The XPRIZE Healthspan Competition launched in 2023 with 600 competitors from all over the world. The goal: “create innovative therapies that restore muscle, cognitive, and immune function by a minimum of 10 years (with a goal of 20), to make healthy aging possible for everyone.” Last spring, the 40 semi-finalists were announced and Orange County’s Lionheart Health, Inc., in association with Leonhardt Ventures, made the cut, along with innovators from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Switzerland and France, to name a few.
With more than 700 issued and pending patent claims, hundreds of patients treated across dozens of indications in studies, and active enrollment in a landmark Lionheart KLOTHO-UP study for the competition, Lionheart Health, Inc. and its parent company Leonhardt Ventures LLC have assembled one of the most expansive regenerative medicine pipelines in the world. And its innovation continues with major breakthroughs not just in physical and cosmetic effects of aging but essentially every area of human health: cardiac, vascular, musculoskeletal, nerve, sexual, brain, hearing and eyesight in addition to revelations in cancer treatment.
Klotho is an aging related protein that has been the subject of thousands of studies (4463 in PubMed). Stimulating the body’s ability to produce higher levels of Klotho and channeling it to the areas that can most benefit have been at the core of the technology and treatments Lionheart has developed and continues to develop. Lionheart Health has developed, patented and is testing multiple technologies for increasing klotho levels anchored by bioelectric stimulation signaling sequences that get stimulated tissues, like muscle and kidneys, to secrete more klotho into the bloodstream.
Other klotho increasing technologies patented or patent pending include klotho expressing stem cells, bioelectric enhanced klotho nanoflowers, peptides, super PRF, exosomes, secretome and nutrient hydrogel (includes amniotic fluid, Wharton’s Jelly and placenta derived biologics). The team has also developed klotho stimulating micro bioelectric implants the size of pead (to be implanted in klotho producing nodule of the kidneys and in other organs as needed). For this development Medtech Outlook Magazine recognized Lionheart Health, Inc, as Micro Stimulator Developer of the Year 2025.
The company previously won the Abbvie Allergan ULP Innovation Award and last year was a finalist in both the Orange County Business Journal Innovator of the Year Awards and the OCTANE Life Sciences Technology Company of the Year Award.
California Business Journal sat down with Executive Chairman and co-CEO Howard Leonhardt, to find out about the company’s strategy as they near a major milestone this spring.
“We entered XPRIZE a couple of years ago; there were 600 competitors entered,” he says. “We made the semi-finals, which means we knocked out 560 other research teams, and now we’re up against 39 others. The semi-finalists received $250,000. On April 13th, 2026, we will turn in our data and protocol to attempt to make it to the final 10, which will be awarded $1 million each. Then, after 18 to 24 months (1 year of treatment), the Grand Prize application will be filed to attempt to win the $81 million Grand Prize. This is the award if a 20-year health-span gain is achieved (muscle, immunity, and brain health measured) and half of that, if a 10-year gain is achieved. A second prize, focused on muscle-only, will be awarded $10 million.”
Leonhardt plans to bring a full arsenal of holistic data to turn over to the XPRIZE committee.
“We are ensuring we have coverage across the board in case we end up in a tie with one of the other competitors; the tiebreaker is holistic,” he says. “We’re doing vision and hearing recovery studies, sexual, joint, skin and hair-health rejuvenation. We’re going to turn in all that data in case we have a tie on the muscle, brain, and immunity areas – which are the core of the competition. We hope to break the tie by winning on other age-related, quality-of-life factors such as improved hearing, vision, sexual vitality, etc.”
Leonhardt explains that Klotho levels are key to how a person ages. Those with lower Klotho levels will experience age-related ailments earlier in life. For instance, hair loss, mental cognition and memory decline, vision and hearing loss, skin wrinkles, sore joints, loss of sexual vitality, reduced immunity strength, higher inflammation and blood pressure levels, may come on more quickly. Of course, there are genetic, behavioral, and environmental conditions that affect aging, but Klotho levels may help us better withstand those effects, as well.
Scientists have postulated that every 4% drop in klotho levels may mean another year loss of healthspan. Lionheart Health and other research teams are seeking to prove out that every 4% increase can possibly increase the odds of another year of health living, so a 40% gain would mean 10 years increased healthspan and 80% 20 years. Of course there a many other variables to consider and statistically significant well designed studies need to be completed to prove this out.
“Facial wrinkles, heart failure, kidney failure, complications to arteries and heart valves, high blood pressure, a higher chance of diabetes, a higher chance of many cancers, sexual vitality drops, and joints are sore are all age-related,” says Leonhardt. “We all experience it, and we’ve seen it in our loved ones who have gone through it. These things hit everybody, but we want them to hit you at age 100 rather than 50.”
