Bodybuilders’ accounts of synthol use: The construction of lay expertise online

Abstract

Synthol is an injectable oil used by bodybuilders to make muscles appear bigger. Widely available on the Internet, it is reported to carry a wide range of health risks and side effects such as localised skin problems, nerve damage and oil filled cysts, as well as muscle damage and the development of scar tissue. Given the tension between health risk and quick muscle enlargement, how lay users explain and justify their synthol intake becomes an important question. Drawing on discourse analysis, we focus on how lay expertise is worked up by users in the absence of available specialist knowledge by invoking medical and pharmaceutical discourses as legitimation, providing novices with support, gaining trust through positive personal narratives and thus gaining credibility as experts. Results have clear implications for health promotion interventions with bodybuilders.

Motivations and stake management in producing YouTube 'bro-science' videos for baldness treatment

“…We take as our focus bro-science videos, a concept often portrayed in a derogatory manner to refer to the sharing of information and ideas of questionable scientific credibility among lay peers (see Hall et al, 2016 who refers to the concept as "lay expertise"). It is however, a concept that emphasises the ongoing battle between the individual as authority in relation to their own body and the medical or scientific expert.…”

“Listen to your body”: Participants’ alternative to science in online health discussions

“…Others emphasize that the use of Internet sources does not necessarily ensue in a challenge to certified medical expertise, not even when users have become dissatisfied with medical advice ( Giles and Newbold, 2011 ; Kivits, 2004 ). Relatively little attention, however, has been paid to the ways in which online participants themselves assess the various kinds of knowledge available (see, for example, Hall et al, 2015 ; Te Molder, 2012 ) and to what purposes they are actually put to use.…”

Perceptions of Food Hypersensitivity Expertise on Social Media: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

“…Furthermore, employing community terminology (such as abbreviations and acronyms), as well as presenting information as factual are also ways of performing expertise [39][40][41]. Cues of a social nature that are attached to social media posts, such as comments, likes and shares are likely to play a significant role in how users make message assessments, for example whether they accept or trust the information provided, or wish to participate in the discussion themselves [31,35,42].…”