Noom competitor OurPath rebrands as Second nature, creates $10 M Series A

Back in 2018, OurPath emerged as a startup in the U.K. tackling the problem of diabetes. The company helped clients fight the disease, and raised a$ 3 million round of funding by combining advice from health experts with tracking technology via a smartphone app to help people build healthy habits and lose weight.

Now rebranded as Second Nature, it has raised a fresh $10 million in Series A funding.

New investors include Uniqa Ventures, the venture capital fund of Uniqa, a European insurance group, and the founders of mySugr, the digital diabetes management platform, which was acquired by health giant Roche.

The round also procured the backing of existing investors including Connect and Speedinvest, two European seed funds, and Bethnal Green Ventures, the early-stage Impact investor, as well as angels including Taavet Hinrikus, founder of TransferWise.

This new injection takes the total investment in the company to $ 13 million.

Competitors to the company include Weight Watchers and Noom, which provides a similar program and has raised $ 114.7 million.

Second Nature claims to have a different, more intensive and personalized approach to create habit change. The startup claims 10,000 of its participants exposed an average weight loss of 5.9 kg at the 12 -week mark. Separate peer-reviewed scientific data published by the company showed that much of this weight-loss is sustained at the six-month and 12 -month mark.

Under its former guise as OurPath, the startup was the first” lifestyle change program” to be commissioned by the NHS for diabetes management.

Second Nature was founded in 2015 by Chris Edson and Mike Gibbs, former healthcare strategy consultants, who designed the program to provide people with personalized support in order to construct lifestyle changes.

Participants receive a situate of “smart” scales and an activity tracker that links with the app, allowing them to track their weight loss progress and daily step count. They are placed in a peer supporting group of 15 people starting simultaneously. Each group is coached by a qualified dietitian or nutritionist, who offer participants with daily 1:1 advice, subsistence and motive via the app. Throughout the 12 -week program, people have access to healthy recipes and daily articles encompassing topics like dinner planning, how to sleep better and overcoming emotional eating.

Gibbs said: “Our goal at Second Nature is to solve obesity. We need to rise above the confusing health misinformation to provide clarity about what’s really important: altering habits. Our new brand and investment will help us realize that.”

Philip Edmondson-Jones, investment administrator at Beringea, who led the investment and joins the board of directors of Second Nature, said: “Healthcare systems are struggling to cope with spiraling rates of obesity and associated maladies, which are projected to cost the global economy $ 1.2 trillion annually by 2025. Second Nature’s pioneering approach to lifestyle alter empowers people to address these conditions.”

Don’t be in any doubt- ADHD is an illness and it must be treated | Ann Robinson

Britain is right to take a more cautious approach than the US, but we should be prepared to fund a range of treatments, says GP Ann Robinson

Imagine a neurological condition that affects one in 20 under-1 8s. It starts early, causes significant distress and ache to the child, injuries families and limits the chances of leading a fulfilled life as an adult. One in 20 children are affected but only half of these will get a diagnosis and a fifth will receive treatment. If those stats related to a familiar and well-understood illness, such as asthma, “theres been” little debate about the need to improve intervention rates. But this is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder( ADHD ), and the outcry is muted. If anything, we hear warnings that too many children are being labelled this route, and too many given prescriptions.

In the United States, ADHD is diagnosed at more than twice the incidence in Britain. The true prevalence is likely to be the same on both sides of the Atlantic. So what’s the story? Is the US too gung-ho, or is the UK dragging its heels? Are American doctors too quick to medicate infants, or British physicians too slow?

Emily Simonoff, co-author of a new meta-analysis in the publication the Lancet Psychiatry, says the problem in the UK is” predominantly about undermedication and underdiagnosis “. Her study examined a range of drug treatments compared to placebo, and it shows that methylphenidate( better known by for the purposes of the brand name Ritalin) works best for children and amphetamines for adults.

It can seem counterintuitive that stimulants work for ADHD. In fact, both therapies are thought to increase the activity of the chemicals dopamine and noradrenaline in the brain, neurotransmitters that play a role in executive functions such as learning, planning and exerting control over our behaviour and believes. The side-effects such as agitation, weight loss, sweating, sleep disorder and high blood pressure can occur whether you take the drugs for ADHD or recreationally. The difference is that people with ADHD are more likely to benefit, and prescribed dosages are carefully controlled and monitored. As an NHS GP, I can only prescribe these medications employing a special protocol that lays down follow-up arrangements. The idea that we dole them out in a cavalier manner is just not true.

