18 Wellness Influencers Whose Advice Could Actually Kill You

The global wellness industry is a multi-trillion dollar market, but a scroll through TikTok or Instagram reveals a dark side: dangerous wellness advice that’s going viral, with some fads carrying life-threatening risks.

You see a charismatic influencer with millions of followers promoting a new “hack” for detoxing, weight loss, or curing an ailment. It’s tempting. But you don’t know if it’s a miracle cure or just wellness misinformation.

In this article, you will learn about 18 of the most harmful pieces of advice. This advice is backed by evidence from medical experts, public health warnings, and legal cases. This is your guide to spotting debunked health fads before they cause serious harm.

1. “Miracle Mineral Solution” (MMS) / Chlorine Dioxide

This dangerous trend is one of the most persistent and deadly forms of wellness misinformation. Promoted in secret online groups and by fringe influencers, it’s sold as a cure-all for nearly every disease. It is critical to know that this “solution” is not a medicine in any way.

• The Claim: Influencers and fringe groups claim MMS can cure everything from autism to COVID-19. They sell it as a “miracle” supplement.
• The Reality: This is not a health product. MMS is chlorine dioxide, a powerful industrial bleach. The FDA has warned people about this for years. It’s used for stripping textiles and disinfecting industrial water.
• The Harm: Drinking this is the same as drinking bleach. The FDA warns it can cause severe vomiting, life-threatening low blood pressure, and acute liver failure. It can absolutely kill you. This is one of the most dangerous wellness advice trends online.

2. Ingesting Borax for “Detoxing”

What starts as a “health hack” on TikTok can quickly turn into a trip to the emergency room. The trend of eating borax, a common household cleaner, is a perfect example of how far harmful influencer advice can go. People are literally poisoning themselves because they were told it helps with inflammation.

3. The “Blackout” or “Choking” Challenge

Not all dangerous trends are disguised as “wellness.” Some are simply passed around as “challenges” or “games” among young people. The “Blackout Challenge” is one of the most terrifying, as it directly involves self-asphyxiation for a brief high.

• The Claim: This is a viral challenge, not “wellness,” but it’s promoted by influencers as a game. The goal is to choke oneself or another person to the point of passing out to get a brief “high.”
• The Reality: That “high” is the brain dying from a lack of oxygen. This is called cerebral hypoxia.
• The Harm: This is not a game. It is deadly. Even a few minutes without oxygen can cause permanent brain damage, a stroke, or a coma. Many teens have died from this “challenge.”

4. The “Benadryl Challenge”

This viral challenge targets teens and young adults, encouraging them to misuse an over-the-counter medicine. The goal is to take enough of the allergy medication to cause hallucinations, all while filming it for social media. This is not “fun,” it’s a deliberate overdose.

• The Claim: Another deadly TikTok trend. It encourages users to take large doses of Benadryl (diphenhydramine) to cause hallucinations.
• The Reality: This is a massive overdose. Benadryl is an antihistamine, and taking more than the recommended dose is poisoning.
• The Harm: The FDA issued a public warning about this. An overdose causes seizures, severe heart problems, coma, and death. Poison control centers have reported deaths directly linked to this challenge.

5. “Dry Scooping” Pre-Workout

Go to any fitness corner of social media, and you will likely see this trend. “Dry scooping” is promoted as a way to get a faster, more intense hit of energy before a workout. This seemingly simple “hack” has sent multiple young people to the hospital with heart problems.

6. Extreme Water-Only Fasting

Fasting is an ancient practice, but social media influencers have pushed it to dangerous extremes. They promote unsupervised, prolonged fasts that last for weeks or even 40 days, promising a total body “reset.” This advice ignores critical medical risks.

• The Claim: Gurus promote multi-day (sometimes 40-day) water-only fasts for “cell repair” and rapid weight loss.
• The Reality: While some fasting can be safe, unsupervised and prolonged water fasts are very risky.
• The Harm: Going without food for too long can cause a dangerous drop in electrolytes. This can lead to severe dehydration, muscle breakdown, hormonal disruption, and cardiac arrhythmia (an irregular heartbeat) that can be fatal.

