Longevity medicine that acts years before disease. 

Preventive medicine has traditionally been very good at telling us where someone stands at a particular moment. I believe the next opportunity is understanding where their health may be heading.

I have spent much of my career working in advanced biomedical imaging, and I remain a strong believer in its power. But imaging has also taught me the importance of context. A scan can tell us a great deal, but it still represents a moment in time.

The human body is dynamic. Risk evolves. Physiology changes. The more we can understand those changes, not only across different sources of health information but also over time, the greater our opportunity to recognize when something may be moving in the wrong direction.

That perspective is one of the things that drew me to Radence. I saw a shared commitment to moving beyond standardized approaches toward a more personalized model of preventive care that is designed to understand the person in front of us, establish a meaningful picture of their health, and identify opportunities to act earlier.

Continuous Health Monitoring Is Changing the Picture

For much of modern medicine, we have relied on episodic measurements.

A patient comes into a clinic. We measure blood pressure. We order laboratory work. Perhaps we perform imaging. Those measurements provide valuable information, but they represent particular moments in time.

The body does not operate that way. Our physiology changes in response to sleep, exercise, food, stress, illness, and recovery. Understanding those changes over time can reveal something a snapshot cannot: a trajectory. Wearable and continuous monitoring technologies are beginning to give us that longitudinal view.

Radence incorporates this perspective into its testing protocols. Zio cardiac monitoring can provide insight into heart rhythm over time, WatchPAT assesses sleep for signs of sleep apnea, and Stelo provides continuous glucose data. Rather than providing only another measurement, these technologies can show patterns.

Continuous glucose monitoring is particularly interesting for this reason. Instead of seeing glucose at one moment, we can observe how it changes throughout the day.

And this may be just the beginning. Future sensors may allow us to monitor other signals in similar ways. Consider inflammation. Today, we might measure a biomarker such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in the blood. But what if we could understand an individual’s inflammatory profile throughout the day and see how it changes in relation to stress, food, activity, or disease?

More measurement, of course, creates another challenge: more information.

In some of our research, we may collect more than a million data points on a single individual. But the goal isn’t a million data points. The goal is discovering which thousand matter. That distinction is critical. The future of preventive medicine will be defined by our ability to identify the right signals and understand what they mean.

That is where artificial intelligence becomes especially interesting.

 

How AI Can Help Connect the Signals

I believe one of the most important opportunities for AI in preventive medicine is helping us understand change. I have already seen the need for this in my own field.

As imaging technology became more sophisticated, we produced more information, but radiologists also found themselves confronted with thousands of images to interpret. Our ability to generate information advanced faster than our ability to efficiently absorb all of it.

We are approaching a similar challenge across healthcare. As the amount of information available about an individual grows, AI can help clinicians recognize patterns and identify deviations that might otherwise be difficult to see. That begins to change the clinical question.

Instead of waiting to ask, “Does this person have disease?” we may increasingly be able to ask, “Is something changing, and is that change moving this person toward greater risk?”

That distinction is fundamental to prevention.

At Radence, this is an important part of how we think about AI. Its value is not simply that it can process more information. Its value is whether it helps clinicians identify what deserves attention earlier and make better-informed decisions.

AI does not replace clinical judgment. It helps manage complexity. The clinician still has to determine what the information means for the person in front of them and what to do about it.

Earlier Detection Requires Context

Finding something earlier is not always better.

It only helps if there is an effective treatment and starting it sooner improves the outcome. When healthy people are tested for rare conditions, many abnormal results will turn out to be false alarms.  It is often more useful to compare a person’s results with their own past results, rather than only with the normal range for the general population.

Measurements taken years apart can show whether something is changing or has remained stable. A finding that has not changed in four years means something very different from the same finding seen for the first time. Good screening therefore depends not only on more testing, but also on time and access to earlier records.

From Fragmented Medical Data to a Clearer Health Story

Health information is often fragmented. A person may have years of records distributed across different physicians and health systems, with imaging in one place, laboratory results in another, and newer measurements somewhere else entirely.

At Radence, the clinical team considers a member’s existing medical history and outside records alongside findings generated through the program, with AI helping synthesize information that might otherwise remain disconnected. That history can provide important context for understanding whether a finding is new, stable, or changing. But bringing information together is only useful if it creates clarity.

What deserves attention? What should be followed? And where is there an opportunity to act earlier? Those are ultimately the questions that matter.

Turning Health Information into Action

Ultimately, measurement is not the endpoint. What matters is whether information changes what we do.

I have experienced this personally with sleep. I used to be a poor sleeper and did not fully appreciate its importance. Once I began measuring it and seeing the numbers, something changed. I could see the relationship between my behavior and my sleep. That information gave me something I could act on.

That experience reinforced something simple for me: data becomes valuable when it changes a decision.

Sleep is a relatively straightforward example. Much of medicine is not. An imaging finding or a changing biomarker may require clinical context and expertise. Giving someone hundreds of numbers in a report is not the same as giving them useful insight.

We are becoming capable of measuring the human body in extraordinary detail. The challenge now is to distill that information, determine what matters for a particular person, and translate it into decisions that can influence their health.

This is also what interested me about the approach at Radence. The objective is not simply to give members more information. It is to give clinicians and members greater clarity about what deserves attention and what should happen next.

 

The Future of Preventive Medicine

I believe we are moving toward a model of medicine that is more continuous, more personalized, and ultimately more proactive.

We will still need snapshots. We will still need population-level evidence. But increasingly, we will also have the ability to understand an individual over time, recognizing when their trajectory begins to change and determining whether there is an opportunity to intervene.

AI will be an important part of making that possible, but the technology itself is not the destination. The goal is better information, interpreted in context, that helps clinicians and individuals make better decisions.

The future of preventive medicine lies in recognizing risk early enough to create an opportunity to change what happens next.

Disclosure: Dr. Zahi A. Fayad serves on the Radence Clinical Advisory Board and holds stock options in the company.

What Could a More Complete Picture Reveal?

Your health is more than a collection of individual test results. Radence combines advanced diagnostics, longitudinal health data, and physician-led interpretation to develop a more personalized understanding of your health and identify opportunities to act earlier.

Discover what the Radence approach could mean for you.

Many people who suffer a heart attack never knew they were at elevated risk, not because the warning signs weren’t there, but because no one looked for them.

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, yet many people are unaware of one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease: Lipoprotein(a), commonly known as Lp(a). This cholesterol particle is similar to LDL (bad cholesterol), but with an additional protein, apolipoprotein(a), attached to it, which can contribute to both the buildup of plaque in arteries and the formation of blood clots.

Unlike many traditional risk factors, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure, your Lp(a) level is largely determined by your genes, and it rarely causes symptoms. You can eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and maintain a healthy lifestyle, and still have an elevated Lp(a) level that increases your long-term risk of heart attack or stroke by 40%.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), approximately 1 in 5 people have elevated Lp(a). This simple blood test is not included in a routine cholesterol panel, but today, the AHA and numerous other cardiovascular organizations recommend that every adult have Lp(a) measured at least once. Knowing your number is a simple step that can help guide more informed decisions about your long-term heart health.

At Radence, we don’t interpret biomarkers like Lp(a) in isolation. We evaluate them alongside genetics, advanced imaging, family history, metabolic health, and longitudinal clinical data to understand what they mean for you and, more importantly, what to do next. This allows you and your physician to develop a personalized prevention strategy to manage the modifiable cardiovascular risk factors you can control.