ADHD isn’t some sort of catch-all term for bad behaviour, but a clearly identifiable defined of symptoms( including inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity ), with strict diagnostic criteria and evidence-based treatment alternatives. People with neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia have brains that are structurally and functionally different to those of neurotypical people. It’s a widespread misconception that ADHD equates to disruption in classrooms; a more common presentation is anxiety and difficulty with learn.” A kid with ADHD may be well-behaved and academically able ,” says Tony Lloyd of the ADHD Foundation. Identifying that there is a problem and providing the right subsistence is critical.

So where does the scepticism about ADHD come from? Perhaps it’s an understandable reluctance to label kids while they are still developing, or a wariness about medicalising normal variation in behaviour. Oftsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, speaks for many when she voices concerns that the narcotics used in the treatment of ADHD are a” chemical cosh”, are overprescribed and disguise bad behaviour that should be managed in other ways.

There is no doubt that rates of prescription for ADHD in the UK have risen significantly since the 1990 s. The prospect of a US-style situation in which one in ten children aged two to 17( rising to one in five sons aged 14 to 18) are diagnosed with ADHD, and two-thirds of those diagnosed are on medication, creates justifiable questions. But this scenario is a long way from current realities in the UK, where the NHS enforces vigorous diagnostic guidelines and, crucially, there are no financial incentives for NHS doctors to write prescriptions.

Caution about the action of psychoactive drugs on developing brains is entirely appropriate. The short-term safety data we have is reassuring, though more research is needed into long-term impacts. But this caution has to be weighed against the harms, if other therapies aren’t suitable or effective, of doing nothing. Without diagnosis and treatment, infants become prone to anxiety, self-harm and school failing. Around a third will continue to have problems into adulthood and some people will only be diagnosed once they are adults.

Earlier this year a Demos report highlighted the social and economic cost to society of adult ADHD, as impulsivity, poor concentration and risk-taking behaviour interfere with work and relationships. The inability to regulate feelings and tendency to become overloaded by external stimulu has been described as” like driving a Ferrari with bicycle brakes “.

Treatment for ADHD doesn’t always or only mean drug; the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines recommend a multimodal approach including support for mothers, cognitive behavioural therapy( CBT) and stress-reduction strategies. Lloyd says the Nice guidelines are great but mostly aren’t being followed. My experience as a GP would certainly back that up. Children tend to be seen quicker than adults, but often the only treatment dedicated is medication, with other interventions such as parenting support and CBT failing to materialise.

The cautious UK approach to ADHD may be preferable to the more enthusiastic US one. But it would be a shame to let scepticism get in the way of good medication. And that entails casting aside any doubt that ADHD is a medical condition, and demanding funding for a range of treatments, including but not limited to drugs. Unfortunately, it seems that is still a long way off.

* Ann Robinson is a GP

Read more: www.theguardian.com

Men are putting on weight- and the diagnosis is grim | Neil Boom

More men are developing form 2 diabetes. I knew I was at risk, but I required a nudge, writes Neil Boom, managing director of Gresham PR

Men, be advised. It seems we are not taking very good care of ourselves. Many of us are overweight and we are paying the price with poorer health. Research by charity the Men’s Health Forum detected humen were over 25% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than females. Shockingly, virtually one in 10 humen are now suffering from this disease.

The research also found that men were more than twice as likely to have a major amputation. Almost 70% of people presenting with a foot ulcer caused by type 2 diabetes are humen. It get grimmer. Untreated, type 2 diabetes kills, and it is now killing proportionately more humen than ever, according to the study.

We can’t ignore the facts that health messages are not getting through to many humen. We are developing problems such as type 2 diabetes through a combination of obesity- apparently the UK is the sixth fattest nation in the world- and a woeful absence of exercising. In March, the NHS’s annual review of obesity said one in four adults in England took less than 30 minutes of moderate exercising a week, compared to the recommended 150 minutes.

Is being overweight abruptly socially acceptable for men? Without the social stigma, is it now OK to be obese? Worryingly, Men’s Health Forum says that more than half of overweight men think their weight is fine.

We are all too familiar with the social pressures on girls and women to be slim( and beautiful ), and how this causes crippling anxiety leading to terrible eating disorder and self-harm. Surely, men can choose a healthy menu that avoids obesity, leading to poor health, without a diet of weight preoccupation leading to sickness?

