Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Justin Mares - The US Health Crisis

Tue Jun 20 2023

Health CrisisProcessed FoodsEnvironmental ToxinsGlyphosateToxin ExposureLifestyle InterventionsPsychedelic Assisted TherapyPreventionEntrepreneurship

Description

The episode discusses the health crisis in the US, the impact of processed foods and environmental toxins, the challenges faced by small health food brands, the importance of lifestyle interventions and avoiding toxins, the dangers of glyphosate and toxin exposure, detoxification methods, insights for business opportunities, the potential of psychedelic assisted therapy, exploring unexplored domains, the importance of prevention, and building companies and leveraging infrastructure.

Insights

Processed Foods and Environmental Toxins

The increase in chronic diseases and health issues can be attributed to changes in diet and exposure to environmental toxins. Processed foods and environmental toxins are major contributors to the health crisis.

Toxic Food and Health Issues

Toxic food in our food system is related to inflammation, mental health, fertility problems, diabetes, PCOS, miscarriages, early puberty, gut health, and depression. Improving gut health can have positive effects on depression treatment.

Importance of Lifestyle Interventions

Lifestyle interventions such as better sleep, whole foods diet, cutting out processed food, and regular exercise are more effective than pharmaceuticals for treating chronic conditions.

Dangers of Glyphosate and Toxin Exposure

Glyphosate has been banned in many countries due to its toxic effects. It is difficult to avoid toxins as they are found in everyday products. The US has higher tolerance levels for these toxins compared to Europe.

Psychedelic Assisted Therapy

Psychedelic assisted therapy shows promise in addressing mental health issues such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, addiction, and substance abuse. Current treatments are not consistently effective.

Importance of Prevention

Less than 3% of healthcare spending is allocated to prevention. Treating symptoms rather than underlying conditions leads to a cycle of treatment and pharmaceutical prescriptions.

Building Companies and Leveraging Infrastructure

Deep domain expertise combined with software skills is driving valuable startup returns today. Already successful founders can tap into infrastructure to turn their insights into other companies.

Chapters

The Health Crisis and its Impact
Understanding the Causes of Health Issues
The Impact of Food Subsidies and Processed Foods
Toxic Food and its Impact on Health
The Influence of Food Movements and Challenges for Small Brands
Challenges in Building Sustainable Food Supply Chains
The Importance of Lifestyle Interventions and Avoiding Toxins
The Dangers of Glyphosate and Toxin Exposure
Detoxification and Business Insights
The Potential of Psychedelic Assisted Therapy and the Importance of Open-Mindedness
Exploring Unexplored Domains and the Impact of Toxins on Health
The Importance of Prevention and Entrepreneurship
Building Companies and Leveraging Infrastructure

Summary

Transcript

The Health Crisis and its Impact

00:00 - 06:50

Chronic disease was not a significant issue 50-60 years ago, but now it accounts for 20% of GDP.
The health crisis in the US could potentially bankrupt the country.
Healthcare costs are already at almost 20% of GDP and continue to increase rapidly.
The average child is overweight or obese, and six out of ten adults have at least one chronic illness.
Poor health affects productivity and overall well-being.
The mental overhead of understanding food sourcing and ingredients has increased significantly compared to previous generations.
Western diets are causing similar health issues in other countries as they adopt this diet.

Understanding the Causes of Health Issues

06:35 - 13:05

The problem of understanding the causes of health issues is challenging due to conflicting research and evidence.
Big food companies and pharma companies intentionally fund studies to create confusion about nutrition.
There have been 50,000 nutrition studies in the last two years, many funded by big food companies.
The NIH spends $1 for every $11 that big food spends on nutrition research.
Our sense-making apparatus for nutrition is broken, making it difficult to determine what is truly harmful or beneficial.
The increase in chronic diseases and health issues over the past 50 years can be attributed to changes in diet and exposure to environmental toxins.
Processed foods and environmental toxins are major contributors to the health crisis.
Food subsidies for corn, soy, and wheat have led to the use of high fructose corn syrup and vegetable oils in processed foods.
Subsidies were initially implemented after World War II to ensure a stable food supply.