He breaks down the Klotho study’s core, which is diagnostics and treatments. For treatments, the people who join the study must, as a mandatory minimum core, receive home deliveries of klotho-favoring diet meals for about $12.99 (they can shop and prepare food themselves to save money and take photos to send our clinician team), and they must eat that healthy food 70% of the time. The other 30% of the time, they eat what they would normally eat. They also take three daily supplements.
“The rejuvenating supplement from partner Rejuvant is based on caAKG and that supplement alone has published one study and has two more coming, and they’re showing that it reverses age by 8 years, at least for the biomarkers they chose,” says Leonhardt. “We also collect saliva samples from the people in the study, and design a customized nutritional supplement based on their exact body needs. That’s from an Orange County company called SNiP Nutrigenomics led by Kim Ressler. We also provide supplement from a Dallas company called KlothaMax intended to elevate circulating klotho levels, we also recommend Good Idea TM a health metabolic sparkling water that reduces blood sugar levels; the central theme of our multi-modality approach is to increase circulation Klotho levels in the study participants.”
He explains that subjects must also wear the Lionheart Health’s BodStim TM electrical muscle stimulation suit for an hour, at least 2-3 times a week. The first five minutes is stretching, then 20 minutes of exercise.
“We prefer heavy exercise, aerobic and weightlifting exercise, and then the remaining time, with the 35 minutes left, 30 is for Klotho stimulation, in five minutes for Follistatin stimulation. And during that time, they can do whatever they want, cooking, sitting at the computer, taking a walk, whatever they want. The patented bioelectric signaling sequences that we have been proven in extensive studies to increase the secretion of Klotho from stimulated muscle, skin and kidney tissues. So they have to basically eat healthy meals, take supplements, and exercise with the BodStim TM suit is the mandatory core of the Lionheart KLOTHO-UP Study Protocol.”
To really commit, subjects can travel to Mexico, Costa Rica, or Dubai to receive a customized peptide stack containing Klotho peptides, or opt for Klotho cell or gene therapy, which is injected into both thighs.
“Those treatments haven’t been cleared in the United States, though,” he says. “They have to go to licensed clinics in Mexico, Costa Rica or Dubai. They can be in the study without choosing these higher risk options. The data shows that if you are low-Klotho, which was defined as below 588 pg/ml you are at higher risk of reaching all aging related ailments, including early death, earlier in your life. Our KLOTHO-UP study goal is to get klotho levels up. A young person in super shape in their early 30s might have a level of about 900 to 1,300 pg/ml, and we want to bring people back up to that level. ”
There needs to be at least 45 people in the study. If you are 50 to 85 and in the San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles or Santa Barbara areas, they are recruiting now. Those interested in participating in the study, go here.
Another area where Lionheart is demonstrating revolutionary technology is with its patented stem-cell homing technology, particularly with the Lionheart 240 WellnessPro Infinity and Mettler Electronics Stimulators (Made in Anaheim, California) programmed with Lionheart’s patented signaling sequences.
“We began by first applying it to animals with cardiac issues and eventually, people. Now it’s good for everything. If we put it on your face, your hair scalp or your ailing joints, we get stem cells from fat, circulating blood and bone marrow to migrate to the target stimulated tissues, then increase them and control the differentiation of them to the target tissue purpose.”
This technology can release regenerative proteins (SDF1, PDGF, S100a, VEGF, COL17A1, Tropoelastin, Sestrins, Sirtuins, LIM Muscle, Sonic Hedgehog, Apelin, Klotho, Follistatin, eNOS) that grow new blood vessels to improves circulation, can reduce inflammation, reconnect nerves, and builds muscle. If applied to the skin, it regenerates the skin. If applied to the scalp, it regenerates hair. If applied to sexual organs, it revives them. If applied to joints, it heals them. All with the same single platform technology device and software.
The company has seen significant progress in the following areas:
- Heart and cardiovascular
- Brain health.
- Cosmetic and personal care.
- Major organ regeneration.
- Cancer
Information on all the technologies, innovations and treaments from Lionheart Health can be found on the company’s websites http://www.LionheartHealhStim.com + http://www.LionheartLongvity.com
Lionheart Health launched this week the Lionheart Health Optimization Membership
Program https://lionheartlongevity.com/membership/ with only $463 in membership fee charged for year 1. This basic entry to membership includes a 461 biomarker blood test which includes klotho, an hour consultation with a functional medicine clinician, a kit to design personalized supplements made just for you and a full personalized health optimization plan to help you meet your own goals.
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