Dr. Joseph Mercola built Mercola.com in 1997 into a direct-to-reader health media platform, and the model he used then (daily articles, a direct email list, and a product business instead of banner ads) is now the standard playbook for independent health publishers. Nearly thirty years of continuous publishing make his archive one of the largest physician-authored health libraries on the internet.
Joseph M. Mercola earned his D.O. from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University in 1982 and completed a family medicine residency at Chicago Osteopathic Medical Center in 1985. He practiced in Schaumburg, Illinois, and chaired the family medicine department at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates for several years.
Over his first decade of practice, Mercola moved toward a personalized, prevention-first model of care, now widely known as functional medicine. He restructured his own clinic around that approach years before functional medicine existed as a named specialty, first as the Optimal Wellness Center and later as Dr. Mercola’s Natural Health Center. The American College of Nutrition named him a Fellow in 2012, recognizing that body of clinical work. He has since co-authored peer-reviewed research in the journal Nutrients on vitamin D status and dietary fat intake, adding a research credential to his clinical background.
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