How to spot a wellness grift

The onus always falls back on us

Last week, after creating a video about Andrew Huberman, I received the following comment on Bluesky.

To which I replied:

I want to unpack my reply, with context. 

I found it interesting that Joseph brought up Huberman and Attia together. People often cite them together. On one level, it makes sense given that they both exist in an optimization space. Yet, having listened to hours of both men, I find Attia far more reliable and compelling—and I’ll add a caveat that I’m not familiar with the totality of his work.

That said, he recently published a video on his supplements list, which I appreciated. 

Why be critical of Huberman’s supplements statements while being less so of Attia, especially when they’re both scientific advisors to AG1, a company I’m definitely critical of? 

For starters, I’ve heard Attia walk back his own advice on a number of occasions, including in the above video. He gives clear explanations of why he’s taking certain supplements, the dose level, and how he’s adjusted his protocol over the years. He starts off by stating he has no affiliations with any of the companies he’s recommending. (Compare this to Huberman’s recent “beware of fluoride but drink my non-fluoridated yerba mate that I’m not disclosing” incident.)

To be fair, Huberman does make disclosures, usually at the top of shows. But he misses others, which is indicative of my longtime sentiment from Conspirituality: watch what they say, then watch what they sell.

Attia’s in-depth reasoning appeals to my own process around supplementation. While I’m often critical of the industry for a number of reasons, I take targeted supplements for specific reasons and have found great success in doing so. So while I spend a good amount of time reading studies on supplements (when possible, given many are unregulated and unstudied), the fact that people take them, some with success, makes sesne.

You might not agree with Attia’s supplementation decisions, but he goes to great lengths to explain the why behind his decisions, which helps everyone decide for themselves. I find this refreshing compared to the usual fear-based marketing rampant in the wellness industry, which I’ll now turn to in creating my list for spotting grifters.