Mindell was born to parents William and Minerva on 20 January 1940 in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada. He immigrated to the United States in 1965 and was naturalized in 1972. On May 16, 1971, Mindell married Gail Andrea Jaffe. They have two children, Alanna Dayan and Evan Louis-Ashley.

In his spare time, Mindell is an amateur historian. In an effort to preserve the history of pharmacy, Mindell has turned his personal garage into an old-time apothecary shop containing historical items that date back to the 1800s.

Mindell received a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from North Dakota State University in 1963 or 1964. He earned a Master Herbalist Diploma from Dominion Herbal College in 1995. Mindell's Ph.D. was conferred in 1985 by Pacific Western University, an unaccredited institution at the time.

Mindell has been a frequent guest on radio and television programs, such as Oprah and Regis, typically speaking on nutritional topics. He is currently a registered pharmacist in the State of California and Professor Emeritus at Pacific Western University.

Mindell is also responsible for the recent promotion of functional foods such as Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), soy, and Lycium barbarum (wolfberries).

In February 2007, Mindell was inducted into the California Pharmacy Hall of Fame.

Mindell's theories on health and nutrition have been met with criticism in the scientific community. Mindell has previously promoted oral supplements of an "anti-aging" enzyme, superoxide dismutase (SOD). There is currently no evidence for the supposed benefits of SOD, and it is known that the enzyme would not survive the digestive process if taken orally.

Mindell made several claims about the health benefits of wolfberry juice, commercially known as "Himalayan Goji Juice", while associated with a direct-selling company called FreeLife International Inc. Mindell's claims regarding goji juice include supposed benefits for cancer patients based on evidence of cancer cell inhibition in vitro (i.e. in a dish). In an interview with Wendy Mesley on the CBC consumer television program Marketplace (aired 24 January 2007), H. Leon Bradlow, coauthor of a study that Mindell cites as support for this anti-cancer claim, says that his research does not, in fact, prove that goji has any anti-cancer properties and that there is currently no scientific evidence such effects occur in vivo (i.e. when consumed). In addition, Bradlow's study was carried out at Hackensack University Medical Center, not Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as Mindell had claimed. When faced with this information, Mindell stated in the same interview that he will stop citing the study. Mesley then went on to confront Mindell about the validity of his Ph.D from Pacific Western University and Mindell asserted that his degree is "accredited in every state in the Union," a claim that he has repeated elsewhere.

In total, Mindell has published over 45 books. His most notable publication, Earl Mindell's Vitamin Bible, is a glossary of micronutrients published in 1979 that was recently updated and re-released in 2004. An incomplete list of his books is available below.