Why This Matters

Knowing your Lp(a) level doesn’t just tell you your cardiovascular risk. It changes how aggressively we manage the factors we can control, from cholesterol management to preventive strategies.

Who Should be Tested for Lp(a)?

Because Lp(a) is inherited, anyone can have an elevated level. Testing is particularly important if you:

Have a personal or family history of premature heart disease or stroke Have high cholesterol or cardiovascular disease that cannot be fully explained by traditional risk factors Have a close biological relative with elevated Lp(a) Want a more complete understanding of your long-term cardiovascular risk

Certain populations, including people of African, African American, and South Asian ancestry, are also more likely to have elevated Lp(a). In addition, Lp(a) levels may increase during certain life stages, including pregnancy and menopause. Certain medical conditions, such as kidney disease, liver disease, and thyroid disorders, may also influence Lp(a) levels or contribute to an individual’s overall cardiovascular risk.

If your Lp(a) is elevated, your physician may recommend testing your close biological relatives, including parents, siblings, and children, to determine whether they also carry elevated levels.

Understanding Your Results

An elevated Lp(a) level increases cardiovascular risk, but it should always be interpreted alongside your other risk factors, including LDL cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, smoking history, and family history.

While there is no universally accepted “safe” level, most experts consider 125 nmol/L (50 mg/dL) or higher to represent elevated cardiovascular risk. Risk continues to increase incrementally as Lp(a) rises and should always be interpreted in the context of your other cardiovascular risk factors.

What Can You Do If Your Lp(a) Is Elevated?

Although lifestyle changes generally do not lower Lp(a) itself, they can dramatically reduce your overall cardiovascular risk. Focusing on the risk factors within your control makes a meaningful difference.

Steps you can take today:

Do not smoke or vape Follow a heart-healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet Exercise regularly (at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week) Maintain a healthy weight Keep blood pressure under control Manage diabetes if present Lower LDL cholesterol as recommended by your physician Take prescribed medications consistently Stay engaged with regular preventive care and cardiovascular screening

While there is currently no FDA-approved medication specifically designed to lower Lp(a), several promising therapies are in late-stage clinical trials. The cardiovascular medicine community is watching these results closely. In the meantime, optimizing every other risk factor remains the best and most evidence-backed strategy for protecting your heart, including more aggressive and personalized approaches to cholesterol management and lifestyle interventions.

Prevention Starts with Knowing Your Risk

Most cardiovascular disease begins years earlier than when you feel it. We believe that prevention begins with understanding your unique biology. Measuring Lp(a) is just one example of how precision medicine can uncover hidden risks before they become life-changing events.

Knowing your number is about creating clarity and giving you the information you need to take proactive, targeted steps toward a longer, healthier life. Most people who experience a heart attack had no idea their Lp(a) was elevated. That is the kind of blind spot we are trying to close.

At Radence, precision medicine isn’t about ordering more tests. It’s about understanding which tests change decisions. Learn more about how we approach prevention to help you stay ahead of your health.

Most of modern medicine is designed to answer a population-level question: What is safe and effective for millions of people? Radence is different. We determine what is best for you, based on everything we know today.

By the time a clinical guideline is published and implemented, the underlying evidence may already be five to ten years old. Medical committees move slowly because they must balance safety, liability, cost, and applicability across broad populations.

We apply evidence to individuals before guidelines catch up.

Our members undergo comprehensive cardiovascular, metabolic, genomic, imaging, and cancer screening assessments that generate a far richer understanding of their individual risk than guideline committees typically consider. That additional information changes what we can act on.

The Radence Framework Behind Every Recommendation

Our recommendations are based on four inputs:

Evidence quality: what the clinical literature, trials, and real-world data show today. Risk-benefit profile: the magnitude of potential upside relative to the likelihood and severity of harm. Expert alignment: how leading physicians and specialists interpret the evidence and where consensus is emerging. Member applicability: how well an intervention fits your biology, risk factors, goals, and willingness to adopt.

TechAtlas, RA Capital’s research group of PhDs and MDs, continuously evaluates these four inputs to develop individualized recommendations.

 

How We Evaluate Emerging Evidence

When evaluating new therapies, diagnostics, and preventive interventions, we start with the strongest available clinical data: large randomized controlled trials designed to determine whether an intervention truly causes a meaningful outcome.

We also evaluate:

Analyses of group trials Prospective cohort studies that track defined groups over time Retrospective analyses of existing data Case series Mechanistic and preclinical research

Each type of evidence contributes differently to understanding benefit, risk, and biological plausibility. Most importantly, we do not review evidence on a fixed schedule.

New publications, conference presentations, and clinical trial results are continuously evaluated as they emerge. The objective is to understand what today’s evidence supports for a member with a specific risk profile.

We Use a Risk-Proportionate Threshold

The most important decision in any clinical framework is determining how much evidence is enough to act. Radence answers that question differently than guideline bodies do by applying a risk-proportionate threshold:

Lower-risk interventions with meaningful potential upside may justify action earlier. Higher-risk interventions require substantially stronger evidence before they are recommended.

Consider three examples:

A whole-body MRI carries no radiation exposure and relatively low risk, while potentially identifying disease before symptoms develop. Because the downside is relatively low, emerging evidence may be sufficient to support its use in appropriately selected individuals. While a DEXA scan has some low-level radiation exposure, it is not zero. The benefit in identifying bone density issues before a fracture occurs, however, could be clinically significant and worthwhile, particularly in individuals with risk factors for osteoporosis, such as sedentary lifestyles and nutritional deficiencies. Scans such as Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) carry additional considerations, including radiation exposure, intravenous contrast, and potentially medication to optimize physiological parameters for imaging quality requirements. It can, however, provide a detailed assessment of soft and calcified coronary plaque burden.

Applying the same evidentiary standard to all three scenarios would be a mistake. Precision medicine requires matching the strength of evidence to the risk of action.

Why Expert Judgment Matters

Published evidence is necessary but rarely sufficient on its own.

Leading physicians often identify meaningful shifts in a field before those shifts appear in formal guidelines. Their interpretation of emerging evidence, real-world experience, and understanding of downstream effects provide critical context.

This is where our research network becomes particularly valuable. We continuously evaluate emerging biomedical evidence and maintain relationships with leading experts across cardiology, neurology, oncology, endocrinology, and precision diagnostics.

When experts independently converge on the same interpretation of new evidence, confidence increases. When experts disagree, that disagreement itself becomes important information. Consensus among experts doesn’t replace evidence. It helps contextualize it.

Precision Medicine Requires a Different Standard

Traditional clinical guidelines are designed for populations. Radence is designed for individuals. When we have access to whole-genome sequencing, advanced imaging, metabolic and cardiovascular phenotyping, cancer screening, health data tracked over time, we can evaluate emerging therapies in the context of your unique biology rather than a population average.

This requires a more demanding standard of interpretation, not a lower one. The evidence must be strong enough to support an individualized decision, not just a population recommendation. The result is a standard of care that evolves at the pace of scientific discovery rather than waiting for consensus to catch up.

You are almost certainly hearing about peptides. From a concierge physician, a friend running a recovery protocol, a podcast you respect. The market is active, the claims are confident, and in most cases, the evidence is thin at best.

We’re sharing our perspective because you deserve an honest accounting of where the science actually stands, not a categorical dismissal of a fast-moving field. Consider this your evidence review, written plainly, so you can make an informed decision about what is worth considering and what is not.

Why The Market Is So Loud

The word “peptide” is not, on its own, a useful word. A peptide is a short protein – a string of amino acids that signals cells to do something. Insulin is a peptide. So is BPC-157. What separates them is not their molecular category, but decades of rigorous human trials. The category is not nearly as telling as the evidence itself.

Physicians can legally prescribe nearly any substance not banned by the FDA, and compounding pharmacies can fill those prescriptions. This creates a commercially active gray zone where peptides with minimal human evidence circulate freely and are promoted widely.

In 2023, the FDA placed BPC-157 and several other peptides on its Category 2 do-not-compound list, citing inadequate clinical data and safety risks. The list is subject to ongoing review as nominators withdraw and regulatory assessments continue; the landscape is actively evolving. Products manufactured overseas introduce additional concerns around purity and dosing consistency.

Social media actively promotes many of these peptides, often by figures with large platforms. What you need to know is that this promotional activity reflects neither safety nor efficacy.

 

Where The Evidence Stands

STRONG

Insulin has more than a century of clinical use. GLP-1 receptor agonists (Ozempic, Wegovy, Victoza) represent the most clinically significant peptide development in the longevity context. Trials involving 3,000 to 60,000 participants have demonstrated roughly 20% lower cardiovascular event risk and 12% reduction in all-cause mortality in people with cardiometabolic disease.

GLP-1S AND ALZHEIMER’S: AN UPDATE  – Early, small trials showed mechanistic promise for Alzheimer’s prevention. A 2026 clinical trial of more than 3,000 individuals did not yield statistically significant improvement. We are continuing to monitor this research and will continue to update our members to the findings as they become available. 

 

INCOMPLETE

Collagen peptides and GHK-Cu have modest human evidence in cosmetic applications and meta-analyses and small trials show improvement in skin hydration, elasticity, and firmness. Study quality is limited; most are short, small, and industry-funded. Radence neither endorses nor discourages oral collagen as the results are not definitive.

TB-500 has been the subject of Phase 1 and 2 trials for heart damage, skin ulcers, and corneal injuries. Trial activity in this area is difficult to verify — many listed as active have stopped enrolling. We are monitoring for completed, peer-reviewed findings.

 

WEAK OR ABSENT

BPC-157 has over 100 animal studies and limited human data. In 2023, the FDA placed it on its Category 2 do-not-compound list citing safety concerns and insufficient clinical evidence; that designation remains under active regulatory review. Ipamorelin and CJC-1295 reached early-phase human testing but never completed efficacy trials. CJC-1295 development was halted following a trial participant death; the death was not conclusively attributed to the peptide, as the participant had pre-existing coronary artery disease. Epithalon Epithalon shows lifespan extension in mice and circadian rhythm improvement in monkeys, but no human trials have been published. Cerebrolysin is approved in parts of Europe and Asia, but a 1,000-participant randomized controlled trial failed to show a difference on its primary endpoint. Semax and Selank have Russian regulatory approval, although no peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials from US or EU journals exist.

 

A Specific Risk Worth Naming

Several of the compounds most actively promoted work through mechanisms that up-regulate growth hormone. Those same mechanisms may also promote tumor growth and hormonal imbalance. This is why active cancer is widely considered a hard contraindication for these therapies, as growth-promoting signals do not discriminate between healthy and malignant cells. This is not theoretical and is part of the basis for the FDA’s action.

For Members Pursuing Peptides Independently

 

 

Radence will not prescribe experimental peptides — but we will not leave you unmonitored either. Radence monitors active clinical trials across all the categories above. When rigorous human evidence changes, our protocols will reflect it.

 

We’d like to share a story. Not a statistic, not a clinical abstraction, but a real case that illustrates exactly why Radence exists and what becomes possible when you decide to look earlier.

Dr. Nicholas A. Marston, a member of Radence’s Clinical Advisory Board, is a preventive cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His work sits at the intersection of genetics, advanced biomarkers, and early cardiovascular disease – the precise frontier where Radence operates. We recently sat down with him and we believe what he shared with us will matter to you.

The Test That Changed a Trajectory

A patient of Dr. Marston’s had suffered a heart attack in her early 40s. Her two daughters, now in their mid-30s, came to him with a simple question: given what happened to their mother, what should they be doing to prevent a similar outcome for themselves?

Both daughters received the same evaluation, including advanced coronary CT imaging — a non-invasive scan that allows physicians to see plaque forming in the arteries of the heart, years before it causes symptoms. One daughter had no plaque at all. The other had severe coronary atherosclerosis — significant, aggressive disease in a woman in her mid-30s with no symptoms and no prior indication anything was wrong.

“She’s a mom herself. Three kids. A full-time job. This was a shock. But as I always tell patients when we find this — this is why we do the testing. Because now we can be very intentional with what we do next. We have the therapies to stop this disease in its tracks, and in some cases even reverse it. If we hadn’t found this, the disease would only have gotten worse — and likely led to a heart attack or bypass surgery at a young age.”

She is now on a targeted treatment protocol that has driven her LDL to levels low enough to actually reduce some of the existing plaque burden. Her trajectory has been fundamentally altered. Not because she got sick. Because she chose to look before she did.

The Disease Was There for Years. The Opportunity Was Too.

This is the central insight that shapes how Radence thinks about cardiovascular risk. Heart disease doesn’t arrive suddenly. Most people who have a cardiac event in their 60s or 70s had measurable evidence of early disease two decades earlier — evidence that was simply never looked for.

“Think about a large cruise ship. If you want to change where it ends up, you move the trajectory early. A small change in your 40s is going to have a huge benefit down the line. We’re trying to protect these patients for 30, 40 years. It just takes a small change now to end up in a very different place later.”

Most people in their 40s and 50s are not at significant cardiovascular risk in the next five to ten years. That is precisely the window in which intervention is most powerful — and most overlooked.

What Standard Care Is Still Missing

Dr. Marston is one of the leading voices on a lipid marker called lipoprotein(a) — Lp(a) — that most standard blood panels don’t include. It is genetically determined, meaning it doesn’t respond to diet or lifestyle, and it is highly associated with early and aggressive heart disease. Roughly one in five people have significantly elevated levels. Most have never been tested.

The reason this matters right now: 2026 is expected to bring the first Phase 3 clinical trial results for Lp(a)-specific therapies — drugs that can reduce elevated Lp(a) by up to 95%. Phase 3 is the final stage before FDA approval. If results are positive, a new class of treatment becomes available for a risk factor that currently has no targeted therapy.

“I see a lot of early heart attack patients in my clinic. A lot of them have high Lp(a). The current therapies — statins and others — don’t lower it meaningfully. We’ve needed something specific. We’ll know very soon if we have it.”

Lp(a) is tested as part of the Radence cardiovascular evaluation. For members who carry elevated levels, this is not an abstract finding — it is an actionable data point that shapes monitoring strategy and, soon, treatment options.

The Shift Happening in Medicine Right Now

When we asked Dr. Marston what single shift he sees transforming cardiovascular care over the next five years, his answer was immediate.

“The shift is from reactive to proactive. It used to be that we diagnosed heart disease when someone came in with a heart attack — decades after the disease began. Now we keep moving earlier and earlier. Not only preventing second events, but first events. Not only preventing events, but preventing the disease from reaching any clinically significant point at all. That’s where we’re headed.”

This is the medicine Radence is built around. Not reactive care that responds after something has gone wrong. A structured, sustained model that looks for risk while the window to act is still open.

What this means for you.

The daughter in Dr. Marston’s story didn’t feel unwell. She had no symptoms, no prior diagnosis, no reason to think something was wrong. What she had was a family history and the decision to take it seriously.

