Most children don’t witness their parents’ struggle to become doctors. But Dr. Mikhail Varshavski remembers watching his father, a physician from Russia, tackle medical school and residency all over again in America.
“My father decided to pursue medical education, yet again, in a new country, in a new language for the second time in his life, bless his heart,” Varshavski told Fox News Digital. “I fell in love with the field, and I realized this is the only thing I want to do for the rest of my life.”
Being labeled “sexiest doctor alive” wasn’t part of that plan, but Varshavski has leveraged the superficial attention into a way to provide health information to millions.
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Mikhail Varshavski and his parents emigrated from Russia when he was a child, starting their lives “completely from scratch.” The experience of watching his father repeat medical school and residency in his new home inspired Varshavski to become a doctor. (Courtesy Doctor Mike/YouTube)
Varshavski’s family immigrated to the United States from Russia when he was six years old, seeking a better life. The transition came with challenges, though.
“We had to restart our lives completely from scratch,” he said. His mother, a Ph.D. math professor, swept floors to pay the bills while his father, who had been a physician in their home country, repeated the arduous process to become a doctor again.
Varshavski followed in his father’s footsteps, completing an accelerated, seven-year combined program for a bachelor’s degree in life sciences and a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree at the New York Institute of Technology.
He was also building a following on Instagram before he started his residency in 2014. Then came the “15 minutes of fame,” Varshavski said.
Buzzfeed published an article in August 2015 titled “Um, You Really Need To See This Hot Doctor And His Dog,” a compilation of Instagram photos of Varshavski and his husky. People Magazine dubbed Varshavski the “sexiest doctor alive” in November 2015.
The superficial spotlight took Varshavski aback. At first.
“This isn’t the attention I’m trying to get,” he recalled thinking at the time. “I would like to educate people. I want to celebrate healthcare. I wanna put good information out there.”
“I was getting frustrated seeing my patients hurt by myths, misinformation,” Varshavski said. So he launched his YouTube channel “Doctor Mike,” which now has around 14 million subscribers. (Courtesy Doctor Mike/Instagram)
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Major news outlets and talk shows flocked to book him, but the media frenzy ended fast. If the “gatekeepers” wouldn’t let him talk about the topics he cared about — vaccines, nutrition, physical activity — he would have to do it himself, he said.
He launched his YouTube channel, “Doctor Mike,” inspired by a recurring theme he noticed in his day job.
“Patients were being misled by something they read online or saw on television, usually in the form of a late-night infomercial,” he said.
This not only distracted patients from “putting in work like improving their diet, getting seven to nine hours of sleep, exercising [and] maintaining a healthy mental state,” but it also spurred some to take “questionable medications and supplements,” Varshavski said.
He realized he could reach more than just the 30-40 patients he saw each day in person. He now boasts about 14 million subscribers on YouTube.
“At a time where patients’ first instinct … is to look at their phones, I wanted to be there for them,” he said. “Just like family doctors are there for our patients when they’re in the hospital, when they are in the nursing home, when they can’t leave their home, and they’re bed-bound, we’re there.”
Dr. Varshavski said he wants to “arm patients with the best information to make decisions for themselves and their loved ones.” (Courtesy Dr. Mikhail Varshavski)
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In addition to his videos talking about everything from high blood pressure to nutrition labels, and reacting to popular medical dramas or TikTok videos, Varshavski has also interviewed celebrities, medical professionals, and political guests, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Vice President Kamala Harris and current FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary.
The New Jersey-based doctor still balances his online fame with his job seeing patients, most of whom don’t recognize him as a celebrity, Varshavski said.
“The ones that do recognize me are very excited,” he said. “I can’t tell you how much joy it brings me to have a child who’s nervous to go the doctor face light up because it’s the doctor that they saw on YouTube.”
Varshavski will be on “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday, May 27.