Paula Casey Means[1] was born on September 24,1987.[2] In a podcast interview in 2023,Means stated that she was named after Paul the Apostle,but legally dropped Paula from her name after graduating from medical school.[1] She is the first daughter of Grady and Gayle Means. Grady served as an assistant to vice president Nelson Rockefeller,worked on health and human welfare issues at the Department of Health,Education,and Welfare,and was a managing partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.[3] Gayle died of pancreatic cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic,encouraging her children to resolve "broken health incentives" in the U.S.[4][5]
After graduating from the Madeira School in 2005,[6] Means attended Stanford University,where she graduated with honors with a bachelor's degree in human biology in 2009.[7] She then earned her Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2014 and was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society.[7][8][9] According to a statement by the medical school:"during her time at Stanford,Means demonstrated a strong commitment to comprehensive patient care,published peer-reviewed articles and held a leadership role in the Arbor Free Clinic,which provides care to underserved populations".[9]
After graduating from medical school,Means started a residency in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery of Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) with the aim of becoming an ENT surgeon.[10] Six months before the end of the five-year program,she dropped out of her surgical residency,[7] due to stress and having become disillusioned with healthcare in the United States.[7][11][12][13][14] During her studies,she supported research at New York University and OHSU.[15]
Career
Businesses
After quitting residency,Means established a functional medicine practice in Portland,Oregon in 2019.[16][17] The business dissolved in 2021.[17] In 2022,she served as a lecturer of food and health at Stanford and taught graduate and undergraduate students there.[18] Means's state medical license was shifted to "inactive" status on January 1,2024.[19]
Means is the co-founder and chief medical officer of Levels,a company that offers continuous glucose monitors. She is involved in her brother's company,Truemed.[20] Means sells sponsored dietary supplements,creams,teas,and other products on her social media accounts.[21][22]
Good Energy
Means and her brother,Calley,co-wrote Good Energy:The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health in 2024.[23] Its focus is the energy produced by the mitochondria in the body from food. It advises eating foods which promote a healthy metabolism while avoiding foods which cause inflammation and other dysfunctions.[24]
Jessica Winters,writing in the The New Yorker,described the book as "a memoir,a quasi-anti-establishment screed,and an orthorexic diet guide" which advanced three core positions of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement:[25]
"The first is that Big Food and Big Pharma are incentivized to make and keep us sick. The second is that many conventional medicines and interventions do little to improve our health, and often worsen it; ... And, third, that most maladies can be prevented or treated through one’s own ascetic diet and life-style choices."
By January 2025, the Meanses appeared unlikely to join the Department of Health and Human Services, but remained connected to Kennedy.[33] On May 7, the Trump administration began planning to withdraw Janette Nesheiwat's nomination as surgeon general after her résumé was questioned and Laura Loomer, a far-right social media political activist, stated that Nesheiwat was "not ideologically aligned" with Trump.[34] Hours later, Trump announced that he would nominate Means as surgeon general.[8] Trump said he did not know Means but nominated her based on Kennedy's recommendation.[35]
In addition to proponents of evidence-based medicine, Means' appointment has been criticized by anti-vaccination campaigners who favored health influencer Kelly Victory, such as Americans for Health Freedom's Mary Talley Bowden, Steve Kirsch and Suzanne Humphries. Far-right activist Laura Loomer was sharply critical of Means' nomination, calling her a "total crack pot".[36] RFK Jr's 2024 running mateNicole Shanahan was also critical of the nomination, claiming there was an understanding that the Means would not play a role in the Trump administration.[27]
Her views have been criticized by science communicator Jonathan Jarry of the McGillOffice for Science and Society, who wrote that "[Means] is not a metabolic health expert" and "theories claiming to have found a single cause for all diseases never pan out".[40] Jarry points to her book as an example of "scienceploitation", using preliminary research on mitochondrial dysfunction to promote dubious products or policy.[41]
Means has spoken in support of raw milk, stating, "When it comes to a question like raw milk, I want to be free to form a relationship with a local farmer, understand his integrity, look him in the eyes, pet his cow, and then decide if I feel safe to drink the milk from his farm."[45]
Means, Casey; Means, Calley (2024). Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health. Norfolk: Prince Books. ISBN9780593712641.
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