5 Healthyish Things I like/don't like this week, including Liquid Death

I’m a little allergic to everything—and a lot allergic to inconvenient things like dust and mold. When my allergies got worse after moving to Austin, I decided to do something about it. First my ENT suggested allergy shots, but then he told me about something easier and safer called allergy drops.

Know about allergy drops? I didn’t! Allergy drops (also available in tablet form) are sublingual immunotherapy (often shortened to the awful acronym SLIT, yeesh). Every day for the past month or so I’ve been putting drops under my tongue before bed, getting exposed to tiny amounts of the allergens I’m sensitive to, and I’m into it. Research shows they’re about as effective as the allergy shots, without having to actually go and get a shot every 2-4 weeks for 3-5 years. Plus, they're super safe—no EpiPen required.

I’m pretty surprised allergy drops aren’t more of a THING—especially given the growing prevalence of allergies these days. I found a few companies trying to make these accessible for the consumer (like Curex and Wyndly) and it’s worth saying insurance doesn’t cover them (yet)… but it feels like early innings for this.

I’m calling it now—GLP-1 diet foods will be the next big craze in consumer packaged goods. More people are taking GLP-1s today than were on the keto diet at its peak. This trend’s actively affecting every industry… and whenever there’s a new food/diet trend, CPG is waiting to pounce on the interest.

Since you’re not very hungry on GLP-1s and get full fast, it’s easy to pitch a snack designed to complement an otherwise imperfect, limited diet. Some may genuinely help. Friend Ari Tulla at Elo Health (disclaimer: I’m an advisor) recently launched a GLP-1 protein blend with added fiber, probiotics, and electrolytes, for example. But probably 99% will be utter bullshit.

Of course, it’s always better for everyone to get nutrients from actual food. But now’s the time to get into this space before it’s everywhere at the next Expo East/West.

Amazon is probably the most consumer-first business at scale, so them not figuring out health care yet is very disappointing. They’ve had tremendously talented people work there and ambitious goals, but they’re basically just back to offering primary and urgent care through One Medical. New companies (like Function Health, mentioned in the last issue) are consumerizing health care and empowering people with data and information. Many are trying to use AI to improve care navigation, diet personalization, and more. I’d love to see more hands on deck there, or how about coming up with an intuitive HSA/FSA solution?

I hope they step it up, because if Amazon can do their part to make things more accessible and navigable in healthcare, it would be really helpful for a lot of people.

MRIs are among the best ways to look inside the body and discover something that’s bad news. And in a world where people are getting sicker earlier and more often, these full body scans—especially as they get more accessible—have major potential to catch things and save lives. I can totally picture a world where every bathroom has a mirror that does a daily MRI scan—and imagine that could be transformative.

The problem? Well, today MRIs are expensive and rarely covered by insurance unless there’s something obviously wrong. Plus, they sometimes flag things that—after a lot of anxiety and a tremendous cost to the medical system—end up being benign (called “false positives”).

One of the coolest companies in the space (led by the equally cool Andrew Lacy) is Prenuvo, and they recently announced a 10-year, 100,000-person study to fight this reputation. Today, Prenuvo provides accessible, high quality, full-body MRI scans for an out-of-pocket cost that’s really not much higher than most other places would charge you with or without insurance—and it’s only getting cheaper. They want to settle doubts about the value and potential consequences of full-body MRI scans, and make a clearer case that the tradeoffs are more than worth it. We’ll see what they learn, but either way I love it.

Someone has to say it, so I guess it will be me: Liquid Death is just canned water. That’s all it is. Water in a can.

Listen, I love their branding as much as the next guy. Gothic font? A melting skull? A commercial with Ozzy Osbourne? Cool! I’m genuinely impressed by how their savvy marketing created so much value in something inherently pointless. And fewer people drinking from single-use plastic bottles is always a good thing. But if you really care about reducing waste, you should just fill up your reusable water bottle. Put a skull sticker on the front, squeeze a lime in there, and call it a day!