Medics have raised concerns about a viral TikTok of an American Influencer getting a £640 full-body MOT in Turkey that promotes itself as being able to pick up a host of conditions.
Created by health and beauty tourism influencer Bryn Elise, the eye-catching video which has been viewed nearly 12million times, sees her undergo a ‘VIP checkup’ at the Memorial Hospital in Istanbul.
However, doctors on social media immediately cautioned about potential risks.
They warned about the risk of ‘false positives’ from such tests that can lead to people needlessly undergoing risky, invasive follow-ups and operations.
In the clip Ms Elise is seen being led around the ‘fancy’ private hospital and undergoing a raft of checks including a blood analysis, 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 medics critical of the video stating that people need to be aware that every medical test carried the risk of ‘false positives’ where it incorrectly indicates something is wrong and can lead to unnecessary and even risky surgery
Bryn Elise had a host 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 in a high-tech machine
The clip, which has been seen almost 12million times, shows Ms Elise undertaking a heart ‘stress test’ which involves monitoring the organ while she uses a treadmill
Accompanied by a personal translator she also underwent an eye test, a gynaecological exam, a heart scan and stress test and ate at the hospital’s lavish restaurant.
She said checkup cost a ‘jaw-dropping’ $810 (£640), which even with the $700 (£550) flights, was thousands of dollars cheaper than equivalent treatment in the US, adding it was ‘the greatest thing I’ve ever done for my health’.
In her video Ms Elise, who is in her late 20s and originally from Colorado, states: ‘Doing this in the US would have cost me thousands and taken months to line up.’
‘But in one day, we’re doing it all — scans, tests, meetings with specialists — and the price of everything is jaw-dropping.’
She didn’t detail why she was undergoing these tests only stating she had a ‘list of mysterious ailments’.
While the clip does show Ms Elise discussing her results with an internal medicine specialist, she didn’t reveal the results adding that would be the focus of a ‘follow-up video’.
But she did reveal that her eye-test revealed she had an astigmatism, a common imperfection in the shape of the eye which is routinely corrected by wearing glasses or contact lenses.
However, British and American experts commenting on the videos were less impressed with the results.
Reacting to the video Dr Ashley Winter, a urologist based in Los Angeles, said people needed to be aware that every medical test carried the risk of ‘false positives’ where it incorrectly indicates something is wrong.
Writing on X she explained: ‘A wrong result can lead to necessary fear, worry, and at worst, unnecessary invasive procedures or even unnecessary surgery.
‘The chance of someone getting a false positive goes down when the person is at a higher risk of having an actual problem (ie. a specific symptom).’
‘This is called a higher ‘pretest probability.’ This is why doctors don’t recommend everyone get every test all the time.’
She illustrated this point using an example from her specialty and tests for prostate cancer.
‘If I order a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test on a random 85-year-old with no symptoms, I am likely to get a high result, which leads to fear and a possible biopsy (which has risks of sepsis). Then potentially a diagnosis of an intermediate risk prostate cancer that is unlikely to kill him, even if it went completely untreated,’ she wrote.
Continuing she said: ‘Maybe then the patient is presented with all treatment options and despite the doctor recommending observation/surveillance, he is understandably scared and starts treatment with radiation and hormone suppression.’
‘The hormone suppression causes fatigue, hot flashes, erectile dysfunction, night sweats. The radiation leads to bloody urine and urgency 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 gets sepsis from a urinary infection that he got from having the catheter and dies.
‘All because he was an 85 year old and someone randomly got an inappropriate screening test.’
Dr Winter concluded her point by stating she has seen patients like this and every screening test for disease and health conditions carried similar risks.
‘When doctors say they don’t recommend everyone gets every test it is because we are thinking of situations like this,’ she said.
While some medics questioned whether the video was an advertisement by the Memorial Hospital Ms Elise told MailOnline the clip hadn’t been sponsored nor did she earn a commission.
She added that the only special treatment she received at the hospital was being given permission to film.
Memorial Hospital itself provides a number of what it calls ‘VIP packages’ which vary in contents with some dedicated to men or women or tracking risks of particular diseases like cancer.
It doesn’t the list the price of these on its website but in the description encourages people to have one annually.
‘Having check-up at least once a year is important for early diagnosis of possible diseases,’ it reads.
Pre-emptive health checks are not unusual in medicine. Some, like blood pressure tests, are so easy and un-invasive that they can be done routinely with little to no risk.
Others do, by their very nature, have an extremely small risk of complications, such as scans involving radiation like X-rays, which carry an estimated less than one in a million risk of causing cancer.
However, as discussed by Dr Winter, the other danger is false positives which can trigger a range of follow-up procedures which each carry additional risks.
This is, in part, why some tests or scans are only recommended when patients have certain symptoms, have concerning results in another test like a blood test, or are in particular patient group at risk of a certain disease or condition.
One example is bowel cancer screening, with the NHS sending free kits to people in England aged between 60-to-74 every two years as this age group is considered at higher risk of the disease, though there are plans to offer it to younger Brits soon.
The influencer has made similar videos before documenting travelling to Thailand to get a $92 (£72) tooth repair in Thailand or even going to Turkey for hair extensions for fraction of what it would cost in the US.
