Health
Ohio healthcare company recruiting people with autoimmune conditions for innovative study
For people with psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), finding comprehensive treatment that works can be a lifelong battle. Medications are often expensive and hard to access, appointments with specialists can take months to secure, and lifestyle factors that may contribute to the diseases tend to be left out of the clinician-patient conversation entirely.
Ohio-based healthcare company AndHealth believes it doesn’t have to be that way — and is inviting patients with the conditions to help prove it. Through its innovative study, called Project IMPACT, the company aims to demonstrate that addressing underlying causes (like nutrition, stress, or sleep) alongside conventional treatments (like biologic medications) has the potential to stop the progression of or even reverse autoimmune conditions including psoriasis and RA.
“Insurance doesn’t reimburse for a lot of time spent talking to patients about how they can participate in their own care and how they can incorporate lifestyle changes, even though the science is there,” says Dr. Myles Spar, AndHealth’s National Medical Director who’s certified in both internal and integrative medicine.
But Project IMPACT’s model is different. It’s whole-person specialty care approach views patients in the full context of their lives—including any social, physical, or financial barriers they face to care—and connects them with coordinated, culturally competent primary and specialty care.
More specifically, Project IMPACT patients first meet with a provider virtually for about an hour. Soon after, they receive a personalized care plan developed by experts that may include specialists, a dietitian, a pharmacist, and a health coach. Depending on their health status, goals, and readiness for change, patients may also receive medications, lab testing, meal delivery, supplements, and wearable health tracking devices — all at no cost to them.
Unlike a clinical trial, where subjects are blindly given either an intervention or a placebo, this study is observational, meaning everyone receives the support they want in the way they want it. “We’re analyzing the whole availability of those treatment paths, not testing each path,” Spar says. “So signing up for the study doesn’t mean you’re signing up to do steps A, B, and C—you’re signing up to have A, B, and C as options, and then choose your own path.”
For example, those who want to work with a health coach may learn about what lifestyle changes—be it reducing sugar intake or adding in an after-dinner walk each day—can make the biggest difference in their symptoms. Then, they can call on their coach via an app for support in implementing those new habits along the way.
“The number of touchpoints that we have with patients per week is extraordinary because even me, I’m not gonna bug my doctor with a little thing,” Spar says. “But if it’s a health coach who says, ‘I want you to bug me,’ patients are more likely to say, ’I did my two-minute meditation today’ or ‘I bought running shoes’ or ‘I noticed that I was able to not snack while I was watching the news.’ So they see the coach as a real buddy.”
Ultimately, the company is betting that, when patients are equipped with the right tools, team, and knowledge, they can help improve a condition that they’re often made to believe will only get worse.
“When you’re diagnosed with a condition that you didn’t pick, one that took control away from you throughout your life, and that makes your life more limited, to suddenly be told, ‘But there is something you can do to get some control back,’ that’s hugely empowering,” Spar says.
That was the case for Phyllis, a 60-year-old in Mansfield, Ohio whose RA had prevented her from doing what she loved, whether it was dropping by relatives’ homes to play cards or visiting a venue to dance two-step. “I lost interest in wanting to socialize with my friends and family because I just hurt most of the time,” she says. Outside of church, she says, “I literally stayed in bed all day.”
But through Project IMPACT, Phyllis worked with a physician who seemed “to truly care” and a health coach who helped her eat more fruits and vegetables and limit her sugar intake. Within weeks and even days, “I had more energy and less pain,” she says. “I felt rejuvenated.”
She also felt like she mattered. When Phyllis told her care team she didn’t have enough gas in the car to get to the clinic for lab work, for example, they swooped in to help. “Traditional healthcare, if you can’t make it there, then you reschedule. And if you don’t reschedule, who cares?” she says. “With this team, if you can’t make it, they try to figure out why. Once they figure out why, then they try to figure out how to fix it. And once they figure out how to fix it, they fix it.”
Interested in participating? Project IMPACT is currently enrolling adults 21 and older in Ohio and Indiana who are taking specialty medications (or have been advised by a physician to start one) for psoriasis or RA. For more information or to see if you qualify, visit andhealth.com/impact or email impact@andhealth.com.
“The exciting part,” Spar says, “is … you’re helping to move this field forward, and you’re helping to add to the data that this whole-person specialty care approach works.”
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As colorectal cancer (CRC) is now the leading cause of cancer death in adults under 50, a new report reveals some surprising shifts in the incidence of the disease.
Although rates of CRC have been declining among seniors, those 65 and under are facing a rise in diagnoses, according to a report titled Colorectal Cancer Statistics, 2026, from the American Cancer Society.
