WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance said he doesn't like "taking medications" and speculated without evidence that some may be causing chronic diseases during a Make America Heathy Again summit, where he also said the RFK Jr.-led movement led him to think more critically about his children's nutrition.

Vance said the one way in which he's "instinctively MAHA," referring to the acronym for the Trump administration's health efforts, is that he doesn't like taking ibuprofen if he has a back sprain or wakes up with back pain.

"I don't like taking medications. I don't like taking anything unless I absolutely have to. And I think that's another MAHA style attitude. It's not anti-medication, it's anti-useless medication. We should only be taking stuff, we should only be giving our kids stuff, if it's actually necessary, safe and effective," Vance said.

His comments at the summit, which wasn't open to the public, came during a conversation with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has promoted an unproven link between the painkiller Tylenol and a rise in autism among children. President Donald Trump has also latched onto the accusation.

Trump and Kennedy announced plans in September for federal officials to notify physicians that the use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is associated with an increased risk of autism and that woman should avoid the painkiller during pregnancy. Kennedy has said women should also avoid giving Tylenol to their newborn babies.

Vance has echoed the claim, saying pregnant women should follow the advice of their doctors.

At the Washington summit on Nov. 12, the vice president also talked about the nation's obesity rates and argued those stem, in part, from not asking more questions about the country's food. He also called on Americans to take a closer look at their own medicine cabinets.

"We really do have medications that I don't think, maybe they're not solving the chronic disease epidemic. Maybe, hell some of them are causing the chronic disease epidemic," Vance said. "We've got to be asking more critical questions about what we're putting in the bodies of these kids."

Scientists – by nature – study critical questions about what drugs do to people of all ages. Prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals also undergo large-scale testing before they can be sold to Americans.

Vance is the father of three children, with his wife, Usha, who he called "probably one of the original MAHA people, though I don't think she would have ever used that phrase."

He said that when his oldest child started to eat solid foods, he wanted to give him cupcakes and ice cream.

"And my wife was like, uh, no, let's give him carrots and applesauce, here," Vance said to laughter. "So she was already thinking about health and nutrition in a way that was frankly kind of foreign to me, and I think is very common among the MAHA crowd."

Vance said the MAHA movement was also "asking the right questions" about the source of animal-based proteins and the safety and effectiveness of medications.

"It's really affected me in a very profound way, and how I think about my own nutrition, about particularly, how I think about what my kids are taking," Vance said.

Contributing: Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: JD Vance says he doesn't 'like taking medications' as he appeals to MAHA crowd

Reporting by Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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