Government turns to TikTok to highlight risks of cosmetic surgery abroad
Ministers hope the new campaign with TikTok will help people make 'more informed choices before they go under the knife'.
As part of the initiative, the Government will work with medical influencers, such as Midwife Marley and Doc Tally, to create videos showing the risks of cosmetic surgery abroad.
The content will urge patients to speak to a UK doctor first and avoid package holidays that include procedures.
It will also include a checklist for patients to consider before they book a procedure, which includes checking the credentials of surgeons, the clinic's regulations, and understanding the aftercare.
The initiative is part of a wider Government drive to tackle so-called medical tourism and ensure the NHS is not left to foot the bill when complications arise.
Health minister Karin Smyth said: 'Too many people are being left with life-altering injuries after going abroad for medical procedures, without access to proper advice or safeguards.
'Often drawn in by deals too good to be true and promoted by influencers – some of whom have never been to the practice in question.
'By partnering with TikTok, we're helping people make safer, more informed choices before they go under the knife – wherever that may be.'
Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said: 'Our aim is to explain the risks and help British people understand the actions they can take to keep themselves safe when abroad.
'If you choose to travel abroad for medical treatment, it is vital you do your research and are fully aware of the risks involved.
'We urge anyone considering a medical procedure abroad to review our travel advice, relevant guidance from the NHS and other professional bodies, and research foreign providers thoroughly to ensure they meet the highest standard of care.
'Informed choices today can help avoid serious complications tomorrow.'
The initiative comes after ministers outlined plans to cut down on 'cowboy' cosmetic procedures by introducing new restrictions.
Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Social Care unveiled proposals which include only allowing 'suitably qualified' and Care Quality Commission-regulated health workers to deliver high-risk procedures such as Brazilian butt lifts.
Elsewhere, clinics offering Botox and fillers will need licences, and age restrictions will be introduced to prevent children from trying to follow 'dangerous beauty trends on social media'.
Those who break the rules will face sanctions, including financial penalties, officials said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Glasgow Times
26 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Andrew Flintoff backs campaign to increase helipads at hospitals
In December 2022, Flintoff sustained severe injuries while filming at the Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey for an episode of BBC show Top Gear. The former international cricketer was airlifted to St George's Hospital in Tooting – a major trauma centre. The helipad at the hospital was funded by a campaign with the Helicopter Emergency Landing Pads (Help) Appeal. As he backed the campaign, Flintoff said: 'When I was airlifted, that helipad wasn't just a safe spot to land on the hospital roof, it was a vital step in giving me a second chance as I had immediate access to the specialist care which helped saved my life. 'As every cricket pitch has a wicket, every hospital that needs one should have a helipad.' St George's Hospital helipad, where Andrew Flintoff landed after his accident, was funded by a charity called the Help Appeal (Help Appeal/PA) The Help Appeal said that there have been 30,000 landings on the 32 NHS hospital helipads funded by the charity across the country. It has also funded 23 major upgrades at other hospital helipads. The charity is aiming to fund 40 new and upgraded helipads. Robert Bertram, chief executive of the Help Appeal, said: 'We are incredibly grateful to have Freddie's support, especially knowing that his life was saved thanks, in part, to a Help Appeal-funded helipad. His story highlights exactly why the charity's work is so vital – seconds count in a medical emergency and that helipad made all the difference. 'Freddie's backing brings invaluable awareness to the importance of rapid access to emergency care for everyone, everywhere.' Andrew Flintoff signs autographs for fans after a match in The Hundred Men's series, where he coaches the Northern Superchargers (John Walton/PA) Sir Keith Porter, emeritus professor of clinical traumatology at the University of Birmingham, said the charity plays a 'crucial part' in getting patients to the right hospital at the right time. He added: 'Helicopter Emergency Medical Services have the ability to deliver critical care teams at or close to the side of a patient and then to transport them to the most appropriate hospital for their clinical needs, in the case of injury, usually a major trauma centre. 'Minutes count, particularly for patients with life-threatening bleeding, where the extra journey time can make the difference between life and death. The Aintree hospital helipad (Help Appeal/PA) 'The Help Appeal, by funding on-site helipads, helps facilitate the prompt delivery of patients directly into the emergency department with a trolley-push from the landing site.' Flintoff also recently visited the NHS staff who cared for him after the accident at St George's Hospital. He praised health workers in the NHS as 'superheroes' and described the aftermath of the crash as the 'the lowest I've ever been'. The 47-year-old praised the 'expertise, love and compassion' shown by staff at the hospital during his time of need. Flintoff praised the 'superhero' NHS staff who looked after him after the crash (St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) During a documentary about the accident, Flintoff described how he used the split-second decision-making from his cricketing days to try to reduce the impact of the crash. He said he was 'pulled face-down on the runway' for about 50 metres under the car. The former England star said he thought he had died in the accident. For months after the crash, Flintoff disappeared from public view and would leave his house only for medical appointments His recovery has been documented in a documentary, Flintoff, streamed on Disney+.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
‘What I eat in a day' videos are everywhere. Are they a toxic influence or helpful reminder to eat well?
