Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | October 12, 2026
You get used to seeing certain things on the social media feeds of celebrities: red carpet glam shots, semi-candid selfies, promotional posts clearly copy-pasted from their publicist's email, and, of course, sponsored content. For a while, you couldn't swipe through Instagram without seeing a slew of posts shilling laxative teas, waist trainers, and green juice powders. Nowadays, the products being shilled are far more varied, and everyone from A-List to Z is getting paid to post #ads. It could be the most high-end couture clothing or a bag of Cheetos, or something more evil, like gambling apps and prediction markets. But over the past year or so, I kept seeing the same thing over and over again on Instagram: sponsored posts by celebrities selling full body MRI scans.
It felt like, out of nowhere, all these celebrities I liked were sharing photographs of themselves in hospitals, grinning ear-to-ear while dressed in scrubs, as they tried to pose casually next to an MRI machine. They all talked about wanting to make sure they could do everything to look after themselves. Some cited prior medical issues or struggles within their families. Almost all of them offered a discount code if you used their link. The list is big: Constance Wu, Gabourey Sidibe, Lori Harvey, Lance Bass, Antoni Porowski, Melissa Fumero, Natasha Lyonne, Casey Wilson, Ariana DeBose, and, of course, Kim Kardashian and Gwyneth Paltrow. Because when GOOP is selling it to you, you know it must suck.
Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, is a form of medical imaging used to generate images of the human body without using X-rays. It's helpful for providing a clear insight into areas like the brain, but it's also a hefty undertaking for the patient. MRI machines are claustrophobic, extremely loud, to the point where it can cause hearing loss, and not advised if you have any kind of internal implants. I've never met anyone who's undergone an MRI scan and wishes to repeat the experience. To sell it to the masses as the hip new thing in wellness is, to put it mildly, batsh*t.
The company paying all of these celebrities to put the fear in their followers is Prenuvo, a company that specializes in offering full-body scans. They describe this service, which costs $2,499 for 60 minutes, as a way to "provide people with a clearer understanding of their health over time." The CEO and founder, Andrew Lacy, previously worked for McKinsey and The Walt Disney Company but is not a medical professional. His chief medical officer (and actual doctor) claims he wanted to get out of traditional medicine because he was sick of the "wait for symptoms" approach that the system entrenched, He wanted to "change healthcare as a society." The way to do that? Full body scans that allow you to see every agonizing detail of yourself. The company recommends one scan a year for monitoring purposes and claims of increased accuracy. You do not need a doctor's referral to get one, just the funds to pay for it. And no, your insurance will not cover it.
The American healthcare system is obviously a cesspool of for-profit cruelty that only benefits the mega-rich. If you lack the funds for basic treatment--and most people do--your options are either to hope you're popular enough to get a GoFundMe page going or, to quote Alan Grayson, die quickly. And because everything is for sale, the maniacal conglomerates who run it all are desperate to force upon you, the sickly customer, a slew of options you may not necessarily need. Maybe you don't actually need a GLP-1 to lose that pesky last ten pounds but have you considered going on it anyway? You've got a pain in your chest? We'll have to scan your whole body just to be safe. Maybe you're feeling totally okay and you're in perfect health, but can you ever be truly sure? Why not pay thousands of dollars for an MRI scan that could find a tiny imperfection and make you paranoid enough to pay for more needless treatment?
Prenuvo talks rapturously about allowing people the freedom to control their own destinies. You have to fight back against big pharma and make your own choices about your body. The goal is, according to them, to provide yourself with as much information as possible so that you can go to your doctor and make the calls they otherwise would be too timid or ignorant to do. Knowledge is power, and it can be crucial in dealing with broken systems. Many people have stories of battling medical bias or being failed by the people who are supposed to help them. Look at how Black women face higher mortality rates during childbirth, or how fat people are told to "just lose weight" when they ask for help with any ailment. Fighting for a second opinion is sometimes a weary obligation. But making the solution to that issue an MRI scan that costs more than a few months' of rent is like poisoning the entire ocean to catch a few fish.
The company talks about wanting to change the healthcare game but they're still a for-profit company that feeds into the nightmare of the wider system. If someone does one of these scans and discovers they need further treatment, they'll still have to fight for it and risk crushing debt. They may not even be necessary. Over-diagnosis is a very real thing. An MRI could pick up a minute problem that would otherwise be undetectable and inconsequential to the patient, and the panicked rush to fix it "just in case" can do more harm than good. That worn knee or wheezy cough might just be a sign that you're getting older, not a warning to receive months of expensive treatment that could exacerbate a non-existent problem.
As noted by The Guardian, "there is no evidence that these highly sensitive scans provide any overall benefit for people at average or low risk of disease. They do offer a good risk of overdiagnosis, unnecessary anxiety and a depleted bank account." Seeing celebrities treat this scaremongering for-profit medical scam as a hot new trend they can make money from is pretty repulsive, if not exactly surprising. It is a symptom of the wider sickness of a broken healthcare system, but that doesn't give anyone the excuse to turn it into a side-hustle. Preying on people's fears and telling them the solution is to undergo intensive and expensive procedures "just in case" is not an act of medical empowerment. It's influencer FOMO with higher stakes.
