Eugene Lipov: Welcome again to Brain Hope Reality. I'm your host, Eugene Lipov. We have an amazing person meeting us today. Frank Francis Vicks, he's going to pronounce it better. He's in France, in Paris. I am in Chicago. And I think we have, even though he says he's not a scientist, he knows a lot about science. And I think he's going to give us a little background. And I think it's going to be a fascinating conversation. I learned a lot from you.
Francois Vix: I am in Chicago. He's scientist, he knows a lot about science.
Eugene Lipov: Welcome.
Francois Vix: Thank you, Eugene. Great to be ⁓ with you today.
Eugene Lipov: Thanks for being on. Can you just give us a quick story how you got from marketing to being very interested in immunology and skin and whatever.
Francois Vix: So, as you mentioned, I'm not a scientist. I graduated from a business school, but the first ⁓ half of my professional life was in corporate life. I worked for large corporations for L'Oreal and Johnson & Johnson, mostly in their cosmetics, medical skincare divisions, pretty much all around the world. And when I turned 40, I call it midlife crisis, but I wanted to do something for myself. I wanted to have more control over my life. And that's when I came back, because at that time I was living in Los Angeles for Johnson & Johnson, and working for Johnson & Johnson, I came back to Paris. I obviously left J &J and I started a small ⁓ investment company doing ⁓ seed capital. So very early stage financing. And so I would review projects and I pulled some money together with some of my friends. I happened to have some rich friends. They generously invested in my venture. And we had a few projects ongoing. And, but very quickly, after a couple of years of doing that, I realized that this was not for me. I'm more a doer than an investor. So I like to have ⁓ to do, I like to do hands-on things and start my own business. And at that time, I met two French immunologists who were working in a medical. the largest medical institution in Paris. It's called La Pitié Salpeterrière. And they were conducting research in the field of infectious diseases under the supervision of Prof. Luc Montagnier, the 2008 recipient of the Nobel Prize of Medicine. And they came to me because they had developed an orally bioactive form of superoxidized mutas. which is a critical enzyme, first line of cellular defense. So it was big, it was big. So they had patented everything, but they didn't know what to do with it. And that's usually a difficult decision because you can go forward to do research on drug research, pharmaceutical research, you can do ⁓ biotechnology, you can do natural products. There are many different avenues. ⁓ every decision has a different cost and you know so it could be a risky business and they were very much supported and even encouraged by prof. Montagnier who is a true believer in natural products. He's always been very supportive and unfortunately he passed away a few years ago but in every one of his books and he he refers to my products which I call it my products, but the products that we developed together with those two immunologists, which was that orally bioactive form of superoxide dismutase. So that's the very general background. And that was over 20 years ago, almost 25 years ago. That's how I got involved into real life sciences.
Eugene Lipov: Perfect. Well, think science is exciting. It's never dull for me and it is always something new to learn. So when you talk about natural products, if you can talk about dust meat taste, you're talking about a, you're trying to increase the concentration or the level of that. Is that what you're trying to do?
Francois Vix: Yeah, so super excited it has, I know if I can give you some background on that very critical, very important molecule. Oxygen ⁓ appeared on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. It was first initially trapped underwater and then after a billion years it started to evaporate and its concentration
Eugene Lipov: Yes.
Francois Vix: really increased in the atmosphere and at that time it almost killed all life forms because oxygen is a very very toxic molecule and you know obviously it oxidizes a lot of know things and yes so nature being what like you know doing things really well
Eugene Lipov: That's what happens to islands, Adopted.
Francois Vix: it ⁓ developed an enzyme called superoxiditis mutas that is actually the first line of cellular defense against the toxicity of oxygen. So all life forms which consume oxygen, ⁓ plants, know animals, humans, produced superoxiditis mutas to protect themselves against the toxicity of oxygen.
Eugene Lipov: Can I ask you question on that? I thought plants produce oxygen, not consume them. They consume CO2. Let's be technical.