Adults 65 and younger comprise nearly half (45%) of all new colorectal cancer cases — a significant increase from 27% in 1995, states the report, which was published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
The disease is rising fastest among adults 20 to 49 years old, at a rate of 3% per year.
Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death in adults under 50. (iStock)
Among adults 50 and under, 75% of colorectal cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Half of the diagnoses in that age range are made between the ages of 45 and 49. Although that age group is eligible to receive routine screenings, just 37% do so.
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The report also revealed that rectal cancer is on the rise, now accounting for about one-third (32%) of all CRC cases — an increase from 27% in the mid-2000s.
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“After decades of progress, the risk of dying from colorectal cancer is climbing in younger generations of men and women, confirming a real uptick in disease because of something we’re doing or some other exposure,” said Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director, surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the report, in a press release.
Among adults 50 and under, 75% of colorectal cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Half of the diagnoses in that age range are made between the ages of 45 and 49. (iStock)
“We need to redouble research efforts to understand the cause, but also circumvent deaths through earlier detection by educating clinicians and the general public about symptoms and increasing screening in people 45-54 years.”
It is projected that 158,850 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed this year, and that the disease will cause 55,230 deaths, per the report.
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More than half of CRC cases can be linked to high-risk behaviors, the researchers said. Those include lack of nutrition, high alcohol consumption, smoking, lack of exercise and obesity.
“These findings further underscore that colorectal cancer is worsening among younger generations and highlight the immediate need for eligible adults to begin screening at the recommended age of 45,” said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society.
When the disease is caught at a local (early) stage, the five-year survival rate is 95%. (iStock)
“The report also shines a light on the crucial importance of continued funding for research to help discover new therapies to treat the disease and advance patient care.”
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When the disease is caught at a local (early) stage, the five-year survival rate is 95%, the report stated.
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A new study suggests that middle-aged men may be more vulnerable to faster biological aging, potentially linked to exposure to “forever chemicals.”
The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging, examined how perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, more commonly known as PFAS, could impact aging at the cellular level.
PFAS are synthetic chemicals commonly used in nonstick cookware, food packaging, water-resistant fabrics and other consumer products, the study noted.
Their chemical structure makes them highly resistant to breaking down, allowing them to accumulate in water, soil and the human body.
Chinese researchers analyzed blood samples from 326 adults enrolled in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2000.
A new study suggests that middle-aged men could face accelerated biological aging at the cellular level due to exposure to PFAS. (iStock)
The researchers measured levels of 11 PFAS compounds in participants’ blood and used DNA-based “epigenetic clocks” — tools that analyze chemical changes to DNA to estimate biological age — to determine how quickly their bodies were aging at the cellular level, the study stated.
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Two compounds, perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), were detected in 95% of participants.
Higher concentrations of those chemicals were associated with faster biological aging in men of certain age groups, but not in women.
“People should not panic.”
The compounds most strongly linked to accelerated aging were not the PFAS chemicals that typically receive the most public attention, the researchers noted.
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“The associations were strongest in adults aged 50 to 64, particularly in men,” Dr. Xiangwei Li, professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and the study’s corresponding author, told Fox News Digital.
“While this does not establish that PFAS cause aging, it suggests that these widely present ‘forever chemicals’ may be linked to molecular changes related to long-term health and aging.”
The study found that two of the compounds were detected in 95% of participants, and higher levels were linked to faster biological aging in men ages 50–64. (iStock)
Midlife may represent a more sensitive biological period, when the body becomes more vulnerable to age-related stressors, according to the researchers.
Lifestyle factors, such as smoking, may influence biological aging markers, potentially increasing vulnerability to environmental pollutants.
While Li said “people should not panic,” she does recommend looking for reasonable ways to reduce exposure.
That might mean checking local drinking water reports, using certified water filters designed to reduce PFAS, and limiting the use of stain- or grease-resistant products when alternatives are available.
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Meaningful reductions in PFAS exposure will likely depend on broader regulatory action and environmental cleanup efforts, Li added.
The researchers noted that midlife could be a particularly sensitive stage, when the body is more susceptible to stressors associated with aging. (iStock)
Study limitations
The researchers outlined several important limitations of the research, including that the findings show an association, but do not prove that PFAS directly causes accelerated aging.
“The study is cross-sectional, meaning exposure and aging markers were measured at the same time, so we cannot determine causality,” Li told Fox News Digital.
The study was also relatively small, limited to 326 adults age 50 or older, which means the findings may not apply to younger people or broader populations.
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Researchers measured PFAS levels using data collected between 1999 and 2000, and today’s exposure patterns may differ.
Li added that while PFAS is known to persist in the environment and the body, these results should be validated through larger, more recent studies that follow participants over time.
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