淋巴健康 RenuSpa Dr. Joe Chang

No, no, no. I was just saying we'll treat this as a conversation in the chat, right? So as we go through, we just don't want to do a formal presentation from my side. It's sort of a discussion format, might be actually a bit more productive for many of the folks here. And we're already starting to get questions, which I sort of assume when these questions are coming through that the WellSpa is available in Europe. I notice some of them are also Asian, looking at the names, it seems like there's some folks from Korea as well and so on. But anyway, I'm just going to assume that people have heard a little bit about this device, but I will sort of give you a little bit of perspective of how we came about developing this particular product. It is interesting with your introduction, it reminds me, you know, more than 20 years ago, that's when I was one of the co-founders of Pharmanex. And more than 20 years ago, in 1998, that was when Pharmanex came together with Nu Skin, you know, and sort of joined and then it sort of merged together as one company. And it's always struck me as interesting because when I looked at Nu Skin, the reason why they were so interested in acquiring Pharmanex was because of this possibility, the future potential, how we can actually integrate the skin health together with wellness, the internal health, I will call it. And at that time when they were looking at it, it was really more of a vision and it was more or less something sort of a glint in our eyes and we're never quite sure how we can actually execute on that concept. And on the scientific side, I was looking at it and I'm saying, gee, you know, we're the only company frankly where we have a lot of extensive knowledge of skin care. We have a whole bunch of products we've developed looking at bringing benefits to the skin. And then now with the acquisition of Pharmanex 20 years ago, we have also created and developed a whole bunch of products for better nutrition inside the body. And I would challenge everybody on this call to sort of really look extensively at our competitors and so on. I doubt you can find another company that has that equally robust skin care line that is so intimately connected to a nutritional supplement category or product line. Usually, typically, you're strong in one but not in the others and vice versa. And Nu Skin has achieved a status right now where we really have two. I mean, if you just look at our revenue as a metric, you can see 50% of our revenue comes from the Pharmanex nutrition products and then the other remaining 50% comes from the Nu Skin kind of skin care products. So it's very nicely balanced. And our vision now going forward is that we have indeed become a truly integrated beauty and wellness company. That really, for our intents and purposes, it's really what we have become and evolved into now. So this idea, when I was looking at the skin, as soon as I joined Nu Skin 20 years ago, I said, well, one day we'll be able to do it because after all, the skin is part and parcel of the body. I think we all appreciate the fact that the skin, when we look at it, it's on the outside, but really when you sort of look at the signs and how it is part of the body, it is in fact the largest organ of the body, except we just spread it throughout the whole body. You don't really see that, but you aggregate it together, it is the largest organ in our body. So when you manipulate that, the concept therefore becomes, you say, well, we're doing a lot of stuff on the skin and somehow if we're bringing benefits to the skin, surely by manipulating the skin, we can also manipulate what's underneath the skin. Because the skin is connected to the muscle and connected to a system which I will talk about very soon, very close to each other, they're intimately connected. So when you're manipulating the skin on the outside, surely some of that manipulation or stimulation, if you will, will also be sort of translated or communicated to the rest of the internal tissues. That was a simple idea at that time, but I'm not sure 20 years ago we could have executed and developed a product to be able to do that because we didn't have enough of the science yet, we didn't have enough of the engineering yet, and we didn't have enough of the technology. So these were the three elements that we have to bring together to be able to achieve this objective, and that is to both bring beauty and wellness benefits together into one product.

Yeah, so it's very visual and it's very sort of indicative of the overall wellness or well-being that you have inside your body by just a reflection of the skin. So let me bring up some slides and share with you. I think that might trigger some of the message points that I think could be very useful to you. So share screen, share this. Can you see it?