What the report didn’t reveal was datum relating to men’s ages or social backgrounds. It strikes me the vital missing ingredient is the extent to which our stances to health and weight depend on our friendship groups, ages and jobs. A friend I train with at the gym plays weekly five-a-side football with his mates and says they’re all fit and take their health and fitness seriously. None are overweight.

Most of my friends are middle aged like me. As we have got older, we’ve become much more concerned about our weight and general health and fitness. Still, there’s usually some sort of catalyst before embarking on a weight loss and exercising regime. We all knew and understood the health messages, but needed a spur to action before taking them seriously.

For one, for whom diabetes runs in his family, it was coming last in the daddies’ race at his son’s school athletics day that spurred him to taken any steps. Another friend was prescribed drug for high blood pressure and started to lose weight to help better manage his condition. A friend who freelances for a living said his spur was the need to look youthful and in good physical shape when pitching for projects, in order to radiate vitality and demonstrate capacity to cope with the slog. For another mate, it was simply the approach of a significant birthday, and with it a bit of taking stock.

My catalyst was the kindness of male friends, by which I mean they took the mickey out me for being fat and unfit. In my late 30 s and early 40 s my weight had increased slowly. By my mid-4 0s it had jumped from a lithe 12 stone to a porky 15.5, and was proving no signs of stopping there. Long hours at my desk and client networking concentrated around eating and drinking, combined with little routine exert had caught up with me. A health check at the doctor’s told me I was at risk of kind 2 diabetes.

It was truly the comments from friends that forced me ultimately into to action. One of my more kindly mates remarked that I was a little portly. Others were frankly blunter. Bluster and jokes are fairly typical ways that men get serious phases over, but behind it I could see some genuine concern for my welfare.

I received pleasure in a drastic life change. For eight months, out went all booze, bread, pasta, rice and sugary treats such as chocolate, biscuits and cake. In came working, regular trip-ups to the gym with a personal trainer, smaller food portions and lots more fruit and salads. The weight fell off.

We all agree that media messages promoting us to eat healthily and exert on the whole have gone in. Yet a catalyst is often needed to turn guessed into action.

* Neil Boom is managing director of Gresham PR

Read more: www.theguardian.com

Humen are putting on weight- and the diagnosis is grim | Neil Boom

More men are developing kind 2 diabetes. I knew I was at risk, but I required a nudge, writes Neil Boom, managing director of Gresham PR

Men, be alerted. It seems we are not taking very good care of ourselves. Many of us are overweight and we are paying the price with poorer health. Research by charity the Men’s Health Forum received men were over 25% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than females. Shockingly, nearly one in ten men are now suffering from this cancer.

The research also found that humen were more than twice as likely to have a major amputation. Almost 70% of people presenting with a foot ulcer caused by type 2 diabetes are men. It gets grimmer. Untreated, type 2 diabetes kills, and it is now killing proportionately more men than ever, according to the study.

We can’t ignore the facts that health messages are not getting through to many humen. We are developing problems such as type 2 diabetes through a combination of obesity- apparently the UK is the sixth fattest nation in the world- and a woeful lack of exert. In March, the NHS’s annual review of obesity said one in four adults in England took less than 30 minutes of moderate exercising a week, compared to the recommended 150 minutes.

We are all too familiar with the social pressures on girls and women to be slim( and beautiful ), and how this causes crippling nervousnes leading to terrible eating disorder and self-harm. Surely, men can choose a healthy menu that avoids obesity, leading to poor health, without a diet of weight obsession leading to sickness?

What the report didn’t reveal was info relating to men’s ages or social backgrounds. It strikes me the vital missing ingredient is the extent to which our attitudes to health and weight depend on our friendship groups, ages and jobs. A friend I train with at the gym plays weekly five-a-side football with his mates and says they’re all fit and take their health and fitness seriously. None are overweight.

Most of my friends are middle aged like me. As we have got older, we’ve become much more worried about our weight and general health and fitness. Still, there’s usually some sort of catalyst before embarking on a weight loss and exert regime. We all knew and understood the health messages, but required a spur to action before taking them seriously.

For one, for whom diabetes runs in his family, it was coming last in the papas’ race at his son’s school sports day that spurred him to take action. Another friend was prescribed medication for high blood pressure and started to lose weight to assist better manage his condition. A friend who freelances for a living said his spur was the need to look youthful and in good physical shape when pitching for projects, in order to radiate vitality and demonstrate capability to cope with the slog. For another mate, it was simply the approach of a significant birthday, and with it a little bit of taking stock.

