Now scientists have explored why we listen to advice from celebrities instead of medical professionals, especially when much of it can be ill-informed and even be potentially harmful, Daily Mail reports.

Canadian researchers investigated how celebrities gain credibility as medical advisers and concluded it is a mixture of our instinct to follow the herd as well as the ‘halo effect,’ which gives stars an alluring trustworthiness.

A paper published in the Christmas edition of The British Medical Journal said celebrity medical advice can be a health hazard and mentioned Sir Michael Parkinson’s advice on how to self-diagnose prostate cancer, as incorrect and unhelpful.

Sir Michael claimed that if men can urinate against a wall two feet away, then they do not have prostate cancer, while Gwyneth Paltrow has claimed in the past that she was fighting the ‘evil genes’ that cause cancers by eating fresh food only.

Members of the public find it easier to follow their favourite celebrity’s footsteps, ignoring other advice that can be more reliable, researchers said.

The study has called on doctors to warn their patients about the dangers of following celebrity advice.

Steven J Hoffman, lead author of the study, said: ‘Their power can be harnessed to disseminate information based on the best available research evidence, or it can be abused to promote useless products and bogus treatments’.