The Impact of Food Subsidies and Processed Foods

12:43 - 19:22

Subsidies for corn, soy, and wheat are four times higher than subsidies for fruits and vegetables.
USDA allocates the majority of its subsidy dollars to corn, soy, and wheat instead of fruits and vegetables.
The food system has been incentivized to prioritize processed foods over whole foods.
Big food companies have engineered addictive and palatable products to increase profits.
Processed foods often contain cheap inputs due to subsidies.
Heart disease and depression continue to rise despite increased prescriptions for statins and SSRIs.
Ozempic is a potentially profitable drug that requires lifelong use but may cause muscle mass loss and bone density loss.
Using drugs like Ozempic only addresses symptoms of metabolic dysfunction without addressing the root causes of chronic diseases.

Toxic Food and its Impact on Health

18:58 - 25:43

Dysfunction is not going to do anything about the massive issues we see from a chronic disease standpoint.
Toxic food in our food system is related to inflammation, mental health, and fertility problems.
There are strong correlations between diabetes and depression.
Male sperm count has decreased by 50% over the last 50 years.
26% of women have PCOS, which is a leading cause of infertility.
The number of miscarriages has increased by 10% in the past decade.
Women and teenagers are experiencing puberty earlier than before.
The majority of serotonin is produced in the gut, showing a connection between gut health and mental health.
Early studies suggest that improving gut health can have positive effects on depression treatment.
Physical health affects mental health, creating a feedback loop between the two.
The speaker became interested in this topic through his business in the bone broth industry.

The Influence of Food Movements and Challenges for Small Brands

25:25 - 31:59

Launching Kettle & Fire led to an obsession with the trade-offs and structural incentives in the food system
Farmers are nudged towards feeding animals cheap crops like corn and soy, instead of their natural diet of grass
Kettle & Fire had to pay a premium for grass-fed bones due to the hyper-subsidization of cheap crops
Bone broth addresses a real nutritional need that hasn't been innovated on for decades
Food tribes and movements like Paleo and Keto have significant influence in the market
Small health food brands face challenges competing against big companies due to higher costs and lower margins
The ability to offer unique certifications, such as glyphosate-free, can give small brands a competitive advantage
Building a scale player in the food industry is expensive and time-consuming

Challenges in Building Sustainable Food Supply Chains

31:39 - 38:19

Building a large supply chain of regeneratively grown beef or a certified glyphosate-free supply chain is expensive and time-consuming.
Acquiring the necessary supplies and getting them certified organic or grass-fed grass-finished requires significant investment and transition periods.
Small bison beef cattle ranchers often face challenges in processing their meat at a competitive price and maintaining specific claims.
Big food companies like Coca-Cola create negative health externalities that are not priced into their products, impacting public health.
The speaker has started several companies focused on making people healthier through food and consumer products.
They are now working on TrueMed, a company that aims to fix the incentives in the system and help people invest in their health using tax-free funds.
TrueMed offers a financial tool that allows spending HSA and FSA funds on products that promote health or treat specific conditions.
The IRS regulates HSA and FSA accounts, allowing tax-free spending based on medical necessity determined by a medical practitioner.
The standard of care often involves prescribing medication without considering lifestyle interventions.

The Importance of Lifestyle Interventions and Avoiding Toxins

37:52 - 44:30

The standard of care today is to prescribe statins without any tests or measurements for high cholesterol concerns.
Lifestyle interventions such as better sleep, whole foods diet, cutting out processed food, and regular exercise are more effective than pharmaceuticals for treating chronic conditions.
TrueMed facilitates the ease of payment for medical practitioners to issue a letter of medical necessity, allowing customers to use tax-free HSA and FSA funds for food supplements and exercise equipment.
TrueMed partners with health and wellness brands to offer customers the option to use HSA and FSA funds for purchases.
HSA and FSA accounts have tens of millions of users with $150 billion in total funds, but they are underutilized.
HSA and FSA accounts provide a direct transaction between consumers and service providers without intermediaries, making it an attractive option for healthcare payments.
Environmental toxins like endocrine disrupting chemicals have significant linkages to cancer, infertility, neurological conditions, etc., and are found in everyday products including water.
The US has higher tolerance levels for these toxins compared to Europe, which may lead to different health outcomes in the future.

