TikTok & Healthcare: 5 Trends That Are A Lot More Dangerous Than You Might Think

The use of social media has skyrocketed over recent years and, particularly in light of the coronavirus pandemic, many of us have spent a lot more time glued to our phones than usual lately.

Coupled with that has seen the rise of a little known app called TikTok, which has since exploded in popularity around the globe. Defined as a ‘Chinese-owned video-sharing social networking service’, TikTok enables its users to create a variety of short-form videos – typically between 15 seconds and one minute in length.

And while many people tout the various educational benefits of using TikTok, as with any form of social media, it can be all too easy for misinformation to spread.

This, in turn, can be particularly dangerous when it comes to healthcare-related genres, with many of the popular trends that influencers promoting as ‘miracle cures’ actually turning out to be incredibly dangerous and occasionally even fatal.

So, with this in mind, we thought we’d highlight some of these TikTok-related healthcare trends, cutting the fact from the fiction and highlighting why exactly they are so risky.

The Benadryl challenge

We start with a trend that acts as an example of just how powerful social media can be – a trend which, back in August last year, claimed the life of a 15-year-old girl from Oklahoma.

Benadryl – a well-known medicine used to treat against hayfever and various other allergy-related conditions – was popularised over TikTok for its supposed hallucinogenic properties when taking multiple doses.

However, this was not the case at all. In fact, overdosing on Benadryl was only shown to cause seizures and a wide array of heart conditions, largely due to its function in slowing down the heart.

As such, a number of innocent children and teenagers fell victim to a ‘challenge’, raising serious concerns about the accessibility of over the counter drugs like Benadryl.

DIY teeth whitening

Everyone may dream of having pearly white teeth, but is it really worth ruining your gums for? Well, according to a few users on TikTok, it is.

In a trend that wouldn’t be recommended by even the worst of dentists, a number of high profile TikTok users popularised the use of hydrogen peroxide when looking for a cheaper and easier way of whitening your teeth.

However, while these substances may be used in the world of hair dye, they should never be put in your mouth. This is because there you will greatly raise the risk of succumbing to a variety of dental-related injuries, such as mouth burns, tooth damage and gum inflammation.

Oh, and that’s not to mention how toxic it can be if accidentally ingested.

What’s more, using a high dose of hydrogen peroxide in this way is unlikely to leave your teeth any whiter either. If anything, it will only damage your teeth to such an extent you’ll end up needing dental surgery anyway.

The skincare trends

Put simply, if you see a miracle skincare routine on TikTok, the chances are it’ll either be bogus or only increase your risk of getting skin cancer.

Listed below are a few of the skincare trends TikTok users have popularised in recent times, as well as some of the key reasons why they’re so dangerous.

• Natural face masks. Many dermatologists have come out to say how dangerous natural skin masks can be. Instead of providing you with a glorious tan, these masks – produced using citrus fruits like lemon and limes – could actually leave you red-faced in more ways than one, causing a combination of inflamed skin, burns and blisters to form.

• Sunburn tattoos. Rather than encouraging the use of suntan lotion, one trend actually popularised burning skin in order to form a unique pattern, much like creating a sunburnt tattoo on the skin. This will not only be incredibly painful but it will also increase your risk of suffering skin cancer and will cause the burnt skin to sag more quickly over time.

• Aspirin face masks. In another trend that is less dangerous but just as unfounded, it was suggested that using aspirin as a face mask could help treat acne scarring. As many dermatologists later pointed out though, aspirin simply doesn’t work in this way. If anything, using it will only dry the skin out even more, causing more breakouts and leaving more people in need of treatments like laser skin resurfacing to undo the damage.

Final thoughts…

While there are a huge number of other examples to choose from, as the trends listed highlighted above should now prove, you shouldn’t take everything you hear on TikTok as gospel.

That’s not to say some of the trends and challenges aren’t miracle workers though, because certain ones genuinely are.

However, generally speaking, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. So, before you go off and try the latest thing that everyone else is supposedly doing, always make sure to research the effect it is actually likely to have.

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