How Truemed Is Incentivizing Americans to Invest in Prevention

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  February 04, 2026 at 16:11  |  40:36  |  a16z
Speakers
Justin Mares — Founder and CEO of Truemed

Summary

Justin Mares, founder and CEO of Truemed, argues that the U.S. food and healthcare environment systematically produces chronic disease. He traces the problem to crop subsidies, ultra-processed foods, chemical exposure, and a system that pays for sickness rather than prevention. He explains how Truemed uses tax-free HSA/FSA dollars to fund lifestyle interventions, discusses GLP-1s as useful but insufficient, and makes the case for psychedelics and peptides as disruptive healthcare tools.

  • Mares argues the U.S. food system became uniquely harmful starting in the 1970s, driven by shareholder pressure and subsidized corn, soy, and wheat.
  • He says crop subsidies make unhealthy ingredients artificially cheap and are a root cause of chronic disease.
  • Truemed lets qualifying people use HSA/FSA dollars for lifestyle interventions such as gyms, sleep aids, supplements, and healthier food.
  • GLP-1s are viewed as interesting and useful for jumpstarting health, but not a cure-all without fixing food quality.
  • Psychedelics, especially ketamine-assisted therapy, are presented as effective and underinvested mental-health treatments.
  • Peptides are seen as cheap, non-patentable, human-enhancement compounds that could disrupt pharma, though more research is needed.
  • Mares favors dietary experimentation and views metabolic psychiatry and community-level health interventions as underexplored.
Ideas
Justin Mares Founder and CEO of Truemed 8:49
GLP-1s help, not cure-all
GLP-1s are potentially very interesting technology and it makes sense to put many overweight or obese Americans on them to jumpstart health, but universal GLP-1s will not solve the chronic-disease crisis. If people keep eating poor-quality food while on GLP-1s, they risk protein and micronutrient deficiencies; the food system still must be fixed.
Justin Mares Founder and CEO of Truemed 11:25
Redirect healthcare spending to prevention
The U.S. healthcare system pays for acute and chronic disease treatment but not prevention. Lifestyle interventions such as better diet, exercise, supplements, sleep aids, and peptides are healthcare, yet no payer incentivizes them. Truemed uses letters of medical necessity and telemedicine rails to let qualifying people spend tax-free HSA/FSA dollars on these interventions, which could redirect hundreds of billions toward prevention and improve chronic-disease outcomes.
Justin Mares Founder and CEO of Truemed 27:56
Psychedelics underinvested, effective mental-health therapy
Psychedelics, especially ketamine-assisted therapy, are powerful mental-health interventions that work better than SSRIs in many cases, particularly treatment-resistant depression and PTSD. They have few side effects with doctor oversight, are vastly underinvested, and should be part of the treatment menu for veterans and others with intense depression.
Justin Mares Founder and CEO of Truemed 35:52
Peptides disruptive; pharma at risk
Peptides are a cheap, non-patentable class of compounds that appear very effective and act more like human-enhancement tools—improving energy, sex drive, inflammation, and gut health—rather than sick-care drugs. As more people experiment, peptides could produce strong positive health outcomes and be exceptionally disruptive to pharma and other healthcare players, though more research is needed and he is not fully convinced yet.
Justin Mares Founder and CEO of Truemed 35:52
Peptides disruptive; pharma at risk
Peptides are a cheap, non-patentable class of compounds that appear very effective and act more like human-enhancement tools—improving energy, sex drive, inflammation, and gut health—rather than sick-care drugs. As more people experiment, peptides could produce strong positive health outcomes and be exceptionally disruptive to pharma and other healthcare players, though more research is needed and he is not fully convinced yet.
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Speakers: Justin Mares  · Tickers: GLP-1 drugs, Preventive healthcare, Psychedelics, Peptides, XLV