
For better or worse, TikTok and Instagram have become spaces where health information is not only exchanged, but also a place to sell and promote specific health regimens. Lately, the conversations in digital health spaces have been predominantly about “gut health.” Just search #GutTok on TikTok and you’ll uncover a range of people sharing tips on how to “heal your gut.”
Taking a deeper look, it’s not only videos of unsolicited health advice, but also tangible solutions,which unsurprisingly incorporates a wide range of supplements. From bovine colostrum to probiotics to prebiotics, many of these supplements are being sold under the guise of improving a person’s microbiome, the colonies of beneficial germs that live inside us, which will relieve people of physical symptoms like bloating (in other words, a flat stomach).