a>, which views health as a fundamental human right “without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic, or social condition”.</p>
<h2>A right to live well</h2>
<p>Companies like Goop have a responsibility to explain the science and the origins of the methods they explore. </p>
<p>Given their profit-driven motive, many absolve themselves of this responsibility with an easy disclaimer their content is intended to “entertain and inform – not provide medical advice”. This pushes the burden of critically researching these therapies onto the consumer.</p>
<p>Governments should seek to fund public health systems, such as Medicare, to integrate traditional health practices from other cultures through consultation and working in collaboration with those cultures. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/traditional-medicines-must-be-integrated-into-health-care-for-culturally-diverse-groups-114980">Traditional medicines must be integrated into health care for culturally diverse groups</a>
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<p>Perhaps this will give everyone access to a wellness system to help us live well, longer. This way, citizens are less likely to be driven towards opportunists such as Goop seeking to capitalise on our fundamental human right to live well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nadia Zainuddin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Alternative therapies have a lot to offer consumers. The Goop Lab only serves to set back the wellness cause.Nadia Zainuddin, Senior Lecturer, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1296742020-01-12T13:36:24Z2020-01-12T13:36:24ZGwyneth Paltrow’s new Goop Lab is an infomercial for her pseudoscience business<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309506/original/file-20200110-97149-1gq4ogn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C287%2C3796%2C2610&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Goop Lab launches Jan. 24, 2020: it will likely be full of magical thinking and unproven health stories — making it a huge conflict of interest for Gwyneth Paltrow. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, Netflix <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MunlAm7IGsE">dropped the trailer</a> for Gwyneth Paltrow’s new show <em>The Goop Lab</em>. It is a six-episode docuseries launching on Jan. 24 that, according to the trailers, focuses on approaches to wellness that are “out there,” “unregulated” and “dangerous.” (Read: science-free.)</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/118635356/irresponsible-netflix-slammed-as-trailer-for-new-gwyneth-paltrow-show-released">backlash</a> by health-care professionals and science advocates was immediate and widespread. And for good reason. <a href="https://www.bustle.com/p/a-doctor-reacts-to-netflixs-the-goop-lab-trailer-19769024">As noted</a> by my friend, obstetrician and gynecologist <a href="https://drjengunter.com">Dr. Jen Gunter</a> in <em>Bustle</em> magazine, the trailer is classic Goop: “Some fine information presented alongside unscientific, unproven, potentially harmful therapies….” </p>
<p>We know <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/celebrities-gwyneth-paltrow-made-2010s-decade-health-wellness-misinformation-ncna1107501">the spread</a> of this kind of health misinformation can have a significant and detrimental impact on a range of health behaviours and beliefs. This is the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-to-win-the-fight-against-health-and-wellness-bunk-we-must-leave-the/">age of misinformation</a> and this show seems likely to add to the noise and public confusion about how to live a healthy lifestyle.</p>
<p>But what has been largely overlooked in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/1/10/21056426/gwyneth-paltrow-is-straight-up-trolling-her-critics-now">initial wave of critiques</a> is the conflict-of-interest issue. The producers of this show — that is, Gwyneth Paltrow and her company Goop — benefit directly from not only the show being popular but also from the legitimization of pseudoscience. This show is, basically, an infomercial for the Goop brand, which is built around <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/7/18215395/netflix-gwyneth-paltrow-series-goop-pseudoscience">science-free</a> products and ideas.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption"><em>The Goop Lab</em> trailer on Netflix. The show drops Jan. 24, 2020.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Marketing pseudoscience</h2>
<p>To be fair, I have yet to see a full episode. But given the content of the trailer and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/business/goop-vaginal-egg-settlement.html">Goop’s history</a> of pushing harmful nonsense, there is little reason to be optimistic about the role of science in the series. Regardless, the mere existence of the series will allow Paltrow and Goop to <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90449046/netflix-and-sephora-in-the-same-day-what-is-goops-secret-non-stick-ingredient">build the brand</a>, which is currently <a href="https://www.insider.com/goop-history-gwyneth-paltrow-controversy-products-2019-9">estimated</a> to be worth US$250 million. </p>
<p>The show serves as an opportunity to market the kind of magical thinking and pseudoscience that will help to sell Goop’s products. It would be like Netflix streaming a show called <em>The Coca-Cola Beverage Lab</em> or the <em>The Starbucks Coffee Adventure</em>.</p>
<p>One of the things that attracts people to the alternative health practices pushed by entities like Goop is frustration with the <a href="https://www.drugwatch.com/news/2018/03/07/big-pharma-doesnt-want-you-to-know-alternatives/">impact of private industry and the profit motive</a> — particularly in the context of the pharmaceutical industry — on the conventional health-care system.</p>
<p>This concern about the impact of industry is understandable. There is a <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2019/02/26/anti-vaccine-movement-pharma-tarnished-reputation/">vast literature</a> highlighting industry misbehaviour and the adverse consequences of Big Pharma’s influence on research, clinical practice and clinical guidelines. Awareness of these issues has contributed to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/upshot/do-you-trust-the-medical-profession.html">decrease in trust</a> in the medical profession and even to harmful trends like <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11673-016-9756-7">vaccination hesitancy</a>.</p>
