Oxford Healthspan

Oxford Healthspan was founded by Leslie Kenny, an Oxford-based entrepreneur born in California and a graduate of Berkeley and Harvard Business School.

As well as becoming a certified health coach, Leslie began helping scientists at leading European universities, including the University of Oxford, to raise money for their health discoveries. It was at a meeting with one such scientist that she learned of a natural compound called spermidine, found in a Japanese fermented soybean dish called natto.

Spermidine was showing great promise in supporting healthy aging with its ability to induce autophagy, our body’s cellular renewal process that slows as we age. The science was compelling - scientists were calling it 'an anti-aging vitamin'’ - and it was safe. However, because it was a natural and food-derived compound, not a drug that would bring in more money, no one was interested in promoting it.

Leslie tried (and struggled) to find natto in the US, and when she did come across it, she realized with its seriously sticky texture and funky taste and smell, that it wasn’t for the faint-hearted! Spotting the unmet need for an alternative to natto, she decided to bring a highly concentrated spermidine supplement to the US market. With the support of esteemed University of Oxford scientists and doctors that make up our Board of Scientific and Clinical Advisors, she launched Oxford Healthspan with its flagship product, the plant-derived spermidine supplement, Primeadine®.

Since then, the research on spermidine has mounted and human clinical trials have been conducted, showing it to inhibit 9 of the 12 aging pathways (the Hallmarks of Aging), such as inflammation, gut dysbiosis, and stem cell and mitochondrial dysfunction, and trigger autophagy. Studies also revealed it to increase lifespan, enhance hair growth, and improve heart health, memory and cognition.