Abdul El-Sayed has made Dr. Mehmet Oz a recurring villain in his Senate campaign, criticizing the Republican physician-turned-politician for using his medical credentials to sell health products to an audience that trusted him because of his credentials. El-Sayed is a physician and epidemiologist. El-Sayed also sold health products using his medical credentials in paid podcast ad reads, per Fox News’s confirmed reporting published three days ago.
The specific products El-Sayed promoted include Thrive Market, an online grocery subscription service, Brain Dust from Moon Juice, a powdered supplement described as containing adaptogens for cognitive function, and other wellness products. His ad read for Thrive Market, recorded in March 2025, included the line: “Even as a doctor and epidemiologist, nutrition labels are obnoxiously hard to process. That’s where Thrive Market comes in. See, I love Thrive Market, my go-to online grocery store for getting all of my healthy essentials delivered.” He began the read by assuring his audience he would not hawk health products, and then hawked health products. The medical credentials appeared in the sentence immediately before the product name.
Dr. Oz, who was Trump’s pick to run Medicare and Medicaid and who has spent two decades selling supplements, medical devices, and health advice of varying scientific validity on television, provided El-Sayed with a useful foil. El-Sayed is a legitimate public health official who ran the Wayne County Health Department and has an actual epidemiology degree from Oxford. The contrast with Oz’s credential exploitation was available and El-Sayed used it. He then recorded the Brain Dust ad read.
Moon Juice’s Brain Dust retails at $38 for 45 servings and contains ashwagandha, rhodiola, lion’s mane, and several other adaptogens that have varying levels of clinical evidence supporting their cognitive benefits. It is the kind of product that a physician-epidemiologist might describe as outside the scientific consensus, or might describe as his personal go-to for mental clarity. El-Sayed appears to have chosen the second option.
He won the Michigan Democratic Senate primary Tuesday. The ad reads are confirmed. Dr. Oz is still running Medicaid.
When the candidate who attacked his opponent for using medical credentials to sell supplements uses his medical credentials to sell supplements, what exactly was the attack about?
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