Francois Vix: Yes, but they also ⁓ suffer from the side effect of oxygen consumption. yeah, yeah. So if we go back to humans, ⁓ about when you breathe in oxygen, oxygen basically is you cannot live without it, but long term that's what kills you. you ⁓ know, oxygen, it's necessary because it's the energy source
Eugene Lipov: Correct, the previous oxygen. Just technically, but go ahead.
Francois Vix: for your cells and your cells are going to burn oxygen to produce energy and in the process of burning oxygen there are two to three percent of those oxygen molecules that are not properly burned. that leads that gives birth to what is commonly called what are commonly called reactive oxygen species and they are the most toxic free radicals. And a free radical is an unstable molecule that will try to capture its missing electron anywhere in your body. So in that process, if it's unchecked, it can do a lot of damage.
Eugene Lipov: If I may, let me just, because this is really not a, this is meant to be a podcast for everyone, right? So the way I like to take, for a non-scientist, you're pretty scientific. So free radicals, that's what you're describing, are unstable, and they basically burn tissue. They do damage. I can do damage to DNA, brain, it burns tissue. Right.
Francois Vix: Okay. Yeah. Yes, they do damage to tissues. Cell membranes, ⁓ they oxidize, you know. It's a bad thing. Exactly.
Eugene Lipov: So it's a bad thing when it's uncontrolled. It's controlled like macrophages. They use it to kill things like bacteria and things like that. But overall, too much free radical is a bad thing. No question. That's why people probably heard the term, anti-accidents. That's what he's talking about. Go ahead. Just a little quick message.
Francois Vix: Yes. Yes. Yes, yes, thank you for clarifying that. yeah, but you know nature is well organized and our body produces ⁓ multiple different enzymes that are going to detoxify those three radicals. The first one is superoxide, it's mutas, then it's catalase, then it's glutathione and then this will transform toxic molecules into non-toxic molecules. And just getting back to SOD, superhexiditis mutasin, why it's so critical, it was discovered in 1968 by two American scientists, Joe McCord and Michael Fridovich. And when it was first discovered, it was called the enzyme of life. Because as I said, All life forms produce SOD, but the more SOD they produce, the longer they live. There is a direct correlation between our ability to produce SOD and our longevity.
Eugene Lipov: Can I ask a question? Is that a human model or animal model?
Francois Vix: it's any model, know, animal and so a fly will produce minute quantities of SOD, humans produce a lot of SOD, so different longevity. But there is a direct correlation between your ability to produce SOD and your longevity life expectancy. ⁓ yeah, so that's and basically what the natural product that we develop does, it's
Eugene Lipov: It's really human.
Francois Vix: can stimulate our own internal production of SOD, catalase and glutathione. yeah, so and again, yes, yes it's on market. It's actually, we market the product in 50 different countries. Yes, it's in the US as well and as I
Eugene Lipov: Beautiful. Is that product available now on market? Is that in US?
Francois Vix: mentioned I believe earlier, have published, we have over 40 studies, scientific studies and human studies, clinicals published in 10 different countries. So our research is not only coming from a small lab in the south of France, I have nothing against the south of France, but it's really an international recognition. You know we've worked with the the best Japanese universities and Europe of course and so on. there is a lot of ⁓ unquestionable evidence on the product today. So the product is called Glycidine. G-L-I-S-O-D-I-N and it's the combination of SOD and gliadin. And there we have a research website on Glycidine.
Eugene Lipov: to tell me the name of the product.
Francois Vix: or glycidin.org and a commercial on .
Eugene Lipov: Okay. All right. We'll put it in there. So notes, that's fascinating. Okay.
Francois Vix: Yeah, so it's all freely available and we have a community of researchers around the world that actually constantly ⁓ publish and do new research on the product.
