A NHS medical director has criticised Gwyneth Paltrow after she revealed her methods for tackling the long Covid symptoms she has been suffering from since contracting the disease last year.
Earlier this month, the Oscar-winning actor-turned lifestyle guru revealed she had tested positive for coronavirus early on in the pandemic.
She went on to disclose that she had been left with “long-tail fatigue and brain fog” and “high levels of inflammation” in her body.
The 48-year-old has since embarked on a “keto and plant-based” regime, with no sugar and alcohol, and fasts until 11am every day.
But Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for the NHS in England, said that “serious science” should be applied and “influencers” have a responsibility after name-checking Gwyneth.
“Like the virus, misinformation carries across borders and it mutates and it evolves,” he told PA.
“So I think YouTube and other social media platforms have a real responsibility and opportunity here.
“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.
“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.”
Writing on her blog on her Goop website last month, the Hollywood star wrote: “So I turned to one of the smartest experts I know in this space, the functional medicine practitioner Dr. Will Cole. After he saw all my labs, he explained that this was a case where the road to healing was going to be longer than usual.”
Gwynnie being Gwynnie, the post then saw her discuss detoxing and other healing methods (including infrared saunas), which you can read more about on her website.
A number of Gwyneth’s A-list peers have spoken out about their own personal experiences of Covid-19, including Tom Hanks, who was among the first public figures to speak out about testing positive for the disease in March 2020.
Hugh Grant also shared recently that he believes he had Covid last February, stating: “It started as just a very strange syndrome where I kept breaking into a terrible sweat. It was like a poncho of sweat, embarrassing really.
“Then my eyeballs felt about three sizes too big and this feeling as though an enormous man was sitting on my chest.”