NEW YORK – A few years ago, Jenny Ip found herself in a cardiologist’s office after her bloodwork showed her cholesterol levels had shot up. The doctor asked her a few questions about her lifestyle and then recommended a statin, Ip recalled.

But Ip, now 46, wanted more testing before starting a new medication. Her doctor was not convinced it was necessary. To persuade him, she sent him an episode of The Peter Attia Drive podcast that discussed women’s heart health, noting the exact time stamp of the point she wanted him to hear.

In exam rooms across the country, the dynamic between doctors and patients – already shaped by Google, social media and ChatGPT – is changing once again as more patients show up ready to talk about what they have heard on podcasts.

Half of US adults under 50 get health information from podcasters or other online influencers. Some episodes of top health shows, such as Huberman Lab and The Ultimate Human With Gary Brecka, draw more than one million listens.

To many patients, podcasts offer a way to take more control over their health at a time when doctors are busy, appointments are rushed and details sometimes fall through the cracks. In some cases, it is also an implicit acknowledgement that they no longer fully trust doctors to know best.

“I know myself better,” Ip said. At her urging, her doctor eventually agreed to order more testing. With those results in hand, she tried changing her diet instead of taking a statin. Her cholesterol numbers came down.

Doctors are adapting to this new reality – and in some cases, even embracing podcasts. Dipesh Gopal, a general practitioner with Queen Mary University of London, sometimes “prescribes” listening to podcasts that he has personally vetted, he said, which he has found more helpful than “me printing out a bunch of notes to talk about the condition”.

But doctors also increasingly find themselves swatting away ideas touted by influencers who often do not have relevant medical training and might have a financial interest in promoting a product.