Jen Gunter: Poking the snake oil

Biography

Jen Gunter, 52, is the scourge of medical nonsense, ever willing to stick her head above the parapet to denounce the latest faddy idea with wit and no little courage, given the poisonous nature of social media. An obstetrician-gynaecologist from Canada, she practises in California: fad capital of the world and home to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, which has often provided a tempting target. Of a machine designed to deliver coffee enemas and marketed by Goop at $135 (£102; €117), she wrote, “Keep the coffee out of your rectum and in your cup. It is only meant to access your colon from the top.” And, when trolled about her views, she fights back: “Sometimes I just feel like swinging the bat.”