Eugene Lipov: I will look into it because one of the things I'm actually going to be speaking in Lisbon about longevity in September. And my particular expertise about longevity is ⁓ first of all, I'm 67. I'm going to be 68. And, you know, I'm very interested in longevity because I want to operate into my 90s. That's kind of just personally. So I'm always looking for an angle.
Francois Vix: Okay. So I'm always looking for an angle for longevity and not only lifespan but health.
Eugene Lipov: full longevity and not only lifespan but health span which I'm sure you know. I want to be healthy. ⁓
Francois Vix: Yes, yes, no, absolutely. And I'll be happy to connect you with one of our key spokesperson who is a ⁓ surgeon in Toronto and has done work on longevity, on lifespan and what we call beauty span as well, which is, know, health span, beauty span. Yes, yes, yes. So how to...
Eugene Lipov: Are you familiar with Rapa Myson? Let me ask you this question. Are you familiar with Rapa Myson?
Francois Vix: Sorry.
Eugene Lipov: I need to send you information that you should be taking it. If you're not taking it, you should start. It's the only thing that's been shown to prolong life's significant life span. There are studies being done right now. It's fascinating. I'm very interested in glycidin. I will look into it. So one of things I was intrigued to talk to you about is hypobaric chamber.
Francois Vix: Okay. Okay. Yes. ⁓
Eugene Lipov: Hyperbaric chamber, actually my first job out of high school, I was 17 at the time, was to drive people and do hyperbaric chambers, three atmospheres. So it was used originally for gangrene and deep infections. And the idea is to kill the bugs, as we talking about, oxygen is very toxic. So people have now figured that they thought if you can shovel enough oxygen in, you give 100 % oxygen at the high...
Francois Vix: Yeah. Yes. If you can shovel not oxygen in, you get 100 % oxygen at the kite.
Eugene Lipov: pressure. So I used to run ICUs and stuff like that. Turns out if you give long-term 100 % oxygen, it burns the lungs out. It's a bad thing. So you don't want to have too much oxygen. So what's interesting, a lot of people now are buying hyperbaric chambers for their homes if you can afford it. And the idea is, so hyperbaric chamber has been shown to increase NJF, nerve growth factor, that makes brain cells grow.
Francois Vix: So I used to run ICUs and stuff like that. Turns out if you give long term 100 % action, it... Yes. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. ⁓
Eugene Lipov: However, you're doing good things there, but consider actually it's toxic, that's a problem. That's why we were talking about the glycidine plus hyperbaric chamber could be synergistic. I always look for synergy. Help as much as you can with two different approaches. So that really works beautiful for that, I think. I'm not, frankly, I don't know anything about the glycidine. I will look into it. So this is not, please whoever is listening to it, do not look at it as a sales job for me. I'm not an expert. We're talking to an expert. Do your own research. But I think it's a fascinating concept. You and I also talked about the immune impact. Tell me more about that. What does glycidine do to the immune system?
Francois Vix: So this is not, in the was listening to it. Do not look at it as a sales job for me. I'm not an expert. If I were be an expert, do your own research. But I think it's a fascinating. Yeah. Well, glycidine is really the key point of difference between glycidine and other antioxidants is really the immunomodulation. Not only it has
Eugene Lipov: I'm sorry to interrupt you. Compare and contrast, you will, with vitamin E. A lot of people use that as antioxidant.
Francois Vix: Yeah, vitamins are what we call secondary antioxidants. So basically they have a very short lifespan when they stabilize or as we say scavenge, know they are free radical scavengers. When they scavenge free radicals one molecule of vitamin will neutralize one free radical. SOD ⁓ has a catalytic effect. one molecular of A study can neutralize well over a million free radicals. So you're talking very different...
Eugene Lipov: It's a little more effective is what you're saying. I'm just kidding. It makes sense. mean, it's factors of magnitude higher because you actually, SOD actually choose out three radicals. Right.
