Do TikTok Health Trends Actually Work — And Are They Safe?

Tik­Tok might not jump out as the first place to go to get health advice. But for many Tik­Tok­ers, the app is a win­dow into the lat­est health trends and can seem like a guide for healthy living. 

The rela­tion­ship between Tik­Tok and health is a bit com­pli­cat­ed. Tik­Tok trends can some­times pro­mote healthy behav­iors, like remem­ber­ing to take time for self-care and get­ting moti­vat­ed to try new exer­cis­es. How­ev­er, many trends can be inef­fec­tive or even harmful. 

Won­der­ing which trend you should try, and which you should skip? Take a look at the facts behind some of the top Tik­Tok health trends: 

Bed Rot­ting: Give It a Try — But With Caution 

Stay­ing in bed for a day doing noth­ing but things you enjoy — like watch­ing TV, scrolling through social media, and eat­ing snacks — has recent­ly been dubbed ​“bed rot­ting.” Bed rot­ting has been tout­ed as a method of self-care, but is it? 

A day of bed rot­ting once in a blue moon prob­a­bly won’t hurt, and may be the dose of relax­ation you need. How­ev­er, there is a fine line between self-care and unhelp­ful behav­iors, and there are a few things to keep in mind if you want to try bed rotting: 

• Only bed rot for one day at a time. Too much bed rot­ting can quick­ly become less enjoy­able, and go from self-care to social iso­la­tion, dis­rupt­ed sleep, and not get­ting enough phys­i­cal activity. 
• Look out for red flags that bed rot­ting has become more than a means of self-care. If you’re doing it to avoid cer­tain feel­ings or sit­u­a­tions, or if you’re doing it con­stant­ly, it could be a warn­ing sign of a men­tal health con­di­tion like depression. 
• Avoid the urge to spend too much time on social media dur­ing your rot, as that can pro­voke anxiety. 

The ver­dict: Don’t beat your­self up about hav­ing a bed rot­ting day here or there. How­ev­er, try oth­er tech­niques for prac­tic­ing self-care on a more reg­u­lar basis (very nec­es­sary for your men­tal health). Take an hour to ​“couch rot” instead of a whole day in bed. Bal­ance rest­ing with phys­i­cal forms of self-care, like going for a run. 

Cozy Car­dio: Go For It 

“Cozy car­dio” chal­lenges the stereo­typ­i­cal view of car­dio exercise. 

In 2023, Tik­Tok influ­encer Hope Zucker­brow coined the term ​“cozy car­dio” to describe get­ting in car­dio activ­i­ty in a com­fort­able and non-tra­di­tion­al envi­ron­ment that’s more fun and inviting. 

This is a trend that many health­care pro­fes­sion­als have been able to get behind, but there’s a caveat. You don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly need to give up the scent­ed can­dles or fur­ry slip­pers, but if your goal is to increase your fit­ness or lose weight, low-inten­si­ty cozy car­dio should even­tu­al­ly be a door­way to more intense exercise. 

Get your health tips from the experts rather than from Tik­Tok. Sched­ule an appoint­ment with a Duly Health and Care pri­ma­ry care provider to learn about ways to safe­ly and effec­tive­ly improve your health. 

Fol­low­ing #WhatIEatI­nA­Day: Not Recommended 

The hash­tag “#WhatIEatI­nA­Day” involves post­ing every­thing you eat in one day. #WhatIEatI­nA­Day and oth­er diet­ing hash­tags like #Weight­Loss have glo­ri­fied weight loss and spread prob­lem­at­ic mes­sages, such as: 

• Weight is always an indi­ca­tor of your health 
• Your self-worth is tied to your weight 
• Every­one should want to lose weight and every body is the same in terms of how many calo­ries it needs in a day 
• Weight loss is always achiev­able — if you can’t lose weight, it’s just because you’re not moti­vat­ed enough 

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, these mes­sages can pro­mote eat­ing dis­or­ders and poor body image, and neg­a­tive­ly affect men­tal well-being. And, they tend to come from influ­encers who are not experts in diet and nutrition. 

Try fol­low­ing influ­encers who post healthy, bal­anced recipes and focus on over­all well­ness rather than weight loss.

Pota­to Juice to ​“Cure” Strep Throat: Skip It. 

Strep throat can be extreme­ly painful and uncom­fort­able, so you might be ready to jump at a rem­e­dy that promis­es to get rid of your sore throat quick­ly. Sev­er­al Tik­Tok­ers have claimed to have found this mir­a­cle cure: pota­to juice. 

Unfor­tu­nate­ly for pota­to juice lovers, it’s an unfound­ed claim. There has been no sol­id sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence back­ing it up. And while you might be inclined to give it a go, it’s dan­ger­ous to skip med­ica­tion in favor of pota­to juice. A strep infec­tion can spread to oth­er parts of your body and cause seri­ous issues like kid­ney dis­ease. Antibi­otics great­ly low­er the risk of com­pli­ca­tions, so it’s not a good idea to for­go antibi­otics in favor of pota­to juice. 

Any time that you need health advice — whether you’re look­ing for tips on man­ag­ing a sore throat, los­ing weight, or improv­ing your men­tal health — your best bet is a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al. Leave Tik­Tok for the fun­ny cat videos.