[LifeStyle] Social networks and health: when the internet works as a trigger for healthy habits

[Inkriql]

 

Perfect bodies, miraculous diets, demanding fitness routines. Food porn, unhealthy recipes, luxuries. All this –and more– circulates daily in the vast world of social networks. Many times from the hand of influencers who manage content for brands and sponsors. And others from "individual" users who like to share their experiences with their followers.

For some time now, those who could well be called "influencers of good health" have emerged. Many of them are doctors and nutrition is at the forefront of the specialties with the most followers.

It is that beyond the many criticisms that social networks receive every day for their dangerous and sometimes malicious use, some professionals, especially health experts, knew how to channel the reach of these new communication platforms and generated followers interested in take care of your health.

Medical professionals knew how to channel the reach of these new communication platforms and generated followers interested in taking care of their health
The medical specialist in Nutrition Virginia Busnelli (MN 110351) is a mother of four children and an expert cook, which allowed her to create a public profile of "mother and doctor" in which, through social networks, she provides information on current problems and it helps to generate beneficial changes in its followers, who find in it a guide for change.

Posts of healthy recipes and tips on physical exercise have become po[CENSORED]r for some time now (Getty)
Posts of healthy recipes and tips on physical exercise have become po[CENSORED]r for some time now (Getty)
Through her Instagram account @virbusnelli or her Facebook page, Dr. Virginia Busnelli provides scientifically proven information, motivates her followers to cook at home and advises how to change habits in a sustained manner over time.

As he told Infobae, during his daily medical attention, he began to detect the large number of patients who had problems with their weight, with their body, with the perception of their image, with sex and their relationships and the poor quality of life that they had for not loving each other as they were always looking to change. She was also able to perceive in daily contact with people that the vast majority lived on a diet, prohibiting themselves from enjoying the pleasures of life and punishing themselves for not achieving or being able to sustain it. In addition, in parallel, she saw the growth of diseases associated with poor diet and sedentary lifestyle, po[CENSORED]r myths and misinformation that were wreaking havoc in people's lives.

 

So, seeing that something was not going well, she decided to add to her training as an endocrinologist and study as a medical specialist in Nutrition, at the University of Favaloro, where she studied under the guidance of one of her great teachers, Mónica Katz. .

"Currently, I dedicate a large part of my working hours to social networks, since they add many positive points to my work. In my particular situation, in most cases my relationship with patients begins with the networks or by the media before I know who they are," he said. "When they enter the office, they have already chosen me, they have been following me for a long time, they have already begun to acquire some guidelines from my recommendations, they have already studied me and idealized that With me this time they will find a definitive measure, which will allow them to stop going around different places looking for the magic that they now understand does not exist".

Followers of health and healthy living accounts multiply (Getty)
Followers of health and healthy living accounts multiply (Getty)
His work on social networks consists of carrying out prevention for the youngest by providing information, promoting the inclusion of foods of high nutritional quality without prohibiting the richest. It is mainly "motivational", as she herself defines it. "I think that most people with weight disorders or chronic diseases associated with bad habits know what they have to do, but they can't; generating that strength in people using different professional and personal tools is what helps them," he considered. Many choose to consult and others begin to change by having the permanent reminder to drink water, to eat fruit, not to forget to eat breakfast, to prioritize sleep, to walk, etc. "

Social networks are also beneficial for patients who are already in treatment, since they receive encouragement and permanent reminders of what they have to modify, in a fun, exemplary, practical and up-to-date way, providing them with ideas and recipes and encouraging them to continue and generate more success in the long road they have undertaken.

In order to include networks in e-health, clear rules must be established since it is not a relationship of friends, but of professional/patient
"Social networks are here to stay. The problem is that in this 'post-truth' era, every story that is shown in an appropriate setting or character becomes credible. And in this context, today the word of a even that of a trained expert, who investigates and has expertise in that field". This was analyzed by the medical specialist in Nutrition Mónica Katz (MN 60164).

For her, consumers are not usually critical of ideas or products,
and in networks, "given that there is no editorial director, no journalist, no expert, critical reading of ideas, news, concepts and products is essential".

Katz acknowledged using all social networks. "In any case, in order to include networks in what is to come, which is e-health, clear rules must be established because it is not a relationship of friends, but of a professional/patient," explained Katz, who on Instagram tells with more than 32 thousand followers in his user @nodieta_katz.

"In the networks there are people who are desperate or disenchanted with the health system and that is why they look outside of it and, unfortunately, in this area the networks offer options offered by many influencers who are people with personal health problems, such as orthorexia, ex obese, vigorous, etc., who advise from their pathological experience", analyzed Katz, for whom "constantly subjecting people to ultra-thin, perfect and marked images leads to the yardstick with which it is measured does not coincide with the real image ".

"Weight is just a number. It doesn't measure beauty, creativity or happiness -Katz deepened-. The perfect images of instagramers can generate bodily discomfort in young people who are prisoners of the scale and the mirror."

 

 

One of the most successful actions that Busnelli carried out on social networks began in December and had the support of his colleagues, who replicated the information on their networks, massifying the message. "I called the campaign 'Contagiate' and it is an awareness chain to promote active living, challenging followers to move if they don't have a contraindication to do so. It's very easy, and it consists of starting to walk, going out to the square, to the treadmill or wherever they are," he said. "The commitment is to do it every day, taking advantage of the days off from vacation, starting little by little, progressively and surpassing what you did the day before until you reach the goal, which is 10,000 steps a day, which is a recommendation already established and used by most experts in Argentina."

Pedometers or step counters are simple, widely available and inexpensive body movement sensors that are easily used to assess and motivate physical activity behaviors by counting steps taken. "I suggested that they tell me how many daily steps they were achieving, sending me their walking photos or the photos of the steps achieved and that they infect those around them to move, using different hashtags such as #sumapasossumavida #tedesafioamoverte #hacelowalking and #contagiate. The answer was really successful, I began to receive massive feedback from the followers who found a way to move that was easy to include in their daily routine and I also began to share the photos of the people who were achieving it to spread it to the rest", detailed Busnelli, who predicted: "This has just begun and the success promoted benefits the po[CENSORED]tion, especially when the team of doctors who achieve influence in the lives of the followers unite in the same promotional message of improving the quality of life of the people. I am committed to continuing to spread health and I am sure that I will have the support of many entities."

 

https://www.infobae.com/salud/2018/02/06/redes-sociales-y-salud-cuando-internet-funciona-como-disparador-de-habitos-saludables/