Okay, I'm going to bring up one slide at a time, put it on a projection mode. Okay, perfect. So anyway, this is the device that we're going to talk about that's shown on this particular slide. It's called the WellSpa. Many of you, if not all of you, have seen it, but I'm going to give you some background behind it and why we're so excited initially about the science and the benefits that it can confer by using this particular device. And I think you're going to find it when you use it that those benefits are truly meaningful. But we are now the number one, for intents and purposes, right? There was another notion when we look at it over the years. We have developed the galvanic, the LumiSpa, the Boost, and so on. We have several devices including actually the biophotonic scanner. But when I look at all these devices, it's either very much focused on the face on the skin care side or is a measurement tool like we have in the biophotonic scanner. They're all very useful and indeed, you know, when you look at what we have become, we have become the number one world beauty device systems company. And it has brought, more importantly to me, is that with the development of these devices, it gave us a lot of data and insights in terms of what we should be doing next. And that's one thing when you combine all that data together, that's also contributed to the development of the WellSpa. On the science side, this is where it's sort of really dawned on us, right? And I really hinted at this, and that is when you manipulate the skin, you're also manipulating a network of vessels that are very closely connected to the skin. And this network is called the lymphatic system. Now why is it so important, the lymphatic system? Well, when you look at the lymphatic system in terms of its distribution around the body, it's actually three times wider and there are more lymphatic vessels than blood vessels, for example. The pink as shown on this particular slide is the blood circulatory system, the green is the lymphatic system, and it's much wider than the blood system. Now there's another very significant difference between the two. We know that the blood can only circulate throughout the body with the help of what we call a pump, and the pump is the heart. We all appreciate very quickly that if that pump, the so-called heart, stops, the blood stops circulating. And for intents and purposes, within a few minutes, the whole body shuts down. So it's very, very important for that heart to continue to pump the blood throughout the body, which means what that translates to is the fact that regardless of whether you're sitting down or standing up or lying down, it really doesn't matter the position of the body, the blood will circulate actively throughout the body. So that's how the blood circulation works. By contrast, on the other end, when you look at this schematic, you notice that the lymphatic system lacks a pump. It cannot pump on its own. So it requires some other means to actually help the lymphatic fluid to move throughout the body. And why is that important? Because it's actually underappreciated the fact that the lymphatic system, for all intents and purposes, is actually your sewage system in the body. It is critical for that lymphatic fluid to move to eliminate any toxic metabolites that are being produced during the functioning of your body. Because invariably, the body is really not very different from a car engine, for example. You breathe in the oxygen and the food that you take and so on, and all of that is being converted to energy to drive the body or to help the body to function. Now that particular metabolism, we in aggregate call it body metabolism. That metabolism is not 100% efficient. As it functions and as it proceeds, it will generate some natural toxic metabolites, and those metabolites have got to be excreted from the body constantly. That's why you have the kidneys. We all appreciate the fact that if our kidneys are not working very well, those patients will have to go for dialysis. If you stop and ask yourself the question, what's the purpose of the dialysis, it's really to remove all these toxic metabolites I've been talking about from the blood, you know, and you run it through and you take it out because the kidneys are not functioning. But that's the end stage, that's the end of the whole elimination process, if you will. The beginning of that process starts with the lymphatic system. It collects this toxin, metabolizes it, is in intimate communication with the blood, and eventually it will then be excreted via the kidneys. So we were thinking that if you have something that can help the lymphatic system to move well, you will have an opportunity and a possibility to purify the body, to help the body to really go through and enhance its purification system.

Yeah, so a good illustration of that phenomenon is when you get onto a plane for a six-hour flight and eventually, I mean, if you take your shoes off and then before you land you put your shoes back on, you're going to find it a bit more difficult to shove your feet back into those shoes, right? Because your feet have swollen. And that is the direct result of the lymphatic fluid coming out from the vessels and pooling around your feet and your ankle. So that's what happened because you're not moving your muscles, as you indicated, Diana. And because of the lack of muscle contraction, especially in the lower limbs, your fluid cannot go up to your chest. As shown in this particular slide here, this diagram of a person, the major reservoirs of this fluid, they all have to come back to around the chest area. There are two very important lymph nodes, we call them, on both sides of the chest, and those lymph nodes act like reservoirs to collect the fluid, process them before they get dissipated out again or on the other side to eventually land in the kidneys. So that's really, when you're standing up or sitting down, you can imagine gravity is going to pull the fluid down. And if you don't exercise your muscles and so on, the fluid will not be able to move and therefore you have some edema forming. So this is really a confirmation of what we just talked about. As you move your calf muscles and so on, that's when it contracts that lymphatic line, as you see here, this lymphatic vessel, and therefore as it squeezes the muscle, it will start moving the fluid upwards towards the chest area, right? And that's why it's so important to be able to, that's the only way that the lymphatic fluid can move, right? Especially when you're standing up and sitting down in front of a computer and not moving, you know, that most of us have that kind of sedentary jobs or work that we do, that will also contribute to some edema formation.

Not efficient enough, no doubt. So that's really what it is all about. So how do we help the lymphatic fluid to move better regardless of what we do, all right, and how we work and how we function? And that's where we came up with this idea of the WellSpa. And this idea is really interesting. I've magnified these so-called metallic nodes here. There are four of them at the bottom of this device. And you notice the design, and this is where the engineering sort of, our engineers came into play here, and that is the shape of this particular metallic node is critical to have this device to be in constant contact with the skin. And I'll tell you in a minute why that is so important. Because when we look at our skin, especially this is a body kind of a device and not just for the face, depending on the location of where you're using the device, these metallic nodes, we call them, will help because the skin is actually undulating, it's not absolutely level and smooth. So as you move the device, you're going to compress the muscle and so on and the skin, and if you have a flat surface, it's not going to be as efficient to keeping contact. So I'll go into that a little bit why that constant contact is so important. But fundamentally, this particular device will give you three overall, depending on the markets and so on, but nonetheless, if you aggregate the benefits, both the beauty and wellness type of benefits that can be delivered by this device, it comes out and I can summarize them under these three categories. It will restore the body to a better well-being or wellness state by using it. It will also help to revitalize the skin. And this is where during the translation it's important to realize, because I think there's an unintended consequence here. The word in English, 'revitalize,' some people may be associating it with the rest of the body as well, but we are really trying to group those skin benefits together under one umbrella, and that is under the 'revitalize' umbrella. You're going to look better, your body is going to shape better, and so on and so forth. So all those skin benefits, sight and whatever that you can see on the skin, will actually be grouped and categorized under this umbrella called the 'revitalize' benefit. And then there's another one, it's called 'refresh' in certain markets, it's called 'recover' in certain markets. We just want to make sure that you understand that this particular benefit is very much associated with activity, and that is to help your body during a pre-workout or post-workout. That you need to use this device because I think it will help you to have a better and more effective workout if you use it before the workout. But if you use it after the workout, it will help you to recover quicker. You cool down, you use the device, and it will help you to have a way more, the outcome of the workout with better, enhanced, and accelerated in the presence of this particular device.

Great reminder, Diana, on this particular point. Yeah, because it is undergoing FDA review right now and hopefully we'll hear from them very soon. Okay, thank you. All right, great reminder. So this is, and again, this reminds me that we used to have, and perhaps some of you may remember and recall, a device that we called the Body Spa several years ago. I think there's a huge difference. In fact, I would imagine this is not just an upgrade of the Body Spa, this is entirely different type of device that we have developed here. And it's because of these three important things: the design, I've already mentioned to you those metallic nodes, that's a unique design, and we actually learned from the previous Body Spa, and that is a flat surface, no matter how you make it to look like a sneaker sole or something, it really doesn't matter, it's still flat. It's difficult to achieve the constant contact we need for the microcurrent technology. Then the second point is that this microcurrent technology that we have developed, we also learned that we can actually adjust it because of all the sensor progress and advances we have in those areas, that we can actually have it adjust in such a manner that it will bring a new level of comfort to this particular device as the microcurrent travels across the skin to achieve its benefits. And then finally, last but not least, the third feature is I will talk about those topical gels that we are launching together with this particular device. Those gels are truly unique and proprietary to us and it will enhance and maximize the benefits because there are active ingredients in those gels that you can't find anywhere else. So here's the design on the engineering piece. I already mentioned about those metallic nodes at the bottom here, but importantly too, this big handle or whatever you like to call it, we felt that the previous one without this particular handle, the way that it's designed, the challenge would be that once you use the gels together with the device, that it's going to become slippery and you might drop it. So this, when you hold it on this particular handle here, you'll find there's a comfortable feel and you don't have a sense that that device will slip out from your hands and so on. So we feel that this particular grip design has been optimized for you to use it, because especially the gels, the reality is when you use gels, some of it will get onto your hands and so on anyway, and it becomes a bit of a challenge to hold on if you don't have something that looks like that. So the microcurrent is interesting, and this is where we're calling this the Continuous Comfort Control because it adjusts constantly. In fact, it adjusts more than 80 times a second. And what we find there is a particular microcurrent range we have to be within to achieve the benefit, to stimulate the skin. It cannot get out of it. And this is where the constant contact with the skin or connection to the skin is important, because once without you sort of recognizing it or feeling it, if you lift it a little bit, the device will automatically adjust to increase the current, because when you lift it, invariably the current will drop. So we have a sensor that says, hey, for that particular second or whatever, if it's not in contact with the skin, let's increase the current a little bit so that it can be maintained within the effective range. That's what happens. But we don't want to increase it too much because then you sort of, you know, some people with more sensitive skin will sort of feel a little bit of tingling sensation and so on, and we don't want that to happen. So it will constantly adjust. This microcurrent technology is very different from what we had done before with the galvanic current and so on, and it's important for stimulating the skin. And now, in order for you, before I do that, in order for you to conduct this microcurrent, that's where the gel comes in. The current will not travel and stimulate the skin on dry skin. It has to have some gel to help it to complete the circuit, if you will. And therefore the gel is pretty critical. And that's why sometimes I think when you use it, you might feel a little bit of tingling sensation when the gel dries, and that's because of that difference in current on dry skin versus wet skin.

