Make America Healthy Again and the wellness-to-woo pipeline may seem fresh and new, but they’re actually the result of 50 years of political scheming, special interest lobbying, scammers, and well-intentioned practitioners. We took a dive into the history that MAHA and its salespeople don’t want you to know.
Hosted by @kaitgardner of @StateofKait.
Check out our website for Deep State Detox: https://www.deepstatedetox.com
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The American health care system is in rough shape, but the wellness industry has never been healthier. You can find any treatment for any illness or annoyance, whether it works or not. Wellness influencers are the new celebrities. Everybody’s got something to sell. I’m going to show you all the supplements. These are the wellness routines that I actually think — (Crosstalk) (Kait)
Because in the wake of a global pandemic, Americans are losing trust in doctors and embracing influencers, juices, powders and coffee enemas. And now it’s coming from the top down. We need to stop trusting the experts. (Kait)
So how did we get here? How did the wellness market grow to about quadruple the size and financial value of the pharmaceutical industry? And who’s ultimately profiting off the public’s embrace of health care hacks and homeopathy? We went down the rabbit hole and through the cluttered algorithms, spoke with experts, influencers and doctors, and even broke into the industry ourselves — (Livestreamer)
This is a new one, Deep State Detox. It’s a new supplement for patriots. — to figure out how this movement started,
who’s funding it, and what it means for the future of our health. There have been skeptics of modern medicine ever since Louis Pasteur discovered germ theory, but the irony is that the more advanced we became in medicine, the more Americans began to doubt it. (Keren Landman)
There were huge leaps in medical progress in the 20th century and also big leaps in the pharmaceutical industry, but it also from the very beginning was kind of an ivory tower vibe. (Kait)
From the ‘60s up through the ‘90s, legit alternative practitioners and downright fraudulent healers built businesses on the fringe, collecting adherents who were often desperate for cures. (Paul Offit)
Medicine has limits. There are things we know, and there’s things we don’t know. There’s things we can’t do. There’s holes. And I think that that is where alternative medicine fills the gaps. (Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling)
Some of them will tell you that you can beat cancer by injecting yourself with baking soda. Others of them think that you can cure cancer by zapping tiny, little cancer-causing parasites with something that looks like a car battery that runs an electric current through your body. (Kait)
In 1976, Congress passed the Proxmire Amendment, which made it much easier to sell unproven supplements. Around the same time, a group called Committee for Freedom of Choice in Cancer Therapy told people that they can cure cancer with a concoction made out of apricot pits. It soon emerged that the group was backed by members of the John Birch Society, a secretive yet influential hard-right organization of ultra-rich, conspiracy-minded libertarians. Members included Fred Koch, the father of Charles and David Koch. Like father, like sons. Maybe they believed in apricot pits, but they definitely had a political motivation. (Matthew)
The John Birch Society’s embrace of certain alternative medicines was really part of a broader political effort to push the government out of all spheres of public life, which is an appealing argument if you’re somebody who’s trying to sell a product that’s not safe for the public. The John Birch Society was considered a fringe group at the time, but its pro-corporate, pro-conspiracy, leave-us-alone ethos has shaped American politics, as well as the nation’s health care system. Their mission was aided by the 1976 Supreme Court decision in Buckley v. Valeo, which paved the way for corporate involvement in politics, including special interest groups eager to push U.S. policy toward deregulation. Around the same time, people were finding new, erroneous reasons to distrust doctors. (Paul)
The birth of the the modern American anti-vaccine movement was in 1982, with a film called DPT: Vaccine Roulette. For more than a year, we have been investigating the P — the pertussis part of the vaccine. What we have found are serious questions about the safety and effectiveness of the shot. (Paul)
The parents all told the same story: My child was fine, then they got this whooping cough or pertussis vaccine, and now look at them. (Kait)
The connection was eventually disproven. Most of the kids were born with a genetic defect, but it still spawned a crusade that metastasized slowly until the 1990s. In the meantime, the health freedom movement, first articulated by the John Birch Society, continued to grow thanks to strategic investments from the business and right-wing communities. (Matthew)
Conservative libertarians began pairing with the supplement industry to host a series of grassroots forums and trade shows and expos that courted alternative medicine practitioners and users and believers to sort of consolidate behind an idea that would advance their agenda. And the idea that they sold them on was that Americans have the right to choose their health care options. The FDA had responded to this increase in public appetite for supplements by ensuring that every supplement that was on the shelf had to first meet minimal safety standards. They had to demonstrate that there wasn’t, you know, arsenic in their pills. Many supplement and alternative medicine manufacturers did just that. And there are millions of people who find these products useful parts of their health care regimens. But others in the industry resented the government’s requirements. And when the Clinton administration’s FDA proposed stricter labeling standards, it was simply a bridge too far. The industry showed its muscle by pouring millions of dollars into the Save Our Supplements campaign, which produced 2.5 million letters to Congress and this commercial starring Mel Gibson. (Commercial)
