Doctors vs. health influencers: who's right? And how to choose your doctor.
You often see me venting — some doctors have genuinely outdated knowledge, some influencers know nothing about the subject... So how do you choose well?
By Valérie Orsoni — Biohacker & Longevity Expert
Valérie Orsoni is a biohacker, author of 56 books, and founder of biohacker.fr. She has been tracking her biology through N=1 self-experimentation protocols since 1998. She holds a certificate from the Stanford Genetics Longevity Research Lab, and is currently enrolled in the Stanford Medicine nutrition science program.
She was named in the Top 50 Longevity Leaders by Life Spanning magazine and is currently the #1 on the Longevity Cup Leaderboard (chronological age -23 years).
I often see anti-doctor posts and anti-health-and-wellness-influencer posts circulating on social media.
Doctors who fire away at influencers are convinced that ten years spent on university benches gives them absolute authority the moment health is at stake.
Influencers who fire away at doctors are convinced, for their part, that the entire profession is outdated and that no practitioner has bothered to update their knowledge.
Who’s right? Who’s wrong?
Both.
There’s a non-negligible number of doctors who haven’t updated their knowledge since leaving medical school.
They’re easy to spot: they do very little prevention, functional medicine is foreign to them, and when you mention hot flashes, they tell you “that’s menopause, nothing to be done.” These are the ones who’ll refuse to prescribe in-depth blood tests (often the ones I suggest myself), or who’ll dismiss the idea of a full hormonal panel with “that doesn’t make sense, that number fluctuates all the time.”
There’s also a fine category of doctors specialized in functional medicine, at the cutting edge of knowledge.
They’re easy to spot too: they generally charge above standard rates, because after all their expertise is worth more than a regular consultation. I have nothing against paying for expertise. But always check what other patients say about them: be wary of the social-media-star doctor who charges $1,500 a consultation to hand you the same bloodwork as everyone else, with no real follow-up behind it (not forgetting the same list of supplements sent to everyone else, with affiliate links of course.)
Coming back to health and wellness influencers — or, more specifically, biohacking and longevity influencers — here are a few things to check before following them blindly.
Their age, first. A 25-year-old “longevity expert” — I struggle to buy into that: saying things is one thing, but you still have to prove they work, even with a simple N=1.
Their experience, next. Are they just repeating what’s already been said a thousand times (do cryo sessions, go to bed early, eat more protein), or are they bringing cutting-edge knowledge that actually teaches you something? Are their posts just charts spat out by ChatGPT? Is their content too?
Finally, are they constantly promoting products with affiliate codes? That’s not a problem in itself if the person actually uses those products, consistently, and genuinely acts as their spokesperson. But if the promoted product changes every day, be wary — that’s shifting into Kardashian-style marketing.
For my part, I offer highly specialized longevity programs (you can find them on the About page), designed with state-certified doctors specialized in functional medicine. To me, that’s the only way to get the best of both worlds.
I’d rather avoid sweeping judgments: no, not all doctors are out of touch, and no, not all influencers are ignorant, money-obsessed public figures.
We have a brain, and we take care of it. It’s up to us to make it work, and to ask ourselves the right questions to make the right choices.
Valérie Orsoni
Biohacker since 1998 | Longevity Expert
University of Hartford Hall of Fame
Top 50 Longevity Leaders (by Lifespanning Magazine)
Explorer: Skied to the South Pole, Climbed 45 peaks over 16k ft
Instagram : Valerie Orsoni
My fave brands + super promo codes here ==> ValerieOrsoni.com
My made-in-the-usa, clean, no fillers supplement line ==> ZellNova
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