We’re quick to give advice. Not so quick to receive it.
Every one of us is guilty of this, whether we want to admit it or not. We dish it out freely, sharing what we think someone else should do, even when we don’t follow that advice ourselves. Health is one of the worst offenders for this. Health influencers online. Our mother, brother, cousin, auntie, uncle, colleague or coworker. We’ve all shared what we think someone should do for their health, whether or not we do it ourselves.
And when we do follow someone’s advice, there’s often real wisdom in it. But it’s usually built from their own unique, subjective experience. What worked for them may or may not work for you.
This points to one of the most fundamental truths about health.
Health Is Deeply Personal
Health is deeply personal, shaped by our own biology and our own life circumstances. Even our bodies respond differently to identical meals, person to person, which is exactly why blindly accepting someone else’s advice as gospel, without doing our own research or testing it in our own life, is unwise at best.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be open to what others have to share. Take it on board, absolutely. It does mean running it through a simple lens first: how does this apply to me? My life, my health goals, my biology, my circumstances? Then being prepared to research it and test it for ourselves, in the same way health only really works as a vehicle for growth when it’s applied to your own life, not someone else’s.
Because here’s the thing: health is challenging enough as it is. With all the health information already out there, taking advice from anyone and everyone just adds to the noise.
A Simple Framework for Filtering the Noise
The framework I’ve found useful is to mostly only take advice from three types of people.
1. Those With Regrets
The first are people with regrets about the things they wish they’d done differently, usually people approaching the end of their life. A grandparent or great-grandparent telling you, “I wish I’d spent more time with the people I love,” highlighting the importance of connection for our overall health and well-being. Or, “I wish I hadn’t neglected my health in my teens.” The kind of wisdom our elders pass down to us, which we, as younger people convinced we already know it all, often wave off without even realising it.
We can learn a huge amount from people who have these types of regrets and are approaching the end of their lives and can’t do much about them now. It’s very much in line with the work behind the five regrets of the dying: being open and willing to learn from those who’ve come before us, so we don’t end up with the same big regrets ourselves.
2. Those With the Results You Want
Second, we can learn from people who have the results, or similar results, to what we want. It’s the person in the gym who inspires us, whose physique or results we look up to and want for ourselves.
This comes with a warning label, though. Often we see the results but not the price these people paid to get there, and when we look under the hood, we’re not always willing to pay it ourselves. If you are willing to pay the price, learning from people with the results you want is a great place to start. Just go in with a word of caution: what looks like a great life from the outside isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, and there are hidden costs to chasing someone else’s outcomes that we don’t always consider, or are even aware of.
3. Those Who Are Experts
Third: people with deep experience, knowledge and expertise. This is one of the wisest places to go to navigate the noise, because these are the people who can actually get to the root of what’s fact and what isn’t, especially useful for those of us who take a more science-based, fact-driven approach to health, rather than relying purely on felt experience.
This Framework Isn’t the Only Way
This is simply a framework I use occasionally to help me navigate the noise. It doesn’t mean I disregard everyone who doesn’t fit neatly into regrets, results or expertise. It’s just a framework, and it may or may not work for you.
What it does help me avoid is what my uncle’s cousin’s best friend’s sister’s boyfriend said about a particular health practice, or how a certain food isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, or how we should train this way or that way at the gym. All the noise. All the fluff. Which, let’s be honest, is often just pass-through gossip: people making conversation, saying something without much real thought or awareness behind it. That’s part of the human condition. It isn’t always helpful. Most of it is noise and mental chatter, not because people don’t care or don’t want to help, but because a lot of the time it just adds to the noise rather than giving us something tangible and practical we can go away and research for ourselves.
There are probably other places and people worth being more open to as well. I’ve simply found that those who’ve come before us, those with the results we aspire to, and those with deep knowledge and expertise, are the three main places to go, at least first.
A Framework for Health, and for Life
Use this framework as you see fit, not just to help navigate health, which is a minefield at the best of times, but to navigate life itself. See if it works for you, or doesn’t.
And one more thing worth remembering, because I need reminding of it too: when we’re the ones dishing out advice, we’re all part of the noise in one way or another.
So the real question worth checking in with is simple.
Before you dish it out, are you taking your own advice?
Key Takeaways for How to Filter Out Health Advice Noise
- Health advice is subjective: Whoever gives it built it from their own biology and circumstances, so it may not transfer to yours without testing it first.
- Three-part filter: Take advice mainly from people with genuine regrets, people who already have the results you want, and people with deep, science-based expertise.
- Learning from regret: People nearing the end of life often wish they had built stronger connections or looked after their health sooner, offering clarity most of us only find too late.
- Results carry a price: Chasing someone else’s results without asking what it cost them to get there is how this framework backfires.
- Experts separate fact from fiction: People with deep, science-based knowledge are best placed to correct noisy or unproven health claims.
- Most advice is noise: Casual health opinions from acquaintances are often just conversation filler rather than something worth acting on.
- Test before adopting: Run any advice through the lens of your own goals and biology, and test it before making it a permanent habit.
- Check your own advice first: Before giving health advice to someone else, ask honestly whether you actually follow it yourself.
FAQs for How to Filter Out Health Advice Noise
How do I know which health advice to trust?
Trust advice most from people in three groups: those with regrets about their past choices, those with the results you actually want, and those with deep, science-based expertise. Treat everyone else’s opinion as one voice among many, not as gospel.
Why does health advice work for one person but not another?
Because health is deeply personal, shaped by someone’s unique biology, habits and circumstances. Advice built from one person’s experience does not automatically transfer to yours, which is why it needs testing against your own goals and body before you commit to it long term.
Is it bad to learn from people who have the health results I want?
No, but it comes with a warning. Their results usually carry a hidden cost, whether that is time, money or sacrifice, and you need to be honestly willing to pay a similar price. If you are, learning from people with the outcomes you want is genuinely useful.
Should I ignore health advice from friends and family?
Not ignore it, but be selective. Much of everyday health chatter from friends, family and colleagues is casual conversation rather than considered advice, so treat it as noise unless the person fits one of the three trusted categories: regret, results or expertise.
What does it mean to take your own health advice?
It means checking, honestly, whether you actually follow the advice you give other people. Most of us hand out health advice more freely than we live by it, so before sharing an opinion, it is worth asking whether you are following it yourself.
