STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Did American physician and author Dr. Steven Gundry discover three "completely natural ingredients, and as a result, blood pressure disappeared forever"? No, that's not true: Gundry's publicist said that this post is a "total scam" and was not produced by his team. At the time of writing people who clicked the post's "Learn More" tab were taken to a page with an ad for a bookshelf made in Canada, not to a site that gives medical advice.
The claim appeared on Facebook (archived here) where it was published on January 14, 2024. The caption read:
Dr. Steven Gundry 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝟑 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭, 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫. 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐠𝐨 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲, 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Jan 15 15:19:07 2024 UTC)
The Facebook page that posted this claim has a clothing website in their About (archived here) section under the URL, "struthless.com." Clicking on the "Learn More" button underneath the Facebook post leads to a webpage selling a bookshelf (archived here). This post is not giving information about how a person with high blood pressure could lower it, it is an advertisement for a bookshelf.
Blood pressure is essential for living organisms that produce blood because, according to Medlineplus.gov (archived here), "normal pressure is important for the proper flow of blood from the heart to the body's organs and tissues." Nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association, thus, any information about blood pressure would likely be of interest to many people. But there is no information to be had from this post or the page it links to.
A Google News search of the keywords, "Dr. Steven Gundry AND three AND completely natural ingredients AND blood pressure" (archived here) did not yield any relevant results that could corroborate this claim. Lead Stories reached out to Gundry, a former cardiac surgeon, and we will update this article when we receive a relevant response.
Lead Stories contacted Gundry's representation and received an emailed response from his publicist, Lanee Roth, on January 18, 2024:
That is a total scam, not produced by our team.
Bait-and-switch posts such as this one draw people to websites under the guise of a supposed missing or injured person or pet, reports about dangerous fugitives or purported information on health issues, only to lead users to a website that has nothing to do with the original post.
Other Lead Stories articles that debunk bait-and-switch claims are here.
Updates:
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2024-01-18T19:09:36Z 2024-01-18T19:09:36Z Added a response from Gundry's publicist.