Radence membership begins with a comprehensive evaluation designed to find what standard care is not structured to look for, and to build a strategy around what it finds. Dr. Marston and our full Clinical Advisory Board shape how that evaluation is designed and how findings are interpreted.

Most people who come to Radence aren’t thinking about themselves. They’re thinking about those who need them. 

If you’ve been considering membership, we’d welcome the conversation.

Schedule a Membership Consultation at radence.com

The Radence Team

 

Recently, we spoke with Dr. Fanny Elahi, a neurologist and member of Radence’s Clinical Advisory Board, about what early detection really means when symptoms have not yet appeared.

Her view was direct:

“I don’t think early detection is only valuable if we can do something about it. Detection with great precision in of itself has value.”

That challenges a common expectation that information only matters if it leads to an immediate intervention. Dr. Elahi framed it differently. Some people want the earliest possible insight, even when the science is still catching up to what we can change. Others do not. She described that as a personal choice about how someone wants to live with uncertainty.

In her words, it is not for everyone. And it should not be.

What “Early” Actually Means

Dr. Elahi made an important distinction. Early detection is not simply finding disease earlier in the symptomatic phase.

She described the real frontier as preclinical detection. Detecting biological perturbations that may be associated with future loss of function, before someone is getting lost, struggling with memory, or unable to interact with the world the way they used to.

That shift changes the tools we rely on.

She pointed to several that are rapidly advancing:

Imaging Molecular markers, including what can increasingly be detected from blood Wearables and other ways of tracking physiology and function over time

She also emphasized that people have good days and bad days, and natural fluctuations in function. The goal is not to overreact to a single data point. It is to understand biology in context, across time.

A Wider View of Brain Health

A central theme in the conversation was that neurodegeneration is not just a brain story.

Dr. Elahi spoke at length about the role of vascular biology and the smallest blood vessels in the brain, and how age-related changes in vascular function can quietly accumulate over time. This is one reason her lab focuses on vascular pathologies. Her underlying point was simple: the health of the vasculature is deeply tied to the health of the organ it serves, including the brain.

She also noted that the field is moving beyond rigid diagnostic “buckets.” Her hope is for a future where biomarkers help identify precise biological perturbations, such as disruptions in lipid metabolism or immune function, and guide more personalized strategies for restoring balance and resilience.

Aging Is Not the Enemy

One of the most human parts of the conversation was her perspective on aging itself.

Dr. Elahi drew a bright line between disease and normal evolution. Dementia and progressive brain degeneration are not acceptable outcomes. Those are problems to detect early and prevent where possible.

But she also challenged the idea that optimal aging means staying the same. She described looking forward to the ways the brain evolves with experience, and she rejected the cultural obsession with an “eternal 20-year-old brain.”

Her point was not that decline should be ignored. It was that sensitive tools will force more nuanced questions:

What is disease-causing biology? What is normal aging? What should we treat, and what should we leave alone? What This Means for You

If you choose to engage in early detection, you are not committing to constant action.

You are choosing to see biology earlier, and to make decisions with more information over time.

Dr. Elahi’s perspective reinforces something we believe at Radence: as detection becomes more sensitive, interpretation matters more. The goal is not to chase every signal. The goal is to identify pathological perturbations early, understand what they may mean, and support thoughtful choices as science continues to progress.

How and whether you engage with uncertainty should always remain your choice.

To inquire about Radence Membership, schedule a discovery call.

It’s health.

Most investors ask: Will my assets last as long as I live?

Far fewer ask: How many of those years will I remain cognitively sharp, physically capable, and able to live as I choose?

That distinction matters.

A long life lived in poor health is not only emotionally costly. It is financially destabilizing. Late-stage illness can quickly erode even the most carefully constructed wealth strategy.

Chronic disease now drives 90% of healthcare costs in the United States. Yet many of these conditions develop silently for years before symptoms appear. By the time traditional medicine intervenes, options are often narrower and more expensive.

This is where medicine is changing.

Advances in genomics, imaging, and molecular biomarkers now allow clinicians to detect disease signals earlier than ever before. Instead of waiting for decline, we can establish baselines, monitor subtle shifts, and intercept risk before it alters the trajectory of our healthspan, which is the number of years a person remains cognitively sharp, physically capable, and able to live independently.

One clear example of how scientific advancement is changing care is Alzheimer’s disease. For years, it was widely viewed as an inevitable diagnosis identified only after meaningful cognitive decline. Today, that assumption is being challenged. Emerging diagnostics and therapies suggest that earlier identification and intervention can meaningfully slow progression in appropriate patients.

The approach increasingly resembles the NFL’s concussion protocol. You establish a precise baseline using imaging, blood-based biomarkers, and cognitive assessment. You monitor carefully over time. And at the first sign of deviation from baseline, you intervene.

That shift is significant. When disease is identified early in its course, certain therapies have demonstrated the ability to slow progression. Slowing progression does not eliminate disease. But it can preserve cognitive clarity and independence for longer. From a financial planning standpoint, the preservation of decision-making capacity and autonomy can materially affect long-term care costs, estate timing, and intergenerational planning.

Preserving healthy, functional years does more than improve quality of life. It materially alters long-term care costs, estate outcomes, and the preservation of intergenerational wealth.

At Radence, we integrate advanced diagnostics, continuous monitoring, and personalized care coordination into a structured, science-driven model. Our goal is not simply to extend lifespan. It is to bring clarity to risk, offer control, and help preserve more healthy, functional years. It is to help members spend more of their years in peak health.

Investors expect their advisors to anticipate financial risk before it appears on a balance sheet.

The most forward-thinking individuals are beginning to treat health as a measurable, managed variable within long-term strategy.

If you’d like to learn how Radence approaches early detection and precision prevention, we welcome a private conversation.

Schedule a Discovery Call

Alzheimer’s is often seen as a disease that simply happens with age. Recent scientific insights and developments tell a different story. Early biological shifts in the brain can begin decades before memory loss. Fortunately, these changes are measurable, actionable, and in many cases, modifiable.

At Radence, we’re not waiting for symptoms to appear. We’re identifying the earliest signals of risk and intervening when the brain is still healthy. That’s where the real transformation happens.

Looking Beyond a Single Cause

Most people don’t realize that the standard annual physical does not include screening for Alzheimer’s. It’s simply not part of the typical workup. Your doctor isn’t testing for the ApoE gene, looking at brain volumetrics, or tracking markers of damage to the brain over time. Unless there’s a strong family history or symptoms already present, it’s rarely discussed. That gap is significant, because by the time someone shows signs of cognitive decline, years or even decades of biological change may have already occurred. What we’re doing at Radence is making those invisible risks visible, giving people the opportunity to act early, while their brains are still healthy.

Alzheimer’s is not a one-organ disease. It’s the result of interconnected biological systems — cardiovascular, metabolic, inflammatory, and genetic — working in concert or, in some cases, against one another.

Brain health doesn’t exist in isolation. When we strengthen heart health, optimize metabolism, improve sleep, and reduce inflammation, we’re also protecting the brain. That’s the shift from a single-cause mindset to a systems-based approach.

This view reframes prevention as holistic optimization, aligning multiple factors that influence cognitive health rather than chasing an isolated biomarker or genetic trait.

Knowing Your Baseline and Tracking Change

Every Radence member begins with an extensive baseline evaluation that includes:

Genomic analysis to uncover inherited risk factors Volumetric brain imaging to measure structure and atrophy Proteomic and biomarker assessment Cognitive testing to establish current function

This data-rich foundation allows Radence clinicians to track subtle biological changes over time, highlighting the earliest indicators of disease, well before symptoms develop. Cognitive testing helps to tell the story of change and track response to therapies.

