Health was never part of Bob Woods’ career plan. After decades in finance and co-founding Mattioli Woods, he explains why he is now backing a new approach with Lasting Health.
Launched in June 2026, lastinghealth provides an at home testing service designed to identify metabolites associated with exposure to environmental toxins. The aim is to help people better understand what may be in their bodies.
Woods explains he was inspired to create the business as a result of his own health. He says: ‘I’ve always considered myself reasonably fit and healthy. The only thing that really plagued me was asthma, and strangely it got worse as I got older rather than better.’
By his mid-fifties, Woods said that even drinking a glass of red wine could trigger an asthma attack, which sometimes lasted several hours. He explains: ‘I didn’t really want to keep going back to my GP for another Ventolin inhaler, so I started looking for alternatives.’
His search led him to a specialist clinic that investigated environmental causes of illness. After a series of tests, Woods says doctors identified elevated levels of several substances that he had never knowingly been exposed to.
‘I remember thinking, ‘How on earth have these chemicals got into my body?’ Their response was almost to laugh. They explained that we now live surrounded by hundreds of thousands of chemicals used in everyday products.’
Following this encounter, Woods spent two and a half years undergoing a detoxification programme. He says: ‘Every six months they tested me and the levels gradually came down. By the end of the programme I realised I hadn’t had an asthma attack for six months.’
Although Woods acknowledges that this is a personal experience rather than scientific proof, he claims it sparked long-standing interest in environmental health.
‘I started reading everything I could find,’ Woods explains. ‘I subscribed to medical journals, although I have to admit most of the detailed science was beyond me. What struck me was that there seemed to be growing evidence that trace environmental exposures deserved much more research.’
That interest eventually led him to the University of Leicester, where a conversation with Professor Phil Baker proved pivotal. Woods says: ‘I tentatively asked if he thought trace toxins might be a real issue. He said, ‘For sure’. As an obstetrician, he was particularly concerned because toxins have a bigger impact on foetuses and infants than on fully grown adults.’
However, Professor Baker said the university couldn’t do much research into this area because they lacked funding and the only way they could establish a centre dedicated to this work was through philanthropy.
Fortunately, Woods was in a position to help and this lead to the creation of what is now the University’s Centre for Environmental Health. Since then, he says, the centre has grown substantially, attracting research funding and working with the health and safety executive on projects investigating chemical exposure across the UK population.
‘The important thing is that this is proper academic research,’ Woods says. ‘These are scientists trying to understand an incredibly complicated area.’
Woods continues: ‘There are statistics that are very clear, such as increases in certain diseases over recent decades. What’s much harder is proving exactly which chemicals, or combinations of chemicals, might contribute and how they affect different people.’
That complication is one of the reasons Woods says he’s been careful in developing lastinghealth. Rather than claiming to diagnose illness or predict future disease, the home test is designed to measure metabolites – substances produced when the body processes certain chemicals – providing an indication of a person’s exposure relative to a large reference population.
‘The body is constantly trying to get rid of toxins,’ he explains. ‘What we’re measuring aren’t the chemicals themselves but the metabolites left behind when the body detoxifies. That’s currently the most reliable way of doing it.’
The testing is carried out by a specialist laboratory in the United States, which Woods says has spent decades analysing environmental toxin metabolites for healthcare practitioners.
‘We looked for the most credible laboratory we could find,’ he says. ‘They’ve built up decades of data, so when someone receives their results, they’re compared against many thousands of previous tests. It’s not saying you’ve got a specific amount of one chemical in your body, but whether your levels are relatively low, medium or high.’
For Woods, the test is about more than the results it produces, rather what they encourage people to do next. He explains: ‘If someone discovers they’re carrying relatively high levels, they may decide to look at their lifestyle and ask where those exposures are coming from.’
He says that one of his colleagues at lastinghealth began making changes after discovering they had elevated glyphosate (which is used to kill weeds) levels, including choosing to eat more organic foods. When she re-took the test, she found these levels were considerably lower.
‘That gave her peace of mind,’ Woods says. ‘People want to know whether the changes they’re making are actually having an effect.’
He adds: ‘Most people would say diet and exercise are the two pillars of health, but we’re suggesting detoxification could become a third pillar. That’s not to replace the others, but to sit alongside them.’
Looking to the future
Woods claims that environmental toxins are an area that require a lot more scientific research. He says: ‘No serious researcher is saying that one particular chemical definitely causes one particular disease in every person. Human biology is far more complicated than that.
‘Everybody has a unique genetic makeup and everybody has a unique combination of environmental exposures. That’s why it’s such a difficult field to study.’
Despite the uncertainty, Woods argues there is enough evidence to justify further investigation and greater public awareness. He points to research into air pollution, fertility and chemical exposure that he believes highlights the importance of continuing scientific work.
‘I think the biggest mistake would be to ignore the issue simply because it’s complicated,’ Woods claims. He states that, one day, he hopes his testing could contribute to a broader conversation about prevention rather than treatment.
‘I’d like to think that one day testing of this sort could become a routine part of healthcare, but we’re a long way from that. There’s still a huge amount of research to be done,’ he says.
‘There are enormous commercial interests involved. If researchers eventually demonstrate that particular chemicals are causing harm, the consequences would be significant.’
For now, however, Woods insists his priority is simply encouraging people to ask questions about their environment and to make informed choices where possible.
‘My own experience completely changed the way I think about health,’ he says. ‘I’m not trying to frighten people. I’m trying to make people aware that there are aspects of our environment we’re only beginning to understand. If greater awareness encourages more research and helps people make healthier choices, then that’s a positive step.’
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