Francois Vix: Yeah. SOD actually chews on pre-eridic. Exactly and it's produced by our own body so it's on cold 24-7 while vitamins you have to replenish your stock you know through food you know your body doesn't produce.
Eugene Lipov: Right. And they also, vitamin E, correct. So vitamin E, for example, everybody has been taking it for years. But the problem is a lot of times you can get toxicity, mercurial toxicity, because a lot of times comes from fish and there's a lot of mercury and this doesn't cause any of that. Just to give you a feel. Anyway, Glycidin and immune system. Please tell me about it. I'm fascinated by that.
Francois Vix: No. Anyway, you said you did an immune system. tell me about it. I'm fascinated. Yeah, so it will have a modulating, controlling, upregulating effect on your immune system. And I'll give you, to illustrate that, I'll give you, we've done quite a fair amount of research in dermatology, and especially in one disease called vitiligo, which is an autoimmune disease. So and you have in my back you have someone you know who's suffering from vitiligo here and basically vitiligo
Eugene Lipov: If I may, you don't remember this is lay people's path. So with the ligo, basically you lose the pigment and you get the whiteness like you showed. So it can be very disturbing. Okay, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Francois Vix: Yes. Yes, yes, I will explain. I will explain vitiligo. Yeah, so vitiligo is an autoimmune disease. It means that your immune system is in overdrive. so basically you're losing the pigments on your skin and this is due to the fact that pigmentary cells, yes, are called melanocytes.
Eugene Lipov: Melody.
Francois Vix: So melanocytes migrate from the dermis to the epidermis. And on that voyage, as they migrate, the immune system is going to damage them. And it will prevent those melanocytes from sticking at the level of the epidermis. That's why you have those white patches. So my product does not stimulates the production of melanocytes. For that you need to have natural lights or UVB or stimulates the production of melanocytes. But what the product will do, it will control the immune response so there will be less damage at the level of the melanocytes. So it's again, it's the up regulating effect of the
Eugene Lipov: How does it do that? How does it do that?
Francois Vix: Well, it's, know, immunology is a very tough field. But it will have a modulating effect on any inflammatory response, like it will decrease TNF alpha. It will also ⁓ upregulate key anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-10, IL-17. It will also in allergy models, we've shown that it will upregulate also trags, lymphocyte T regulating trags. So it has a normalizing, regulating, normalizing effect on the ⁓ immune system by controlling the stress, yeah, oxidative stress.
Eugene Lipov: So can I ask you a question? No, I got it. let me, it's very interesting. So maybe we can figure something out really interesting. So, you my particular knowledge base is sympathetic nervous system. I would say I know it probably better than anybody in the globe currently and the immune impact of it. So it turns out when I do a sympathetic block, Stelagangdian block, it resets sympathetic system to pre-trauma state. Sympathetic system. If I put labeled viruses in the stellate, there is a direct connection to B cells, bone marrow, T cells, thymus. It drops interleukin-6, stuff you like about interleukins. Macrophage function reduces, right? So the question I am asking specifically is this. So SOD, so what you're saying, when somebody gets SOD increase,
Francois Vix: So you're saying when somebody gets SOD increase, it has a feedback.
Eugene Lipov: It has a feedback loop on the induction or immune system, right? Normalize it.
Francois Vix: Yes, it will up-regulate or down-regulate. Okay, it normalizes it. Yes.
Eugene Lipov: normalize it. Trauma, which everybody is traumatized, leads to dysregulation. So you're saying is leads to regulation of immune system.
Francois Vix: Yes, yes, exactly. And I just wanted, I may, for a minute, go back to the hyperbaric chamber. What we did with the hyperbaric chamber, because I know that will be of interest to you. So we worked with the chief physician of the German Navy. And the German Navy, was very concerned about the scuba divers. Because scuba divers, and especially as they age, they want to
Eugene Lipov: Mm-hmm.
