Siri Srinivas 

Ten super-smart health Twitter feeds to follow now

Here are our picks for the top health-related Twitter feeds to follow for diverse takes on healthcare, science and policy
  
  

oliver sacks
Neurologist and professor of medicine, Oliver Sacks, is the author of several books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Photograph: Adam Scourfield/BBC/AP

In the vast sea that is Twitter (and Twitter celebrity), following the right voices is key to cutting through the noise. We have picked 10 twitter feeds that approach health in novel ways: from healthcare policy and scientific research to medical satire and death acceptance.

These tweeters are all working in various areas of health and are intelligent voices, some immensely popular and others less so. Have we missed other favorites? Tell us in the comments below.

ZDoggMD

ZDoggMD is the rapper alter ego of Dr Zubin Damania, CEO and Founder of Las Vegas-based Turntable Health. ZDoggMD satirises medical issues and takes humorous digs at health awareness and policy matters. Watch a parody of television show House of Cards and the vaccination fracas below.

Marion Nestle

Marion Nestle is a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. Michael Pollan, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and author of the ‎The Omnivore’s Dilemma, called her the second most powerful foodie in the world. (The first was Michelle Obama.)

Aaron E Carroll

A professor of pediatrics and a health researcher, Aaron E Carroll runs a Youtube channel called the Healthcare Triage in which he explains health topics and research, regularly busting popular myths with solid science.

Oliver Sacks

The New York Times famously called Oliver Sacks the poet laureate of medicine. A neurologist and professor of medicine, the 81-year-old Dr Sacks is the author of several books, including the very popular and evocatively titled The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

He wrote in the New York Times this week about his being diagnosed with advanced cancer.

It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can. In this I am encouraged by the words of one of my favorite philosophers, David Hume, who, upon learning that he was mortally ill at age 65, wrote a short autobiography in a single day in April of 1776. He titled it “My Own Life.”

Sacks writes that he has completed more books and his memoirs and writes with rare equanimity about having only a few more months left. His remains one of the most insightful and educative feeds on Twitter.

Debbie Herbenick

Popular sex researcher Debby Herbenick has a PhD in health behavior and is co-director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University’s public health school. The columnist, writer and scientist tweets about her field of interest when not appearing on national television with vulva puppets.

André Picard

André Picard is the public health reporter at the Globe and Mail in Canada. The award-winning journalist writes and tweets about health and policy.

Derek Flanzraich

Known as a “digital health expert,” Derek Flanzraich is the founder of Greatist, a next-gen health-media startup that promotes healthy living over merely beefing up. His Twitter bio says that he hopes to make “healthy cool”.

Sarah Wilson

The Australian journalist Sarah Wilson is a blogger, consultant and “health coach”. She is the author of the bestselling book I Quit Sugar, based on her experiences of completely abandoning sugar after she realized it was making her sick. Diagnosed in 2008 with an autoimmune disease, she says she uses “food and trekking” to tame the ailment.

Caitlin Doughty

In contrast to everyone else on this list, Caitlin Doughty’s approach to healthy living is by way of death. Doughty is a professional mortician besides being a blogger, writer and death acceptance advocate. Doughty witnessed an accidental death as a child and never got an opportunity to confront the experience or discuss it. It prompted many death-related fears and a curiosity which she uses now to advocate for reforming funeral practices and in talking about death and healthier ways to grieve, and mourn death.

Kevin Pho

Someone proclaiming to be social media’s “leading physician voice” may sound dubious, but Kevin Pho’s blog has become an important space for physicians to publish ideas for a more general audience. Pho, who specializes in internal medicine, also delivers frequent keynotes and appears as an expert on television.

 

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