Multiple times a day, during my designated scrolling time on TikTok (I try to keep this habit in check), voices echo out of my phone, all telling me what they've eaten that day. It's a viral social media trend and the videos are everywhere. 'What I eat in a day as a fat 20-year-old who doesn't diet', 'what I eat in a day as a guy who can eat whatever he wants without putting on weight', 'what I eat in a day as a woman with PCOS', 'what I eat in a day as a girl trying to heal her skin through diet', 'what I eat in a day as a twenty-three-year-old on Ozempic', 'what I eat in a day as a mum trying her best'. The videos are varied. Some obsessively healthy featuring only organic foods, others showing three takeaways or nothing but chips. I watch them, engaged and obsessive – even when I know they're probably harming my relationship with food. I rarely give anything on my phone my full attention, but these videos always reel me in. I don't want to look, but I do. And even after blocking or unfollowing the creators who particularly spike my anxiety, these videos are inescapable. The hashtag #whatieatinaday (or #WIEIAD) has billions of views, and currently 2.3M posts attached to it on TikTok. Feeding the algorithm The format is easily replicable, low-effort and wildly popular, so creators of all niches seem to have jumped on the trend. Sometimes, especially from foodie accounts, these videos can feel useful, introducing me to new recipes or cooking styles. But more often than not, I come away from my time on TikTok with a creeping sense of discomfort. As a genre, these videos make food more of a public performance than ever before. In many ways, they're a modern reboot of the early 2000s 'what's in my fridge?' features in magazines, but repackaged for the TikTok generation. The trouble is, while food can be about community and connection, WIEIAD videos often do the opposite. They invite surveillance and judgment. I've caught myself watching and mentally calculating if someone's eating too much or too little or how many vegetables are on their plate. I hate that I do this, and it goes against everything I believe in. But even those actively unlearning diet culture internalise the dangerous messaging about what we should or shouldn't be eating. This is the baked-in hypocrisy of habitual WIEIAD viewing – we become the food police, even if we don't want to. And that policing, by ourselves and others, damages our relationships with eating. Social media thrives on comparison. Now more than ever, young people have access to the interior, curated lives of others, and they compare themselves constantly. That includes the food they're eating. What one influencer eats might not be replicable for a follower with a different body, income level, or cultural background, but the pressure to conform still exists. Embedded in diet culture Personal trainer and functional mobility specialist Laura Ghiacy reacts to WIEIAD videos by breaking down toxic language, debunking myths and calling out weight-loss rhetoric. She knows the problem with comparison all too well. 'I started dieting when I was just 8 years old, and that spiralled into decades of disordered eating and obsessive food control,' she explains. 'So when social media first took off and 'what I eat in a day' videos exploded in popularity, I was hooked. I watched them religiously, copied them meal for meal, and truly believed that if I just followed what these influencers ate, I'd finally look like them, finally be enough.' Ghiacy told me that she creates these reaction videos to help people avoid diet culture traps. 'I know my experience is on the extreme end of the spectrum, but that's exactly why I create these reactions. If I can help just one person question what they're seeing, stop comparing, or avoid going down the same path I did, then it's worth it. My goal is to cut through the noise and expose the problematic messages so many people don't even realise they're absorbing.' According to 2023 data from Statista, 63% of TikTok users are between the ages of 18 and 34. This overlaps with the age group most vulnerable to developing eating disorders. In fact, a 2020 study found a significant link between social media use and disordered eating among middle school students, suggesting that the impact begins far earlier than previously thought. I asked Dr Charlotte Markey, a world-leading expert in body image research and author of The Body Image Books, for her viewpoint. 'WIEIAD videos are problematic,' she told me. 'Our food choices are driven by a variety of forces – appetites, cultures, resources, activity levels – and so much more. Two people can consume the exact same foods and have very different bodies.' What's particularly dangerous is that young viewers tend to absorb what they see without critical thinking. 