Looking young and staying healthy doesn’t come without sacrifices — but some wellness hacks go to a whole new extreme.
Bee stings, leeches and butter are some of the bizarre things celebs have used for facials and in health foods in bid to stay looking healthy, wrinkle free and radiant.
And it is not just the Kardashian’s and pseudoscience-peddling Gwyneth Paltrow who have tried these strange techniques.
Gwyneth Paltrow, 50, pictured left, at Veuve Clicquot in Beverly Hills. The actress is no stranger to a bizarre health hack, from goat-milk cleanses to bee-sting therapy. Bee-sting therapy, dubbed the organic alterative to Botox, uses bee sting venom as the main ingredient to stimulate blood flow and collagen
Bee-sting facial
She may have blossomed as a young actress in the late 1990s, but Gwyneth Paltrow has since built herself a reputation for selling bizarre wellness products, as part of her lifestyle brand Goop.
As well as a goat-milk cleanse and vaginal steam, the actress, 50, has gone to painful lengths in the name of health and wellbeing — including being stung by bees.
The Goop founder believes the bee stings — dubbed the organic alterative to Botox — actually get rid of inflammation and scaring, leaving skin looking radiant.
She confessed to The New York Times in 2016: ‘I’ve been stung by bees.
‘It’s a thousands of years old treatment called apitherapy.
‘People use it to get rid of inflammation and scarring. It’s actually pretty incredible if you research it.’
Apitherapy is the term for any treatment using products that come from bees, such as facials using Manuka honey, which advocates say has soothing properties.
Gwyneth admitted her approach to the alternative therapy was ‘painful’.
When bees sting, their venom stimulates blood flow and collagen in the face, which has the effect of smoothing wrinkles, advocates claim.
But deliberately getting bees to sting you probably isn’t the wisest idea, and not just because it hurts.
Bee stings, like most insect venom, cause inflammation.
If you are stung, it will usually cause a red, swollen lump on the skin, which can be painful and in some cases can be very itchy, according to the NHS.
But people use bee venom to treat a variety of illnesses, including Parkinson’s disease, MS, arthritis, and nerve pain. It has been used as a traditional medicine for centuries from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians to Chinese civilizations.
Oil pulling
Forget the minty fresh taste of Listerine — some people use coconut oil to clean their mouth.
The Fault in Our Stars actress Shailene Woodley confessed in an interview with Into The Gloss in 2014 that she keeps her teeth white by swilling oil around her mouth.
Known as oil pulling, it involves putting a spoonful of coconut oil in your mouth and swilling it around for up to 20 minutes before spitting it out.
It derives from a tradition in ancient India almost 5,000 years ago, which saw people use sesame oil as a mouthwash.
Shailene Woodley, pictured left, at the The Earthshot Prize 2022 at MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston, Massachusetts. The star revealed she keeps her teeth white by swilling oil around her mouth. The trend known as oil pulling, involves putting a spoonful of coconut oil in your mouth and swilling for 20 minutes before spitting it out. But Miss Woodley uses sesame oil, pictured right
The technique is thought to pull the plaque and bacteria away from the teeth, helping to keep the mouth clean and fresh.
‘It really makes your teeth whiter, because the plaque on your teeth is not water soluble, it’s fat-soluble,’ says Shailene.
But there is no evidence that oil pulling can prevent cavities, despite claims made online, according to an article published in the British Dental Journal.
However, one study published in the Nigerian Journal of Medicine in 2015 backs celeb claims that the technique works.
The study found that after just seven days of oil pulling, levels of plaque and gum disease significantly reduced, and continued to decrease over a period of a month.
But dentists are not convinced we should be adding oil pulling to our daily routines.
Cosmetic dentist Dr Tara Francis stresses it definitely should not replace your normal brushing. She said: ‘There’s currently not enough scientific data to give a definite answer on whether oil pulling is beneficial.
‘If you do decide to practice oil pulling, it should not be a replacement to good oral hygiene which should include brushing twice a day and cleaning between your teeth with floss and/or interdental brushes.’
Vampire facial
When you think of a facial you may imagine a gentle massage, cleansing balms and moisturising oils.
Injections of blood certainly wouldn’t cross your mind.
Yet that is exactly what Kim Kardashian, 42, did in the name of beauty.
The procedure sees injections of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) jabbed into the face, with the aim of banishing wrinkles.
Plasma is nicknamed ‘liquid gold’ for its yellow-ish colour and array of supposed skin benefits. Meanwhile, platelets are a type of blood cell vital for healing.
Cosmetic doctors claim the treatment can slow and even reverse the aging process by plumping the skin and reducing the appearance of wrinkles.
