Would you like to see me in a bikini? (Warning—partial nudity discussed)

Recently I posted a poll on Twitter, asking my network if they would like to see a photo of me in a bikini. I am not kidding. (The results of this poll are shared below, so don't worry.) The poll did not get much attention, nor did I get very many votes for seeing me in a bikini. I guess too many people in my network knew me and were not interested. But why did I do that? For those of you who might be thinking ‘What's wrong with her?’ let me tell you the story behind this silly poll so you might understand. (A side note: people who know me understand that "What's wrong with her?" is a rhetorical question.) Here’s what drove me to threaten to “expose myself” on social media: Like most pharmacists, I am a stickler for evidence and science. Pharmacists have to know there is science behind everything we do. That’s what we were taught. We practice evidence-based medicine. We rely on evidence when recommending anything to our patients or communicating with other healthcare professionals, because: evidence is the gold standard. This is why 15 years ago, I started a project, working with colleagues and experts in the field, sorting through the evidence for the use of probiotics. Our aim was to cut through the avalanche of misinformation and increasingly aggressive marketing about probiotics; to distill the facts and down to the bottom line. We created a science-based guide to the use of probiotic products as a way to inform colleagues who recommend probiotics to their patients about what particular strain can be used for what specific issue, and which products are available in your region. To make your life easier—and to improve patient outcomes. Over the past 15 years, since we produced our first guide, we’ve worked on annual updates, combing through credible, and not-so-credible publications, staying up to date on the current probiotic offerings and producing a new edition each year. It has been a lot of work and we are very proud of it. However, not many people know about it. At first we relied on word of mouth—colleagues telling other colleagues how fantastic this resource is. Then we tried to increase our social media presence. Over the years, we have increased our presence online, spreading the message and letting everyone know about our work. We are pharmacists and clinicians. We do not understand that much about social media but we were doing our best. And our reach was growing; our audiences were increasing, and we were slowly getting some feedback. Very, very slowly. Our posts have 10 to 15 likes. If we get to 100, that’s cause for celebration. Excellent. We measure how many people visit ouir Clinical Guide to Probiotics website and download the mobile apps, and small incremental increases are cause for celebration. Great! Then, last week I saw a post on LinkedIn. It was posted by a company (or somebody working in that company) that is producing a probiotic combination for brain health. Curiosity got the better of me; I am attracted to anything probiotic-related and need to find out. I read the post in which this particular person, apparently a scientist, is telling his network about the product they are launching in the U.K. and soon in North America. The post states that this particular probiotic combination has 380 studies to support the product's use in promoting and improving brain health, depression etc. I am taken aback, thinking: what did I miss? How did I miss 380 studies on this particular probiotic combination? What is wrong with me? I also noticed that this post attracted huge attention; I am seeing many people—other scientists, probiotic influencers and researchers—commenting on it. Some ask for references, but most congratulate this person on launching the product. I am now feeling totally out of touch. How did I miss such an important launch—a probiotic product with 380 studies to support it? In the post, he said they have been waiting for two and half years to finalize all the research before launching it. And this is a probiotic for brain health, such a wonderful thing. I ask to see the evidence and where these studies are published. What’s curious is that healthcare professionals often use this platform, and some of the people commenting on this particular post are respected scientists; they are not new to this field. Most comments asking for references or serious questions are ignored. But the comments saying: 'Oh great, I am going to order it for my wife!' are getting lots of attention and replies from the author of the post. Finally, after a week of this conversation going back and forth, and challenging and honestly asking for the resources, it turns out that the ‘studies’ this person was referring to are the body of evidence for each strain in this combination separately. There is no evidence for the mixture itself. And that is a problem. One of the fundamental premises behind the scientific body and evidence for probiotics is: if you have a strain, you do a study to support it, which is excellent. If you have a combination of strains, you do a study, then you have the evidence. That is great. But you cannot willy-nilly combine strains, because they likely will not work well together. Sometimes combinations might work, but you have to show me the proof. Most of the time, those probiotic strains will compete with each other, not providing the effect shown with individual strains separately. It is almost similar to putting a work team together. Let's say you like to have a great pharmacy team. You will hire a pharmacist, a technician, a cashier, and maybe front store staff. That will be your team; you know those people have skills and will be able to work together. You will not hire a football player, a tennis star and a fashion designer to work in your pharmacy. And putting them in a team will not work – they work well in their respective fields, but together as a team in your pharmacy? They will wreck it. So what I am trying to say is this particular social media post has left me feeling disheartened. I was taken aback by the amount of attention being given to something so frivolous and silly. Something that sounded to me like unethical marketing was getting attention from people I thought would know better. And of course it made me want to raise awareness of our project—this resource backed by scientific evidence that we worked very hard on for many years. That got me thinking: how do you get attention on social media? Posts that feature partial nudity and products that make irresponsible claims seem to attract the highest engagement. As a pharmacist, I can not make irresponsible claims; however, perhaps I could perhaps do partial nudity. Read: App provides clinical evidence for appropriate probiotic products And that is why I offered to post pictures of myself in a bikini. I placed a poll on Twitter. And I got 19 votes. Three votes for a bikini photo ( Yay!) and the rest of the votes for seeing the evidence-based probiotic guide. Once again, it's kind of silly, but I’m disappointed with the lack of attention to this post. For comparison, the irresponsible post that triggered this chain of events attracted 200 likes, 128 comments, and 8 reposts. Versus my poll, which got 1 repost and 19 votes. I understand that I am not doing regular daily reels and I am not doing things that would improve my online algorithm (whatever that is), but there must be something that we, collectively, as pharmacists, can do to effectively promote a scientific approach to informing people about these products. We have a great opportunity now with the expanded scope of practice in many provinces, including minor ailment prescribing in Ontario. With that, I will rest my case. I may post a picture of myself in a bikini, or I may not. What I will continue to do is look at the evidence for probiotics. I will continue tilting at windmills. And I’ll continue working with my team to bring you and other HCPs the best tools you can use in clinical practice. If you are on social media platforms, try to find me. Let me know if the bikini photo would be a good idea; or tell me what is wrong with the science and evidence we present. Thank you. Extra info: The Canadian version of the Clinical Guide to Probiotics and the U.S. version. Dragana’s efforts to promote evidence-based education in this field resulted in the establishment of the Alliance for Education on Probiotics or AEProbio in 2015. AEProbio supports publishing the Clinical Guides to Probiotic Products and other educational pieces designed for healthcare professionals and consumers. Find the summary of the educational offerings here. Dragana Skokovic-Sunjic is a clinical pharmacist with Hamilton Family Health Team. In addition to her collaborative clinical practice, she is a leader in knowledge mobilization for probiotics in Canada and United States. Translating scientific research in this field, she has authored ‘Clinical Guide to Probiotic Supplements Available in Canada’ and ‘Clinical Guide to Probiotic Products Available in the US since 2008. This practical clinical tool is reviewed and updated annually to reflect the latest evidence and include new probiotic products in the Canadian and US markets. Her project has been presented, published and recognized internationally, receiving numerous awards and recognition.

Would you like to see me in a bikini? (Warning—partial nudity discussed)

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics