In the world of women’s longevity science, Dr. Eve Henry is at the forefront.
Henry, a physician trained in internal medicine, is most passionate about preventive care. She’s been practicing concierge medicine in the Bay Area for the last decade and worked most recently with Dr. Peter Attia, a physician, popular longevity enthusiast, and author of “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity.”
Now, Henry is charting a new chapter in preventive medicine and women’s health as the chief medical officer of Hundred Health, a preventive health company that assesses your health data to give personal, actionable insights. The company, founded late last year by Tyler Smith, uses patient data from over 160 lab tests, wearable data, and individual lifestyle preferences to help patients optimize their health. The company hopes to be at the forefront of “transforming complex health information into a simple, human-centered system for living a healthier life, for longer.”
Amid widespread distrust in a fractured health care system, longevity and concierge care platforms have stepped in to fill the gap. However, many longevity offerings have come at a hefty cost, such as Attia’s Biograph clinic, which starts at around $7,500 per year.
In an interview with Dr. Eve Henry, Flow Space discusses her appointment, her hope to make preventive health more accessible, and the pros and cons of more health data.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Flow Space: As an expert in women’s health and longevity, you’ve worked with some big names in the space. So, why Hundred Health next?
Henry: I’ve really seen firsthand throughout the course of my career how knowing and understanding your biomarkers is so incredibly powerful for your health. When you understand what’s truly going on with your body, you’re empowered to make changes that actually work for you.
You can do your own research. You can try something, and then retest your biomarkers and see if it actually made a difference. That is so powerful and really puts you in the driver’s seat of your health. Historically, one of the biggest problems has been access and cost with this kind of care.
In my career, I’ve always been part of practices that I couldn’t actually afford to join myself. Hundred changes that.
Hundred Health is $499 annually.
As you mentioned, when we think of longevity, services often feel reserved for people who can afford subscriptions and additional biomarker testing. How is Hundred Health different?
There are a couple of ways to think about it. Is. One is, how do you figure out what’s going on with your body? So that is a huge educational component of what we’re doing at Hundred, helping people understand what’s going on. And then a lot of the interventions that actually have the biggest impact are things that all of us can do today, like exercising, sleeping, and making the right dietary choices.
I think there’s just been a big gap in understanding. It feels as if you don’t get the $4,000 MRI, then you can’t make a difference. But that’s really not true.
Given that it ultimately comes down to these lifestyle factors, should there just be more education on them? If we know that we need to eat well and exercise, for example, shouldn’t we just tell people to eat well and exercise? Walk me through the benefits of this additional testing.
Testing lets you see whether what you’re doing really works for you, and I find it very motivating. So if I just tell someone, “Okay, please sleep eight hours a day, and make sure you’re eating tons of fiber and protein.” That is helpful, but it’s much more helpful to really feel the changes in your body, and sometimes to see it on paper as well.
What’s a user’s average experience on this platform?
You start by answering questions about what’s going on in your life. You get your biomarkers. You get access to a lot more education on what this means for you. And then you get a plan for what you can do about it, what you should focus on, and ideas for exercise and nutrition supplements you can start implementing in your daily life.
Imagine a woman in her 40s using the platform. What’s an example of an intervention or a lifestyle change that she would make based on something that the platform shares?
I can give you an example of myself when I did it. I had really fallen off the wagon with my own blood sugar. So I thought I was doing everything right, but things got busy with my kids and my work. And so you get the lab data back, and all of a sudden you see that my blood sugar, insulin, and hemoglobin A1C were going up. It was a call to pay attention to what actually works. So the app prompted me.
You’re passionate about women’s health. Given that many women have felt excluded from the biohacker and longevity bros conversation, is this platform going to fill a gap?
One of the tenets at Hundred is that we believe women deserve to understand what’s going on in their bodies, and that female longevity and female aging are truly unique. When a woman signs up for Hundred, their entire journey is personalized to their physiology at that stage of life. I just haven’t seen that or experienced that in any other area of the longevity industry.
You felt like other parts of the industry aren’t recognizing that you can’t use the same types of interventions for women and men?
Women and men have very different physiologies, especially when it comes to aging, with hormones and menopause. Taking that information and making it accessible to women so that they understand what’s going on with them, even if they’re in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, is something that really excites me. I think it really empowers women to feel more comfortable and heard in this space.
What is a big misconception around women’s longevity that you’re trying to debunk?
I think perimenopause is a really underappreciated time in a woman’s health journey. We tend to think, or at least historically have thought as physicians, of menopause as something that happens in your 50s — and it’s not really worth talking about until that day comes. Then it’s like an event. But that’s not actually what happens in our physiology.
Perimenopause can span 10 years before a woman has actual menopause. That time period is marked by many physiological changes. Our cholesterol and blood pressure go up. Many women start to gain weight, specifically around their abdomen. That’s a time of critical importance, and it’s something that isn’t talked about very much and is misunderstood through the lens of longevity.
You’ve mentioned that more data can be helpful and motivating. Is that really important in the midlife window?
If I could say one thing, it’s that knowing your data in your 40s during perimenopause is absolutely mission-critical for women as they age. One of the key reasons why is just how many changes occur in perimenopause for women.
Men and women age really differently. I think about it like rolling down a hill or falling off a cliff. They’re just different trajectories. Men tend to age slowly with little step-downs, and women tend to have very sudden changes.
For many women, that’s actually in perimenopause, and so that’s when your cholesterol goes up, your blood pressure goes up, your metabolics start to change. But it’s also historically a time when many women don’t see their doctor. So it’s this missed decade. This actually empowers women to know their data at that time.
Is there such a thing as having too much data on your health?
The answer to that question can be yes in some circumstances, but I see this more often with wearables and tracking than with lab data. All data should be oriented toward, “Are you making an action based on this?” “Is it actually helping you, or is it just another thing you have to do in the day, and is it producing anxiety?”
I always look at things for myself, for my patients, through that lens.