Freeze! Drug enforcement. Oh! Oh, guys. Hey, it’s only vitamins. It’s only — it’s only vitamins. (Kait)
The next year, the industry dropped millions more into lobbying Congress to pass the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. (Paul)
It really loosed this alternative medicine industry to make at least claims that sounded like this really could work for you. Now, they couldn’t make specific claims. You couldn’t say things like, this product will shrink your prostate, or this product will prevent heart attacks. But you could make vague claims — supports heart health, supports prostate health, supports immune health. And that really helped to launch the industry. (Kait)
The industry has grown exponentially since 1994, powered by some of the world’s biggest corporations — (Commercial)
You want to get big? You gotta think big. (Kait)
— and some of the world’s shadiest, most fly-by-night hucksters. And to prove how easy it is to get in on the action in this barely regulated industry, we too have become shady, fly-by-night hucksters. Introducing Deep State Detox. Our brand new formula designed to help your cells thrive in a world of big government toxins, including heavy metals, Wi-Fi signals and seed oils. Plus, it’ll invigorate your subconscious. Seriously, we googled “custom supplement manufacturer,” chose one of the countless companies that offer the service, and sent them a few emails asking for a blend that fights heavy metals, Wi-Fi signals and seed oils and uninspired subconsciousness. Their response? We can definitely do that. Then they pitched some ingredients and sent over some samples. And legally speaking, we’re free to sell these largely with any promise that we want. We’re hardly the first people to get into health, diet and wellness with absolutely zero qualifications or expertise in health, diet or wellness. (Dr. Oz)
And we’re back with Gwyneth Paltrow. She’s revealing her all-natural tricks to revitalizing your body from the inside out. (Keren)
Gwyneth Paltrow cannot say, “I’m just like you,” to most people in any kind of believable way. But she can say, “I don’t trust medical science, the medical establishment, the pharmaceutical establishment either. And what makes me feel healthier and better are these things, and you can access those things too.” (Kait)
Actress Jenny McCarthy applied her deep medical expertise as a figurehead for the anti-vax movement — (Jenny McCarthy)
Together, the tag team of WWE and Generation Rescue can and will lay the SmackDown on autism. (Kait)
— carrying the torch that was sparked in 1982 and truly ignited in 1998. (Paul)
In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a British gastrointestinal surgeon, published a paper in The Lancet of eight children who had recently received the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR vaccine, that then, within a month or so of that, developed signs and symptoms of autism. And he then believed that the MMR vaccine caused autism. The scientific and medical community responded by doing easy studies. That study now has been done 24 times in seven different countries on three different continents. And have found the same result every time: The MMR vaccine does not cause autism. (Kait)
It was later revealed that Wakefield’s study was not only paid for by a lawyer who wanted to sue vaccine makers but that Wakefield himself had applied for a patent for his own vaccine and medical devices, and it would have made him tens of millions if it weren’t for those meddling scientists. Regardless of the facts, we still ended up here. Without a doubt in my mind, I believe vaccinations triggered Evan’s autism. (Kait)
People like McCarthy parlayed their anti-vax activism into new careers, while lawyers such as RFK Jr. made millions suing vaccine makers. TV producer Del Bigtree pivoted to anti-vax media, funded generously by reclusive and anonymous donors in New York. And just like in the early ‘90s, this all got wrapped up under one big right-wing health-freedom bow. In fact, Andrew Wakefield himself, chased out of England, showed up at Donald Trump’s first inaugural ball with girlfriend Elle Macpherson, owner of her own supplement line. Wakefield eventually moved to Texas, where he became involved in the conservative medical freedom movement. It was already well-established thanks to work done by both Congressman Ron Paul and supplement makers in the early 2000s to make alternative treatments a cog in right-wing media. (Matthew)
And they did this by demonstrating that they had a freedom message that was tied to a moneymaking message. The offer on the table to politicians from both parties was, “You can make money by selling products — alternative medicine products — to your followers.” This is a company called Mannatech, a maker of nutritional supplements. I did a couple of speeches for them. They were paid speeches. Let me tell you that diabetes can be reversed. That’s why I’m strongly suggesting that you look into this product from Barton Publishing. And, I should know, it works. Now that we’re in the biz, we wondered just how easy it would be to get our own right-wing endorsement. And it turns out, it’s really easy. There’s a new one. Deep State Detox. This is going to be fun. I saw this, I thought it was really cool. It might be something some
of you guys would be interested in. This is from Deep State Detox, let’s check this out. For just $150, we got a dozen hosts to read an ad for Deep State Detox on their Rumble shows. The modern world fills us
with chemicals and takes our freedom. So that’s what Deep State Detox is here to fix. It’s filled with all kinds of stuff Big Pharma and the government don’t want you to know about. (Kait)
