Medfluencer: A dose of fame, advice and side effects?

Medical advice goes viral on social media. But while so-called "medfluencers"—often without formal medical qualifications—gain millions of followers, critics warn that their seemingly simple solutions could do more harm than good.

Medical student Alina Walbrund is not yet a licensed physician, but she has gained over 300,000 followers under the Instagram handle "Doc Alina." Most of her posts focus on wellness tips, such as mixing magnesium into cocoa for better sleep. But she also occasionally ventures into medical territory.

In a video, Walbrund, who is not diabetic, used a blood glucose meter to monitor her blood sugar, drawing criticism for her self-experiment. Licensed physicians argue that such tests can be inaccurate and misleading for healthy people. They could also fuel health anxiety and compulsive self-monitoring.

Walbrund belongs to a growing group of influencers who create videos about medical topics on social media, so-called “medfluencers”.

Often in surgical clothing and with usernames that refer to “Doc” or “Doctor,” they explain complex health topics and introduce products—many of them sponsored.

But what appears to be a hype among young people actually has a much wider reach. A 2023 study by the University of Vienna found that around 30 percent of 15- to 25-year-olds among 1,000 respondents in Austria follow health influencers.

Legal gray area for German medical students

According to the influencer agency Medservation, there are around 1,000 active medfluencers in Germany, but detailed data is hardly available.

Under current German law, licensed physicians are prohibited from advertising medications and must adhere to the regulations of the Medical Association. However, medical students operate in a legal gray area.