Who is Will Cole?
Will Cole is a celebrity alternative medicine provider, author, and salesman. He has a large following on social media, with over 500,000 followers on Instagram alone. He has Gwyneth Paltrow’s approval, as evidenced by his Goop profile, the couple’s story of how he helped her “get healthy,” and Paltrow even writing the foreword to one of his books. His influence is far-reaching. With such an impact, it makes sense to find out more about him.
Cole wrote on his website:
“…”“I specialize in clinically investigating the underlying causes of chronic illness and customizing functional medicine approaches for thyroid issues, autoimmune diseases, hormone imbalances, digestive disorders and brain issues.”
Given the platform he has built and the expertise he claims to have, you can expect him to be well trained, educated and certified. There are a few initials after his name; specifically, DC, IFMCP and DNM. But what exactly do these initials mean? DC stands for Doctor of Chiropractic. IFMCP stands for Institute of Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner. DNM stands for Doctor of Natural Medicine. Let’s break them down and find out more about who he is.
DC – Doctor of Chiropractic
Cole is a graduate of the University of Southern California Health Sciences.do not have Cole received his Doctorate in Chiropractic from the University of Southern California (which is easily confused with USC, which has a Health Sciences campus). Cole claims to specialize in a variety of areas that are not the specialty of a chiropractor. Chiropractors manipulate the joints and spine. As I have written, chiropractors are not trained to identify, diagnose, or treat thyroid problems, brain problems, hormone imbalances, autoimmune diseases, or digestive problems. Thus, these areas may be covered under one of the other acronyms.
IFMCP – Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner
This one requires a bit of explanation. First, what is functional medicine? According to the Functional Medicine Institute:
“…”Functional medicine treats the underlying causes of illness and restores healthy function through a personalized experience.“
This definition includes the key words “root cause” and “individualized,” and functional medicine practitioners claim it distinguishes their practice from conventional medicine.
Functional medicine claims to focus on the root causes of disease, with the implication that conventional medicine does not, and focuses only on symptoms. But this is not true. There is a reason why the germ theory revolutionized medicine. Suddenly, we were Cause Disease. Antibiotics and vaccines are used to address the underlying cause of infection. Although difficult, medicine is always striving to identify the underlying cause of disease.
Functional medicine claims that care is personalized, while general medicine suggests that it is not. “How personalized?” you may ask. The answer is the same as in general medicine: lab tests. But in functional medicine, there are far more lab tests. Doctors typically order tests when a patient’s symptoms indicate a reason to do so. Those who practice functional medicine prescribe anything and everything, sacrificing time, money, and sanity in the process for the personal and accurate.
Now, with that foundation in functional medicine, let’s talk about IFMCP certification, starting with the institute behind it, the Institute for Functional Medicine. As an institute where people seek medical training, there are some concerning characteristics.
Mark Hyman is the company’s Chairman of Clinical Affairs. For those of you who don’t know, he’s a well-known figure in the world of health promotion and alternative medicine. He’s notorious for his nutritional misinformation, unsubstantiated claims about brain problems, and blatant hypocrisy in peddling supplements that contain substances that he openly demonizes.
A hallmark of functional medicine is the selling of supplements. For example, if you look at the Institute for Functional Medicine’s Functional Medicine Approach to COVID-19, there are a ton of supplements recommended. Would you be surprised to hear that Mark Hyman, the clinical director, happens to be selling many of the supplements recommended? Echinacea. Curcumin. Luteolin. Vitamin C. Vitamin D. Elderberry. I could go on, but you get the idea. Quite a coincidence, right?
IFMCP certification is issued by a shady organization with questionable medical positions and recommendations, and they simply endorse treatments and preventative measures that happen to be sold by one of their board members. We haven’t even mentioned the questionable nature of the education this organization provides to people, but it’s important to know that it seems to be a natural extension of this organization – a money-making ploy.
DNM – Doctor of Natural Medicine
This certification appears to have only been created to cause confusion and uproar in the separate world of natural medicine.Doctor of Natural Medicine (DNM) should not be confused with Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (ND).
““Naturopathic doctors and Doctors of Naturopathic Medicine are not naturopathic doctors. If you’re looking for a doctor who practices in an unregulated medical practice such as a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine, you really don’t know anything. There may be educational standards and ideals of practice, but when anyone can use the title without an external, independent regulatory body overseeing each applicant to ensure standards, there’s room for a lot of confusion.”
– Iva Lloyd, ND, Director of the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Physicians
Since the DNM program is not regulated in any way, it is difficult to say what kind of training Cole actually received, but without regulation, this type of certification is surely a long way from being an “expert” in any of the areas he claims to be.
Wellness
That means Mr. Cole is not a medical doctor, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, or a doctor of naturopathic medicine. Although he holds a doctor of chiropractic degree, this degree does not provide training in any of the areas in which he specializes. He is not qualified to diagnose people with autoimmune diseases, brain diseases, etc.
None of this stops Cole from talking about scary diagnoses whose only purpose is to get you to buy something in the name of health. Of course, like any other health influencer, he sells his own brand of supplements. For example, Brain Leak Syndrome. It’s worrying. ACSH has explained this “diagnosis” and why it’s not something to worry about. But it doesn’t stop Cole and others like him from trying to stoke health fears around this “diagnosis.” And he uses the same tactic I saw another chiropractor use to sell “cures” for the “diseases” described in the article in the form of supplements you can buy on his website.
Cole doesn’t even try to hide this, stating on his website:
“Once we have the objective data, we customize a clinical functional medicine program to fit your needs, including a customized diet and condition-specific natural supplements, all tailored to your unique physiology.”
The correct way to read this statement is, “We provide and charge you for many lab tests that you do not need and that we are not qualified to interpret, and we diagnose scary-sounding, fictitious diseases that we then “cure” with one of our supplements.” That sounds quite different, doesn’t it?
We’ve only scratched the surface on Cole, the functional medicine, and the wellness industries, but we can see that it’s all connected: They use the same techniques over and over again: seemingly legitimate credentials, promises of holistic care, scary-sounding diagnoses, and offers of whatever treatments they happen to be selling.
Be cautious. Be vigilant. Be skeptical. Don’t believe the hype.
