Ancora Health shares first results: "The numbers are staggering" RUG Ventures

Ancora Health shares first results: “The numbers are staggering”

ANCORA HEALTH

The Groningen-based start-up Ancora Health shares the first results of its preventive healthcare programme after ten-month participation. The results show that the programme has a positive effect on people’s health, also in the long term. The new, scientifical way of preventive health care shows a significant decrease in lifestyle-related health problems.

Oftentimes, people think that health problems are attributed to ‘bad luck’ or ‘bad genes’, while lifestyle is the problem. In the Netherlands, almost half of the Dutch adults between 25 and 70 years old are living a lifestyle that poses a risk to diseases like diabetes, strokes or heart disease. From 40 years onwards, the bad lifestyle starts having a negative effect on health. With relatively easy adjustments in movement, food and lifestyle, it’s possible to change this and decrease the risk of diseases. Quality of life will be preserved, even at an older age.

Close cooperation with local partners

Ancora Health has strong ties with the city of Groningen, because two founders studied at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (University of Groningen). The company is strongly supported by local partners in the region, including the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), offering scientific expertise. RUG Ventures, the holding of the University of Groningen, is also one of the partners, offering knowledge, coaching and financial support, even at a very early stage.

“We went into business with Ancora Health because we believe that their programmes have the potential to trigger a complete revolution in the way people think about their health”, says Jan Sikkema, director business development at the UMCG. “The numbers are staggering: if you have a bad lifestyle, on average you die seven years earlier while also feeling unhealthy for over 18 years. A lower incidence of lifestyle-related health problems will lead to lower total healthcare costs while the programme scales up.”

Just as enthusiastic is Corina Prent, director of investment company RUG Ventures, one of the very early backers of Ancora Health. “It is fantastic to see that at Ancora Health, the fundamental science of the RUG/UMCG is transformed into an active contribution to preventive healthcare. Directly or indirectly, everybody contributes to the current healthcare problems in the Netherlands. By emphasizing prevention, we know that we will have a big impact. Preventive health means an active society, stress reduction, healthy food and eventually a higher quality of life when people grow old.”

Positive long term behavioral change

Ancora’s programme is based on individual data, making it transparent which actions or habits lead to the biggest health benefits for participants. The implementation of these changes helps achieving impactful results. The first significant results show the success in healthy food, fitness and strength, weight loss, vitamin consumption and stress reduction.

“We have proven that we can achieve positive health results in the long term”, says Sridhar Kumaraswamy, founder and CEO of Ancora Health. “The first results show that people achieve significant improvements on indicators like weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, nutrition and more, causing them to prepare for better overall health for a long time. Our dream for the next 5 years is to have a meaningful impact on the lives of a million people and to make lifestyle therapies an integral part of standard healthcare by 2025.”