Francois Vix: to practice scuba diving because they are better paid and if they don't do it and so on but they do develop ⁓ DNA lesions and because of the toxicity of hyperbaric oxygen. So what we did is that we took ⁓ and again by the way this is published you know I'm not telling you anything that is not published.
Eugene Lipov: Whatever. Okay.
Francois Vix: form of respect for you and your audience. So we took ⁓ scuba divers and normal people, put them into an hyperbaric chamber, put three bars of pressure and they let them breathe pure oxygen for three hours, for one hour. And then as they ex... yeah, no, one hour. And as they exited the hyperbaric chamber, we drew blood and we filtered
Eugene Lipov: Okay, but one hour is better than three hours. Too long.
Francois Vix: We selected the white blood cells and through a model, analysis model called the Comet assay, we can actually measure the damage on the white blood cells caused by the hyperbaric oxygen as we measure the tail moment of the white blood cells. I know it's a little technical, but basically...
Eugene Lipov: Basically, what you're saying is that hyperbaric chamber, high oxygen, burned out the white cells. White cells is defense against infections and other problems.
Francois Vix: Yes. Exactly, yes. So it's a very short-lived experiment because very quickly your system is going to rebalance and then there will be damage on the white blood cells, will no longer be visible. But you can visualize that if you draw blood just as you exit the hyperbaric chamber. And basically, to cut a long story short, when you pre-treat people
Eugene Lipov: Last copy.
Francois Vix: before exposure to the hyperbaric chamber for two weeks, you have no damage on the white blood cells. And ⁓ it's a very interesting model for scuba divers and other users of hyperbaric chamber, but it's a very interesting model for ischemia, for surgery, ischemia reperfusion, which subsequently we did also ⁓ work
Eugene Lipov: Perfect. Hold on, let's unpack that for a second. I know what means, I just wanna make sure the audience knows. Reperfusion, you're talking about open heart surgery when I go on bypass or thoracic surgery, So I've done a lot of that. So the problem after that, so you're pushing oxygen and blood, you don't have the lungs, right? So you're using high oxygen and all of the, what produces free radicals and plus people are stressed.
Francois Vix: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, thoracic surgery, open out surgery. Yeah. Okay. Bypass, yeah. Exactly.
Eugene Lipov: the immune system is out of whack. It actually, what's interesting, well, let's talk about that for a second, if you may. And this is my space, so we can, how we are interacting. So the new thing in surgery now is to do a stelliganglion block before surgery, like open heart surgery or abdominal surgery and older people. Because what happens is free radicals are produced, which you know all about free radicals.
Francois Vix: Yes.
Eugene Lipov: and they have cognitive decline after surgery. If you do the block right before the surgery, no cognitive decline. Why? The immune system is not whacked.
Francois Vix: Okay.
Eugene Lipov: So I think this would potentially enhance that even further. Adipofusion means hypoxia, meaning free radicals. This would prevent free radicals from going wild and affecting the brain, the body.
Francois Vix: think this... Yeah. ⁓ Exactly. Yes, exactly. what we did is that we by pre-treating and we did that on a model animal model pigs by pre-treating the animals before ischemia reperfusion with my products you had my product you had much less damage on heart cells and kidney cells.
Eugene Lipov: How long will pre-treatment do in you?
Francois Vix: about two weeks. Usually we have a two week period. And again, no, no, no, we haven't. Yes, yes, yes, but this is a...
Eugene Lipov: Maybe use the bio-humans to create tritium before carcid. We should do that experiment. We should talk about that. be a very... because currently the big thing is I know the kidneys are important, the heart is important, the brain is very important. Because if they come out, the kidneys are okay, heart is okay, the brain is whacked. That's not good. Okay, go ahead.
Francois Vix: Yes. ⁓ Yeah, but I'll be happy to share with you those studies, you know, as a... Yeah, yeah.