You can’t recognize early decline without a reference point. A single snapshot in time doesn’t tell the story. Longitudinal data does.

Early Action, Lasting Impact

Microvascular injury and inflammation may begin years, even decades, before Alzheimer’s symptoms emerge. That’s why Dr. Chen encourages proactive screening early in adulthood. The best time to understand your brain health is when you’re well. Whether you’re 20, 30, or 50, the data you collect now becomes the roadmap for protecting your future self.

When changes are identified, Radence clinicians intervene through integrated, individualized plans that target every system influencing the brain, such as cardiovascular and metabolic systems.

We optimize what we can control. And we can control a lot.

The Cost of Waiting

More than 57 million people are living with dementia worldwide, and Alzheimer’s accounts for up to 70 percent of those cases. By 2050, that number is projected to rise to nearly 150 million. The cost is measured in relationships, independence, and time. Early detection changes the equation: prevention and slower progression translate into years of preserved independence and quality of life.

People often ask, Do I really want to know? The answer is yes, because today, there is something we can do. The earlier we know, the more we can act.

The Radence Approach: Precision, Partnership, Prevention

Radence’s integrated approach bridges advanced diagnostics with personalized, physician-guided prevention. It empowers individuals and their clinicians with information once considered impossible to access until too late.

We finally have the tools to intercept Alzheimer’s before it takes hold. The future of brain health isn’t waiting for decline — it’s detecting the earliest signs and acting on them. That’s the kind of medicine that transforms lives.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. And in the US, a woman has a 1 in 8 chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Yet there is hope: When breast cancer is found early, before it spreads, the five-year survival rate is 99%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s US Cancer Statistics on Female Breast Cancer, released in June 2025.

Early screening remains the most powerful tool we have to save lives.

For decades, the mammogram has been the cornerstone of screening. A screening mammogram also serves as an essential first step in determining whether or not a woman has dense breast tissue. This is significant because, for women who have dense breast tissue, a mammogram alone may not be enough.

The Hidden Challenge of Dense Breast Tissue

Dense breast tissue describes the appearance of breast tissue on imaging and occurs when there is a higher concentration of fiber or glands in the breast.

About 4 out of 10 women have dense breast tissue, which is normal, though it can complicate screening. On a mammogram, dense tissue can appear similar to tumors, making abnormalities harder to see. Additionally, studies have shown that women with dense breast tissue have a higher risk of developing breast cancer.

Even a 3D mammogram can miss cancers when dense tissue is present. Dense areas may not cover the whole breast. They can be just in sectors. That means a mammogram could look normal, but a cancer is hiding.

If you have dense breast tissue, an otherwise unremarkable mammogram does not guarantee that you are in the clear.

When Mammograms Aren’t Enough

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is technology which uses magnets to generate pictures. MRI does not expose a person to ionizing radiation. For women with dense breast tissue, breast MRI provides another layer of protection, offering a more detailed view. With contrast enhancement, a breast MRI can detect small lesions that mammography may miss.

For women with dense breast tissue, contrast-enhanced MRI can be a game-changer. It can detect cancers at their earliest, most treatable stage.

How to Make Early Detection a Priority

Breast cancer awareness is about knowledge, empowerment, and action. By understanding the role of breast density and family history, women can make more informed choices — and catch cancer earlier, when it’s most treatable.

Here’s what you can do:

Schedule your mammogram. It remains the first step in detection. Ask about your breast density. If your report says you have dense breasts, talk to your doctor about next steps. Know your family history. It is important to know if a close relative was diagnosed with breast cancer or ovarian cancer. In cases of breast cancer, if possible, find out how old your relative was at the time of diagnosis. And ask your doctor if you need to begin screening at an earlier age, even 10 years earlier than the age your relative was when he or she was diagnosed. Advocate for yourself. If you feel you’re at higher risk, don’t hesitate to ask about advanced imaging like breast MRI.

Being proactive about your health with early detection screening may lead to better outcomes. It’s about taking steps that could save your life.

Why It Matters

The difference between finding cancer early and finding it late is profound. When breast cancer is detected locally, before it spreads to other parts of the body, there is a significantly greater chance of survival. Once breast cancer progresses, treatment is more complex, and outcomes become worse.

Dense breast tissue is common, and so is breast cancer. What should be uncommon are missed opportunities for early detection.

Mammograms remain indispensable. But they are not perfect. If you have dense breast tissue — and many women do — a mammogram may not be enough on its own. It is important to know your screening options, and talk with your doctor about the best ways to detect breast cancer.

While the healthcare industry is often crowded with buzzwords, Radence is building something deeper, more rigorous, and far more human. At the heart of Radence’s model is early detection for disease interception and enduring support. The Radence journey is about creating a lifelong process of understanding, protecting, and optimizing the health of our members.

Beyond Access to Precision Care

Precision programs often involve many modalities and a great deal of data. At Radence, the bar is much higher. Our interpretation of precision medicine involves a multimodal approach, innovative tools, and high-quality data to provide actionable insight that can impact our members’ day-to-day quality of life.

The beauty and artisanship of our approach lies in selecting the right tools to get an accurate picture of each individual from their health data and creating a highly personalized action plan tailored to each member. Providing precision data gives our members some control over their health span. It’s a partnership. Radence gives members clear data-driven guidance and recommendations for an optimized pathway to optimal outcomes. What matters most is the quality of what Radence members receive. From the clinical on-science precision of early detection testing to the accuracy of who our members truly are — that is what leads to reproducibility in our interpretations. Our care model is designed for scientific integrity at every level.

Radence’s multimodal, multi-layered approach to early detection triangulates insights across tools, organ systems, and time, she explained. It’s about doing the right tests, not over testing. Quality vs. Quantity. It’s about building a more complete picture of your health and reducing the chance of false positives or false negatives that could lead to either unnecessary panic or missed opportunity.

While there is significant value in having data, there is an intentional approach to why we gather that data and what we do with it. It’s aligned with desired outcomes and personal goals. This is not about gathering random data. The how and the what are based on the why, based on each person’s intentions, goals, and risk factors. That makes it personalized.

We Walk with You

At Radence, we walk with you. We use what we learn to create a mutual understanding of your health at a cellular level.

Health is a moving target. Diseases evolve. Physiology changes. We grow with our members, so we can see how their bodies are evolving, whether they’re moving toward disease or away from it.

This continuous relationship enables Radence to detect small shifts that might otherwise be missed. Our longitudinal approach isn’t just about diagnostics. It’s about building a true health partnership. One that is alert, adaptive, and deeply informed.

The Human Lens

While Radence focuses on science and personalized precision care, what truly guides this innovative model is something deeply human: care as if you’re family.

When I meet one-on-one with our members, I always ask myself: “If this was my parent, my child, my best friend — how would I approach this?”  That’s the lens we bring to every decision. Every clinician at Radence is trained not only in the protocols and tools, but in this philosophy. It’s not enough to be highly skilled. Our providers must be deeply invested. If they’re not doing that, they’re not part of Radence.

The Discipline of Iteration

Medicine moves fast — and Radence does more than keep pace. We lead.

The Radence model is built to never stand still. Whether it’s adding new genes to a genomic panel after just one insight or reevaluating a testing protocol after a single ambiguous case, our clinical team is in constant conversation about continuous improvement.

There is no static. If I don’t like what I’m seeing in a meeting, we iterate. Immediately.

This commitment to refinement is part of what makes Radence unique.