My catalyst was the kindness of male friends, by which I mean they took the mickey out me for being fat and unfit. In my late 30 s and early 40 s my weight had increased slowly. By my mid-4 0s it had jumped from a lithe 12 stone to a porky 15.5, and was showing no signs of stopping there. Long hours at my desk and client networking concentrated around eating and drinking, combined with little routine workout had caught up with me. A health check at the doctor’s told me I was at risk of type 2 diabetes.

It was truly the comments from friends that forced me eventually into to action. One of my more kindly mates remarked that I was a little portly. Others were candidly blunter. Bluster and jokes are fairly typical routes that men get serious phases over, but behind it I could see some genuine fear for my welfare.

I procured pleasure in a drastic life change. For eight months, out ran all booze, bread, pasta, rice and sugary treats such as chocolate, biscuits and cake. In came work, regular journeys to the gym with a personal trainer, smaller food portions and plenties more fruit and salads. The weight fell off.

We all agree that media messages fostering us to eat healthily and exercise on the whole have gone in. Yet a catalyst is often needed to turn believed into action.

* Neil Boom is managing director of Gresham PR

Read more: www.theguardian.com

Humen are putting on weight- and the diagnosis is grim | Neil Boom

More men are developing form 2 diabetes. I knew I was at risk, but I required a nudge, writes Neil Boom, managing director of Gresham PR

Men, be warned. It seems we are not taking very good care of ourselves. Many of us are overweight and we are paying the cost with poorer health. Research by charity the Men’s Health Forum procured humen were over 25% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than girls. Shockingly, nearly one in 10 humen are now suffering from this illnes.

The research also found that men were more than twice as likely to have a major amputation. Almost 70% of people presenting with a foot ulcer caused by type 2 diabetes are men. It gets grimmer. Untreated, type 2 diabetes kills, and it is now killing proportionately more men than ever, according to the study.

We can’t ignore the facts that health messages are not getting through to many humen. We are developing problems such as type 2 diabetes through a combination of obesity- apparently the UK is the sixth fattest nation in the world- and a woeful lack of workout. In March, the NHS’s annual review of obesity said one in four adults in England took less than 30 minutes of moderate exercising a week, compared to the recommended 150 minutes.

We are all too familiar with the social pressures on girls and women to be slim( and beautiful ), and how this causes crippling anxiety leading to terrible eating disorder and self-harm. Surely, humen can choose a healthy menu that avoids obesity, leading to poor health, without a diet of weight obsession leading to sickness?

What the report didn’t reveal was info relating to men’s ages or social backgrounds. It strikes me the vital missing ingredient is the extent to which our stances to health and weight depend on our friendship groups, ages and jobs. A friend I train with at the gym plays weekly five-a-side football with his mates and says they’re all fit and take their own health and fitness severely. None are overweight.

Most of my friends are middle aged like me. As we have got older, we’ve become much more worried about our weight and general health and fitness. Still, there’s usually some sort of catalyst before embarking on a weight loss and exercising regime. We all knew and understood the health messages, but needed a spur to action before taking them seriously.

For one, for whom diabetes runs in his family, it was coming last in the dads’ race at his son’s school sports day that spurred him to take action. Another friend was prescribed drug for high blood pressure and started to lose weight to assist better manage his condition. A friend who freelances for a living said his spur was the need to look youthful and in good physical shape when pitching for projects, in order to radiate vitality and demonstrate capacity to cope with the plod. For another mate, it was simply the approach of a significant birthday, and with it a bit of taking stock.

My catalyst was the kindness of male friends, by which I mean they took the mickey out me for being fat and unfit. In my late 30 s and early 40 s my weight had increased slowly. By my mid-4 0s it had jumped from a lithe 12 stone to a porky 15.5, and was presenting no signs of stopping there. Long hours at my desk and client networking concentrated around eating and drinking, be included with little routine workout had caught up with me. A health check at the doctor’s told me I was at risk of type 2 diabetes.

It was actually the comments from friends that forced me ultimately into to action. One of my more kindly mates remarked that I was a little portly. Others were candidly blunter. Bluster and gags are pretty typical ways that humen get serious phases over, but behind it I could detect some genuine concern for my welfare.

I received pleasure in a drastic life change. For eight months, out ran all booze, bread, pasta, rice and sugary treats such as chocolate, biscuits and cake. In arrived work, regular journeys to the gym with a personal trainer, smaller food portions and plenties more fruit and salads. The weight fell off.