<p>For the <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/why-are-doctors-so-against-alternative-medicine-1.188177">advocates</a> of alternative approaches to wellness, conventional medicine is <a href="https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/28523-feds-plot-war-on-natural-health-boosting-big-pharma-profits">often positioned</a> as irrevocably compromised and corrupt. And many have come to believe even <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/big-pharmas-diabolical-plan-to-destroy-the-vitamin-herbal-supplement-industry/5425769">extreme versions</a> of this narrative. </p>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.190">A 2014 survey</a> found 37 per cent of Americans believe (and another 31 per cent think it could be true) that the “Food and Drug Administration is deliberately preventing the public from getting natural cures for cancer and other diseases because of pressure from drug companies.” Goop has also enabled these kinds of <a href="https://drjengunter.com/2017/12/01/gwyneth-paltrow-to-feature-doctor-who-thinks-aids-is-a-big-pharma-scam-at-in-goop-health/">extreme perspectives</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309507/original/file-20200110-97183-1wn6lax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309507/original/file-20200110-97183-1wn6lax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309507/original/file-20200110-97183-1wn6lax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309507/original/file-20200110-97183-1wn6lax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309507/original/file-20200110-97183-1wn6lax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309507/original/file-20200110-97183-1wn6lax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309507/original/file-20200110-97183-1wn6lax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Goop Lab stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Elise Loehne.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Netflix)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Alternative medicine is an industry</h2>
<p>The implication, of course, is that alternative approaches are somehow untainted or, at least, less tainted by vested interests and are, therefore, the better choice. But this “clean hands” framing is <a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/2011/07/conflicts_of_interest_in_alternative_medicine/">patently false</a>.</p>
<p>First, we need to recognize that alternative medicine is also a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/he-global-complementary-and-alternative-medicine-market-size-is-expected-to-generate-a-revenue-of-usd-210-81-billion-by-2026--300948215.html">huge industry</a>. The worldwide “wellness” <a href="https://globalwellnessinstitute.org/press-room/press-releases/wellness-now-a-4-2-trillion-global-industry/">market</a>, which is largely composed of unproven and “alternative” modalities, has been estimated to be worth over US$4 trillion. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/herbal-medicine-market-research-reports-2019-global-industry-size-share-emerging-trends-growth-boosted-by-demand-and-advanced-technology-till-2023-2019-10-02">sale of herbal medicine and supplements</a> are also multi-billion dollar industries. Given the size of these markets, it would be naive to believe that alternative medicine is somehow missing the twisting profit-motive incentives that have created problems for conventional health care.</p>
<p>Second, the alternative health community is also rife with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2019/10/15/fdc01078-c29c-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html">conflicts</a> and biases. To cite just a few examples, naturopaths profit from the <a href="https://www.naturopathicdiaries.com/in-office-sales-ethical-problem-naturopaths/">in-office sale</a> of products and have <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2016/05/17/naturopaths-go-mainstream/">partnered</a> with the vitamin industry to expand the reach of their practice. </p>
<p>In addition, <a href="https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/chinese-systematic-reviews-of-acupuncture/">alternative medicine research</a> has been influenced by <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9551280">various systemic</a> <a href="https://edzardernst.com/2014/05/and-this-is-why-we-might-as-well-forget-about-chinese-acupuncture-trials/">biases</a>. And we shouldn’t forget that many of the most commonly used alternative products, most notably supplements and <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/31188920/ns/health-alternative_medicine/t/many-herbal-products-made-big-pharma/#.Xhd88y0ZOu4">herbal remedies</a>, are often <a href="https://pharma.elsevier.com/pharma-rd/link-big-pharma-supplement-industry/">made by the very pharmaceutical industry</a> that alternative wellness devotees are seeking to avoid.</p>
<p>Third, <a href="https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/disgraced-and-discredited-gastroenterologist-andrew-wakefied-nelson-mandela-and-jesus-christ-rolled-up-into-one/">motivated reasoning</a> plays a big role here. When an individual or a company has built a profession or a business model around a particular worldview, this commitment will have an impact on how the relevant evidence is interpreted, used and presented to the public. </p>
<p>If you are a practising homeopath, for instance, it would be tremendously difficult to accept what the evidence says about the remedies you offer. Indeed, accepting the science would mean you would lose your livelihood and professional identity.</p>
<p>More needs to be done to combat the adverse impact that conflicts of interest issues can have on bio-medical research and clinical practice. But we also need to recognize that profound conflicts of interest exist in the alternative health and wellness domain. We should not give those involved with this industry — including Paltrow and Goop — a pass.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Caulfield receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Genome Canada, and the Canada Research Chairs Program. He is affiliated with Peacock Alley Entertainment and Speakers' Spotlight. Caulfield also had a show, "A User's Guide to Cheating Death", that was on Netflix. </span></em></p>Gwyneth Paltrow’s new Netflix series, The Goop Lab, raises serious questions about the spread of health misinformation as well as the conflict of interest the show represents.Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy; Professor, Faculty of Law and School of Public Health; and Research Director, Health Law Institute, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.