We aren’t simply offering what’s available, we are building what should exist. Every encounter, every report, every protocol is held to a higher standard, constantly evaluated and pressure tested, focused on the drive to be the best and deliver the best. Always.

A Curated Experience Rooted in Science

Consistency is not a luxury. It’s a clinical imperative for Dr. Chen and her team at Radence. From the quality of imaging machines to the communication style of our clinicians, Radence is working to ensure that every touchpoint delivers the same level of excellence.

Whether you’re speaking to a radiologist, internist, or nurse practitioner, you are engaging with one unified standard of care. That level of consistency is rare. And it’s intentional.

Innovative Care, Rooted in Love

Radence is not just a system. It’s a mindset. A culture of care rooted in curiosity, rigor, and love. Our members are not patients, they are part of the Radence family.

To care for someone as if they are family is a high bar.

It means we don’t accept good enough. It means we question everything. And it means that we are always watching, learning, evolving — so that we can see the stumble before it happens. That’s the Radence Standard of Care.

 

In today’s rapidly evolving medical landscape, physicians are increasingly called upon to balance innovation with evidence, patient expectations with system constraints, and emerging tools with deeply rooted traditions. For Dr. Julie Chen — a leader in genomic precision medicine, board-certified in internal medicine, and fellowship-trained in integrative medicine — that means reclaiming what medicine was always meant to be: comprehensive, compassionate, and grounded in science.

“We all went into medicine to help people heal,” said Dr. Chen. “But many of us find ourselves navigating systems that are optimized for disease management, not for prevention. That isn’t a personal failing. It’s a systems problem.”

Dr. Chen currently serves as Chief Medical Officer at Radence, a company pioneering a multimodal precision-based model of care. At its core, Radence seeks to identify and intervene on disease risk earlier than traditional models allow — not in response to pathology, but in anticipation of it.

“Most of what we see in chronic disease is not sudden,” Dr. Chen said. “It’s a long, progressive breakdown of physiologic resilience. Our job is to understand that trajectory and to act on it early, when the patient still feels ‘fine,’ but the biology is already shifting.”

Addressing the Limits of Traditional Care

Dr. Chen has tremendous respect for the goals of current conventional medicine. However, she sees it as incomplete.

“Our traditional system is remarkable at acute intervention,” she said. “But it’s less equipped to manage early disease interception of the slow-developing dysfunctions that characterize so many of our biggest health challenges — cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, metabolic dysfunction.”

She points to constraints many physicians know well: 15-minute visits, fragmented specialty care, limited tools for subclinical disease, and a reactive rather than predictive infrastructure.

“It’s not that doctors don’t care about prevention or early detection,” Dr. Chen said. “It’s that the system doesn’t always give them the time or tools to do it well.”

A Multimodal, Systems-Oriented Approach

What Radence offers is a framework to augment what clinicians are already doing. Its platform brings together genomics, imaging, metabolomics, advanced blood work, and wearable data to generate a comprehensive picture of an individual’s health trajectory.

“We use high-resolution tools to pick up signals that traditional workups might miss. But more importantly, we translate those findings into real-world decisions. We help people understand their risk and take steps to modify it,” Dr. Chen said.

That process is deeply collaborative. Radence doesn’t seek to replace a patient’s care team. It works in partnership with referring clinicians, offering extended assessments and evidence-based recommendations that complement existing care plans.

“This is not about displacing primary care or specialists. It’s about supporting them with another layer of data and insight,” Dr. Chen said. “We know that no one understands the patient better than their own doctor. Our role is to enhance that relationship, not compete with it.”

Precision without Elitism

One concern often raised about precision or concierge medicine is equity—that these models only serve the affluent. Dr. Chen sees this differently.

“Early adopters always pave the way for broader access,” Dr. Chen said. “Every major medical advance — from medications to whole-genome sequencing — started in specialized settings before becoming standard. What we’re building now will eventually become more scalable. But someone has to lead, and that’s where Radence comes in.”

To that end, the company is investing in outcomes research, clinical validation, and real-world evidence to support its protocols. “We’re not just innovating,” she said. “We’re validating. We’re contributing to the science so this model can expand.”

Data Alone is Not Enough

Despite Radence’s technological sophistication, Dr. Chen emphasizes that data is only as powerful as the context it’s given.

“We’re not just handing people dashboards,” she said. “We’re walking them through it. We pair high-resolution diagnostics with meaningful conversation. That’s where trust is built. That’s how change happens.”

The result is more than early detection testing. It’s engagement.

“When patients understand their physiology, when they see the why behind a recommendation, they are more likely to act,” Dr. Chen said. “We’re not just changing lab values. We’re changing behavior.”

Four Disease Domains, One Coordinated Strategy

Radence begins by focusing on the survival layer — the four disease categories responsible for the majority of premature mortality and morbidity: cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction, and neurodegeneration. These are not isolated silos, Dr. Chen noted. They are deeply interconnected through shared pathways of inflammation, oxidative stress, metabolic regulation, and genetic risk.

“If you have insulin resistance, you’re not just at risk for diabetes. You’re at increased risk for dementia and cardiovascular disease,” she said. “We take a systems-level view of risk. That means we can intervene in ways that impact multiple domains simultaneously.”

From there, the platform expands to assess autoimmune risks, hormone regulation, immune function, and more.

“We meet the patient where they are, and then we grow with them,” Dr. Chen said. “It’s dynamic. It’s continuous. And it’s deeply personal.”

An Invitation to the Medical Community

For Dr. Chen, one of the most innovative aspects of Radence is the partnership.

“We want to work with clinicians who are curious, collaborative, and committed to pushing the standard of care forward,” Dr. Chen said. “Whether you’re a cardiologist, internist, neurologist, or family physician, there’s a place for you in this model. We need your insight. Your experience. Your trust.”

She knows that change is never easy, especially in a field as high-stakes and evidence-driven as medicine. But she also knows that physicians are problem-solvers.

“We’re not asking people to abandon conventional care,” Dr. Chen said. “We’re inviting them to build on it. To extend it. To make it better.”

In an era where both patients and clinicians are demanding more — more answers, more support, more continuity, Dr. Chen sees Radence as a blueprint for what’s possible.

“This is the future of care: science-led, system-aware, patient-centered, and clinician-empowering,” Dr. Chen said. “We’re not starting over. We’re starting ahead.”

 

As a serial successful health care startup leader, David Medvedeff, CEO at Radence, knows better than most what is missing for patients, and their doctors, looking for care to extend health span and reduce chronic illness using science-backed testing.

He explains that in many areas of healthcare, progress is measured by access to more — more tests, more data, more interventions. As a trained pharmacist, he has seen first-hand that more doesn’t always mean better, and meaningful impact is the result of personalization. Without thoughtful curation, an abundance of medical information can overwhelm rather than inform. The vision for Radence, first incubated within RA Capital Management, a leader in biopharmaceutical innovation, is to develop a different approach to early detection and preventive care: one grounded in scientific discipline, careful prioritization, and collaborative thinking.

Partnering with Primary Care Doctors

The goal isn’t to flood the system with diagnostics. It’s to choose the right test, for the right person, at the right time — and to do so in partnership with concierge and primary care doctors and medical team who already play a central role in  caring for their patients. Proven advancements in managing the risks of chronic illness through insights at the cellular level have changed the game when it comes to optimizing health span, however, their wider use is only just beginning.

“We’re not trying to replace anyone’s doctor,” David said. “Most physicians we work with have decades-long relationships with their patients. Our job is to complement their practice, to give Radence members and their doctors access to research and precision data they wouldn’t otherwise have. Radence is concierge science, tirelessly supporting our stakeholders as their partner in precision medicine, no different than how a cardiologist or neurologist would be engaged.”