7. Anti-Sunscreen Misinformation

This piece of harmful influencer advice taps into a fear of “chemicals.” Influencers claim that sunscreens are toxic and that the sun’s natural rays are all you need. This trend is a favorite of “natural” or “primal” lifestyle gurus.

• The Claim: Some influencers claim sunscreen is “toxic” and “causes” cancer. They say getting a “base tan” is healthy.
• The Reality: This is a deadly lie. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) is clear: there is no such thing as a “healthy tan.” A tan is your skin’s response to injury. A 2024 AAD survey found 59% of Gen Z believe tanning myths.
• The Harm: Avoiding sunscreen and seeking sun exposure is the #1 cause of skin cancer. Melanoma, the most serious type, can be deadly. This harmful influencer advice directly increases your risk of dying from a preventable cancer.

8. “Dusting” / Inhaling Aerosol Cans

Similar to the “Blackout Challenge,” this is not a wellness trend but a viral “game” that is extremely deadly. It involves inhaling common household products to get a temporary high. This form of inhalant abuse is one of the most dangerous.

• The Claim: A viral challenge where users inhale the propellants from aerosol cans, like keyboard cleaner or air freshener, to get high.
• The Reality: This is called “inhalant abuse.” The chemicals in these cans are poisons that starve the body of oxygen.
• The Harm: This can cause “Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome.” It can stop your heart instantly, even on the very first try. It also causes permanent brain, liver, and kidney damage.

9. The “Nutmeg Challenge”

This is an old trend that seems to re-emerge every few years, proving a debunked health fad can always find a new audience. It involves raiding the kitchen spice cabinet for a cheap, legal “high.”

• The Claim: An old trend that keeps coming back. People eat large amounts of nutmeg to get a high, similar to a hallucinogenic drug.
• The Reality: Nutmeg contains a compound called myristicin. In small amounts (like in cooking), it’s fine. In large amounts, it’s a poison.
• The Harm: Poison Control Centers warn that a nutmeg overdose causes severe nausea, a rapid heart rate (tachycardia), agitation, and frightening hallucinations. In rare, high-dose cases, it can lead to organ failure.

10. Coffee Enemas for “Detoxing”

Popularized by celebrity-backed wellness sites, this trend claims you can “cleanse” your liver by administering coffee… in the wrong direction. It’s presented as a natural detox method, but it has no basis in science and carries serious risks.

11. The “Liver King” Deception

This is a case study in how a charismatic influencer can build a million-dollar empire on a foundation of lies. The “Liver King” sold an extreme “ancestral” lifestyle, but his most important “supplement” was one he hid from his followers.

• The Claim: Brian Johnson, “Liver King,” claimed his massive muscles came from a “primal” diet of raw liver and other raw organs.
• The Reality: He was exposed for taking over $11,000 a month in steroids. He later admitted it and faced a $25 million lawsuit for misleading consumers. The “proof” (his body) was a lie.
• The Harm: Eating raw meat is extremely risky. It carries a high risk of severe foodborne illnesses from bacteria like E. coli, Salmonella, and Listeria, which can lead to hospitalization or death.

12. The Belle Gibson Fraud (Curing Cancer with Diet)

This story is one of the most tragic and manipulative examples of wellness misinformation. An influencer built a massive, loyal following by faking a terminal illness and selling her “cure” to vulnerable people.

• The Claim: Belle Gibson was a hugely popular influencer who built an empire. She claimed she cured her terminal brain cancer by rejecting medicine and using only a special diet.
• The Reality: She never had cancer. It was all a lie to sell her app and book.
• The Harm: This is one of the most evil examples of wellness misinformation. Real cancer patients read her story and stopped their chemotherapy. They followed her debunked health fad instead of getting real medical treatment. This advice cost people their lives.

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13. Unqualified Mental Health “Gurus”

The online mental health space is full of “gurus” who are not licensed therapists or psychologists. They use catchy, short videos to offer simplistic advice for complex mental illnesses.