Not really. It's just a signal that you have to use more gel to achieve those benefits. There's no harm. It's really just a tingling sensation. It's just like, you know, some people with sensitive skin will start to feel it, but immediately that device will adjust itself to eliminate that tingling.

You need to really bruise yourself with the device, Diana? Yeah, you should use it in constant contact, but really, I don't think you need to. It doesn't make a difference if I go really deep or I'm really pushing. It's okay. We're not, but it's unique. Once again, this is a patented microcurrent. So I realize sometimes, you know, I can talk about this and I would not be able to sort of accompany you to demonstrate this device, for example, to a new person. So we have included, and this is where the IoT connection comes in, there is a pairing you can do with the device together with your smartphone. And when you have paired it, you can actually demo what's actually happening. This particular slide shows you, if I click on there, I think, you know, just shows you how you can use this particular device. Because the lymphatic system, if you recall, I told you you have to move it upwards, right? So you notice this arm is hanging down, so he's moving it upwards to make sure that the lymphatic fluid is returned to those lymph nodes around the chest. But if he has those arms horizontally, if you will, he will be moving it towards the chest. As always, he may even use a 360, a revolving action to do that. So it doesn't, when you do the 360, it doesn't necessarily push the fluid back down.

Anyway, so just to repeat myself a little bit, these are the four metallic nodes I've shown here. And as you use it and when they're in contact with the skin and you move it over the skin, you will see the lymphatic system being sort of accelerated and stimulated. That's the second one. So you are unique somewhere, and this is just reminding me, telling me that each and every one of you, depending on where you are, how you live and so on and so forth, you have certain features or factors that impact your skin health and overall. And how we have to take into account these six particular factors to make sure that you have good contact with the device. The device has good contact with the skin. And again, that's where the IoT comes in. I mentioned these sensors that we have built in. You can't see those sensors because they're inside the device, and those sensors will help us take into account the variation or differences in these six factors as I've shown here. Okay, the third piece is the gel, and this would be the patented gel, the HLOC technology that we have used. And again, I won't go into HLOC because many of you would have sort of appreciated the type of gene expression and genetic science we've been doing and incorporating those insights into our products. So we have developed and included many of these active substances into the gels. The activating gel, for example, has several ingredients in there that will deliver what we call, you know, body shaping benefits and so on. And it also includes one particular substance or one particular ingredient that when it goes, because when you use the device, what happens is the skin becomes really quite responsive, and that responsiveness of the skin will help to deliver the active ingredients into the skin. And that is what happens when those active ingredients go inside the skin, it will help to stimulate the skin and release certain substances. One of them is called endorphins, and it will help to give you a sense of well-being when that particular endorphin is being released. Now there's a smaller thing over in the middle for the body serum. This is also a gel, and you can use this sort of in place of the activating gel when you have it. And this one you can also accomplish some body contouring, cellulite, and all these other benefits together with the body. It has more active ingredients and it also has more wellness benefits associated with the body serum. So both of these gels, when we developed them, frankly, we developed the body serum to be a standalone product at the very beginning. But when we tested it together with the device, it actually works really well and they synergize together, the device together with the body serum. And they can be used and you don't need to wipe it off, unlike many of our gels previously with the other devices, they had to be wiped off and so on. But these ones you can leave on because the viscosity and so on and so forth, it's not as thick as the previous ones.

