The businesses hoping to boom under an RFK Jr.-led HHS

• The question is how that will play with many Americans who are fed up with an increasingly corporate health care system and eager to take more direct control over their care. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer with no health background, has long railed against drug companies and other industries profiteering off people's illnesses.
• "It's sort of open season for grifters. There's no doubt in my mind," said Peter Lurie, executive director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

But supplement makers who generally don't have to provide evidence for the Food and Drug Administration to determine if their products are safe say they're hoping for a fairer playing field for products that help people live healthier lives.

• Natural health retailers and testing labs also expect a boost from the current leadership.
• "To have RFK coming in and basically controlling the largest budget of any health organization, and him backing functional medicine, I think that's going to go a long way for the industry as a whole," said Adam El-Hosseiny, chief operating officer of Jupiter, Florida-based laboratory company Access Medical Labs.
• The company, which processes medical samples of blood, saliva and urine, has already seen an uptick in its business from functional medicine doctors in the last two years as they gain broader acceptance, El-Hosseiny said.

Between the lines: The quickest impact could come from changes in the way government health programs cover alternative health services or regulate substances in supplements.

• Food-as-medicine startups are hopeful Kennedy's support for healthy foods over drugs may lead to an expansion in Medicaid coverage for nutrition-based services, CNBC reported.

Supplement makers are hoping to break through a system they've long seen as stacked against them.

• The Natural Products Association has already been pressing Congress to allow people to use flexible savings accounts and health savings accounts on supplements, CEO Daniel Fabricant said. It's also trying to get supplements to be eligible for WIC and SNAP dollars.
• Fabricant pointed to peptides, which supplement makers could use to create products such as those that support muscle growth. They are also increasingly used in drugs and cosmetics and the focus of increased FDA regulation.
• "The drug space gets preferential treatment, and if they get there first, they can literally block peptides from the market that we've been eating forever: peptides from eggs, peptides from milk, from meat, from vegetables," Fabricant said. "That's an important discussion to have that there's innovation on both sides."

The dietary supplements industry could also benefit if the federal government allows more prominent consumer information about dietary supplements on federal websites, Fabricant said.

• Medical schools could be spurred into building up their nutrition education so doctors feel more comfortable recommending supplements, he added.

Yes, but: Critics warn unscrupulous players peddling alternative cures could thrive under Kennedy.

• The FDA regularly warns stem cell clinics and chelation therapy centers they face possible legal action if they continue to make unsubstantiated claims, but they could expect to see more relaxed oversight of that sort, said William Matthew London, editor of the Center for Inquiry's Quackwatch.
• "All the influencers who've got alternative diets without seed oils, for example, you can be sure that they will all be exploiting this, regardless of the sort of underlying evidence," Lurie said.

Even the supplement industry has very little oversight compared with the drug industry.

• "It's all about the buyer has to beware," London said. "But the buyer is being bombarded with so much misinformation that they're likely to be deceived."

The bottom line: At best, the worry is that patients may waste their money on products, devices or services that don't work. A greater worry is patients may eschew evidence-based medical care, including vaccines, experts say.

• They also worry many patients view alternatives as innocuous, discounting their risks and taking too many of them or mixing them with other ingredients.
• "The more things you you treat people with, the more likely you are to do harm, especially with unproven methods," London said.