Log on to TikTok, Instagram or any other social media platform and it won’t take you long to discover the latest wellness trends. Catchy names like FiberMaxxing and SleepMaxxing draw our attention, but how can we tell which hacks are helpful and which take things too far? We went to an expert, Dr. Alexia Gillen, founder of MOSAIC Medicine in Rapid City, to help us sort through some of the biggest trends out on the web. Here’s some of our conversation:
Tell us a little bit about yourself, your training, your background and what you’re most passionate about.
My name is Alexia Gillen. I am a board-certified family physician and expert in functional medicine, which consists primarily of hormone, weight and gut health. I am most passionate about helping people find their optimal health, whatever that might mean for them.
Tell us about MOSAIC Medicine.
MOSAIC Medicine opened in September of 2024. So we’re at our one year anniversary, which is exciting! I opened it wanting to offer health care to people in a way that gave them time and space to be with their physician — and for me to be able to really get to know them and make sure that we’re treating them holistically.
If you go on TikTok and Instagram and other social media platforms, you can find a lot of different health trends. Are your patients practicing any of these trends or even just asking you about what they’re seeing online?
I’ve got patients who are coming in because they’ve found some of these trends and they’re using social media or influencers or podcasters to guide their health. I also have people who haven’t listened or done any of that. So I really have the whole spectrum.
I would say that I’m not a fan of making health decisions based on what’s happening online, but I will say there are some of the influencers who aren’t bad or wrong. So there is some good information out there.
What’s the best way to know if online health advice is helpful or something to be leery of?
What we’re talking about really are extremes. People — especially in modern society — are all or none; people are either going to do this 100-percent, or they’re not going to do it at all. And I tell my patients all the time that the magic is in the gray zone.
Let’s dig into some of these specific trends that are out there. What are your thoughts on FiberMaxxing, the trend where people intentionally eat a very high amount of dietary fiber — often far above the standard daily recommendations.
On average, here in the United States, a person probably consumes 10 or less grams of dietary fiber per day, but women should be consuming about 25 grams daily and men around 30 to 35 grams of fiber per day. So I don’t think the FiberMaxxing concept is wrong, it’s just extreme.
I would also tell people when you’re looking for fiber, there are good fiber supplements out there, but certainly trying to get it from your diet is the best way to go. Also, don’t just jump in from eating like five grams of fiber per day to like 40, because it can cause the opposite to happen — constipation, gas and bloating.
Can you tell us why gut health is so important?
We’re learning a lot about how important gut health is — both in functional medicine and traditional medicine. When we have a leaky gut or an unhealthy gut, we can develop a lot of different food allergies. We can develop things like chronic headaches or chronic joint inflammation. There’s also a lot to be said and studied about the gut-brain axis in terms of depression and anxiety.
Another trendy nutrition topic that you see a lot about online is the idea of maximizing your protein intake. What do you think about that one?
For most of my patients, when we do a nutrition audit — almost 100-percent of the time — we’ll see that somebody’s low in their protein and too high in their carbohydrates and unhealthy fats. That’s just the common American diet.
So on average, I am supportive of a higher protein diet. I don’t like how they’ll put added protein in things like pancake mix or in a really unhealthy sugar cereal. That’s stupid. It really should be that we’re focusing on eating whole, plant-based or animal-based proteins.
For the average person who is not a body builder, why is protein important?
Our body composition does start to change as we get older, so the average person should be focusing on walking into midlife with a strong muscle mass. That way, if you do fall when you’re 75, you can pick yourself back up off the floor.
And from a weight-health perspective, if we eat our protein first during the meal, we’re also staying full and satiated longer so that we’re not back in the pantry looking for more food an hour or two after we eat.
Another growing trend is SleepMaxxing. With a flood of gadgets now tracking every stage of rest — and people even taping their mouths shut or taking supplements to improve sleep — what’s your take on these practices?
I’m just going to start with saying that sleep is so important, and I think people forget that. People might choose to forego sleep so they can get up and go to the gym at four o’clock in the morning. That’s the opposite priority. We should be getting our sleep first and then figuring out when we’re going to exercise.
The problem arises when people have their seven or eight hours, but they don’t wake up feeling restored or rested, or they’re waking up a lot during the middle of the night. So this is where I do think some of the little gadgets can be helpful — not because they’re diagnosing anything, but because they can give you data on a potential baseline. But the thing with wearing some of those gadgets is that we don’t want to become so invested in what they’re telling us that it’s now adding a whole other source of worry to our lives.
What about taping your mouth shut while you sleep?
I do have patients who swear by their mouth tape, but there’s actually no data out there that supports using it. Right now, some medical sources are trending towards the idea that this might be a little bit dangerous. I don’t know if I feel that way — if you’re taping your mouth shut, you’re just obstructing your airways a little bit more. But, it’s certainly not a tool I would say go out and get.
What about using supplements to get the most out of sleep?
There’s a lot of really good supplements that can help with sleep. But, I always start by helping patients make sure that they’ve got good sleep hygiene. So, what that means is making sure that your bedroom is set up at a cooler temperature — around 65 degrees. You also want to make sure you’ve got a good bedtime routine in that you’re turning off any devices or TV at least 30 minutes before bed. And don’t have a TV in your bedroom.
After we get those baseline techniques into place, then I do think it can be restorative to utilize some of those supplements. Some of my favorites for sleep are magnesium glycinate. It’s not super sedative, but it does cross the blood-brain barrier so it can be helpful at night for relaxation. Ashwagandha doesn’t help necessarily with sleep, but can help be relaxing during the daytime with long-term use. Melatonin certainly is helpful, especially for people who work shift work when their melatonin production in their body is off. I also like lemon balm for sleep. Valerian root can also be helpful.