A Growing—and Problematic—Wellness Sentiment
A Growing—and Problematic—Wellness Sentiment
Jonathan Stea explains how Dr. Mark Hyman contributes to a controversial view of mental health. Plus: latest wellness news & trends!
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A Growing—and Problematic—Wellness Sentiment
People often ask my opinion on some health “guru” or expert—Peter Attia, Huberman, David Sinclair … and, without fail, Dr. Mark Hyman.
Hyman is a famous physician, bestselling author, and “functional medicine” advocate who recently testified before Congress on national health issues within the U.S. food system. Like others who testified, Hyman is a big believer in “food is medicine,” a nice slogan but far from literal advice, particularly concerning one medical area.
“When you fix your body, you fix your broken brain,” Hyman has tweeted. This idea echoes his other works, like a video series titled "Broken Brain," in which he suggests that conditions like depression, anxiety, and ADHD can be easily treated. He also writes articles like “Why Antidepressants Don't Work for Treating Depression,” emphasizing that mental health treatments can be found in solutions like an "anti-inflammatory elimination diet" or a combination of “detox” supplements (available for purchase, naturally, on his website).
He frequently backs up these claims with selective in-vitro and animal studies, as well as through anecdotes: some anxious and depressed woman came to see him, he gave her a new diet protocol and poof, her depression disappeared. “From treating thousands of patients, I’ve learned that depression is not in your head. It’s in your body. More specifically, your gut,” he stated on X. While that's interesting, without scientific evidence to back up this statement, it remains just that... a statement.
This type of oversimplified rhetoric is so widespread that it's easy to overlook how problematic it is—and how it impacts a movement gaining traction. In his new book, Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry, clinical psychologist Jonathan Stea explains why voices like Hyman misrepresents mental health. Take, for example, even the imagery of Hyman’s book, The UltraMind Solution: The Simple Way to Defeat Depression, Overcome Anxiety, and Sharpen Your Mind:
It embodies an appeal to nature fallacy by hinting that a vegetable is an adequate replacement for medication. Dig into the book, and we’re bombed with tropes derived from both anti-psychiatry (e.g., “These drugs [antidepressants] don’t cure the problem. They cover over the symptoms”) and alternative medicine (e.g., “If you have been diagnosed with “mental disorders” or “brain diseases,” I will tell you what you really need to know about the cause and cure for your suffering...as we understand the basic common molecular mechanisms at the root of your symptoms.). As the face of functional medicine, Hyman’s jargon echoes the pseudoscientific, patient-blaming and pill-shaming rhetoric that has always defined alternative medicine propaganda. We just don’t know if he’s aware of the script.
There’s a reason many scientists and medical experts refer to Hyman as the “Dr. Oz of nutrition.” He, along with other influencers, legitimizes an anti-psychiatry stance: that pills are bad, in part because they’re not “natural.” (As a side note, it’s hilarious when Hyman tweets stuff like “If nature made it, eat it, if man made it, leave it,” then subsequently promotes a whole lot of ultra-processed shakes, supplements, and pills. )
Hyman’s messaging resonates with people because most of his conventional health advice is practical: eat a more balanced and nutritious diet, prioritize more fruits and veggies, etc. But like the most skilled health gurus, he takes a kernel of truth and embellishes it with all kinds of pseudoscientific bells and whistles.
Meanwhile, the TikTok hashtag #antipsychiatry has millions of views. YouTube is flush with takes on “harmful” and “unnatural” psychiatric meds. On the more extreme end, influencers like Andrew Tate engage in mental illness denial, claiming depression is a “choice.”
“They serve as foils to mainstream medicine or the medical industry at large,” Stea tells me. You’ll often see tropes like Western medicine isn’t all that invested in solving “root causes.” (This is false: mainstream medicine addresses both causes and symptoms, though there’s certainly room for improvement). Or take, for example, Hyman’s claim that “the pharmaceutical industry and FDA have deliberately deceived us into believing that [antidepressants] DO work,” per his HuffPost essay. It's an entire ideology and narrative, much like the anti-vaccine movement.
Hyman says he isn't against using drugs or psychotherapy. Still, his messaging more or less coalesces around the belief that psychiatry doesn’t work and then somehow concludes that nutritional deficiencies are what causes most conditions. No one denies the connection between the body and the brain, but his assertions boldly promise what evidence cannot yet deliver. (Hyman refers to himself as an “accidental psychiatrist” but seemingly has no formal training in psychiatry.)
There is a growing anti-psychiatry sentiment, believing the field does more harm than good. (RFJ Jr., for example, has a few truly out-there ideas, while Elon Musk has tweeted about SSRIs “zombifying” people.) It is not to be confused with psychiatry criticism, which includes concerns about medicalizing normal human conditions, overprescribing medications, and even the fact that the discipline could better incorporate societal factors.
“Psychiatry is inherently critical,” says Stea. Psychiatry is a scientific discipline and, therefore a process in which we constantly learn and improve our knowledge. We’ve undoubtedly bad psychiatry—per the lobotomy craze of the ‘50s. Reformers of the ‘60s, horrified by the abuses within the asylum system, pushed the discipline toward a more bio-psychosocial, humanistic model of care. But anti-psychiatry isn't that: it’s a vague and loud rejection of psychiatry with no aim of improving it. It’s a call to abolish the whole field. Some go as far as to even reject the idea of mental illness altogether. And that could deter treatment.
