A focus on the roots of chronic illness

As Dr. Casey Means emerged as a rising voice in health over the last couple of years, few imagined she’d be floated for U.S. surgeon general. Today, she’s on the cusp of assuming the role of “America’s doctor” after President Trump nominated her for the position.  

After years of gaslighting by the government and Big Pharma—with few positive returns—it’s time for a drastic change in approach to our overburdened healthcare system. Means is the opposite of standard fare. 

Championing functional medicine as the cure for America’s health woes put her on the map. She quickly rose to prominence on the center-right—becoming a MAHA favorite—after championing functional medicine in interviews with Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan. Her book, Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health, became an instant bestseller.

Means frequently shares that she dropped out of her medical residency just six months shy of graduating. Disillusioned by the lack of holistic and nutrition medicine training, she pivoted from traditional to functional medicine at just the right time. 

In the wake of the pandemic, public trust in established healthcare institutions was (and continues to be) at an all-time low, due to lies, coercion, and manipulation related to masking, isolating, and vaccinating. Common-sense remedies like sunlight, exercise, and nutritious foods were not recommended as part of the government and healthcare response to COVID-19. We were told to stay socially distant, stay home, wear flimsy masks, and take a vaccine most people didn’t even need.

The consequences of such unwise, unprecedented, and unnecessary protocols will remain for years. People missed doctors’ check-ups that might have uncovered cancer. Children missed school for two years and may never catch up. Teenagers suffered extreme depression and anxiety. Young men died of vaccine injuries. Women wonder if the vaccine has affected their fertility. 

The public seeks a fresh voice of reason to guide them in a post-pandemic world. Vaccines and medicines are truly modern miracles, but as Big Pharma grew larger, Americans got sicker. In many ways, the cure has become part of the disease. Pharma giants lobby Congress, mislead doctors, and pressure patients to demand their drugs—all to pad the profits of Big Pharma bros.

We’ve put so much stock in the “cure” that we forgot the real goal is to prevent the problem in the first place. That’s where Means comes in. 

She speaks to and of logical solutions to America’s skyrocketing chronic disease infestation. After seeing that her patients rarely got better, she recognized that the healthcare industry was financially incentivized to keep people sick.

Post-pandemic America was fertile soil for Means, who was now passionately committed to advocating against the ineptness of formal medical training in the United States. Ultimately, her mission was to revolutionize healthcare—now, she’s on her way to accomplishing that. 

“...Too much sugar, too much stress, too much sitting, too much pollution, too many pills, too many pesticides, too many screens, too little sleep, and too little micronutrients,” she writes in Good Energy. “These trends—with trillions of dollars behind them—are causing epidemic levels of mitochondrial dysfunction and underpowered, sick, inflamed bodies.”

Means, who primarily focuses on metabolic dysfunction, says most health problems could be avoided through changes to diet and lifestyle and holistic, preventive healthcare rather than too-late, reflexive medicine.  

Some lament her nomination, calling her an “anti-vaxx conspiracy theorist.” Her main message, however, is one of encouragement: to eat whole foods, drink purified water, get enough sleep, exercise regularly, limit sugar, and not unnecessarily expose ourselves to toxic chemicals. 

Means wrote in her newsletter that she does question the aggressive infant vaccine schedule due to “growing evidence” that it is “causing health declines in vulnerable children. " She says more research is necessary, but she does not say all vaccines should cease. 

She’s critical of Big Pharma, condemning drug companies for “making and keeping you sick” after witnessing patients handed fistfuls of prescriptions for multiple conditions—without a single conversation about how their issues might be connected. 

She also calls out highly processed food companies that pack snacks with unnecessary dyes and preservatives to increase profits and convenience rather than provide nutrition and energy to consumers. 

It’s hard to deny we need an overhaul of the American healthcare system. We’ve treated our bodies like trash cans, not temples. The healthcare industry status quo has provided endless “solutions” to problems that never needed to exist in the first place. Only a dedicated, root-issue-based approach will turn this disaster around. In turn, healthcare costs will decrease, Americans will be less chronically ill, and society will rise. It’s a big job, but Dr. Casey Means is up for it.

Editor’s note: For a counterpoint, see “A near Wiccan speaking spells,” by Erick Erickson.