Criticism of the longevity influencer Dr. Peter Attia has come from many angles since the revelation of his yearslong relationship with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. His ethics, his fees and his medical credentials are all being scrutinized.
In less than two weeks, a widespread backlash has developed, as doctors challenge not only Dr. Attia himself but also, in some cases, the legitimacy of wellness influencers and the longevity industry.
A trove of documents released at the end of January showed that Dr. Attia had spent part of the 2010s in close contact with Mr. Epstein, making visits, dispensing medical advice and exchanging crude emails about women. Now, dozens of doctors — mostly women — are speaking out against Dr. Attia, whose podcast and book are popular and highly influential. (Dr. Attia was interviewed at The New York Times’s Well Festival last May.)
Nine doctors, from fields including internal medicine, gynecology, dermatology and more, raised a number of criticisms in interviews with The Times; many others did so on social media. Defenders of Dr. Attia have generally not been vocal since the documents came out, and several doctors and wellness influencers who have appeared on his podcast did not respond to interview requests.
Many of the doctors who criticized him, including some whose own advice adheres to mainstream medical consensus and some who go beyond it, accused Dr. Attia of violating the ethical standards that physicians should maintain by having the relationship long after Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges involving underage girls.
The behavior on display in the emails “is inconsistent with what we hope is modeled and practiced by physicians, and I feel like we can’t separate the personal and the professional,” said Dr. Aviva Romm, a family medicine physician.
In a statement last week, Dr. Attia emphasized that the Epstein documents showed no criminal activity on his part. He said that he had not witnessed abuse and that he had not been Mr. Epstein’s doctor, though emails show him advising him on medications and supplements, obtaining an assessment of Mr. Epstein’s gait and arranging a blood draw. But he said he was ashamed and added: “I am not asking anyone to ignore the emails or pretend they aren’t ugly. They simply are.”
Some doctors used the news moment to also criticize Dr. Attia’s extremely expensive practice — as of last year, he charged more than $100,000 for his program and had fewer than 75 patients, according to a “60 Minutes” interview — and the health protocols he promotes in his podcast and best-selling book. Others noted that longevity medicine lacks standard training or certification.
“Every good doctor wants you to live longer,” said Dr. Jen Gunter, an obstetrician and gynecologist who writes the “Vajenda” newsletter, adding that straightforward lifestyle interventions like exercise, a healthy diet and not smoking don’t require elaborate protocols or a lot of money. “What American longevity medicine does is somehow get people to believe that doctors aren’t invested in that, that only they are, and that somehow there’s a first-class ticket that you can buy.”
Many doctors have also criticized Dr. Attia’s credentials: He completed medical school and spent several years as a resident in general surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, but dropped out before the residency was over, then left the medical field to work at McKinsey & Company and an energy company before opening his health care practice. He is not board certified in any specialty.
The lack of a completed residency and board certification “would make him ineligible to work at any hospital in America,” said Dr. Karen Tang, a gynecologist in Pennsylvania with hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram.
Dr. Gunter said she had raised such criticisms before — telling followers who asked about Dr. Attia that he didn’t have the training or experience to be considered a medical expert — but hadn’t gotten much of a response. “I think that this moment maybe shocked enough people” for the message to break through, she said.
Dr. Attia’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment on the specific criticisms raised by doctors. In the past, he has argued that standard medical training does not include enough focus on nutrition or exercise, and that his approach compensates for what he sees as the failings of mainstream medicine.
The backlash has drawn in some prominent figures in health care.
Dr. Mary Claire Haver, a menopause specialist with millions of followers, said in a video that she had canceled an appearance on CBS to promote her book because CBS had not fired Dr. Attia as a contributor. “This is my way of saying, ‘No, I’m not going to stand for this,’” she said. “I’m not OK with it.”
Dr. Haver declined to be interviewed, and CBS representatives have not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a women’s health and obesity expert, also said she wouldn’t work with CBS while it maintained its contract with Dr. Attia. In a video to her more than 650,000 Instagram followers, she took issue with his emphasis on not having behaved criminally and argued that this wasn’t enough to absolve him.
“I have seen people, and we all know who they are, who have been fired or suspended for less egregious acts” than correspondence with a sex offender, Dr. Ashton said in her video.
Dr. Attia’s approach to increasing what he calls “health span” — the period people live without serious disease — has come under more fire from doctors since the Epstein revelations.
“He’s a bright individual, but his whole medical practice is set up for tremendous monetary gain,” said Dr. Terry Simpson, a surgeon in California who also posted a video to his more than 350,000 Instagram followers.
Among other things, Dr. Simpson criticized Dr. Attia for recommending that people consume more protein than most experts suggest, and for promoting medications for off-label uses that haven’t been thoroughly tested — such as rapamycin, a drug normally used for transplant patients, which Dr. Attia once took to combat aging. Other doctors noted that the tests he recommends can reveal harmless abnormalities, as well as findings whose medical significance is unknown.
Until recently, Dr. Attia was the chief science officer for David, a protein bar company; he stepped down after his correspondence with Mr. Epstein was released.
For a long time, Dr. Simpson said, “many of us in the field have talked askance about what he is and what he does.” But until now, he noted, much of that criticism happened in private conversations.
Some critics of Dr. Attia’s are also in the longevity field and, like him, operate concierge practices and offer advice that sometimes goes beyond the scope of medical consensus. These doctors questioned his ethics more than his medical advice.
“Did he know about the ongoing exploitation of girls?” asked Dr. Sara Szal, the director of precision medicine and longevity at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health, who is writing a book that she described as a woman-focused version of Dr. Attia’s “Outlive.” “Why did he maintain these social relationships with a registered sex offender?”
Dr. Szal said her initial instinct had been to say nothing to her more than 400,000 Instagram followers, because she wanted more information. But when a commenter criticized her silence, she said, she read the documents and concluded that she would be “complicit” if she didn’t speak out. She wrote last week that she would no longer recommend Dr. Attia’s podcast or medical protocols.
Dr. Maria Sophocles, a gynecologist in Princeton, N.J., said her group chat with more than 50 women’s health physicians had been very active since the files came out, with many members expressing distress at the behavior of a fellow doctor.
“It feels like someone on your own team just got caught for cheating in baseball,” Dr. Sophocles said, adding, “We all feel that this is another example of a powerful man who, if he gets to continue at CBS, will sort of be given a hand slap and let’s move on.”
Maggie Astor covers the intersection of health and politics for The Times.
The post Peter Attia’s Ties to Epstein Spark a Backlash From Doctors appeared first on New York Times.
