Well, if you spend any time scrolling social media, you've probably seen the latest trend claiming to be the secret to losing weight or improving your health.

Well, in tonight's look at medical news, our Christy Dutton talks to a health care expert in weight management who can tell us what's worth paying attention to and what's just clickbait.

Jennifer Truman, nurse practitioner with Norton Weight Management Services, joins us.

Okay.

Now, the social media has no shortage of ways to improve your health.

You know, the miracle cure.

So we'll talk about a few of them.

I want to start off with one social media trend that berberine that is touted to be nature's ozempic.

Yeah.

What is berberine?

So berberine is a berberine.

Yeah.

Sorry.

That is as a supplement.

It's an herbal supplement that, you know, does show some evidence that it is effective for metabolic health.

The data is not really there to, to support the claim as ozempic, but there is some, some really good evidence that shows that it can improve, fasting glucose levels, improved insulin sensitivity, which is very important for weight loss.

And even reduction in, cholesterol.

Okay.

So maybe it's, it could help.

Yeah.

I mean it's absolutely something that could be beneficial for people.

You know I think that it deserves more research.

I think that there's some data that we could find out there that, could prove it to be more effective than we know now.

People who have certain health conditions or who have especially gone through organ transplant should definitely talk to their doctors first before using the supplement.

It could render some medications.

Ineffective and others may be more effective.

Probably probably closer to nature's metformin than nature's ozempic.

As far as what's that?

It's a medication that's often given to, diabetic patients or even people who are under treatment for obesity.

To improve insulin sensitivity.

Okay.

Okay.

Got it.

All right.

Moving on to the second trend.

And, this one can be a little tough to watch if somebody and they put garlic cloves in their nostrils when they have a cold.

And then in the video, you see I'm pulling out and all the congestion coming out with it.

What is this about?

Is it is there any research showing it's effective?

No.

No, there's no research showing that it's effective.

I would actually be personally very interested to see how this originated.

I would advise against anyone using the peeled garlic in their nose, that mucus that you're seeing pouring from their nostrils after the the peeled cloves of garlic have been inserted is basically the body's response to both a mechanical obstruction and then a chemical irritation to the very, very delicate, layers inside your nose.

And so they could actually be making the congestion worse.

Essentially, the body is producing just masses, amount of, mucus to try to clear that obstruction and then soothe those tissues from the chemical irritation.

So it's making it worse.

Congestion.

Worse than.

Why did they come up with garlic?

You know, that's a really good question.

I would be interested to know why.

Now, garlic, naturally.

Does have some kind of anti-microbial, properties, but typically that's when ingested.

So, I would advise anyone.

I would not advise anyone to put something into their nostrils.

You really run the risk of having an obstruction there and having to have it medically removed and causing tissue damage, potentially introducing infection.

So not not one that I would, I would say to go with.

We'll skip that one.

Okay.

Now, protein matching was so last week.

Yeah.

Now it's all about fiber, Max, right?

Tell us what that is.

Tell us what you think about it.

Yeah.

So people are trying to get maximum amount of fiber, and I actually don't completely disagree with this one.

I think it's a great idea for people to be trying to get more fiber into their diets.

Current recommendations are, you know, 4 to 5 cups of fruits and vegetables.

You know what we're looking at closer to, three cups of vegetables, two cups of, or servings of fruits daily.

To get the amount of fiber that we need, what we know is, on average, 95% of Americans are not meeting fiber recommendations.

That's almost everybody.

It's almost everybody.

90% of women, 97% of men.

How much are we supposed to get?

So 25 to 38g of fiber.

Men are looking at those higher numbers.

So certainly, I think it's a great idea to try to get more fiber into our diets.

But I would say start slow.

Eat your way into it.

And always remember that fiber needs water.

You need to definitely make sure that you're getting, you know, at least 64oz of water or sugar free decaffeinated fluid daily.

Too much fiber without the water can cause other problems, such as constipation, bloating, things of that nature.

But yeah, fiber is essential.

We need it to feed our gut microbiome, keep our blood sugar stable.

And just overall health.