People · Leaders in Natural Health
Dr. Mark Hyman
Who is Dr. Mark Hyman?
Mark Hyman is a practicing family physician and one of the most influential leaders in functional medicine. He founded The UltraWellness Center, founded the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, co-founded Function Health as Chief Medical Officer, hosts The Dr. Hyman Show, and has written sixteen New York Times bestsellers.12
His medical career began about as far from celebrity as it gets: family practice in rural Idaho, then years as an inner-city emergency physician in Springfield, Massachusetts.3 From 1996 to 2004 he served as co-medical director of Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires, and when he left, he founded The UltraWellness Center in Lenox to treat complex chronic illness by the root causes.32 His own health collapse in that era — a battle with chronic fatigue he traces to mercury toxicity, a story he has told across his books — turned him from a conventional doctor into a systems thinker.
Then he scaled it. The Blood Sugar Solution and fifteen other titles reached the New York Times bestseller list, he founded the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine in 2014 — the first functional medicine center inside a major academic medical institution — and his podcast became one of the leading health shows in the world.42 In our overview of functional medicine, he stands among the people who built the field. His newest chapter, Function Health, aims to put root-cause lab testing in everyone's hands.1
Dr. Mark Hyman's credentials
Hyman is a medical doctor (MD) and practicing family physician with more than three decades in medicine — from rural family practice and emergency medicine to functional medicine leadership at the Cleveland Clinic and the Institute for Functional Medicine.36
Beyond the MD, his credentials are institutional: founder and senior advisor of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, board member and board president for clinical affairs of the Institute for Functional Medicine, winner of the Linus Pauling Award, consultant to the Surgeon General on diabetes prevention, and a participant in the 2009 White House Forum on Prevention and Wellness.26 He has been a medical contributor for CBS and a regular on the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and The View.2
His clinics: The UltraWellness Center and the Cleveland Clinic
Hyman's practice home is The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, which treats the root causes of complex chronic illness with a systems-based, personalized approach. He also founded the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine in 2014 and remains its senior advisor.24
The UltraWellness model pairs deep diagnostic testing with nutrition and lifestyle medicine — the same test-first, food-first playbook that defines the field.2 The Cleveland Clinic center mattered for a different reason: it put functional medicine inside one of the most respected hospital systems in the world, giving the movement academic legitimacy and a research footing it had never had.4
Function Health: bloodwork for everyone
Function Health is the lab-testing company Hyman co-founded and serves as Chief Medical Officer. Members get 100+ lab tests through a national network of draw locations, with results explained through clinician insights and retesting over time.1
Function is the logical endpoint of his career: if the root causes live in your biology, the first step is measuring it. The membership model — comprehensive panels, plain-language interpretation, retest and track — has helped push root-cause bloodwork into the mainstream conversation.1 It is the same conviction behind our own CellRx bloodwork program: test, don't guess — different products, shared movement.
The organizations Dr. Mark Hyman built
Dr. Mark Hyman's health philosophy and approach
Hyman practices food-first, systems-based functional medicine: use food as medicine, stabilize blood sugar, find each person's root causes through testing, eat by his pegan framework, extend healthspan, and fix the food system itself. The fork, in his telling, is the most powerful instrument in medicine.
Whole, real food is the most powerful intervention in chronic disease — the foundation every book he has written builds on.
Insulin resistance sits under the biggest killers — his breakout bestseller made blood sugar the starting point of metabolic healing.
Systems biology over symptom management: comprehensive testing and history reveal each person's drivers — now scaled through Function Health.
His paleo-meets-vegan template: mostly plants, quality protein, healthy fats, low glycemic load — personalized to the individual.
Longevity as a practice: the biology of aging can be measured and influenced through food, movement, community, and purpose.
Personal change is not enough — his Food Fix Campaign works on policy, agriculture, and the economics that make people sick.
The through-line — food as the lever, testing as the map — is ground we share across our guides to functional medicine, the ketogenic diet, and the most nutrient-dense foods on earth.
The debate around Dr. Mark Hyman
Hyman's influence makes him a lightning rod, and the criticism deserves the same depth as the credentials. Here is what his critics say — and what holds up.
The pseudoscience charge
Skeptic commentators — including the editors behind his own Wikipedia entry — describe functional medicine as unproven or pseudoscientific, arguing that the field's whole-program claims outrun its clinical-trial base.8 The counterweight is unusually strong in Hyman's case: he is a practicing MD, he built his center inside the Cleveland Clinic — one of the most conservative medical institutions in America — and the individual tools his programs use, from whole-food nutrition to blood sugar management, carry substantial published evidence. Outcomes research on whole functional medicine programs is newer and still developing, and the honest position is to say so.
The detox era and the pegan brand
His early 10-Day Detox Diet framing drew fire from scientists who point out that livers and kidneys already detoxify without special programs — criticism that attached to the whole detox category. The pegan diet drew a different kind of criticism: dietitians mocked the name as a marketing mashup, then largely conceded the plate itself — mostly plants, quality protein, healthy fats, low sugar — is close to conventional nutrition consensus. Both critiques land on branding more than on food.
Function Health and the testing question
His newest venture raises the newest debate: should healthy people run 100+ lab tests a year? Critics of consumer lab testing warn about overtesting — incidental findings, anxiety, and cost without proven outcome benefits — while the test-don't-guess movement answers that you cannot address what you never measure.1 This is where personalized medicine comes in: testing creates the most value when a practitioner interprets it against your history and follows through with a tailored plan — the model behind his UltraWellness Center, and behind our own CellRx program, a context we disclose plainly on this page.
