Jonathan Amm thought he was perfectly healthy … until he was hit with a cancer diagnosis. Living with the illness made him look at his own lifestyle. Now he’s helping others do the same
A CANCER diagnosis inspired Jonathan Amm to launch a business to help people put their health in their own hands.
He’s the founder of Wild Atlantic Health based in Riverstick. As a new preventative health company, it uses a tiny pinprick of blood on a home test to identify nutrient deficiencies and potential health problems and then proactively addresses them with a doctor, formulated supplements, and diet and lifestyle recommendations.
‘Living with leukaemia forced me to take a real hard look at my health and to make some significant changes in the areas of nutrition, exercise, supplements and sleep to get my own health back on track,’ said Jonathan.
Originally from Johannesburg, he previously worked with Irish-born billionaire Bill Lynch in South Africa and he now lives in Carrigaline. He was a founding member and headed up marketing for the Motor Finance Corporation (MFC) which went on to become the market leader in vehicle financing in South Africa.
‘My wife Trish and I decided to move to Ireland in 2008 with two young boys for a better quality of life, and a bit of an adventure. We both have Irish grandparents and we fell in love with the place when we were here on our honeymoon in 2002. What we like about Cork is that it has the bustle and character of a city, but half an hour in any direction you’re in the country,’ he said.
‘We arrived in Ireland without jobs, knowing no one, as the economic recession hit. It was a challenging time but I was fortunate to use my entrepreneurial experience to start a branding business here called Change Agents,’ he said.
At the time, he thought he was healthy ... until he was hit with the diagnosis.
‘We all tend to associate fitness with health but often forget about health on the inside,’ adds Jonathan.
‘Being confronted with your mortality really gets the mind keenly focused on staying healthy for longer.’
He struggled to get key biomarkers measured locally and ended up sending blood samples to the UK and Spain for analysis and found he was chronically deficient in Vitamin D.
In adversity lies the seeds of opportunity, he says, and his own challenges became the genesis of the new business.
‘Doing a lot of research at the time, I found studies that highlighted a significant link between chronic health conditions and nutrient deficiencies. Research has shown that 80% of chronic health conditions are preventable with the right nutrition and lifestyle changes.’
The Wild Atlantic Health team used the pandemic lockdowns to design and prototype a range of innovative home tests which measure a range of different biomarkers including Vitamin D and Omega-3.
‘Just as smoking reduces lifespan by five years on average, a higher Omega-3 index level can increase life expectancy by almost five years,’ he said.
Often blood test results can be confusing and challenging to understand. Wild Atlantic Health has simplified that with a colour coding system to make the results more friendly, and what to do about it more actionable.
‘Our preventative health platform helps identify “nutrient gaps” with a simple home blood test, giving people a baseline from which to improve,’ he explained.
Jonathan says we tend to associate fitness with health but often forget about health on the inside.
The team also developed an app which provides users with their results in two weeks and also offers nutrition and lifestyle recommendations, and to match their home tests they launched Omega-3 and Vitamin D3+K2+A health supplements.
As the company grows they are seeing four consumer groups of customers emerge ‘The middle-aged Worried Well, a group with chronic health conditions; the Worried Unwell; a younger group we call the Health Optimsers, who are into sports and fitness, and then the Graceful Ageing group who are looking to stay physically fit and cognitively sharp well into their 70s and beyond,’ he said.
So far the company has raised over €600,000 in a seed round from Irish and US-based investors with strong links to Kinsale.
In October they kicked off another funding round which closes on December 31st and funds raised will be used to grow the team and new product development. Wild Atlantic Health employs three full-time staff with the intention to double that in the next year.
The product range is available online and is growing nationally, now available in 40 stores.
‘At Wild Atlantic Health, the mission is to democratise health by giving people access to vital health markers and the right recommendations on their supplements before health problems become a major issue,’ said Jonathan. ‘They say early detection is the best prevention and as a mission-driven start-up, if we can help just one person, that would make a world of difference.’
