Marty Makary on Medical Dogma and Groupthink: warns against

Dr. Marty Makary warns that “medical dogma can do a lot of damage.” He argues that much of what the public is told about health is decreed by gut feeling and institutional inertia rather than evidence — the central thesis of his 2024 book Blind Spots (chapters “True Believers” and “Imagine”), which he repeated at his September 28, 2026 American College of Surgeons lecture.

Makary’s stated reasoning is that entrenched consensus — on peanuts, dietary cholesterol, HRT, antibiotics, and other topics — has repeatedly proven wrong, and that the medical establishment punishes dissent rather than updating its views. His catalog of reversed guidance (peanut avoidance, low-fat diets, HRT fear) is offered as the evidence.

This is Makary’s position, attributed to him — not medical advice.

This page chronicles a stated position of the person above. It is not medical advice and not the site's own conclusion.