Rebel Aging: Leslie Kenny of Oxford Healthspan talks autophagy and longevity

Leslie Kenny joined Sarah and Russ to share her knowledge around autophagy, and how it could be the next big think for longevity.

Show notes:
When we're young, our tissues and gut microbiota produce a magical substance called spermidine, which triggers autophagy. It is so essential to all life that it is found in high quantities in sperm, breast milk, and all plants, especially the endosperm of seeds, where it helps the next generation survive and grow. As we age, our ability to manufacture spermidine declines, but we can still help our body spark the cellular renewal process by supplementing with food-derived spermidine and the other polyamines that naturally occur with it, such as spermine and putrescine.

About Leslie:
Leslie Kenny is an autoimmune disease survivor and certified health coach. After meeting world-class Oxford scientists with potentially life-changing discoveries, Leslie realized the decade it often takes to get these discoveries from lab to consumer was a decade too long. That's when Primeadine®'s parent company, Oxford Healthspan, was born. She founded Oxford Healthspan to identify anti-aging compounds with strong clinical safety profiles and bring them to market as nutritional supplements. Spermidine is the first of those compounds.

Oxford Healthspan was founded by Leslie Kenny, a Southern Californian entrepreneur and Berkeley and Harvard Business School graduate, whose life was turned upside down when she was diagnosed with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis in her 30s. When her doctors told her lupus had a life expectancy of 5 years and that rheumatoid arthritis could only be managed, not cured, she set out to optimize her health as best she could using safe, natural solutions.

She went back to school at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in NYC, became a Bulletproof Coach under health pioneer, Dave Asprey, and took on health coaching clients around the world.

At the same time, she began helping life sciences academics at European universities including Oxford, where she lives, to raise money for their discoveries. It was at a meeting with one such scientist that she learned about a natural compound called spermidine, rich in a traditional Japanese dish she had grown up with, natto. Spermidine was showing great promise supporting health as we age. The science was compelling - one scientist even called it 'an anti-aging vitamin' in a published scientific journal - and it was safe, but because it was natural and food-derived and not a drug which would bring in more money, no one was interested in promoting it.

Leslie immediately wanted her octogenarian mother back home in California to take it, especially since natto is very hard to come by (it's quite smelly for one thing!) Unfortunately, spermidine wasn’t available in the US or really even known there. Spotting this unmet need, she decided to bring it to the US herself. Today, at age 57, Leslie is living proof that we can get better with age, so long as we take responsibility for our health and meet our doctors halfway. Primeadine® is part of her anti-aging arsenal and she hopes it will become part of yours too.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is solely intended as a self-help tool for your own use.