What was he smoking?
A health guru claimed puffing on cigarettes is linked to longer living — but now he’s trying to extinguish the controversy.
“The men in Sardinia have a seven year longer lifespan than the women because they’re smokers. That’s what brings them up,” Dr. Steven Gundry, a former cardiac surgeon and contributor to Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow’s website, insisted in a viral December interview with celebrity physician Dr. Mikhail Varshavski.
During the combative, nearly two-hour-long debate, which has racked up over 2.4 million views on YouTube, the far-out physician also cited a 2020 study that found a decrease in deaths from Parkinson’s disease among doctors who smoked.
“British doctors who smoke have a 30% less incidence of Parkinson’s and dementia,” Gundry said.
“Yeah, because they die of 10 other diseases beforehand,” retorted Varshavski — known as “Dr. Mike.”
Despite at one point stating that he tells people not to smoke, seconds later, Gundry again suggested the connection between smokers and longer life expectancies, insisting researchers should investigate “what is it in cigarettes that is a factor in these people who are long-lived.”
Gundry, however, now appears to be trying to snuff out his controversial claims.
His team recently sent a cease and desist letter demanding Varshavski remove an Instagram clip of the interview posted earlier this month, according to a copy of the note threatening legal action obtained by The Post.
The reel was a “severe mischaracterization” of the surgeon’s views and “deceptive,” according to the letter.
Days later, the clip was no longer available on Varshavski’s Instagram page, although the longer interview and an identical edited reel posted in December are still live on YouTube.
A Gundry spokesperson denied the doc’s team sent a cease and desist letter and claimed the request was made due to the fact that the Instagram post was “heavily edited video taken out of context alongside a misleading caption that misrepresents what Dr. Gundry said in the interview.”
Gundry is the face of a popular supplement empire, shilling $70 bottles of gut-health boosting pills and $50 bottles of “supercharged” olive oil.
The spokesperson denied the removal request was made because the Instagram post was impacting Gundry’s business.
Physicians burned Gundry for his retrograde arguments pushing smoking as having any health benefits.
“We know that tobacco causes cancer, causes heart disease, strokes, heart attacks, you name it,” Dr. Tim Tiutan, a New York-based internal medicine physician, told The Post.
Gundry “uses a lot of random anecdotes and infers from a lot of things that he’s treating in his practice . . . which is kind of scary.”
Goop and Varshavski did not respond to requests for comment.