During his confirmation hearings, senators understandably questioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views on health, ranging from abortion to vaccinations.
It’s not surprising people would hesitate to accept some of Kennedy’s most unusual claims. Americans who have Red Dye No. 3 in their favorite breakfast cereal and McDonald’s Big Macs for dinner clearly have the most to lose. From fluoride in our water to beef tallow to vaccines, RFK Jr. is asking questions about our health no one else has bothered to ask.
RFK Jr. is willing to push against our unhealthy habits, something no one else has considered. Is that really a bad thing?
According to the latest CDC reports, an estimated 129 million Americans have at least one major chronic disease – including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and hypertension. Most are women, often with several diagnoses. Women also constitute over 80% of patients with autoimmune diseases, suffering from symptoms with severe consequences.
We no longer live in a world where chronic illness describes obese, middle-aged men who refuse to give up red meat; in 2025, young women, otherwise healthy, are the very face of chronic illness. So many young women are sharing their journeys with debilitating illnesses online, that news outlets now dub them ‘sickfluencers.’
I am one of millions of young women under 30 years old with multiple health conditions.
Along with two first cousins – both under 30 – I have been diagnosed with a mysterious condition causing autonomic dysfunction, called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardic Syndrome (POTS). This is a condition affecting one to three million people in the U.S., up to 85% of whom are women.
Yet, doctors are puzzled by this condition and often tell patients to ‘just drink more.’ Other medical professionals have chalked it up to anxiety. Still others shrug and say, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you.’
There is no cure. Some geneticists have hypothesized these symptoms to be caused by a collection of disorders previously thought to be considerably rare, known as Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS). Others claim the HPV vaccine may be at play.
Many of these young women, ranging from 14 to 25, are objectively thriving; they are high achievers – honors students making A’s in school – are often athletic, and are, in the words of their doctors, the very ‘pinnacle of health.’
Then, one day, they suddenly wake up with terrifying symptoms: blurred vision, worryingly high heart rate and low blood pressure, uncontrolled vomiting and nausea, and fainting when they stand up.
POTS and EDS are not the only conditions young women are facing. These are just a few out of many. Abigail Anthony wrote several years ago in The Free Press about her journey with endometriosis and how doctors called her ‘hysterical.’ Experiences like these are far from uncommon for these young women. In fact, these situations are often the norm.
The majority of medical professionals have never heard of these conditions. They walk in blind, with no idea how to treat these illnesses – let alone provide a cure.
Patients like me are desperate for answers – any answers – for what is causing these life-altering symptoms; they have little to no guidance or information, few pharmaceutical options, and certainly no treatment plan shown effective to control the plethora of conditions leaving them house-bound, hospitalized, and unable to eat.
Pharmaceutical companies are known to distance themselves from developing new drugs, arguing that research into chronic illness isn’t profitable.
Where does that leave patients? With no answers, and no hope. Their lives are left destroyed – all before reaching 30.
If we truly care about treating the underlying cause of chronic illnesses and fighting against the health epidemic women face, the government must incentivize solutions that actually make us better instead of pushing us aside.
We deserve answers – and, at the very least, hope for better lives.