We all agree that media messages fostering us to eat healthily and exert on the whole have gone in. Yet a catalyst is often needed to turn supposed into action.

* Neil Boom is managing director of Gresham PR

Read more: www.theguardian.com

Decision to deny surgery to obese patients is like ‘racial discrimination’

Bariatric surgeon Shaw Somers said move by local NHS in Vale of York amounts to discrimination because obesity is an illness

The decision by an NHS body to restrict obese patients access to elective surgery until they lose weight is comparable with racial or religion discrimination, a surgeon has said.

The Vale of York clinical commissioning group( CCG) will build people wait for up to a year for therapy for non-life-threatening conditions such as hip and knee replacings if their body mass index is 30 or higher.

The group said it had taken the decision because it was the best way of achieving maximum value from the limited resources available.

Shaw Somers, a bariatric surgeon from Portsmouth, said the move was a logical step and could save money, but amounted to discrimination because obesity was an illness.

They[ the patients] are trying to lose weight in the vast majority of cases and to deny them treatment that they need on the basis of their weight, without then offering them effective help to help them lose weight is instead like discriminating[ against] a segment of the population on the basis of their colour or religious persuasion, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

Just saying you cant have surgery and there is no access to alternative treatments actually doesnt help anyone.

Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers which represents acute care, ambulance and community service said the move amounted to rationing care to save money.

He told Today that the health service was being asked to deliver too much for the funding available. Rather than commissioning groups stimulating piecemeal decisions, Hopson said there should be a national debate about the future of the UKs healthcare system involving not only legislators, NHS leaders and clinicians but the public as well, bearing in mind the fact that tax revenues money it.

Demand for healthcare was about to go through the roof as baby boomers neared the end of their lives, he said. There had been a 6% increased number of emergency admissions in the first quarter of this year.

The Royal College of Surgeons( RCS) said that it was a dangerous move that ranked among the most severe the modern NHS has ever seen.

Its president, Clare Marx, said that while the RCS supported helping people to lose weight and stop smoking, introducing blanket bannings that delay patients access to what can be life-changing surgery for up to a year is wrong.

She added: As the true scale of financial pressure on NHS trusts has become clear over the summer, we are fast receiving ourselves in a situation where CCGs are introducing draconian commissioning policies, often flouting Nice[ National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] or other clinical guidance, in order to balance the books.

An honest national debate on exactly what the NHS can afford, and what we are willing to pay, is urgently needed.

The Vale of York is one of nine clinical commissioning groupings of England that face acute financial both problems and have been forced into special measures. Five hospital trusts are also expected to overshoot their budgets by a wide margin this year.

There are fears that more parts of the NHS could start to impose similar restrictions on elective care in an attempt to balance the books. The health service had record overspending of 2.45 bn in 2015, but NHS bosses hope that cuts will bring the above figures down to nearer 250 m by the end of this year.

The Vale of York group said: The local system is under severe pressure. This work will help to ensure that we get the very best value from the NHS and not exceed our resources or risk the ability of the NHS being there when people actually need it.

Policy documents produced by bosses in the North Yorkshire authority make clear that adult smokers will have elective surgery deferred for six months or until theyve stopped smoking for eight weeks.

And, for people whose BMI is 30 or more who are defined as obese such therapy will be put back a year or until 10% of weight loss is attained, whichever is the sooner.

The CCG added that, in either lawsuit, patients undergoing surgery for cancer will not be affected and its clinicians would identify other groups of patients who should be exceptions to the policy.

In March last year, it was reported that the vast majority of NHS authorities were placing restrictions on access to surgery for overweight people, including one CCG that was refusing all routine surgery to people whose BMI was 35 or greater those defined as morbidly obese. The investigation by GP magazine also found that most of Englands CCGs were denying some treatments to smokers.

A spokesman for NHS England said: Major surgery poses much higher hazards for severely overweight patients who smoke. So local GP-led clinical commissioning groups are entirely right to ensure these patients first get support to lose weight and try and stop smoking before their hip or knee operation. Reducing obesity and cutting smoking not only benefits patients but saves the NHS and taxpayers millions of pounds.

This does not and cannot mean blanket bannings on particular patients such as smokers getting operations, which would be inconsistent with the NHS constitution.

Vale of York CCG is currently under special measures legal direction, and NHS England is today asking it to review its proposed approach before it takes effect to ensure it is proportionate, clinically reasonable, and consistent with applicable national clinical guidelines.

Read more: www.theguardian.com