'The part of our brains (the prefrontal cortex) that allows us to think in more critical, abstract ways doesn't fully develop until we are in our twenties. In contrast, the more emotion-focused areas of our brain develop sooner, which leaves the images, music, and excitement of quick video clips particularly enticing to young viewers. They are less apt to pause and think analytically about what they are seeing than are older viewers,' she adds. There's also the issue of privilege. A lot of popular WIEIAD content is created by people with access to time, money and fresh produce. For many, replicating those meals is nearly impossible, not just financially but logistically. This further reinforces comparison culture, but also mirrors real-world snobbery around food and society's demonisation of working class people and the choices they make. Intent versus impact is important when considering these videos. Even videos posted with good intentions, like those 'normalising' non-restrictive eating or home-grown produce, can still be damaging when viewed through a comparative lens. And it's not just teenagers posting and consuming this content. I'm thirty, and I still feel the internal tug-of-war. I'm a grown woman, well-versed in the tricks and tropes of wellness and diet culture, and still, I sometimes feel inadequate. So, it's easy to assume that young people do too. Can these videos ever be helpful? Functional medicine practitioner Farzanah Nasse focuses on gut and hormone health and creates her own WIEIAD videos with a very specific goal. 'I create these videos to try and inspire my audience on ways to incorporate more goodness' she tells me. 'We know that up to 90 per cent of the UK population are not meeting their fibre goals and in all my videos I show how I can hit this, easily. I share ideas and simple recipes to help them too. It can be a visual way to encourage more plants and fibre. It's also really important to remember we are all individuals and our needs and requirements vary considerably and so these videos need to highlight this and that they are simply there for ideas and inspiration.' Nasse believes the issue isn't the format, it's creator specific. 'Firstly, I think it's important to know the background of the influencer that you are following. Are they a medical doctor, registered nutritionist or dietician and are they credible?' Nasse hasn't seen her clients bring up her WIEIAD videos when discussing body image, but clients do cite them as sources of inspiration or education: 'clients say that they found it helpful to see how I used an ingredient or how they tried a particular recipe or learnt a new fact about what the science says.' Ghiacy agrees, and says she finds some of these videos 'refreshing'. She has seen WIEIAD videos that celebrate food, showcase cultural diversity and promote joy, nourishment, and the reality that thinness is not the same thing as health. She believes that this kind of content is 'powerful and important'. Nasse believes those making WIEIAD videos have to be very careful, and highlight that they are just examples to inspire. 'Some influencers who have no credentials in health and wellness have shared videos with very low calories, demonising ingredients and promoting unachievable and unrealistic lifestyle habits that you absolutely do have to be careful and aware about. On the flip side we can use these videos as a tool to help and inspire others, helping them get more goodness into their diet, showing how simple swaps and changes can have a big impact.' The toxic load This all points to a bigger issue with social media wellness trends: it's easy for health misinformation to thrive. 'Even if WIEIAD videos are not mentioned directly, many young people in particular get ideas about health and nutrition from social media,' highlights Dr Markey. 'Often this information is taken as fact when it is not at all evidence-based information. Anyone can suggest health information online, facts can be distorted, research misinterpreted and disinformation is presented with the aim of selling health-related products.' WIEIAD videos often reflect deeper cultural anxieties about health, beauty and control. They are a window into our food culture's extremes – from 'clean girl' smoothies and supplements to fast-food-only diets. These videos thrive in the extremes and the really viral ones often don't feel realistic or resemble how anyone I know in real life eats. Although they wouldn't admit it, a lot of infamous WIEIAD creators are trying to rage bait audiences for views, whether that's through spreading misinformation or pretending to eat differently on camera than they do in reality. Ghiacy warns that the language of diet culture is "incredibly loaded," pointing to seemingly harmless phrases like "clean eating," "being good," or having a "cheat day" as examples that "attach morality to food and by extension, to the people eating it." This moral framing, she explains, can have a powerful impact. 