Excerpt from What does the fallout from the ‘Salt Path’ saga tell us about our society’s ideas about chronic illness and exercise?
by Elke Hausmann, a GP, not currently working due to Long Covid
From BJGP Life
12 August 2025
But the problem is that individual stories are taken up and generalised and widely applied beyond where they should be, especially if they appear to confirm pre-existing cultural biases.
In the wake of the book and subsequent Film release, I have seen many accounts on social media of people with degenerative neurological and indeed other chronic conditions, who report that they had been told by well-meaning relatives and friends to read Winn’s books, and/or to go on a long walk to get better, and how dismayed they were, because while they knew that they couldn’t, and that it would not help them, they could not make other people understand that. Others were said to have felt guilty and ashamed that they were not able to ‘do more’ to get themselves better, on the basis of this ‘true story’ proving that exercise can heal.
And that’s where it get interesting. Our societal bias that exercise can only ever heal, never harm, is incredibly pervasive. It is playing out right now in how we understand and discuss Long Covid, and as we have done in relation to ME for decades. I think one of the main reasons for why we are no further in finding a cure for those conditions is that so many don’t believe that exercise can ever harm.
"Our societal bias that exercise can only ever heal, never harm, is incredibly pervasive. It is playing out right now in how we understand and discuss Long Covid, and as we have done in relation to ME for decades."
#SaltPath #LongCovid #ME #Chronic #Neurology #CBD #CBS #spéirghorm #MS