Are You Ready to Take Charge of Your Health?
I’m Dr. Lucy McBride, and I am here to help.
For 25 years, I've practiced primary care medicine in Washington, DC. I've sat across from thousands of patients who are smart, motivated, and doing their best—yet still feel stuck.
They're caught between a healthcare system that rushes through 15-minute appointments and a wellness industry selling expensive promises. Neither one sees them as whole people. Neither gives them real agency over their health.
I wrote Beyond the Prescription because you deserve better.
The Problem I See Every Day
My patients come to me feeling powerless. They've been:
Reduced to billing codes in rushed doctor's appointments
Sold expensive supplements by influencers with no medical training
Given conflicting advice from Dr. Google, their actual doctor, and the wellness guru on Instagram
Told to "just lose weight" or "reduce stress" without real guidance on how
Treated for diseases, not seen as whole people with complex lives
They want to be healthy. They're willing to do the work. But nobody's shown them how to cut through the noise and figure out what they actually need.
That's what I do in my practice every day. And that's what I teach in my book.
Why I Wrote This Book
I've spent 25 years as a doctor, but I've also spent years as a patient—and that dual perspective changed everything.
When I got sick in my 20s, I was bounced from specialist to specialist. I was tested for everything from Giardia to a brain tumor. I was prescribed medications while simultaneously being told "everything looks normal"—yet I knew something was very wrong.
I felt dismissed, misunderstood, and powerless. I yearned for someone to trust—someone who would actually listen and guide me through the uncertainty, not just order another test.
When I finally got the care I needed during medical school, I realized: The system isn't designed to empower patients. It's designed to process them.
I wrote Beyond the Prescription to change that—to give you the roadmap I wish I'd had, and the one I give my patients every day.
Why I'm Uniquely Positioned to Help
I'm a physician who's been inside the system for 25 years.
I trained at Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins. I've worked in academic medicine and now run a thriving direct primary care practice. I know what's broken because I've lived it—the impossible productivity metrics, the insurance requirements that prevent real care, the 15-minute appointment slot that's never enough time.
But I've also been the patient. I've struggled with my own health challenges, felt dismissed by doctors, been overwhelmed by conflicting information online. I know what it feels like to be powerless in a system that's supposed to help you.
That dual perspective—doctor AND patient, insider AND advocate—allows me to see clearly what needs to change and how to help you navigate what exists right now.
That's why I wrote this book—not as a critic standing outside the system, but as an ally working to transform it from within.
My goal isn't to tear down traditional medicine or dismiss the wellness industry. It's to empower you to navigate both—to take what serves you and leave what doesn't. To move the locus of control from external checklists to your own informed decisions.
My Mission: Transformation Through Empowerment
I'm not just trying to help you navigate the current healthcare system. I'm working to transform it.
I practice a different model of care in my direct primary care clinic—one where I actually have time to know my patients, where relationships matter more than billing codes, where prevention isn't just a checkbox.
I write about it weekly in my newsletter Are You Okay? (read by 39,000+ people). I advocate for it in media appearances and Congressional testimony. I'm in conversations with healthcare innovators about how AI can enhance—not replace—the human connection that's essential to healing.
But the real transformation starts with you.
When patients learn to ask better questions, demand comprehensive care, and make informed decisions, the whole system has to respond. Individual empowerment creates systemic change.
That's why I wrote Beyond the Prescription—not just to help you personally, but to spark a movement.
My Clinical Philosophy
After 25 years, here's what I know:
Health isn't a checklist. It's a process.
It's not about optimizing every biomarker or following someone else's protocol. It's about understanding yourself—your medical facts, your life story, your values, your blind spots—and making informed decisions that actually fit your life.
In my practice, I don't just look at your cholesterol or your blood pressure. I ask: What's going on in your life right now? What's keeping you up at night? What did you eat yesterday and why? How do you cope with stress? Who's in your corner?
Your stories live in your body. To really help you, I need to understand those stories.
This isn't about spending hours Googling symptoms or becoming your own doctor. It's about asking better questions, finding trusted guides, and focusing your energy where it actually matters.
This is the care I give my patients. And this is what I want to teach you to demand for yourself.
What Makes My Approach Different
Most health advice falls into two categories:
Overly prescriptive: "Do these 10 things and you'll be healthy"
Overly vague: "Listen to your body, trust your intuition"
Neither works. The first ignores your unique context. The second leaves you without guidance.
My approach is different.
I've developed a framework that helps you see the complete picture of your health—not just the parts the medical system measures, and not just the aspirational promises the wellness industry sells. It's comprehensive without being overwhelming. Evidence-based without being reductive.
And most importantly, it transfers power from external checklists to your own informed decisions.
The goal isn't for you to need me forever. The goal is to give you the awareness, acceptance, and agency to be the CEO of your own health—with trusted guides supporting you, not controlling you.
What You'll Learn in the Book
In Beyond the Prescription, I'll walk you through a proven roadmap to reclaim agency over your health. You'll learn:
How to redefine health on your own terms—not the algorithm's, not the influencer's, not the insurance company's
A framework for seeing your complete health ecosystem that refuses the false choice between conventional medicine and holistic wellness
How to understand your own patterns as a patient and leverage your strengths while addressing your blind spots
How to navigate the medical system, ask better questions, find trusted guides, and get the care you actually need
How to make peace with uncertainty and focus your energy where it truly matters
This isn't theory. It's the exact process I use with my patients every day—and now I'm giving it to you.
Credentials
Let's Get Started
If you're tired of feeling powerless in a broken system...
If you're overwhelmed by conflicting advice and don't know who to trust...
If you're ready to move from confusion to clarity, from passive patient to empowered CEO...
I'm here to guide you.
📧 Read my weekly newsletter Are You Okay? for evidence-based straight talk delivered to your inbox.
🎧 Listen to my podcast Beyond the Prescription for deeper conversations about what health really means.
📖 Get my book for the complete roadmap to becoming the CEO of your own health.
You have more power than you realize. Let me show you how to use it.
Bachelor of Arts, Princeton University
Masters in Pharmacology, Cambridge University
Doctor of Medicine (MD), Harvard Medical School
Medical Internship and Residency, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Board Certified in Internal Medicine
25 years in clinical practice
Primary Care Physician
Founder of Ackerly McBride Group in Washington, DC
Author of Are You Okay? Medical Newsletter with 39K readers
Published in The Atlantic, Washington Post, MSNBC, NPR, and more
Engage with Dr. McBride
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Sign up for the newsletter—Are You Okay?
Wired and tired and don't know who to trust? Dr. McBride delivers straight talk and evidence-based guidance to help you manage mental and physical health in tandem, delivered weekly.
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Listen to the podcast—Beyond the Prescription
What does it mean to be "healthy"? Each week, Dr. McBride talks to her guests like she does her patients, pulling the curtain back on the true meaning of "health" and delivering actionable ideas to live longer and better.
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Work with Dr. McBride
Dr. McBride has a robust clinical practice in Washington, DC. She also brings her thought leadership to broadcast news, print media, live events, and Congressional hearings.