#179 Hypertension, Wearables and Longevity: How Blood Pressure Monitoring Could Save Millions with Hilo's Josep Solà

Now, today I'm going to be interviewing Joseph Solar, who is the chief technology officer and co-founder of Actia, the business and brand behind the Hylo band.

Now, before we get into the actual conversation that happened in July, I traveled to Switzerland to meet Joseph and It was a really eye-opening conversation.

We're lucky enough on the Modern Wellness Podcast to meet what I would call innovators and inventors.

What's unbelievable is that he'd been researching the technology behind this device for about two decades.

And sometimes you meet founders who've dedicated their whole life to solving a problem that impacted them.

the people and their friends and family around them.

And that was exactly the case of Joseph.

Now, I've actually been wearing the Hilo band since the interview or since before the interview.

And I just wanted to share before you get into the show, my own thoughts of the band, because before wearing the band, I hadn't really had my blood pressure tested, maybe once a year, maybe less than that.

Obviously, we've been to clinics around the world.

You get a test and it always comes back negative.

in a pretty good range.

Now, hypertension, which is the core subject and the core problem they're trying to solve with the Hylo band is that it kills 10 million people globally and it costs the overall economy about $260 billion.

It's called the silent killer because we just don't know about it.

So why would you wear the Hylo band? You know, we've got all these other devices, whoops and auras and garments and Apple watches, etc., etc., But this is the only clinical grade device in the world.

And they spent, like I said, two decades developing it.

What is really interesting is that their data already shows that engagement with the Hilo app, it comes with an app and it tracks your sleep and your steps and it gives you your systolic blood pressure, it gives you your readings.

is that the more users open the app, the lower their blood pressure goes.

So they're genuinely solving a problem.

It already supports, I think, they've got a quarter of a million users that just raised investment from Michael Dell.

And the experience for me has been really, really positive because when you open it, you actually pay attention to the blood pressure.

Mine was slightly elevated at times.

And instead of having one reading a year or every six months or less from a cuff, This clinical grade device is taking up to 800 readings a month, and it gives you an overall picture of your blood pressure when you're sleeping, during the day.

The whole point is about taking action.

So even for myself, whose blood pressure seems okay, sometimes it's slightly elevated.