Dr. Casey Means, the nominee for surgeon general, will face questions Thursday from members of a senate health committee, her first high-profile appearance since President Trump nominated her for the role over five months ago. If confirmed, she will function as a figurehead for a medical system she has railed against.
Dr. Means, who is pregnant, will appear before the committee virtually.
As “the nation’s doctor,” the surgeon general has more influence over messaging than policy. The role is largely symbolic, steering the public’s attention toward certain health topics by issuing warnings and reports.
But by positioning herself as a disruptive outsider, Dr. Means has already sought to shape the way people think about health.
Much of her contempt for the modern medical apparatus, she says, stems from her firsthand experience with what she calls its flaws and fractures. She obtained her medical degree from Stanford, but dropped out of her surgical residency after four years, claiming that the conventional health care system was failing patients and that she wanted to focus on why people were getting sick in the first place.
She has since practiced and promoted “functional medicine,” which centers on the root causes of disease, and has championed her views on her social media platforms and in a newsletter.
But she is perhaps best-known for writing the 2024 best-selling book “Good Energy,” alongside her brother Calley Means, who has been a close adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Many of her talking points are also common refrains of Mr. Kennedy’s and his Make America Healthy Again movement.
Since her nomination, Dr. Means has faced a torrent of criticism from across the political spectrum. Previous surgeon generals have questioned her qualifications and whether someone who is not a practicing physician should hold the role. In the spring, Laura Loomer, the far-right activist with President Trump’s ear, derided Dr. Means as a “WOO WOO WOMAN.”
But Mr. Kennedy defended her nomination. “The attacks that Casey is unqualified because she left the medical system completely miss the point of what we are trying to accomplish with MAHA,” he wrote on X in May. “Casey is the perfect choice for Surgeon General precisely because she left the traditional medical system–not in spite of it.”
In “Good Energy,” Dr. Means argues that a wide range of chronic diseases are surging in the United States because of our food supply, sedentary and largely indoor lifestyles, environmental toxins and a medical system that, she says, prioritizes prescriptions over prevention. One chapter is called, “Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor.”
She contends that American medical care is too siloed, emphasizing narrow specialties over a more holistic approach to health. “I deeply respect doctors, but I want to be very clear on something: at every hospital in the United States, many doctors are doing the wrong things, pushing pills and interventions when an ultra-aggressive stance on diet and behavior would do far more for the patient in front of them,” the Means siblings wrote in their book.
She has suggested that lifestyle changes like eating whole foods, exercising more and getting more sleep and sunlight could alleviate depression, infertility, diabetes, acne and a broad swath of health issues.
Dr. Means has also argued that Americans take too many medications and pharmaceutical products, and she has criticized current vaccine recommendations. “There is growing evidence that the total burden of the current extreme and growing vaccine schedule is causing health declines in vulnerable children,” she wrote in an edition of her newsletter. She has called vaccine mandates “criminal” and has cast doubt on whether all babies need the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, labeling the shot an “unnecessary pharmaceutical” for many.
She has argued that ultraprocessed foods are highly addictive and should carry a warning label, similar to cigarettes. And she has frequently spoken about a link she sees between personal and environmental health. “We are not separate from the Earth; We are Her. Her illness is our illness,” she wrote in her newsletter.
She has used her newsletter and broader social media platform to endorse supplements and wellness products.
In financial filings released last month, she pledged to step away from promoting these kinds of products. She has also promised to resign her position and sell her stock in Levels, a company she co-founded that provides glucose monitors so that people can track their blood sugar levels, the kind of wearable technology that Mr. Kennedy has said he wants all Americans to use.
Mr. Trump initially nominated Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a former Fox News contributor, to surgeon general, before withdrawing her nomination in favor of Dr. Means.
“Bobby really thought she was great,” the president told reporters, referring to Mr. Kennedy, when asked why he picked Dr. Means.
“I don’t know her,” Mr. Trump said. “I listened to the recommendation of Bobby.”
Dani Blum is a health reporter for The Times.
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