Dr. Mark Hyman books — and which one to read first
His shelf spans The Blood Sugar Solution (2012), Eat Fat Get Thin (2016), Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? (2018), Food Fix (2020), The Pegan Diet (2021), and Young Forever (2023) — sixteen of his books have reached the New York Times bestseller list.25
The bestseller that made blood sugar the front door to metabolic health.
Metabolic healthFood by food, what the science says to eat — and what to skip.
Everyday eatingHis complete paleo-meets-vegan framework in 21 practical principles.
The frameworkThe biology of aging — and how to slow, stop, and reverse it.
Longevity| Book | Year | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| The Blood Sugar Solution | 2012 | Metabolic health and insulin resistance |
| Eat Fat, Get Thin | 2016 | Making peace with healthy fats |
| Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? | 2018 | Everyday food choices, aisle by aisle |
| Food Fix | 2020 | The food system, policy, and planet |
| The Pegan Diet | 2021 | His complete eating framework |
| Young Forever | 2023 | Longevity and the biology of aging |
The Dr. Hyman Show
The Dr. Hyman Show — formerly The Doctor's Farmacy — is one of the leading health podcasts, pairing long-form science conversations with the food-policy and cultural questions most health shows skip.72
If you enjoy his show, you'll feel at home on The Dr. Josh Axe Show — where Hyman himself has been a guest.
Watch Dr. Hyman
Mark Hyman quotes worth keeping
“Food isn't like medicine, it is medicine.”
A core teaching · repeated across his books and talksDr. Mark Hyman supplements
Yes — The UltraWellness Center and his site offer professional-grade supplements aligned with his protocols, recommended individually based on testing rather than as one universal stack.2
Our editorial approach at DrAxe.com is to evaluate ingredients rather than personalities or brands: every supplement we cover receives a computed Dr. Axe Score — start with our guides to magnesium glycinate and creatine.
The Daniel Plan: healing a church, 250,000 pounds at a time
Hyman created The Daniel Plan with Pastor Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen, and Dr. Mehmet Oz at Saddleback Church — a faith-based healthy living program that helped the congregation collectively lose 250,000 pounds and won the Christian Book of the Year Award.6
The Daniel Plan matters here because it proved something we believe deeply at DrAxe.com: faith communities are among the most powerful settings for healing, because food, accountability, purpose, and prayer already live there. It remains one of the clearest demonstrations that health transformation spreads best through community — a theme that runs through our own work on faith and healing.
Where we align and where we differ
Hyman and I agree on the foundations — food as medicine, root-cause testing, personalized care, and the power of faith communities. We differ mainly in emphasis: he works through institutions and food policy from an MD platform; I work through natural medicine, ancient nutrition, and a faith-forward ministry of health. Overall, we are pulling the same direction.
- Food is medicine — the first and most powerful intervention
- Test, don't guess — his Function Health and our CellRx grew from the same conviction
- Root cause and personalization over one-size-fits-all protocols
- Faith communities as healing communities — The Daniel Plan proved it at scale
- Platform: he reforms from inside institutions and policy; I build from natural medicine and ancient nutrition
- His pegan template leans more plant-heavy; I put more emphasis on bone broth, organ-meat nutrition, and ancient foods
- Emphasis, not opposition — the movement needs both
Career timeline
Family practice in rural Idaho, then inner-city emergency medicine in Springfield, Massachusetts.3
Becomes co-medical director of Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Massachusetts, through 2004.3
Founds The UltraWellness Center in Lenox after leaving Canyon Ranch.4
The Blood Sugar Solution becomes a #1 New York Times bestseller.5
The Daniel Plan, created with Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, wins the Christian Book of the Year Award.6
Founds the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and serves as its first director.4
Launches The Doctor's Farmacy podcast; publishes Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?2
Food Fix published; founds the Food Fix Campaign for food-system reform.1
The Pegan Diet published.5
Young Forever published; co-founds Function Health as Chief Medical Officer.1
Get Dr. Axe's weekly breakdowns of the leaders, therapies, and protocols shaping natural health — including new profiles in this Leaders in Natural Health series.
Frequently asked questions about Dr. Mark Hyman
Sources
- DrHyman.com. About Dr. Hyman — Function Health co-founder and CMO; 100+ lab tests. drhyman.com
- The UltraWellness Center. Mark Hyman, MD — sixteen-time NYT bestselling author; roles, awards, and media. ultrawellnesscenter.com
- Grokipedia. Mark Hyman (physician) — early career in Idaho, Springfield ER, Canyon Ranch 1996–2004. grokipedia.com
- Wikipedia. Mark Hyman (doctor) — born November 22, 1959; UltraWellness Center; Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine; The Dr. Hyman Show. en.wikipedia.org
- Amazon. Mark Hyman, M.D. author page — bibliography. amazon.com
- Levels. Mark Hyman, MD advisor bio — Linus Pauling Award, Surgeon General, White House Forum, The Daniel Plan and Christian Book of the Year. levels.com
- EWG. Dr. Mark Hyman board bio — The Doctor's Farmacy as a leading health podcast. ewg.org
- Wikipedia. Mark Hyman (doctor) — critical perspectives on functional medicine. en.wikipedia.org
- The Institute for Functional Medicine. Educator: Mark Hyman, MD. ifm.org
- The Dr. Josh Axe Show. Mark Hyman guest appearance. draxe.com/podcast
Editorial note: This is an independent, fact-checked editorial profile. Dr. Mark Hyman did not commission or review this page, and DrAxe.com has no commercial relationship with his clinics, Function Health, or his supplement offerings. Function Health and DrAxe.com's CellRx both operate in lab testing; this page discloses that context. Corrections are welcome through our editorial policy page.
Published September 2026.