AI should replace the MD

turning to ChatGPT for better medicine

My dad started having serious gut pain when he was fifty. Almost everything he ate caused stomach discomfort. It got to the point where it was easier to just not eat.

My mom scheduled an appointment with an internist.

In a visit that lasted less than 10 minutes, the doctor told my dad he had acid reflux, handed him a bottle of antacids, and sent him on his way.

There was no investigation into the cause. No curiosity as to why my dad’s acid reflux was so severe.

A smart doctor would’ve asked: Why? What is causing this patient’s pain? A smart doctor would have indicted my dad’s life: his sleep, stress, past medications or antibiotics, exercise, work, family life, and—critically—what he was eating.

But unfortunately, most doctors in America aren’t practicing smart medicine.

They’re taught to spend 7 minutes with a patient and work from a model of health that sees discomfort and disease as not to be resolved, but masked.

My dad’s story is not exceptional. It’s an anecdote of the incuriosity and vacuity of most physicians practicing medicine today. And I think AI could help people like my dad better than most doctors can.

America’s really good at acute, emergency care.

I’m grateful for the skillful surgeon who removed my ruptured appendix when I was 15. Two of my brothers also had appendicitis. Other family members experienced intense labors that required emergency C-sections. Last year my brother Deter got a bad infection in his finger that antibiotics cleared up in mere hours.

I doubt all nine of my siblings and I would’ve made it to our twenties without Western medicine.

But where acute care advanced ten steps in the last century, lifestyle medicine regressed. It applied the acute mindset (one cause, one cure, like antibiotics for pneumonia) and applied it to slow-burning conditions shaped by years of daily habits.

But the chronic diseases plaguing America require a different approach that goes unacknowledged, downplayed, or mocked by the medical schools training our doctors.

Physicians haven’t been properly trained to deal with patients like my dad. Or the 19 million Americans on Metformin for type II diabetes, the 121 million with heart disease, the 18 million with a cancer diagnosis, or the 15 million living with autoimmune diseases.

Conquering these diseases necessitates lifestyle overhaul, not pills.

This is where AI can be an asset.

I typed “how to avoid insulin resistance” into ChatGPT, and it gave me a robust, science-backed game plan: lift weight, lower stress, get better sleep, and eat nutrient dense foods.

Then it asked if I wanted exercise tips and offered to build me a food plan with a grocery list

It was detailed and multi-pronged. Intuitive and somehow motivational.

Most doctors don’t offer meaningful strategies to help patients prevent insulin resistance. Instead, they give vague, half-hearted advice like “eat fewer calories,” knowing full well their patients will likely return next year fully insulin resistant. In a way, that makes it easier: just write the Metformin prescription and move on.

When I asked ChatGPT about food’s role in cancer prevention, it gave me the following answer:

How Food Shapes Cancer Risk

1. Sugar & Refined Carbs
   Diets heavy in sugar and processed carbs keep insulin and IGF-1 high, which encourages abnormal cell growth. Whole, nutrient-dense foods help stabilize blood sugar and starve cancer cells of that constant fuel.

2. DNA Damage & Oxidative Stress
   Seed oils and fried, ultra-processed foods generate free radicals that damage DNA. Over time, those mutations can turn into cancer. Antioxidant-rich foods—like berries, leafy greens, and organ meats—neutralize free radicals and protect cells.

3. Inflammation
   Chronic inflammation is like fertilizer for cancer. Diets filled with processed snacks, sugar, and alcohol keep the fire going. Foods like wild salmon, grass-fed beef, and colorful vegetables help put the flames out.

4. Hormonal Effects
   Excess body fat raises estrogen, insulin, and inflammatory hormones, which can drive breast, colon, and endometrial cancers. Eating a balanced, whole-food diet helps maintain a healthy weight and a healthier hormonal environment.

5. Gut Microbiome
   The bacteria in your gut influence colon health and immunity. Processed diets breed harmful bacteria, while fiber, fermented foods, and nutrient-rich staples support microbes that produce cancer-fighting compounds like butyrate.

6. Protective Compounds
   Certain foods carry extra defense: sulforaphane in broccoli helps detoxify cells, lycopene in tomatoes lowers prostate cancer risk, vitamin D protects the colon, and creatine and carnosine from meat shield DNA from damage.

The unfortunate truth is that when you go in for a routine cancer screening like a mammogram, you won’t hear your doctor talk food or other lifestyle factors shaping cancer.

They won’t talk about how 3 hours of exercise a week lowers cancer risk by 20% or how compounds in butter reduce cancer risk or how chemicals in your deodorant increase it.

They won’t tell you how to live in a way that keeps your body cancer-free. Instead, they wait until cancer shows up. Then scramble to react. Good medicine doesn’t react to cancer, it prevents it.

ChatGPT knows this. Most MDs don’t. Or at least practice like they don’t.

I’ve read too many books and articles about the corruption of the medical system. The storyline is always the same: Big Pharma, medical schools, and insurance companies—often unconsciously—collude to keep good medicine out of reach.

The result? Americans stay dependent, the system profits.

The brilliance of this decades-long scheme is simple: train doctors not to know what good medicine actually is.

AI can change that by democratizing access to real medicine. I don’t believe AI will replace doctors. Most mothers, for instance, wouldn’t want a robot as their OB-GYN.

AI’s real power is forcing doctors to think critically again about medicine, disease, and health. For too long, the MD has been a crown and the white coat a shield—authority with little accountability.

Now AI is competition. And competition is healthy. In this case, literally.