Doctors have expressed concern over a viral TikTok of an American influencer undergoing a £640 full-body MOT in Turkey and being promoted as capable of contracting a range of diseases.
Created by health and beauty tourism influencer Bryn Elise, the eye-catching video, which has been viewed nearly 12 million times, shows her undergoing a “VIP check-up” at Istanbul Memorial Hospital.
However, doctors on social media immediately warned of the potential risks.
They warned of the risk of “false positives” in such tests that could lead people to undergo unnecessary risky and invasive monitoring and operations.
In the clip, Ms Elise is seen being driven around the “posh” private hospital and undergoing a series of checks including a blood test, an electrocardiogram (a type of heart test), blood pressure, chest X-ray, abdominal and thyroid ultrasounds and a bone density scan.
Dr. Ashley Winter, a urologist based in Los Angeles, was one of the doctors who criticized the video, saying people should be aware that every medical test carries the risk of “false positives” that incorrectly indicate something is wrong and can lead to unnecessary and even risky surgery.
Bryn Elise had a number of tests and scans included in her VIP package, including a chest x-ray.
The 29-year-old influencer also had a bone density scan performed on a high-tech machine.
The clip, which has been viewed nearly 12 million times, shows Ms Elise performing a cardiac “stress test” which involves monitoring the organ while using a treadmill.
Accompanied by a personal translator, she also underwent an eye exam, a gynecological exam, a heart scan and a stress test and ate at the hospital’s luxurious restaurant.
She said the check-up cost a “staggering” $810 (£640), which even with the $700 (£550) flight fee, was thousands of dollars cheaper than equivalent treatment in the US, adding that it was “the best thing I’ve ever done for my health”.
In her video, Ms. Elise, who is in her 20s and originally from Colorado, says: “To do this in the U.S. would have cost me thousands of dollars and taken months to get it done.”
“But we do everything in one day: examinations, tests, meetings with specialists… and the price of everything is exorbitant.”
She did not elaborate on why she was undergoing the tests, only saying she had a “list of mysterious ailments.”
While the clip shows Ms Elise discussing her results with an internal medicine specialist, she did not reveal the results, adding that they would be the focus of a “follow-up video”.
But he did reveal that his eye exam revealed he had astigmatism, a common imperfection in the shape of the eye that is usually corrected with glasses or contact lenses.
However, British and American experts who commented on the videos were less impressed with the results.
Reacting to the video, Los Angeles urologist Dr. Ashley Winter said people should be aware that every medical test carries the risk of “false positives” that incorrectly indicate something is wrong.
Writing about X, she explained: ‘A wrong result can lead to unnecessary fear and worry and, in the worst case, unnecessary invasive procedures or even unnecessary surgeries.
‘The chance of someone getting a false positive decreases when the person is at higher risk for having a real problem (i.e., a specific symptom).’
“This is called a higher ‘pre-test probability.’ That’s why doctors don’t recommend that everyone get tested all the time.”
She illustrated this point using an example from her specialty and testing for prostate cancer.
“If I order a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test on a random 85-year-old with no symptoms, I’m likely to get a high result, leading to fear and a possible biopsy (which carries risks of sepsis). Then, potentially, a diagnosis of intermediate-risk prostate cancer that is unlikely to kill him, even if left untreated at all,” he wrote.
She continued: ‘Perhaps the patient is then presented with all the treatment options and, despite the doctor’s recommendation for observation/monitoring, is understandably fearful and begins treatment with radiation and hormonal suppression.’
‘Hormonal suppression causes fatigue, hot flashes, erectile dysfunction and night sweats. Radiation causes blood in the urine and urge incontinence. He ends up in the emergency room and has an emergency procedure to stop the bleeding.
“He goes home with a fat urinary catheter in his urethra. He feels like garbage. He suffers sepsis from a urinary tract infection caused by the catheter and dies.
“All because he was 85 years old and someone randomly gave him an inappropriate screening test.”
Dr. Winter concluded her point by stating that she had seen patients like this and that all screening tests for diseases and health problems carried similar risks.
“When doctors say they don’t recommend everyone get tested, it’s because we’re thinking about situations like this,” he said.
Although some doctors questioned whether the video was an advert for Memorial Hospital, Ms Elise told MailOnline the clip had not been sponsored and she had not earned any commission.
He added that the only special treatment he received at the hospital was that he was given permission to film.
Memorial Hospital itself offers a number of what it calls “VIP packages” that vary in content and some are dedicated to men or women or to tracking risks for particular diseases such as cancer.
The price of these is not listed on their website, but the description encourages people to get one annually.
“Getting a check-up at least once a year is important for early diagnosis of possible diseases,” it reads.
Preventive health checks are not unusual in medicine. Some, such as blood pressure tests, are so easy and noninvasive that they can be performed routinely with little or no risk.
Others, by their very nature, have an extremely small risk of complications, such as studies involving radiation like X-rays, which carry an estimated risk of causing cancer of less than one in a million.
However, as Dr. Winter discusses, the other danger is false positives that can trigger a series of follow-up procedures, each of which carries additional risks.
This is partly why some tests or scans are only recommended when patients have certain symptoms, have concerning results on another test such as a blood test, or are in a particular group of patients at risk for a certain disease or condition.
One example is bowel cancer screening: the NHS sends free kits to people in England aged 60 to 74 every two years, as this age group is considered to be at higher risk of the disease, although there are plans to offer them to younger Britons soon.
The influencer has made similar videos before documenting trips to Thailand to get a tooth fixed for $92 (£72) in Thailand or even travelling to Turkey to buy hair extensions for a fraction of what they would cost in the US.