Ending Type Two Diabetes
Why we’re investing in a full-stack, online Diabetes Reversal Clinic
I don’t know about you, but I find this reality appalling: Nearly 10% of American adults are type two diabetics* today, with 40% of us expected to develop diabetes in their lifetime. Currently, this costs the U.S. $300 billion annually.
At least the mortality rate in the U.S. population with diabetes has declined, and this is good news — but for whom exactly? One clear winner: companies whose bottom lines get healthier while we remain sick for longer. While big food, big pharma, health care and insurance providers may not be conspiring with one another, they most certainly benefit from their collective action (and inaction) — passing the same consumers, who ultimately become patients, from one to the next. It’s been like this for decades.
Today, we eat Frankenstein-ed foods borne from brands producing empty calories. We pay for dieting programs because of what we’ve eaten — and for what they tell us they’ll do, not the results they’re delivering. We then take drugs to treat the diabetes we’ve developed, instead of solutions that would free us completely from their grasp. And the more frequently we visit our health care providers, the more money they make.
This vicious cycle is, just like the statistics above, unacceptable.
Healthier People → Healthier Business
Enter Virta Health, with one simple goal: reverse type 2 diabetes in 100M people by 2025. To do so, Virta is launching a full-stack Diabetes Reversal Clinic, which is now clinically proven to reverse type 2 diabetes safely and sustainably, without the risks, costs, or side effects of medications or surgery.
They combine two innovations: highly individualized approaches to nutritional biochemistry, and a technology platform that enables continuous, remote care and ongoing personalization of each patient’s treatment plan. Both are delivered online by Virta physicians and care team members. As an evidence-based company, Virta has also published the first of its many peer-reviewed outcomes papers.
Normal blood sugar (A1C’s), no medication, lower weight, and fewer knock-on chronic conditions drive down health care costs for their consumers, and when applicable, consumers’ employers. It also means happier people.
For Obvious, this represents a world positive ideal: building a healthy business with healthy people rather than profiting on the backs of the perpetually ill.
What Virta is exploring in health care dovetails with what we’re seeing in our food, agriculture, and wellness investments.
The days are coming where doing what’s right for people is the most profitable for health care businesses. Those that recognize this reality today stand to reap the benefits tomorrow. Here’s to doing what’s right for the health of consumers, profitable for business, and beneficial to all taxpayers.