• The Claim: Influencers with no license or training act like therapists. They “diagnose” followers with complex disorders like BPD or autism in 60-second videos.
• The Reality: These are serious medical conditions that require a trained expert to diagnose.
• The Harm: The harmful influencer advice here is telling followers to stop taking their prescribed medication (like antidepressants or antipsychotics). Stopping these drugs suddenly can cause severe withdrawal, psychiatric relapse, and can be life-threatening.

14. Promoting Unnecessary Medical Tests

This trend looks like responsible “bio-hacking.” Influencers partner with clinics to promote expensive, high-tech scans and tests for people with no symptoms. This dangerous wellness advice is often a sales pitch in disguise.

• The Claim: Influencers promote full-body MRIs or AMH “egg timer” fertility tests as a way to “take control” of your health.
• The Reality: A 2025 University of Sydney study found 87% of these posts list benefits, but only 15% mention risks. These influencers often have a financial stake in the tests.
• The Harm: These tests for healthy people lead to “overdiagnosis.” They find tiny, harmless “problems” that lead to needless anxiety, expensive follow-ups, and even risky, unnecessary surgeries. It causes financial ruin and iatrogenic harm (harm caused by medical treatment).

15. Homemade Baby Formula

When a real-world problem like a baby formula shortage occurs, influencers often step in with “natural” solutions. This advice is aimed at worried parents and is one of the most dangerous trends of all, as it targets the most vulnerable.

• The Claim: During formula shortages, “natural” influencers shared recipes for homemade baby formula using raw goat’s milk, honey, or other kitchen items.
• The Reality: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued urgent warnings against this. Baby formula is a complex food that is very hard to copy.
• The Harm: Homemade formulas do not have the right mix of protein, fat, and vitamins. They can cause severe nutritional deficiencies and fatal electrolyte imbalances in infants. Raw milk can also contain deadly bacteria.

16. Laxative Abuse for “Weight Loss”

Disguised as a “detox tea” or a “weight loss hack,” this trend promotes the use of laxatives to “flush” your system. It’s a form of disordered eating that is openly shared and normalized on social media.

• The Claim: A “detox” hack where influencers promote taking laxatives after a big meal to “flush out” the food and calories.
• The Reality: This is a form of disordered eating. Laxatives do not prevent your body from absorbing calories. They just force water and electrolytes out of your colon.
• The Harm: Regular laxative abuse causes severe dehydration. This can damage your organs and lead to electrolyte imbalances that trigger heart failure and death.

17. “Raw Water” Consumption

This trend is part of the “primal” or “anti-establishment” lifestyle. Influencers claim that tap water is “dead” or “poisoned” and that only untreated, unfiltered water is truly healthy.

• The Claim: Some “natural” influencers promote drinking “raw water” unfiltered, untreated water straight from a spring. They claim it has healthy minerals and “probiotics” that tap water lacks.
• Example: This is how people drank water before modern sanitation. And it’s why people died from waterborne diseases.
• The Harm: The CDC warns that raw water can be contaminated with deadly bacteria like Cholera, E. coli, and Giardia. You risk severe gastrointestinal illness, dehydration, and death. This is dangerous wellness advice.

18. Mouth Taping for Sleep

This trend looks harmless and is promoted as a simple fix for snoring. It has become incredibly popular on TikTok, with users showing how they tape their mouths shut before bed. But for some, this simple “hack” can be dangerous.

• The Claim: Influencers tape their mouths shut at night, claiming it forces nose breathing and cures snoring and bad breath.
• The Reality: While nose breathing is good, taping your mouth can be risky.
• The Harm: For millions of people with undiagnosed sleep apnea, this is a terrible idea. If your nasal passage is blocked (from allergies or a deviated septum), taping your mouth can dangerously lower your oxygen levels. This puts huge stress on your heart.

Conclusion

From ingesting bleach to following fraudulent cancer “cures,” the world of online wellness misinformation is a minefield. These 18 dangerous wellness trends prove that viral advice is often untested, unproven, and promoted by people with no medical qualifications.

Before you try any health trend from social media, stop. Check the credentials of the person promoting it. Verify the claim with primary sources like the FDA, CDC, or a medical journal. Your health is not worth a “like.” When in doubt, always ask your doctor.

Your best defense against these debunked health fads is critical thinking.