Here’s the thing: we have made significant progress in understanding the human mind over the past sixty years, although much remains unknown (partly because we rely on observation rather than biomarkers). As The Atlantic points out, psychiatry’s goal to map the biological basis of mental illness never came to pass, while Americans were sold an oversimplified theory about “chemical imbalance.” Mental illness and treatment are incredibly complex; in most cases, there is no single biological cause but rather a mixture of biological, psychological, and social factors.
Psychiatry is likely more susceptible to scams and wellness fraud because it feeds into the idea that medicine is not fully knowledgeable. “But just because we have these giant gaps in our knowledge doesn't mean we know anything about them,” says Stea.
There’s a lot of mixed messaging: Critics will say psychiatry knows nothing but will then claim they have the solution (without any reliable evidence). As Stea points out, “the wellness industry lacks that intellectual humility and the scientific spirit.”
If you’re curious about this topic and the state of psychiatry, I highly recommend Stea’s book, Mind the Science. It not only traces the history of the anti-psychiatry movement but explains how to spot pseudoscientific warning signs and protect yourself from mental health scams. Oh, also, he has an excellent X account.
Related: The ‘Mental Health!’ Industry
News & Trends:
Oura is killing it: The wearable brand will make $500m in annual revenue this year. (Bloomberg)
Reebok reveals a sports supplement line: Soon, every brand will get into the supplement game. (WWD)
We’re now in the era of Anxious Millenopause: The majority of women say the information they consume in the media or on social media about menopause is negative. (Future Fem Health)
Will smart pelvic devices be a hot niche subsector? Hyivy Health secured new funding to bring their smart pelvic health device to market. (Femtech Insider)
Related: LATimes feature on the growing pelvic care market–and influencers
Influencers are only getting stronger: They’re not going anywhere. In fact, for Gen Zers, online influencers “are now a primary source of information on nearly every topic.” Almost all Gen Z-ers (88%) follow at least one influencer on social media, and nearly 1 in 4 follow more than 50. (PR Consult via The CQ)
Fitbit is rolling out its Gemini-powered AI health assistant: Now you can ask questions such as “Do my Active Zone Minutes have an impact on my resting heart rate?” (Pulse)
Erewhon collaborated with … Chevrolet? Supposedly, folks are getting tired of ridiculous celeb and brand smoothie partnerships. (Instagram via Snaxshot)
Have we hit peak wellness spa? With $10K monthly memberships and marble ice baths, I’d say yes. (Glossy)
Under-eye beauty care is surging: Does this signify anything about our lack of sleep? One example: Under eye creases have seen a +96% growth in TikTok views compared to last year, with 208K average weekly views. On Google, the search for under-eye creases saw +788% growth over the past year. (Spate)
Dietary restriction can extend lifespan—but genetics matters more: A new paper in Nature argues that when it comes to longevity, interventions such as dietary restriction are “more complex than previously thought.” (Nature)
Are the tides turning against oat milk? Influencers are reportedly over it. (Newsweek)
L'Oréal partners with the NYT for new beauty podcast and content series: The duo is “on a mission to change consumer perception of beauty.” (Glossy)
Alt-meat The Jackfruit Co. raises $5M: This Series B extension follows a previous $23 million Series B roundin 2021. It is now the leading jackfruit brand in the US, for whatever that’s worth. (Vegconomist)
Deeper Dives:
Control Variables are Good!
A look into why a study suggesting black babies benefit from black doctors may have failed to include proper controls. Per Todd Kashdan:
Great fanfare arose when a study found black babies had higher mortality rates in hospitals especially with white doctors.
Upon discovering white doctors tend to treat newborn babies at higher risk (with lower birth rates) that original finding not only disappeared but reversed. Now black babies have lower mortality rates with white doctors.
So many lessons. Be careful of falling in love with science that fits your belief system without asking questions about the quality of the methods analyses and conclusions. (Link via Todd Kashdan)
What Should Happen to 23andMe?
Despite being unable to create a sustainable business model beyond one-time DNA test purchases (or stave off data breaches), 23andMe still possesses a valuable asset of sensitive personal information. Wojcicki floated the possibility of selling the company, so the question remains: What should the company do next? Morgan Cheatham is crowdsourcing the answers. (Morgan Cheatham)
Endometriosis: Addressing the Roots of Slow Progress
A new paper in The Lancet examines how consistently poor outcomes for women with endometriosis highlights the profound effect of the women's health gap. “Governments are slowly waking up to the substantial health burden of endometriosis,” writes the author, noting that more and more countries and institutes are prioritizing research. (The Lancet)
Why It’s Time to Uncouple Obstetrics and Gynecology
“While the merger of obstetrics and gynecology seems logical, the union has led to ‘bikini medicine,’ a remarkably short-sighted approach that reduces women's health to their reproductive organs while short-changing other vital systems like the heart, brain, and gut,” writes Elizabeth Poynor, MD, a women’s health expert, a gynecologic oncologist, and an advanced pelvic surgeon. (Time)
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