During her tenure as the Vice President of Global Marketing at Teva Pharmaceuticals, Rachel Yarcony experienced significant stress that hindered her ability to relax and sleep at night. Despite working for a pharmaceutical company, she was reluctant to use medications to alleviate her stress. A doctor introduced her to adaptogens—natural herbs and fungi known for their stress-relieving properties. Inspired by the benefits she experienced, Yarcony envisioned a way to share these concepts with a broader audience.
She founded myAir, a company that harnesses the power of adaptogens and personalized nutrition to help consumers manage their stress levels. Upon creating an account, users complete a questionnaire assessing their stress levels and preferences. Based on their responses, they receive a tailored selection of nutrition bars designed to specifically address their stress. The myAir app, compatible with smartwatches, tracks vital signs and provides real-time feedback on how the bars affect the user’s well-being.
Before joining Teva, Yarcony worked for consumer packaged goods companies like Nestlé and Strauss. Reflecting on the evolution of the food industry, she noted that two decades ago, companies focused primarily on increasing product sales. Over time, they shifted toward functional foods, incorporating ingredients such as probiotics and natural stimulants. “The third generation of food is functional and personalized—food that works for me,” Yarcony explained. “That’s exactly what myAir is about. We leverage personal data to help individuals manage their stress effectively, making it simple to choose healthier options over traditional snacks.”
The myAir bars are crafted with natural ingredients recognized for their relaxation benefits, including cocoa, oats, hazelnuts, cranberries, lemon, lavender, sage, eucalyptus, black pepper, and passionflower. Some bars aim to alleviate daytime tension using ingredients like sage, while others promote better focus with eucalyptus. There are also formulations designed to aid sleep, featuring ingredients like hops. Each bar is a convenient snack-sized portion, containing between 80 to 100 calories, and they offer a pleasant taste without the protein aftertaste often found in other bars.
After completing the initial stress assessment, consumers can order a month’s supply of myAir bars, conveniently delivered to their homes. The price is $50 per box on the myAir website, or $40 with a subscription. Users with smartwatches can synchronize their devices with myAir, which has partnered with Garmin to enhance data collection. Yarcony stated that the company gathers eight to ten data points daily from myAir users, including metrics on physical activity, diet, and sleep, to create a comprehensive profile of the bars’ effectiveness. They also track stress levels, noting when users feel the most stressed and how their sleep patterns affect overall well-being.
According to myAir’s website, most users report experiencing the bars’ benefits within the first five days, though individual results may vary. Data from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology indicated that 73% of users improved their anxiety scores, and 84% experienced better sleep quality. More than half reported longer sleep durations, while 64% noted an increase in deep sleep.
While myAir is available to all consumers via its website, Yarcony mentioned that the company primarily focuses on partnerships with large corporations. myAir offers wellness packages that include the bars and Garmin smartwatches as employee benefits aimed at stress management. One notable client, Intel, has found the program to be exceptionally popular, fostering ongoing discussions about health-conscious eating among employees.
Despite collecting extensive data from users, Yarcony observed that privacy concerns appear minimal. Her experience in pharmaceuticals taught her that many people are willing to share personal information if it leads to valuable insights or control over their health. “All the data is for my benefit; it helps me understand my stress levels and sleep patterns better,” Yarcony noted. “When I learned about my peak stress times and sleep quality, it provided clarity on my experiences.”
Focusing primarily on stress reduction—a challenge for approximately 75% of the U.S. population—myAir currently has no plans to expand into other health products. Nevertheless, Yarcony believes that more food and beverage companies will increasingly explore food-as-medicine, personalization, and data utilization in the future. “Technology is transforming mundane tasks,” she said, pointing out that most people now rely on smartphones for navigation instead of paper maps. “Nutrition will follow the same trajectory,” she predicted. “We will adapt our eating and lifestyle choices based on our unique cognitive and behavioral signatures. This is precisely what we aim to achieve—we collect physiological data to serve the consumer’s needs effectively.”
In this context, integrating specific ingredients like calcium citrate to elemental calcium into functional foods could further enhance their health benefits, showcasing the potential for personalization in nutrition.