You can use it to conduct the microcurrent, but those particular gels don't have the similar or the same active ingredients that we have developed in the activating gel here or in the body serum. So you won't get the same results. It won't get the same degree and the same level of benefits or the spectrum of benefits you can get, especially with the body serum.

That is supposed to be used on its own. You don't need it because one of the things is when you exfoliate the skin, the skin is going to be, once again, when you don't have that level of, a layer of dead skin, because that's what exfoliation is, right? Is the removal of dead skin cells, because skin cells do die every 28 days and they accumulate and stay on the epidermis, the top, the topmost layer of the skin. When you remove it, the skin becomes way more responsive to the device and also the active ingredients in the gel will work much, much better. And on the practical side, it's also that visually you can see your skin to be a bit more healthier looking in the absence of that dead skin layer.

Okay, some before and after. I've talked enough of the science and really fundamentally what happens is that these are arms, right? And this is what happens to the bottom of the arm after the use of the WellSpa. I think you can see pretty good. And this is over a period of, I think, roughly what, week 12 or something?

You can see a distinct and significant improvement in the tone of the arms. Now the bottom bit refers to the back of your thighs. You also notice that left baseline on both of these individuals, in fact, the right one has more cellulite than the left one. But in either case, you can see after using the WellSpa, the cellulite looks far less visible and less evident. It looks smoother and it's sort of really the cellulite is less evident. Go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, that's a remarkable picture, isn't it? I'm going to show you some more before and after pictures, and these are really not done under clinical conditions and so on, but is really in the real world, if you will. It's sort of interesting. So here are varicose veins, right, on the left, and after the use of the WellSpa, you notice the varicose veins are less evident too. So not just cellulite, but the appearance of varicose veins, when you use this particular device, it seems to be, you know, you can actually make those varicose veins less visible. Now the middle panel is another interesting one because this is really the tummy area or the stomach area. And this is again before and after the use of the device. You can see it toning the muscle enough to be able to see some muscular sort of definition of the stomach area after the use of the device.

Microcirculation, in a way, right? So fundamentally, the veins, the reason why they look purple like that and so on, is because veins, once again, is something to do with the pooling, in this instance, of blood. So what happens is, I'm perhaps speculating a little bit, but I think I'm probably right, is the fact that as you move with the device, you're moving the venous blood back into the chest area. You're helping to move, because the veins, unlike the arteries, the blood flow is not so good. So you're helping the blood flow too, in addition to the lymphatic system.

And that's why it looks less visible, the varicose veins don't look as visible now, because the blood is not pooling in those veins.

So there is a stomach area. This is sort of interesting, right? There's some, you know, we talk about ankles and so on. Here's some of the proof with this individual where I think you would agree with me that this foot is more swollen than the right one. Same foot. And this is before and after the device, and you can see the swelling is helped by the use of the device on this foot.

So that's really in a nutshell, hopefully it'll give you some knowledge about the device and how we developed it and why we think it's really one of the most exciting and unique devices we've ever developed. And it's all about balance, really. When I think about it, you know, at the highest level, what does this device deliver? And I think what it delivers is really, you know, the lymphatic system sort of a purification benefit. It helps to move the blood, I think, the microcirculation too. And overall, it really sort of balances the body because wellness is all about returning your body to some optimal balance. And I think this device helps to do that quite a bit. Yeah, so it delivers the skin benefits and now the wellness benefits, all totally integrated into one device. And I don't think you would see this device anywhere else. It's clearly unique as a product. And how many patents do we have on this one or pending?

Yes, you can use the body shaping gel. And here's some practical, less scientific but more, it may be useful to you. The body shaping gel, when you use it together with the device, actually produces a change in the color of the gel. So for a demo, and if you're demoing this particular device to a new person and so on, I think while you're explaining the science, or maybe you don't wish to really go into that much of a scientific explanation and so on, that demo in and of itself is very good because it changes color and it shows that the device is working really well on the skin.

Because remember, right, I told you the skin renews itself almost like every 28 days and the existing skin layer or the skin cells, they die off. So what you're doing with the shaping gel is in fact you are actually in a way scraping off those skin cells, exfoliating, I think maybe that's a more technical way to say it. And when you, as during that process, when you do it and all those dead skin cells accumulate together, it will change the color of the gel.

Right, you can do that before. It's almost like a half-face demo kind of equivalent, right?