Fanning the flames is the fact that trust in science and the healthcare system is at “an all time low,” Kado says, and Schrack agrees. “The traditional healthcare system works better for some than for others, but there’s no doubt that we need to try to do better so that there’s more equitable access to care and the things that people need.”
Direct-to-consumer start-ups are emerging alongside this trend, offering more convenient access to these drugs, often marketing them in a lifestyle or self-improvement context—a model that appears to resonate with many consumers. Seventy percent of consumers (and 79 percent of Gen Z) use health tech, a category that includes online prescription services, monthly, per the PwC’s 2025 US Healthcare Consumer Insights Survey. “[DTCs] are proliferating because they are easier in some ways than navigating the traditional healthcare system,” Schrack says. “But these are for-profit companies,” she says, and regulations around them are murky.
Real meds, real risks
Prescription drugs can offer real benefits—but they can also come with real, and sometimes severe, risks. “Whatever you put in your mouth, from a supplement all the way to prescription drugs, you can suffer unintended adverse consequences,” Kado says, adding that even aspirin has the potential to cause bleeding ulcers. Some drugs being explored for preventive use illustrate that tradeoff. Rapamycin, for example, has shown promise, Schrack says, but it can also suppress the immune system, potentially increasing vulnerability to infections.
But Caplan adds that the people most inclined to experiment with these drugs may also be more comfortable with risk in general. “The people who tend to be chasing longevity by repurposing drugs, they tend to be people who are wealthy and often who have careers where taking risks has produced great wealth,” Caplan says. “I think they’re talking to doctors half the time only to say, ‘I want you to write me this prescription, or I’m going to leave and find somebody who will,’” he says.
Risks aside, there’s no guarantee the drugs will deliver the intended benefits—especially when they’re used outside their approved purpose. “The thing about some of these exploratory agents like rapamycin and others, is that a lot of the benefits we see are in animals and they don’t always translate to humans,” Schrack says.