Longevity, or Prevention 2.0

Hello from the U.K., where I’ve been catching up with old friends and new this week. There’s a very human tendency to believe the grass is always greener, so it’s been eye opening talking to Londoners about their views of their own healthcare system. Unsurprisingly, the NHS is a source of immense concern for locals. But they don’t view the U.S. as a panacea either.

One of my goals for the next few years is to do what I can to help increase the connectivity between the innovators in both countries. The U.K. also has private insurance, as well as the NHS, and an openness to new ideas, particularly in areas like behavioral health, genetics, digital and tech.

More relevant to the topic of this week’s edition - longevity - I have an appointment booked tomorrow in Stockholm for a long-awaited Neko scan. Neko recently raised a $260 million series B and has locations in the UK and Sweden. It offers a series of tests, including a scan and bloodwork, plus access to health practitioners to interpret the results. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is closely connected to the initiative, as a cofounder, alongside Swedish entrepreneur Hjalmar Nilsonne. I’m planning to spend some time wtih Nilsonne and will report back on the experience! Stay tuned for a possible U.S. expansion.

Thank you to Annalisa Merelli for the writeup - below - of a recent conversation I had with Heartbeat Health’s Dr. Jeff Wessler on the difference between longevity and prevention.

By Annalisa Merelli

Tech entrepreneurs — they are just like us. They age. The once twenty-something startup founders are now middle-aged individuals who once saw lost sleep and unhealthy habits as a point of pride but are now coming to understand them as a health issue. 

So how do they deal with it? Enter the longevity space: health-tech companies and concierge services offering tests and scans, looking for early indicators and proxies for disease, and offering patients insights into their health. Though those aren’t entirely new, they are particularly hot right now: after all, once young tech consumers are also aging, and as they approach or pass their 40s, their risk for health issues increases. 

But isn’t longevity, well, the whole point of medicine? Is this anything truly new? Can it have a real impact or does it just end up sending worried healthy people to the doctor with Apple Watch Syndrome? 

On the Second Opinion podcast, our editor-in-chief Christina Farr discussed with Dr. Jeff Wessler, a cardiologist and the CEO of Heartbeat Health, a virtual cardiology practice focused on identifying and managing moderate and high-risk cardiovascular issues. Christina has known Jeff for more than a decade, and he’s been on the forefront of making prevention accessible - particularly when it comes to heart health. This conversation focused on the question posed by Sunita Mohanty, a health-tech entrepreneur, who mused that longevity is essentially a more accessible version of prevention. Many of the recommendations are the same — eat well, sleep well, drink less alcohol — but patients have the opportunity to reach those conclusions via their own Nof1 experiments, typically guided by a clinician or health coach.

This conversation focused on the question posed by Sunita Mohanty, a health-tech entrepreneur, who mused that longevity is essentially a more accessible version of prevention. Many of the recommendations are the same — eat well, sleep well, drink less alcohol — but patients have the opportunity to reach those conclusions via their own Nof1 experiments, typically guided by a clinician or health coach. When he thinks about longevity tech, Dr. Wessler’s mind immediately goes to a fact that may be surprising for some: heart attacks are almost entirely predictable. Though most people, including well-informed ones working in the medical field, think heart attacks are sudden, without any warning signs, we have enough understanding of how a heart attack happens and how the risk factors will develop in its lead-up. (As Christina joked on the podcast, it may be time to give heart attack a rebrand?) So how can longevity play a role in heart health? And what makes it different from prevention? For Second Opinion subscribers, we dug in.

So how can longevity play a role in heart health? Is longevity a clever rebranding of prevention? And what makes it different? For Second Opinion subscribers, we dug in.