Eugene Lipov: I would love that. ⁓ I would love that. If you don't mind Hannah and the person who works with you, exchange information. I would love that. I'll send you some of my stuff that talks about the immune system. ⁓ think we can do some fascinating collaboration. I mean, for a nice scientist, I got to tell you, you're pretty sciencey. You're doing pretty good.
Francois Vix: Yes. Yeah. I'm all for it. You know I was very lucky to be in contact with very high level scientists and they were very generous with their knowledge and you know I'm a bit like a sponge so you know I tried to learn from them.
Eugene Lipov: Well, those people, the good scientists are usually generous. The bad ones who are nervous are not. If you don't mind, we usually do a 30 minute podcast. What I would like to do, if you don't mind, with your permission, we'll put it in the notes, the stuff you and I've discussed. ⁓ I would like to potentially do a Zoom with you later and maybe we can do collaborative studies. I may be able to help you with your product because I love the whole concept for longevity.
Francois Vix: Yeah. Yeah, sure. Maybe I'll be helping you. Because I love the whole concept. Full longevity, heart, surgeries, cognitive. All of that would be If you're okay with it. No, I'm all for it. I'll be happy to talk to you offline on this subject. In the meantime, I will share with you. You can have look at our website at dot org. It's whole new world for me. I did so many things on the
Eugene Lipov: heart, hemisurgeries, cognitive, all of that would be huge. So if you're okay with that, I would love to do that. It's a whole new world for me. I research things all the time. So I will do that. yeah, that'd be great. Any final words for our audience?
Francois Vix: Well, know, it's again, you know, there are tools and ways to improve your longevity, so you should use them.
Eugene Lipov: Well, this is a new one. I'm going to send you rapamycin information. You have to know about this. Also, there is a dermatological product for rapamycin. You should know about it. You called it BeautySpan. Is that what you called it?
Francois Vix: Yeah. Okay. No, my product is called Glycidine. No, Yeah. And BeautySpan. Yes. Yeah.
Eugene Lipov: No, no, no, I know. you said, remember health span, beauty span, beauty span. That's a new one. I love that. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. I really have enjoyed it. You've taught me a lot. ⁓ I hope our audience enjoys this discussion and thank you again. Thanks for being so patient with me. I'm sorry I was operating today.
Francois Vix: Thank you. Thank you again. I perfectly understand. Thank you for having me here today. was great conversation and I look forward to the next one. Thank you.
Eugene Lipov: I think we're going to do something interesting together. Thank you so much.
Francois Vix: I am in Chicago. He's scientist, he knows a lot about science.
Eugene Lipov: Welcome.
Francois Vix: Thank you, Eugene. Great to be ⁓ with you today.
Eugene Lipov: Thanks for being on. Can you just give us a quick story how you got from marketing to being very interested in immunology and skin and whatever.
Francois Vix: So, as you mentioned, I'm not a scientist. I graduated from a business school, but the first ⁓ half of my professional life was in corporate life. I worked for large corporations for L'Oreal and Johnson & Johnson, mostly in their cosmetics, medical skincare divisions, pretty much all around the world. And when I turned 40, I call it midlife crisis, but I wanted to do something for myself. I wanted to have more control over my life. And that's when I came back, because at that time I was living in Los Angeles for Johnson & Johnson, and working for Johnson & Johnson, I came back to Paris. I obviously left J &J and I started a small ⁓ investment company doing ⁓ seed capital. So very early stage financing. And so I would review projects and I pulled some money together with some of my friends. I happened to have some rich friends. They generously invested in my venture. And we had a few projects ongoing. And, but very quickly, after a couple of years of doing that, I realized that this was not for me. I'm more a doer than an investor. So I like to have ⁓ to do, I like to do hands-on things and start my own business. And at that time, I met two French immunologists who were working in a medical. the largest medical institution in Paris. It's called La Pitié Salpeterrière. And they were conducting research in the field of infectious diseases under the supervision of Prof. Luc Montagnier, the 2008 recipient of the Nobel Prize of Medicine. And they came to me because they had developed an orally bioactive form of superoxidized mutas. which is a critical enzyme, first line of cellular defense. So it was big, it was big. So they had patented everything, but they didn't know what to do with it. And that's usually a difficult decision because you can go forward to do research on drug research, pharmaceutical research, you can do ⁓ biotechnology, you can do natural products. There are many different avenues. ⁓ every decision has a different cost and you know so it could be a risky business and they were very much supported and even encouraged by prof. Montagnier who is a true believer in natural products. He's always been very supportive and unfortunately he passed away a few years ago but in every one of his books and he he refers to my products which I call it my products, but the products that we developed together with those two immunologists, which was that orally bioactive form of superoxide dismutase. So that's the very general background. And that was over 20 years ago, almost 25 years ago. That's how I got involved into real life sciences.