'When someone labels their food as 'clean' and it looks nothing like what you eat, it's easy to internalise that and start feeling like you need to change your habits to be a 'better' person.' Over time, she says, this reinforces the idea that 'our worth is tied to what we eat' – a message perpetuated across social media, films and even everyday conversations. This dynamic, she adds, is especially evident in the wave of WIEIAD videos. 'Whether it's the creator labelling their meals or the comments praising someone for not eating certain things, we start to build our identities around those patterns,' Ghiacy says. 'And that can be incredibly damaging, especially for young or vulnerable people trying to figure out who they are and where they belong.' Of course, there are creators, like Nasse and Ghiacy, who are providing educational content via the WIEIAD trend. And there have been times where I've turned to Doctors or nutritionists online, to learn more about what I should eat. For example, I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which requires me to focus on certain foods more than others – watching other people with PCOS, or medical experts, demonstrate how they cook with the condition is useful and at times, inspiring. But it's also essential to maintain perspective, something that a lot of social media users don't do, or are too young to know how to do. Just because someone with a similar diagnosis eats a certain way doesn't mean their approach will work for you. These videos should never replace proper medical advice or nutritional support. So what's the answer? I don't think we can, or should, ban these videos altogether. Like all content genres, they exist on a spectrum. But we need to be more conscious about how we consume them. And those creating them need to be held to higher regulatory standards.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
New skills needed for driving theory test and when exam will change
The new questions will be rolling out from early 2026, with official guides and learning material already updated The DVSA has revealed that the driving theory test will now include questions on CPR and defibrillator use. The department hopes this move will educate millions each year in these life-saving skills, thereby increasing survival rates from cardiac arrest and easing pressure on the NHS. For those feeling nervous about the new additions to the test, we sought clarification from the Resuscitation Council, the leading healthcare charity responsible for setting CPR guidelines. The organisation confirmed that the questions will focus on basic CPR and defibrillator use and will only be added to the car and motorcycle theory test in early 2026. According to the organisation, effective CPR skills can be learned or self-taught in less than 15 minutes. This gives future drivers ample time to acquire these new required skills before the rules come into effect. Official learning materials have already been updated, so those wishing to study can utilise the Official DVSA Guide to Driving or the new Resuscitation Council hub, which offers free training resources. Updates to motorcycle publications are expected to follow shortly. The new questions will be entirely theory-based and set by the DVSA, meaning learners won't need to physically demonstrate their skills in a practical manner. The DVSA won't reveal the precise questions learners will face, but has provided some examples. This includes a multiple-choice question about who can operate a public access defibrillator, also known as an AED. The options range from paramedics only to first aiders only, doctors only, and everyone. The organisation explained that this change is being implemented now in hopes that the 2.4 million people sitting their theory test annually will acquire life-saving skills before taking to the roads. According to the Resuscitation Council, 41% of the UK population has received CPR training within the past decade. In the UK, over 40,000 people experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest annually, with fewer than one in 10 surviving - but if CPR is administered and a defibrillator deployed within three to five minutes of collapse, survival rates could reach as high as 70%. CEO of Resuscitation Council UK, James Cant, said: "We're delighted to be working with the DVSA and other partners to introduce CPR and defibrillator awareness into the driving theory test. "By embedding these life-saving skills into such a widely taken assessment, we can help ensure that more people, from all communities, gain the knowledge and confidence to act during a cardiac arrest." Recent research from the European Resuscitation Council discovered that 44% of European countries mandate citizens to undergo basic life support courses for certain driving licences. This includes CPR and defibrillator awareness.
