By Dr. Steven Long, DO, MS-HSA, NASM-CPT, PBC
Beyond Health | Precision Medicine for High-Performance Living
In modern healthcare, it has become increasingly common for clinics, influencers, and even physicians to sell supplements, devices, and branded products directly to patients.
Sometimes this is framed as convenience.
Sometimes as “curation.”
Sometimes as a way to ensure quality.
At Beyond Health, we’ve made a deliberate and uncommon choice:
We do not sell supplements.
We do not endorse products.
We do not receive commissions, kickbacks, or affiliate revenue.
This is not an oversight.
It is a core part of our clinical philosophy.
1. Financial Incentives Change Clinical Judgment—Even When Intentions Are Good
There is a large body of literature demonstrating that financial conflicts of interest influence medical decision-making, often unconsciously.
Physicians consistently underestimate how incentives affect their own recommendations while recognizing the effect in others.
A systematic review by Bekelman et al. (2003) showed that financial relationships between physicians and industry were associated with changes in prescribing behavior, research outcomes, and clinical recommendations.
Importantly, these effects were not limited to overt misconduct. They occurred even when clinicians believed they were acting objectively.
Selling a product—any product—creates an incentive structure.
We believe medicine should be insulated from that pressure as much as possible.
2. Supplements Blur the Line Between Care and Commerce
When a clinician both recommends and sells a product, the relationship changes.
Patients are no longer just asking, “Is this good for me?”
They are implicitly asking, “Is this good for me—or good for your business?”
Even when the recommendation is reasonable, trust is diluted.
We want patients to know that when we recommend an intervention, it is because:
Not because it appears on our shelf.
3. The Evidence for Most Supplements Is Modest at Best
While some supplements have narrow, evidence-supported use cases, the majority do not meaningfully change long-term clinical outcomes.
Systematic reviews repeatedly show that many commonly marketed supplements:
Bjelakovic et al. (2012) demonstrated that antioxidant supplementation did not reduce—and in some cases increased—all-cause mortality, despite strong mechanistic rationale.
Supplements often promise far more than they deliver.
Selling them risks overselling certainty that does not exist.
4. Supplements Are Not Harmless Just Because They Are Optional
Another common misconception is that supplements are “low risk,” so selling them is benign.
In reality:
Navarro et al. (2017) identified dietary supplements as a growing cause of acute liver injury in the United States.
When a clinic sells supplements, it implicitly vouches for their safety—often without the data to support that assurance.
We take that responsibility seriously.
5. We Don’t Want Your Progress to Depend on Purchases
One of the most subtle harms of product-based medicine is dependency.
Patients begin to believe that progress requires:
This shifts focus away from what actually drives outcomes:
We want patients to understand that their health is built by behavior and physiology—not by shopping decisions.
6. Education Scales Better Than Products
Selling supplements can feel efficient. Education is harder.
But education scales in a way products never will.
When patients understand:
They can make informed decisions anywhere, at any time, without needing us to sell them something.
That is real empowerment.
7. What We Do Instead
We focus on:
If a supplement may be reasonable in a specific context, we discuss:
Then the patient decides—without financial pressure from us.
8. This Is Harder—and Intentional
Not selling supplements is not the easy path.
It means:
But it also means preserving the one thing that matters most in medicine:
Trust.
9. The Beyond Health Perspective
At Beyond Health, we believe medicine works best when:
Our role is to guide, interpret, and apply science—not to monetize shelves.
If something truly improves healthspan, it should stand on evidence—not endorsement.
Bottom Line
We don’t sell supplements or endorse products because:
We are here to help you build strength, resilience, and independence—not a shopping cart.
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