Clinical Experience vs Online Health Advice: What to Consider Before You Follow

When Health Advice Comes From Someone Who’s Never Treated a Patient

By Daniel Soule, Owner & Director, HormoneSynergy®

Before going further, I want to be clear about my own role.

I am not a physician. I don’t diagnose, prescribe, or treat patients. What I do have is 20 years of experience working side by side with a licensed, actively practicing physician - Dr. Kathryn Retzler - inside a real clinical environment, watching medicine practiced where decisions have consequences and outcomes are followed over time.

That perspective shapes how I think about health advice, and why this distinction matters.

There has never been more health information available than there is today. At the same time, many people feel more uncertain than ever about who to trust.

Social media is filled with confident voices (Health Gurus, Biohackers and so called Influencers) offering advice on diets, food choices, toxins, hormones, weight loss, metabolism, inflammation, supplements, and longevity. Some are educated, thoughtful and well-intentioned. Others are persuasive and deeply certain (be careful). A growing number, however, share a critical reality that is rarely discussed: they have never treated a patient or had any training in health other than what they asked Dr. Google.

That distinction matters, especially when health advice moves from education into action.

Health Content Is Not the Same as Health "care".

Creating content about health is not the same as practicing medicine.

Online Social Media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok reward clicks, clarity, simplicity, and perceived confidence. Clinical medicine operates very differently. Real patient care involves nuance, uncertainty, follow-up, and responsibility. Bodies do not behave like algorithms, and outcomes rarely follow clean 1 minute narratives from the front seat of a car.

In a clinical setting, recommendations are monitored over time. Labs are reviewed. Symptoms evolve. Adjustments are made. Responsibility does not end when advice is given. It begins there.

A Question Worth Asking

Before following health advice, especially advice related to hormones, metabolism, cardiovascular risk, or long-term aging, it’s worth asking a simple question: has this person ever been responsible for a patient outcome?

In real medical practice, advice carries accountability. When something doesn’t work or causes harm, there is follow-up, reassessment, and course correction. Online, advice can spread widely without ever encountering follower or being responsible for the consequences.

Questions to Ask Yourself When Evaluating Health Advice

Not every health educator needs to be a physician. But when advice begins to influence real health decisions, thoughtful self-reflection matters.

Consider asking yourself:

• Does this person actually see patients, or have they ever treated patients directly?
• Are they currently and actively involved in clinical care?
• What degree, license, or certification do they hold?
• Is that credential clinical, regulated, and recognized by a licensing body? 
• How do they account for situations where their advice doesn’t work?
• What happens if someone has a negative reaction to what they recommend?
• Do they encourage collaboration with licensed healthcare professionals?
• Do they regularly advise people to work with their own physician or clinician?
• Are there situations where their recommendations would not be appropriate?
• Do they emphasize personalization, or do they present advice as universal?

The absence of clear answers isn’t always malicious, but it should invite caution. 

Why Certainty Should Raise Caution

One consistent pattern in misleading wellness content is absolute certainty. I've learned recently there is a term for this: Predatory Wellness. 

Statements like “this works for everyone,” “doctors don’t want you to know this,” or “there’s one root cause of all disease” and "they don't tell you" perform well online. They do not hold up in clinical reality.

Experienced clinicians talk about risk, tradeoffs, personalization, and monitoring. They acknowledge what is known, what is uncertain, and what needs to be evaluated over time. Medicine is not about having the most confident explanation. It is about making decisions that reduce harm.

Treating Ideas vs. Treating People

Many wellness personalities are treating ideas, not patients.

They may speak fluently about integrative medicine, functional medicine, supplements, hormones, or longevity science, but have never managed medication interactions, adverse effects, or long-term follow-up. They have not watched a theory fail in a real body and had to adapt.

Working alongside a practicing physician makes one thing very clear: in legitimate clinical care, the body often refuses to follow the theory.

When Advice Goes Wrong

In integrative and longevity medicine, a significant amount of clinical work involves helping people recover from well-intended but poorly applied guidance. Patients often arrive confused, frustrated, or physically worse after following protocols that ignored individual context.

This isn’t about blame. It’s about recognizing that health decisions carry weight, and advice without clinical oversight deserves careful evaluation.

Credentials Matter, but Experience and Accountability Matter More

Not every credential guarantees wisdom, and not every non-clinician lacks insight. But experience treating real patients changes how advice is framed. 

The most trustworthy voices tend to avoid absolutes, encourage collaboration with licensed clinicians, emphasize personalization and monitoring, and acknowledge uncertainty rather than selling certainty for clicks and advertising dollars.

These qualities don’t always perform well on social media, but they matter deeply in real health outcomes.

A Final Thought

Health education can be empowering. But it is not the same as healthcare.

Before following advice that affects or could affect your hormones, metabolism, weight, cardiovascular health, or long-term aging trajectory, it’s worth asking not just what someone is saying, but where that knowledge comes from and who bears responsibility if it doesn’t work.

Your body is not an experiment.
It deserves experience, context, and care.

Daniel Soule
Owner & Director, HormoneSynergy® / HormoneSynergy Clinic LLC
Serving Portland and Lake Oswego, Oregon | USA