Revelations about the relationship of Peter Attia, a longevity doctor and influencer, with underage-sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein are sparking discomfort. The disquiet goes beyond the mere fact of their relationship. The advice Attia offered to Epstein – “pussy is, indeed, low carb” – is certainly hard to set aside. But the jocular hubris that comes across seems also to be sparking serious questions about the wellness and longevity industry. It is an industry peddling the illusion of a first class ticket to health.
This is a scam that relies on gullible and wealthy people convinced they can buy a longer life if they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or more on its pursuit. Attia told 60 Minutes that it costs more than $100,000 to become one of his patients. He pitched it to Epstein in 2016 correspondence excerpted by The Hollywood Reporter:
“Have you decided if you’re interested in living longer (solely for the ladies, of course)?”
Three years later, Epstein was dead.
A First Class Scam?
All of this is leading reputable doctors to question the ethics of this wellness and longevity industry in which Attia has been so visible. Eric Topol, founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, has a research interest in aging. He says:
“That whole gemish of things that are hawked and being promoted by influencers and longevity so-called experts or whatever, there’s just no data.”
“If you really want to know something that’s proven to change biologic aging and epigenetic aging, it’s exercise.”
Jen Gunter is a Canadian gynecologist with a particular distaste for pseudoscience, medical misinformation, and scams. She sums up concerns about “longevity medicine” schemes nicely:
“Every good doctor wants you to live longer.
“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.”
The link of such schemes to the lurid world of Jeffrey Epstein is somehow completely unsurprising.
Click here for more on the backlash Peter Attia is prompting, here, here, and here for further perspective.
The First Class Compartment, painting by Édouard Vuillard / Wikimedia Commons
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February 14, 2026 at 6:40 am, Joe Gitchell said:
Thank you, Ted, for confronting these matters directly.
I found these two posts from Dr Lucy McBride helpful and persuasive, too:
https://open.substack.com/pub/lucymcbride/p/this-isnt-about-cancel-culture-its?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
https://open.substack.com/pub/lucymcbride/p/when-the-doctor-looks-away?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer
Joe
February 14, 2026 at 12:36 pm, Mary-Jo said:
Longevity is a mix of genetics; food, water, public health, and environmental hygiene and safety; medical progress, access to health care — both mental and physical, spiritual balance (not necessarily religion-based), and, an overall good standard of living. Although socioeconomic status is a factor, too, but without the basics first listed, in itself, it’s no guarantee of a long life. Ironic that in the USA, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, there are big roll-backs, defunding, and policy changes that interfere with providing some of the basics for long, healthy lives.