It sent visitors to our website, which abided by the flimsy FDA regulations. (Livestreamer)
You can’t sit there and say a lot of
this stuff on here and it be fake, so, go try it out, see how you guys feel. You don’t have to consent to taking your pills, it’s your right to take these capsules and embrace
health freedom over mind control— oh, you gotta click on this one. (Kait)
If we’d made this stuff a decade ago, we probably wouldn’t have been so overtly political in our branding. But today, putting government conspiracies front and center aligns with the big new alternative medicine producers which have seized on an unprecedented rise in public cynicism since the pandemic. (News)
With the virus spreading like wildfire, a battle is raging over one of the key tools used to fight it. Ohio back to work! Ohio back to work! I’m mainly here today because I am standing up for health freedom. (Paul)
We shuttered schools, we restricted travel, we closed businesses, we isolated, quarantined, masked, social distanced. And people saw that as massive government overreach. (Keren)
It created so much distrust. It just opened up this — just tore open this gap, you know, between people and experts. So if you could fill that gap, which, you know, misinformation purveyors very readily did, then you have an audience that is set up to believe you and set up to buy your stuff. (Kait)
From the very beginning, even before the virus reached American shores, Doctor Joseph Mercola, a physician turned alternative health guru, was there to fill the gap, peddling misinformation. (Matthew)
Nobody’s made more money off of selling swill than Joseph Mercola. He was such an effective marketer of these products that his website soon became more popular than the CDC’s website. He was getting, yeah like, like significantly more hits than any public service agency. And so this not only made Joseph Mercola a very rich man, but it also put him in a position to fund and support a lot of the grassroots groups that would eventually go on to become power players in this movement. (Kait)
Mercola’s early posts during the pandemic earned him the distinction of being the most influential conduit of COVID misinformation on the internet, which he, of course, parlayed into selling tons of books and liposomal vitamin C on his website, claiming that it can prevent COVID. He also insisted that actual Covid vaccines were a medical fraud. It’s worth noting that three years before the pandemic, Mercola stated that his net worth was already in excess of $100 million. (Paul)
It’s estimated that the online misinformation business, disinformation business, regarding vaccines is a $1 billion a year industry, in large part supported by the alternative medicine industry. I mean, it’s certainly a much better industry than the information business. I’ve spent a ton of money on
random wellness junk this year. (Kait)
The modern wellness industry relies heavily on social media influencers to fuel its growth. And other than a barely enforced FTC regulation that requires sponsored posts to be labeled as such, there really aren’t many rules of what you can sell or how. It’s a symbiotic world. Loads of new wellness companies like, say, Bloom Probiotics, throw big money at well-known influencers to pitch their products regardless of the product’s efficacy. A recent study found that nearly 40% of young people trust medical advice from social media influencers more than they trust the word of actual doctors and medical professionals. The result is a market worth more than $4 billion a year. And that leads us to today’s reality, where arguably one of the biggest health influencers, RFK Jr., is in charge of running the Department of Health and Human Services. (Matthew)
All of the folks that RFK and Trump are putting in there are making money from these alternative medicine and wellness products that we’ve been talking about. Casey Means and Callie Means, RFK’s wife, Marty Makary, they all have their fingers in this cash-cow called the wellness industry, right? And now they’ve come into power. The folks who are supposed to be protecting us from the alternative industry are now making money from that industry. It’s sort of like the most naked form of corruption that you can imagine. (Paul)
There’s so many problems with
the pharmaceutical industry, so many problems with the health care industry. I think that in many ways is what made Robert F. Kennedy Jr. so attractive, his Make America Healthy Again movement. He’s right, we are more obese in this country than in other countries. We do have more hypertension and type 2 diabetes. It’s true. I think all that’s true. I don’t think he’s going to do one thing to make that better. I think all he’s going to do is make vaccines less available, less affordable and more feared, and cause children to suffer unnecessarily. That will be his legacy. (Kait)
So what happens now? Where do we go from here? Vaccine rates are down. The U.S. is shattering measles records, and profiteers are running the institutions. Like a fever, we may just have to sweat it out. (Matthew)
Medical institutions need to undergo the sorts of reforms that they’ve been talking about for 50 years. They need to be more transparent. They need to be more accountable. They need to provide more access to the American public. That’s a start. And we need to get corporate interests out of government decisions. (Paul)
People are going to declare their own truths, and they’re not going to believe what they’re told from scientists or clinicians. We’ll pay a price for that, and it’ll be a big price. And eventually I think that as people realize what that price is, they’ll come back to what has been so helpful for us. There’s also supplements that you should be taking every single day. Are some of the wellness hacks that I’m using to get into the best shape of my life Not taking all my clothes from there. I just don’t know what you’re doing. left open and L-theanine capsule. This induces alpha wave activity in your brain,