Personalized Precision Care

Recognizing the busy lives and needs of their clients inspired a shift in the way the company is set up to accommodate member care wherever they are in the world. Radence avoids the typical health-tech formula. There are no company-owned scanning centers or fleets of proprietary machines. Instead, it’s a distributed network — coordinated testing in the locations where members reside, relying on best-in-class verified expert partners rather than an in-house infrastructure. The intent is to remain adaptable and to avoid a one-size-fits-all battery of tests and scans to justify fixed costs.

“Once a company buys an MRI or a PET scanner, the business becomes about utilization. In that model, whether an individual needs a given test becomes secondary,” David said. “We’ve intentionally stayed away from that. Radence takes a more deliberate approach, focused on personalized precision care.”

Driven by Science

Our personalized precision approach happens across several layers with the best-informed proprietary protocols in the industry: genomic sequencing, imaging, biomarkers, cognitive assessments, and comprehensive consultations. Each test result is evaluated in a specific sequence not only on what it can reveal, but on what it might obscure or complicate. This multi-modal approach is a sharp contrast to much of what is being promoted today to extend health span.

Behind the scenes, the work is supported by medical experts, scientists, and research partners who monitor emerging technologies, clinical trials, and scientific advancements. This ensures that the care and service Radence members receive is the most leading-edge option science has to offer.

Greater Depth and Accuracy

Members begin with a comprehensive baseline evaluation, followed by tailored engagement throughout the year. This may include additional testing, risk modeling, or targeted follow-up depending on each member’s personal health profile. Over time, the goal is to create a deeper and more accurate understanding of how your health changes and what steps might matter most going forward.

Relevant, Actionable Health Insight

Radence believes that in providing the best forecast of members’ future health, the emphasis remains on context over volume.

“There’s a temptation to think that more information is always better,” David said. “But without structure, it becomes noise and can seed anxiety for both the patient and doctor. Our role is to interpret and prioritize, to give members and their doctors relevant, actionable health insight focused on enhancing peace of mind. That’s why our protocols are tailored not only to biological risk but also to psychological readiness.”

That philosophy extends to the thoughtful way information is communicated. When results are shared with physicians, the aim is to avoid overwhelming with raw outputs, and offer clear, clinically relevant reports they can use in decision-making. This serves to support the physician’s role rather than compete with it.

What Matters Most

Radence is focused on what the company calls Health Assurance. For many, time and access can be limiting factors. By coordinating services locally, where members reside, delivering health insights early, and partnering with medical teams, Radence builds trust and offers a seamless, elevated, member experience. What emerges is a higher standard of care empowering members to make data-driven decisions early enough to impact future outcomes and change what health care will be for generations to come.

 

 

For many, healthcare begins when something feels wrong — a nagging pain, unusual fatigue, or symptoms that can no longer be ignored. That moment of concern leads to appointments, tests, referrals, and eventually, a diagnosis. By then, the body may have already crossed a threshold. The opportunity for prevention has passed.

We’ve trained ourselves to respond to crisis instead of investing in clarity. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Today, the landscape of healthcare is shifting. Groundbreaking advancements in science and technology are making it possible to detect risks and uncover disease long before symptoms arise. This is more than just progress. It’s an invitation to take ownership of personal health in a way that is proactive, precise and deeply empowering.

Protect What Matters Most

Conventional healthcare was built to intervene after illness begins. Even individuals with access to premium services often find themselves navigating a fragmented system of multiple specialists, disjointed testing, and a lack of holistic insight to optimize wellness.

What people want isn’t more information. They want precise data-driven actions. They want to trust that they’re seeing the full picture and that nothing important is being missed.

Discerning individuals expect more. There is a desire to understand and protect what matters most before it’s at risk. That’s where comprehensive early detection and prevention enters the conversation.

Empowered by Early Detection

The real power of early detection lies in what it makes visible, revealing the silent chronic illnesses that often progress unnoticed including cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurological diseases. Radence expertly develops best-in-class proprietary protocols for advanced testing, such as organ-specific MRIs, Whole Genome Sequencing, multi-cancer screening, and advanced cardiac imaging to provide an unprecedented and personalized view into the body’s future risks.

It’s not a contest to see how many biomarkers we can tally. It’s about selecting the right tests, the ones grounded in science, personalized to each member’s ROI, that can reveal meaningful insight we can do something about.

This level of precision allows for focused, evidence-based decisions. It eliminates guesswork and brings clarity.

Access to Actionable Health Insight

When approached with purpose, early detection data is not about overwhelming people with numbers and potentially creating unnecessary anxiety. It’s about providing actionable insights. A well-designed early detection and prevention strategy offers more than information. It delivers confidence. If you have cancer or cardiovascular disease you will know about it one day. The question is do you want to know about it early, when it is highly treatable, or would you rather wait and see if conventional medicine can do something heroic for you. Either way, you will know about it.

Early detection provides the answer. And it does so in a way that allows for data-driven decision making early enough to have an impact on the future. This is an advancement in the past few years that is only just coming to light, one that Radence members can have now and will eventually change the face of medical care for everyone.

A Trusted, Multimodal Approach

Trust is the cornerstone of any healthcare relationship. It is built on integrity. Offering a higher standard of care means consistently aligning science, service, and empathy.

True luxury in healthcare is knowing that your care is grounded in science, delivered with accuracy, and tailored to you as a whole person.

Radence’s multimodal approach integrates precision medicine with thoughtful, personalized guidance in partnership with our members’ trusted physicians and concierge doctors. It ensures that no result is left unexamined, and that each next step is considered with care and in context of one’s personal and family health history and concerns.

The Radence Standard of Care

When precision medicine and advanced early detection meet highly personalized, compassionate care, the result is a healthcare experience rooted in science, wisdom and excellence. This is the Radence Standard of Care: anticipatory, personalized, and scientifically sound.

The future of healthcare is here. And it’s time we hold our health to the same higher standard we hold for every other aspect of our lives. Now is the time to embrace clarity, pursue insight, and choose prevention. Because health, at its best, is not only about avoiding illness. It’s about creating the conditions to add more life to every year.

 

Atherosclerosis is a condition that affects millions of people worldwide, often without warning. It plays a central role in the development of both heart disease and stroke, two of the leading causes of death and disability. Understanding what atherosclerosis is, who is most at risk, and the importance of early screening can significantly affect long-term health outcomes.

What is Atherosclerosis?

Atherosclerosis refers to the buildup of plaque, composed of cholesterol, fatty substances, calcium, and other materials, inside the walls of arteries. Over time, this buildup can narrow arteries and restrict blood flow to vital organs such as the heart and brain. If a plaque ruptures, it can trigger the formation of a blood clot, leading to a heart attack or stroke.

Often called a silent disease, atherosclerosis can develop slowly over many years without causing symptoms until a major cardiovascular event occurs.

Why is Atherosclerosis Important?

Atherosclerosis is the underlying cause of most cardiovascular (heart) and cerebrovascular (brain) events. Consider the following:

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death globally. This is the main reason why Radence is focused on it as a key area from the beginning. Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide and a major cause of long-term disability. The risk of confounding health issues after a stroke is multiplied. Many individuals with advanced atherosclerosis experience no symptoms until a heart attack or stroke happens. In fact, statistics from the Barnes-Jewish Hospital show that about 70% of people who have a stroke were asymptomatic before.