Eugene Lipov: Perfect. Well, think science is exciting. It's never dull for me and it is always something new to learn. So when you talk about natural products, if you can talk about dust meat taste, you're talking about a, you're trying to increase the concentration or the level of that. Is that what you're trying to do?
Francois Vix: Yeah, so super excited it has, I know if I can give you some background on that very critical, very important molecule. Oxygen ⁓ appeared on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. It was first initially trapped underwater and then after a billion years it started to evaporate and its concentration
Eugene Lipov: Yes.
Francois Vix: really increased in the atmosphere and at that time it almost killed all life forms because oxygen is a very very toxic molecule and you know obviously it oxidizes a lot of know things and yes so nature being what like you know doing things really well
Eugene Lipov: That's what happens to islands, Adopted.
Francois Vix: it ⁓ developed an enzyme called superoxiditis mutas that is actually the first line of cellular defense against the toxicity of oxygen. So all life forms which consume oxygen, ⁓ plants, know animals, humans, produced superoxiditis mutas to protect themselves against the toxicity of oxygen.
Eugene Lipov: Can I ask you question on that? I thought plants produce oxygen, not consume them. They consume CO2. Let's be technical.
Francois Vix: Yes, but they also ⁓ suffer from the side effect of oxygen consumption. yeah, yeah. So if we go back to humans, ⁓ about when you breathe in oxygen, oxygen basically is you cannot live without it, but long term that's what kills you. you ⁓ know, oxygen, it's necessary because it's the energy source
Eugene Lipov: Correct, the previous oxygen. Just technically, but go ahead.
Francois Vix: for your cells and your cells are going to burn oxygen to produce energy and in the process of burning oxygen there are two to three percent of those oxygen molecules that are not properly burned. that leads that gives birth to what is commonly called what are commonly called reactive oxygen species and they are the most toxic free radicals. And a free radical is an unstable molecule that will try to capture its missing electron anywhere in your body. So in that process, if it's unchecked, it can do a lot of damage.
Eugene Lipov: If I may, let me just, because this is really not a, this is meant to be a podcast for everyone, right? So the way I like to take, for a non-scientist, you're pretty scientific. So free radicals, that's what you're describing, are unstable, and they basically burn tissue. They do damage. I can do damage to DNA, brain, it burns tissue. Right.
Francois Vix: Okay. Yeah. Yes, they do damage to tissues. Cell membranes, ⁓ they oxidize, you know. It's a bad thing. Exactly.
Eugene Lipov: So it's a bad thing when it's uncontrolled. It's controlled like macrophages. They use it to kill things like bacteria and things like that. But overall, too much free radical is a bad thing. No question. That's why people probably heard the term, anti-accidents. That's what he's talking about. Go ahead. Just a little quick message.