The Dangers of Glyphosate and Toxin Exposure

44:08 - 50:42

28 countries have banned the use of glyphosate entirely
The EU is limiting exposure to glyphosate and will ban it in the next few years
The acceptable level of glyphosate in US tap water is 700 parts per billion
A study found that 0.1 part per billion of glyphosate in water altered gene function and caused severe organ damage in rats
10 parts per billion of glyphosate created toxic effects on fish livers, and it is present in 91% of streams
100% of cereals tested from a grocery store had above tap water levels of glyphosate, with Cheerios having high amounts
Toxins and chemicals like glyphosate have unknown long-term impacts and can bioaccumulate in the body
We don't understand the interaction effects between these chemicals
It is difficult to avoid these toxins as they are found in water, clothing, soap, shampoo, food packaging, plastic containers, etc.
In the US, there are no regulatory bodies that thoroughly examine these chemicals compared to Europe's precautionary approach
The EPA and FDA rely on self-reported safety studies from manufacturers for chemical regulation
There are three levels of avoiding toxins: ambivalence, caring when possible, and strict avoidance
The best things to do for strict avoidance include using clean ingredient skincare products, non-toxic pots and pans, and effective water filtration systems

Detoxification and Business Insights

50:13 - 56:26

To remove toxins from your water, consider using reverse osmosis with mineralization or remineralization system
Setting up a whole house filtration system is an option for thorough filtration
Sauna and sweating can help eliminate toxins from the body
Drinking clean water and taking supplements may also aid in detoxification
When searching for business opportunities, it's important to validate ideas through testing
Creating a landing page and running ads can help determine market interest and acquisition costs
Engaging with potential customers to gather feedback and preferences is crucial for product development
Living in Edge City, where you have access to forward-thinking individuals, can provide valuable insights for business ideas
Identifying areas where people seek your advice or ask questions can indicate your expertise in a particular domain
Having conversations about topics outside of someone's fame or success can be a sign of living on the edge of knowledge
Psychedelic therapy shows promise in addressing mental health issues such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, addiction, and substance abuse

The Potential of Psychedelic Assisted Therapy and the Importance of Open-Mindedness

56:00 - 1:02:52

Psychedelic assisted therapy is highly effective for treating mental health disorders such as PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and addiction.
Current treatments for mental health issues like SSRIs and talk therapy are not consistently effective.
Psychedelics have the potential to become a major part of mental health treatment in the future.
People who thrive in Edge City are open-minded and willing to change their beliefs.
There is a need for better understanding and treatment options for consciousness and mental health.
Talent tends to cluster in areas that are unexplored or require original thinking.

Exploring Unexplored Domains and the Impact of Toxins on Health

1:02:33 - 1:09:02

Curious people who ask questions about unexplored domains are often appreciated by experts in those fields.
Interesting thinkers in one domain often have interesting ideas in other domains as well.
Glyphosate theory suggests that glyphosate may contribute to gut dysfunction, which is linked to chronic inflammation and food allergies.
Terrain theory challenges the germ theory of disease, suggesting that the environment and terrain of cells play a role in causing diseases.
Childhood nutrition is a significant concern, with school lunches being a risk factor for childhood diabetes.
Feeding children toxic food is making them sick and contributing to obesity and other health issues.
The healthcare system profits more from treating chronically ill individuals than from keeping people healthy.
Less than 3% of healthcare spending is allocated to prevention, while the majority goes towards treating symptoms.

The Importance of Prevention and Entrepreneurship

1:08:40 - 1:15:26

Less than 3% of healthcare dollars are spent on prevention.
97% of healthcare dollars are spent on treating someone after they're sick.
Treating symptoms rather than underlying conditions leads to a cycle of treatment and pharmaceutical prescriptions.
The US needs to take the health crisis seriously and prioritize solving it.
Health used to be seen as a God-given right, but now many kids are born without good health.
Capital allocation and formation for starting new businesses is becoming easier, leading to more people starting companies.
The barrier to entry for starting a company has never been lower, especially with productivity tools like GPT.
Multi-company founders will become more common, with individuals like Elon Musk starting multiple important companies.
Certain traits like vision, tenacity, intelligence, curiosity, and network contribute to being able to start multiple successful companies in different domains.
Deep domain expertise combined with software skills is driving valuable startup returns today.
Founders with deep domain expertise can pull together capital and bet on people in their network to run important projects.

Building Companies and Leveraging Infrastructure

1:15:01 - 1:20:56

The returns come from focus, but there are exceptions like Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk.
Instead of mechanizing or systematizing a process, we should focus on building tools that enable individuals.
There is a class of company that the average person can't start due to ambition, capital requirements, or lack of vision.
Biotech venture studios have had great returns by creating companies systematically.
Already successful founders can tap into infrastructure to turn their insights into other companies.
Examples include Atomic, Brian Armstrong, and Brian Peterson.
The leverage now exists to be a repeat serial entrepreneur in a way that wasn't possible historically.