Toward Health Contributions to Medicine, Research and Education

Dr. Tro Kalayjian founded the practice that became Toward Health in 2018 after losing 150 pounds himself. He knew how little “eat less and move more” offered someone who was still hungry. He brought clinicians and health coaches together, many with firsthand experience of obesity, diabetes or food addiction, to give patients the practical help he had once needed.

The research grew out of what patients noticed. In one early report, three people with type 2 diabetes saw their blood sugar improve and needed less medication before they had lost much weight. When patients described fewer binges after changing how they ate, the team studied that question too. In a later study, binge-eating scores fell by about a third on average. Dr. Tro, Dr. Laura Buchanan and colleagues also studied a year of metabolic care for 50 employees. Average weight loss was 15.5%, and clinicians stopped 96 medications and started eight.

The coaches brought those same patient concerns into rooms where medical advice takes shape. Amy Eiges testified before the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee about decades of dieting and persistent hunger. Tia Reid taught health professionals about food addiction from her own experience of recovery. Toward Health’s mission is to make sure that what patients live through shapes the questions medicine asks and the care the next patient receives.