Show HN: Be Golden (YC S22) – Measure and manage your inflammation levels
We all make lifestyle choices daily - what we eat, how much we exercise, etc. No matter how good we are, we are all probably trying to get better but we don't have a great feedback mechanism on how our choices impact our health. We may go to the doctor once a year (if that) to get some blood work done but so much happens in between that it's hard to tell what made an impact. We wanted to change that so that you are better understanding how your lifestyle is impacting your health to help you make better decisions.
Be Golden focuses on helping you measure and manage inflammation levels because inflammation is impacted by all key lifestyle behaviors (nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress) [1] and impacts a variety of health outcomes—from energy levels, to IVF success rates and IBS symptoms to chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer [2]. This Nature Medicine article (source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-019-0675-0) states "One of the most important medical discoveries of the past two decades has been that the immune system and inflammatory processes are involved in not just a few select disorders, but a wide variety of mental and physical health problems that dominate present-day morbidity and mortality worldwide."
I started tracking my inflammation scores (see my graph here! - https://www.begolden.online/post/our-ceo-s-hscrp-scores-over-time) after I learned I was at high risk of breast cancer and had a bilateral lumpectomy. I learned that chronic inflammation can be a driver of tumor development [9], progression [10], and treatment responsiveness [11]... and can impact a surprising number of other things. It keeps us from functioning optimally. The good news is that it can be managed with healthy lifestyle choices (see [1]). I started making healthy changes (like exercising almost daily) and seeing an impact on my inflammation levels (although it seems like the “startup lifestyle” has me back on an upswing lately). I decided to start a startup to help manage inflammation because I wanted more tools, data and analytics to help me make healthy lifestyle choices. I recognize the (hopefully short term) irony :).
So how does it work? You start by measuring your baseline inflammation levels using an at-home, finger prick based, blood testing kit, that includes a shipping label to send the sample back to the lab. You then receive your lab results and we start layering in data-based insights like how your levels compare to other people like you. From there, you can try a new habit from our list of scientifically backed options (https://www.begolden.online/post/lifestyle-interventions-associated-with-decreased-inflammation-levels) or something else you have been meaning to try.
Once you choose a habit (for example, adding ginger to your diet), we will help you track how often you do it. Our current digital platform design is to text you daily and ask you: Did you have ginger yesterday? (yes/no). Then you will re-measure and receive insights. For example, you may get an insight like - you have had ginger 15 of the last 30 days and your inflammation levels are down 10%. Based on the data from clinical studies, some interventions can change inflammation levels (as measured by hsCRP) within weeks and others show within months [3]. As such, we recommend testing every 1-2 months to likely provide adequate time for change to your levels. Each person’s needs and time to impact will vary, so you can adjust this frequency up or down, depending on what works best for you.
Note - You can of course request that we delete your data at any time and we’ll do so.
We measure inflammation using high sensitivity C Reactive Protein (hsCRP), an established marker of systemic inflammation [4].
For those not familiar, I thought I would also share a bit about what inflammation is. There are two types of inflammation—acute and chronic. Acute (short-term) inflammation is beneficial [5]. It can be caused by infections as well as cell damage. During acute inflammation, the immune system ramps up, removes pathogens/heals tissue then ramps back down [6]. In chronic inflammation, something other than acute infections (like physical inactivity, obesity, and/or disturbed sleep) may be driving inflammation and the process doesn't ramp down so the immune system is constantly active. This constant activation may lead to the immune system attacking healthy cells, draining energy, and losing normal functionality [7]. Chronic inflammation can disrupt homeostasis [8], which is when the body is in balance and functioning optimally.
In the future, we should be able to let you learn from not only your own data but data from others (anonymously, of course). For example, you may be able to see what interventions have shown the greatest impact among people like you. By bringing more people and interventions to the platform, we can improve the experience for everyone.
We’ve recently been building a tool to help you see how different lifestyle choices can impact inflammation scores among different demographics, based on aggregated data. Check out our “work in progress” tool here: https://begolden.shinyapps.io/shinyapp/ - we’d be interested in what you think of it!
If you’re interested in your inflammation levels, you can pre-order Be Golden here: https://www.begolden.online/ If you are not ready to order and just want to learn more, you can do so at the same link.
We’re looking forward to hearing any of your comments, questions, ideas, experiences, and feedback!
p.s. dang suggested we put all the footnotes in a comment because there are so many of them