Casey Means is perhaps the most well-known person associated with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, outside of its founder, current U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And she’s now inches away from becoming the nation’s foremost doctor.
On Wednesday, Means testified before the Senate HELP committee on her nomination for U.S. surgeon general. Though plenty of people weren’t happy with her often evasive answers, she remains on track to be confirmed by the GOP-led Senate. Unfortunately, as with her close ally RFK Jr., Means has espoused all sorts of strange and worrying ideas about the things that make us healthy or sick.
The doctor turned wellness guru
Means obtained her medical degree from Stanford University in 2014. However, near the end of a five-year residency program in Oregon to become a surgeon specializing in the ear, nose, and throat, she abruptly dropped out. In her popular 2024 book Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health, Means said she felt disillusioned with the U.S. health care system and that she decided to take a different approach to treating patients. Former residents who worked alongside her have recalled that Means appeared to have been burnt out by the program.
Whatever happened, Means obtained a medical license in Oregon, where she billed herself as a functional physician of medicine. As of now, however, her license to practice medicine is inactive, and she has transitioned into a full-time wellness influencer and entrepreneur.
Functional medicine is advertised as a holistic attempt to treat the whole person, usually by addressing the “root causes” of illness. That sounds all well and good, but it regularly dovetails with the world of alternative and complementary medicine, which is riddled with therapies marketed to have wide-ranging health benefits but which have little evidence to support such claims.
Means, in particular, has embraced the idea that our metabolic health is the key to preventing chronic illness, often with a focus on repairing mitochondrial function. The trouble is, scientists have barely scratched the surface on how mitochondria can affect our health, much less found concrete ways to repair it if needed. Time and time again, Means has recommended various supplements or wellness products, sometimes going as far as to claim they’re “clinically proven” to boost mitochondria and reverse aging. A closer look shows that this proof tends to come from animal studies and/or very small studies of people.
Similarly, Means has touted the value of widespread continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), including for people without type 2 diabetes. She even founded a company, Levels, to sell these devices along with an accompanying app. Yet the overall evidence supporting CGM devices for non-diabetic people is mixed at best right now, and such devices might actually be less accurate for people with normal blood sugar.
Some of the treatments Means has talked up could become useful, mind you, but like many wellness gurus before her, she’s quick to endorse things before they’ve been robustly vetted for their effectiveness and safety. Sometimes, she’s endorsed products without explicitly telling her readers about the financial partnerships she has with the companies selling them.
Wishy-washy on vaccines
During her confirmation hearing, Means repeatedly asserted that vaccines save lives and that she has never used anti-vaccine rhetoric.
At the same time, though, she refused to answer whether she believes vaccines cause autism (they don’t), claiming that doctors don’t know the causes of it (while scientists are still untangling the specific interactions, genetics account for a large majority of cases). And she refused to endorse vaccination against measles if she became surgeon general, stating mothers should make that choice individually in consultation with their doctors. Of course, the very job of the surgeon general is to broadly provide people health advice, which should include promoting vaccines that actually are proven to be safe and highly effective at preventing potentially debilitating diseases like measles.
But Means has echoed talking points commonly pushed by anti-vaccination proponents. In one of her newsletters, for instance, she claimed there was growing evidence that the “total burden of the current extreme” vaccine schedule was harming vulnerable children—a claim with no strong backing. The Trump administration has since trimmed down the number of childhood vaccines broadly recommended by the CDC, though notably without presenting any data on these supposed harms (RFK Jr. has argued the change was done to match the schedule of peer countries in Europe, itself a misleading argument).
Concerning beliefs about contraception and IVF
Another regular thread with Means is her grudge against contraception and in vitro fertilization.
During an interview with Tucker Carlson in 2024, Means stated that the birth control pill is being “prescribed like candy,” that these medications are “shutting down…the life-giving nature of women,” and that the widespread popularity of hormonal contraception is an example of how people have “lost respect for life.” She’s also claimed these medications have “horrifying health risks” and argued that the pill might be responsible for the sharp rise of breast cancers in young women (research in general has suggested that the pill might slightly increase breast cancer risk but also lower the risk of other cancers).
During the Senate hearing, Means claimed that her previous statements about birth control were taken out of context, but she then immediately suggested that most women do not receive proper information about the risks of oral birth control.
Means (along with her brother Casey Means) has also claimed that doctors are pushing women suffering from infertility to pursue IVF and that doctors regularly ignore other methods of improving fertility, such as a change in diet or various supplements.
Moon magic
There are certainly other things about Means that might provoke an eyebrow raise or two. She’s admitted to relying on spiritual mediums, full-Moon ceremonies, and conversations with trees to help her find love, for instance.
The biggest issue with Means is the same one with the MAHA movement as a whole, though. There are many real problems in how we treat, prevent, and talk about illness in the U.S., particularly chronic disease. But the solutions offered by MAHA adherents are largely based on incredibly flimsy evidence, are outright inaccurate and dangerous, or are pointlessly distracting (manufacturing Coca-Cola with cane sugar as opposed to high-fructose corn syrup doesn’t make it any healthier).
It doesn’t really matter if our next surgeon general or other health officials practice Moon magic in their free time. It matters whether they can provide the public with reliable information on how best to stay healthy. And much like RFK Jr., Means seems poorly suited for such a job.
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