The ability to detect and manage atherosclerosis early can prevent these life-altering events and significantly improve both quality of life and longevity.

Who is Most at Risk?

Numerous dietary, lifestyle, and demographic factors can increase the likelihood of developing atherosclerosis, and here are some of the biggest influencers:

Diabetes High blood sugar can damage the inner layers of the arteries, leading to plaque buildup increasing risk for diabetes. Diabetes itself is a risk factor for numerous additional chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and stroke. Family History Genetics can raise your risk — especially if you have an inherited cholesterol disorder like familial hypercholesterolemia, which affects about 1 in 300 people. There are other important genetic predispositions Radence takes into account when assessing risk with a complete genetic profile. High Blood Pressure High blood pressure, or hypertension, quietly harms your body over time by damaging your arteries and helping plaque buildup, which can lead to heart attacks or strokes. It’s known as a silent risk factor because it usually has no symptoms, but it’s incredibly common. In fact, about 1 in 2 adults in the US has high blood pressure, often without realizing it. It’s the No. 1 controllable cause of death related to heart disease, which makes early detection and management especially important. Inflammation and Inflammatory Diseases Conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis cause chronic inflammation that can injure blood vessels and promote plaque formation. People can still have uncontrolled inflammation from environmental, lifestyle, and biological factors too, from air pollution, chemical exposures, poor gut health, lack of quality sleep, processed sugars or low fiber intake — all contributing to persistent low-grade inflammation and increasing risk for heart disease. Lack of Physical Activity Sedentary lifestyles, like prolonged sitting, lack of purposeful movement, and loss of skeletal muscle mass are associated with unfavorable cholesterol profiles that contribute to atherosclerosis and cardiometabolic risk. Older Age Plaque buildup often begins in childhood and worsens with age. Risk increases in men after age 45 and in women around age 55 as estrogen levels decrease through menopause. Risk is also higher in younger women with endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, gestational diabetes, or preeclampsia during pregnancy. Overweight or Obesity Obesity or carrying excessive weight in the abdomen is a metabolic and vascular disease accelerator and increases risk for heart disease and related conditions like type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. Statistics show nearly 3 in 4 adults (age 20+) in the US are overweight or obese. Obesity is starting at an earlier age too. Nearly 1 in 5 children and teens (ages 2–19) are considered obese, emphasizing the importance of early screening to avoid long-term consequences. Race and Ethnicity Race and ethnicity play a significant role in the risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), with certain populations experiencing a disproportionately higher prevalence of disease. Black or African American individuals in the US are at a 30% higher risk for hypertension, stroke, heart failure, and premature ASCVD compared to white individuals, often due to a combination of genetic susceptibility, socioeconomic factors, and reduced access to preventive care. Hispanic and South Asian populations also face elevated ASCVD risk, with South Asians demonstrating higher rates of insulin resistance, central obesity, and cholesterol abnormalities, often at lower BMI levels, contributing to earlier onset and more aggressive cardiovascular disease. Additionally, Native American and Alaska Native populations experience some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, all of which are potent drivers of ASCVD. These disparities underscore the need for personalized, culturally aware, and early prevention strategies tailored to high-risk racial and ethnic groups. Smoking and Secondhand Smoke About 1 in 3 coronary heart disease deaths are linked to smoking or secondhand smoke. Even exposure to secondhand smoke can contribute to atherosclerosis and stroke. Risk also increases with pack years, even if you haven’t smoked recently. Unhealthy Diet While certain foods may be helpful to minimize risk, other foods can play a role in increasing risk. High intake of saturated fats (from meat and full-fat dairy), when not part of a well-formulated diet, healthy weight, and exercise plan, raises cholesterol. Similarly, excessive alcohol or binge drinking can also elevate total cholesterol and impact inflammation markers.

Radence screens for atherosclerosis and cardiometabolic risk earlier and even in individuals considered low risk by these conventional standards because a significant proportion of disease develops silently and is often missed by traditional screening tools.

Symptoms: Often Absent Until Advanced Disease

Undetectable atherosclerosis, early signs of insulin resistance, and visceral adiposity can be present years before symptoms or abnormal labs emerge. Evidence shows that early vascular and metabolic changes can lead to irreversible damage if left unaddressed, and that intervening (with non-invasive modifications to diet and lifestyle) in these early stages and younger years dramatically reduces future cardiovascular events, stroke, and diabetes risk.

One of the challenges with atherosclerosis is that it frequently progresses unnoticed by simple point in time, single tests. When symptoms do arise, they can include:

Chest pain or discomfort (angina) including back, shoulder and neck and arm pain Shortness of breath Numbness, weakness, or paralysis (often on one side of the body, indicating stroke) Sudden difficulty speaking, seeing, or walking Feeling lightheaded or dizzy Heart palpitations Fatigue

By the time symptoms like chest pain or stroke occur, the disease is often advanced, more difficult to manage, and requires more invasive testing and interventions. Unfortunately, for many, the first sign of atherosclerosis could be a major cardiovascular or cerebrovascular event which can have profound consequences. Even individuals who feel healthy and have no symptoms may still be at elevated risk due to the environmental, demographic, and lifestyle factors.

The Role of Early Detection Screening

Early screening plays a critical role in identifying future risk for atherosclerosis and cardiometabolic dysfunction — often years before symptoms develop or a formal diagnosis is made. Atherosclerosis begins with inflammation, endothelial damage, lipid abnormalities, and insulin resistance progressively impairing vascular health.

Early detection enables early intervention, which can prevent irreversible vascular damage and reduce the lifetime risk of cardiovascular events, diabetes, and related diseases. Radence takes a proactive, precision-based approach that combines advanced imaging, metabolic biomarkers, and longitudinal monitoring to identify risk before it becomes clinically apparent. This enables timely lifestyle and therapeutic interventions that are more effective, less invasive, and ultimately help members maintain health span — not just lifespan.

Key findings support early screening using the comprehensive testing protocol that Radence recommends:

In research studies, 61% of individuals with “low risk” have atherosclerotic plaque identified via carotid ultrasound1​. Ultrasound is a valuable, non-invasive test Radence uses as part of a multimodal approach to stratify a member’s health risk. Testing has been associated with significantly improved adherence to preventive treatments, including lifestyle changes and medication initiation​.2 The ultimate goal is to prevent disease. Radence takes steps to help members change the trajectory of their health risk with proactive measures. Detecting plaque early can allow for more aggressive management of cholesterol, blood pressure, and other risk factors to prevent heart attacks and strokes before requiring invasive treatment. A member’s care plan is tailored to them. How to Reduce Your Risk

Atherosclerosis is a serious and progressive condition that is often undetectable without medical imaging. By recognizing personal risk factors, undergoing appropriate testing, and initiating preventive strategies early, Radence members can greatly reduce their risk of heart attack, stroke, and other complications.

At Radence, we are committed to proactive health management. Carotid ultrasound, blood work, genetics, body composition, and other gold-standard testing modalities are valuable components of a comprehensive approach to preserving cardiovascular and neurological health, providing invaluable data about your future.

No matter if you are asymptomatic, have risk factors, or wish to better understand your vascular health, Radence will help put you on a personalized data-driven path to proactive health.

Investing in prevention today can help safeguard your health for years to come.

 

Chen CH, Hung CL, Po HL, et al. Early detection of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic patients assessed by carotid duplex and coronary computed tomography. Int J Gerontol. 2013;7(1):27-34. Johnson HM, Turke TL, Grossklaus M, et al. Effects of an office-based carotid ultrasound screening intervention. J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 2011;24(7):738-747.