5 Healthyish Things, including Athletic Brewing and gut health

Funny story. A few years back, I was advising a startup CEO who—with his company struggling—had just been offered a job running marketing for a new company called Athletic Brewing. I was like “take the job.” As an early Athletic Brewing fan, I had a feeling this non-alcoholic beverage movement was going to be huge… and they’d become the standard bearer. (Though hey, not without the killer Andrew Katz’s help!)

Today, Athletic Brewing has become one of the top ten largest craft breweries in the country… which is extraordinary given they only make NA options! But it’s not that surprising. The science (unfortunately?) continues to suggest any amount of alcohol is harmful. As more people become aware of that—or just tired of hangovers—the demand for NA options continues to increase. The notion of enjoying the culture of drinking without the mess, the buzz, and the health impact is only gaining traction.I actually think we’re still in the early innings of this trend, too. Non-alcoholic liqueurs like Seedlip, Ghia (started by the wonderful Mélanie Masarin), & Kin Euphorics (started by the electric Jen Batchelor) are crushing. Non-alcoholic mixed drinks like Curious Elixers (the thoughtful JW Wiseman) are awesome. Even “low” alcohol brands like Arlow Wines (founded by Brandon Joldersma, who also started non-alcoholic wine brand Surely with our bud Justin Mares) are promising.

I was first exposed to non-alcoholic beers by the one and only Tommi Forsström, a “straight edge” friend who then ran product at Greatist. Back then, the NA beers suuucked. Now, with Athletic Brewing leading the way, the brews really do taste like beer. And even beer companies are into it now! (I recommend Guinness 0 and Lagunitas IPNA.) I’ll be frank, I like regular beer. But I don’t care about the alcohol—it’s never been about that, but the taste. Make me a New England-style IPA with no alcohol and I’ll never go back. And if anyone will, it’ll probably be Athletic Brewing.

Looks like GLP-1s continue to have more tricks up their sleeves. New research finds evidence they could slow the progression of Alzheimer’s. The list of potential benefits just keep coming, like:

• Treating chronic conditions such as osteoarthritis

• Reducing the chance of heart and kidney disease

• Reducing the risk of some cancers

• Weight loss (duh)

How is it possible we keep discovering new benefits from GLP-1? I mean, the skeptic in me wonders if pharma companies are just funding studies to keep selling more. But the optimist in me says the evidence continues to grow in terms of how these drugs could be a game-changing, deeply impactful solution. 

And speaking of GLP-1s…

If GLP-1s are part of your current or future health plan, this tool by Ro is a clever one! To find out which medications are covered by your insurance, just enter the info off of your insurance card. Then Ro does the legwork and provides you with a straight-forward, readable report of your plan’s coverage for GLP-1s. I tried it and learned that mine is not covered by anything… LOL. 🙃 (And, of course, Ro heavily promoted their compounded semaglutide as an alternative.)

Still, that was SO much easier than contacting my insurance company on my own. The team at Ro (led by buddy Z Reitano) are real trailblazers when it comes to creating user-friendly healthcare solutions that improve overall communication and education. Z & Ro were among the first to make the case for GLP-1s as I remember it. And look at them now. 

Providing tools and education for the average healthcare consumer is empowering and important—and whether or not GLP-1s are covered for you 😆 I think Ro is doing it really right.

I’ve sung my praises for the Headway/Alma model before. Matching people with qualified, in-network experts is an extremely helpful, direct way to make a difference in the patient experience. And now that we know it works for mental health, we’re seeing it in other categories too, whether it’s Season Health for dietitians or Tono Health (recently discovered, check it out!) for medical derms. 

Like I’ve said before, the success of these companies comes in part because of the destigmatization of certain health care needs. So what’s next on the list of conditions in dire need of being normalized? How about gut health.

Having gut health issues can be life-changing and debilitating. And yes, talking about poop problems has historically fallen somewhere on the scale of funny to embarrassing. But it’s time we normalize it so people can start getting the care they need. 

People are waking up to the idea that they probably have something going on with their gut (most recent studies peg it at 1 out of 10—and I think it’s even higher) and this chart from Google Trends makes that clear. It also shows there’s a huge opportunity here both for businesses and for making a difference in people and their everyday lives. 

Aside from Oshi Health, which offers a multi-disciplinary approach that pairs patients with doctors, gut brain specialists, and dietitians to tremendous results (Disclaimer: They are clients of mine and I’m super biased) there really aren’t many good solutions yet. We need more nuanced ways of addressing everything that plays a part in gut health—lifestyle changes, mental health, diet, anxiety. I think there will be bigger winners in fiber-first CPG solutions like January AI’s Eden’s (think Athletic Greens but for your gut), “niche” clinical care with increased access to GIs and gut health-trained clinicians, at-home testing kits (shout out Tiny Health and its inspiring founder, Cheryl Sew Hoy), and dynamic ways to measure/monitor conditions.

Now, I don’t exactly think gut health is the next mental health (sorry Shaan Puri, who says the “holy trinity of health trends right now” are “gut health, microplastics/forever chemicals, and Ozempic” and alerted me to this chart), but I do think enough people are affected that this is the next big health condition to go mainstream. 🙏💩

I fell in love with the co-founders of Photon Health (which just announced a $9M fundraise), Otto Sipe and Michael Rado, the first day I met them and decided to invest a very small amount very early. I mean how can you not love entrepreneurs who hand out Blockbuster-style stickers with a Surescripts logo on them at health conferences to get a rise out of people? Anyway, Surescripts has literally had a monopoly over the prescription network for years, and now these guys are claiming to have built “the second-largest prescription network in the United States.” How epic.

Most importantly of all, they’ve built the rare product that both providers AND patients love. You should hope your next prescription is handled through them!