Kim Kardashian is pictured after having a vampire facial. Cosmetic doctors claim the treatment can slow and even reverse the aging process by plumping the skin and reducing the appearance of wrinkles. The procedure was featured in an episode of the Keeping Up With the Kardashians spin off show, Kim and Kourtney Take Miami in 2013
The technique was featured in an episode of the Keeping Up With the Kardashians spin off show, Kim and Kourtney Take Miami in 2013.
But it is not something Kim will be doing again any time soon.
She later admitted in a blog post in 2018 that the treatment was ‘rough’ and ‘painful’.
‘Before I got the procedure, I just found out that I was pregnant, so I couldn’t use the numbing cream or a pain killer and both are suggested,’ she wrote.
A medical review in 2018, led by Dr Alexes Hazen, of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, suggests that PRP can help to decrease the appearance of wrinkles.
But Dr Hazen warned that the evidence is still limited.
A spoonful of Ghee
When it comes to staying in shape, eating a spoon of clarified butter every day is certainly not what comes to mind.
But that is Kourtney Kardashian’s secret to staying healthy.
The 43-year-old TV personality and socialite, revealed on her blog in 2016 that she eats a spoon of ghee every morning.
She wrote: ‘A teaspoon a day does a body good.’
Kourtney claims the clarified butter — which originated in ancient India and is now used to fry food and make curries — promotes weight loss, keeps the gut healthy, strengthens the immune system, hydrates skin, makes hair grow thick and nourishes the nervous system.
Ghee which is a type of clarified butter is used as a health hack by Kourtney Kardashian, picture left. She claims it promotes weight loss, keeps the gut healthy, strengthens the immune system, hydrates skin, makes hair grow thick, and nourishes the nervous system
The reality TV star said she melts a teaspoon of the fat on the hob, before pouring the liquid into a cup and drinking it.
She then waits 20 minutes before she downs a glass of water and eats breakfast.
But there is not much evidence that eating ghee will help you stay slim.
Professor Chandradhar Dwivedi, a pharmacologist at South Dakota State University, told Time in 2019 that the calorie-dense fat is packed with vitamin E and A — which support healthy skin.
But it may raise levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol, according to his 2010 study, which can increase the risk heart attacks and strokes.
Sheep placenta facial
Simon Cowell has, over the years, gone to great lengths to stay looking young.
The 63-year-old music mogul previously admitted to treating himself to a sheep placenta facial in a bid to maintain a youthful appearance.
TV judge and music mogul, Simon Cowell, pictured left at BGT auditions at the London Palladium, confessed he has had a sheep placenta facial. A sheep placenta facial is said to have clock rewinding effects making your skin look more youthful. The high collagen levels and rejuvenating stem cells in the after birth is thought to help smooth wrinkles
The TV judge, who has sparked concern with his ever changing face and unrecognisable appearance lately, told The Mirror in 2015: ‘I also had a sheep placenta facial once, which was quite out there.’
The sheep placenta secret was originally revealed by a beauty therapist from Beverly Hills Lancer dermatology clinic in California in 2012.
The high levels of collagen and stem cells in the organ are said to help smooth wrinkles. The ingredient is added to moisturisers for that very reason.
But Simon’s routine was revealed to not be as simple as applying cream.
His skin was exfoliated for 30 minutes before a bright LED light was directed at his face to open his pores, it was reported.
A beauty professional then applied the placenta, which is mixed with flakes of 24 carat gold, and comes in the form of a gel.
Although products containing sheep’s placenta claim to help rejuvenation and collagen production there is not much evidence to support these statements.
Leech facial
Just when you thought beauty treatments couldn’t get any more gruesome, blood sucking leeches are now used for facials.
Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr, 39, admitted to having a leech facial in an interview at Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop summit in 2017.
It involves placing live leeches on the face, after which the blood they consume is smeared across the skin like a mask. Proponents say the therapy tightens skin and leaves it looking younger.
Model Miranda Kerr, pictured left, revealed at Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop summit in 2017 that she had tried a leech facial. Leeches are used for cosmetic reasons because they secrete proteins, which is said to tighten the skin, but this has not been medically proven
After the model revealed she had the unusual beauty treatment, she confessed to even holding on to the leeches afterwards.
She said: ‘I kept the leeches, they’re in my koi pond.
‘You’re not allowed to reuse them and if you don’t take them home then she kills them and I didn’t like that idea.’
Even though it sounds horrible, the blood suckers have been used for thousands of years, but mainly for the practice of bloodletting for illness.
Leeches are used for cosmetic reasons because they secrete proteins, which is said to tighten the skin. However, this has not been medically proven.
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