Francois Vix: Yes. Yes. Yes, yes, thank you for clarifying that. yeah, but you know nature is well organized and our body produces ⁓ multiple different enzymes that are going to detoxify those three radicals. The first one is superoxide, it's mutas, then it's catalase, then it's glutathione and then this will transform toxic molecules into non-toxic molecules. And just getting back to SOD, superhexiditis mutasin, why it's so critical, it was discovered in 1968 by two American scientists, Joe McCord and Michael Fridovich. And when it was first discovered, it was called the enzyme of life. Because as I said, All life forms produce SOD, but the more SOD they produce, the longer they live. There is a direct correlation between our ability to produce SOD and our longevity.
Eugene Lipov: Can I ask a question? Is that a human model or animal model?
Francois Vix: it's any model, know, animal and so a fly will produce minute quantities of SOD, humans produce a lot of SOD, so different longevity. But there is a direct correlation between your ability to produce SOD and your longevity life expectancy. ⁓ yeah, so that's and basically what the natural product that we develop does, it's
Eugene Lipov: It's really human.
Francois Vix: can stimulate our own internal production of SOD, catalase and glutathione. yeah, so and again, yes, yes it's on market. It's actually, we market the product in 50 different countries. Yes, it's in the US as well and as I
Eugene Lipov: Beautiful. Is that product available now on market? Is that in US?
Francois Vix: mentioned I believe earlier, have published, we have over 40 studies, scientific studies and human studies, clinicals published in 10 different countries. So our research is not only coming from a small lab in the south of France, I have nothing against the south of France, but it's really an international recognition. You know we've worked with the the best Japanese universities and Europe of course and so on. there is a lot of ⁓ unquestionable evidence on the product today. So the product is called Glycidine. G-L-I-S-O-D-I-N and it's the combination of SOD and gliadin. And there we have a research website on Glycidine.
Eugene Lipov: to tell me the name of the product.
Francois Vix: or glycidin.org and a commercial on .
Eugene Lipov: Okay. All right. We'll put it in there. So notes, that's fascinating. Okay.
Francois Vix: Yeah, so it's all freely available and we have a community of researchers around the world that actually constantly ⁓ publish and do new research on the product.
Eugene Lipov: I will look into it because one of the things I'm actually going to be speaking in Lisbon about longevity in September. And my particular expertise about longevity is ⁓ first of all, I'm 67. I'm going to be 68. And, you know, I'm very interested in longevity because I want to operate into my 90s. That's kind of just personally. So I'm always looking for an angle.
Francois Vix: Okay. So I'm always looking for an angle for longevity and not only lifespan but health.
Eugene Lipov: full longevity and not only lifespan but health span which I'm sure you know. I want to be healthy. ⁓
Francois Vix: Yes, yes, no, absolutely. And I'll be happy to connect you with one of our key spokesperson who is a ⁓ surgeon in Toronto and has done work on longevity, on lifespan and what we call beauty span as well, which is, know, health span, beauty span. Yes, yes, yes. So how to...
Eugene Lipov: Are you familiar with Rapa Myson? Let me ask you this question. Are you familiar with Rapa Myson?
Francois Vix: Sorry.
Eugene Lipov: I need to send you information that you should be taking it. If you're not taking it, you should start. It's the only thing that's been shown to prolong life's significant life span. There are studies being done right now. It's fascinating. I'm very interested in glycidin. I will look into it. So one of things I was intrigued to talk to you about is hypobaric chamber.
Francois Vix: Okay. Okay. Yes. ⁓
Eugene Lipov: Hyperbaric chamber, actually my first job out of high school, I was 17 at the time, was to drive people and do hyperbaric chambers, three atmospheres. So it was used originally for gangrene and deep infections. And the idea is to kill the bugs, as we talking about, oxygen is very toxic. So people have now figured that they thought if you can shovel enough oxygen in, you give 100 % oxygen at the high...
Francois Vix: Yeah. Yes. If you can shovel not oxygen in, you get 100 % oxygen at the kite.
Eugene Lipov: pressure. So I used to run ICUs and stuff like that. Turns out if you give long-term 100 % oxygen, it burns the lungs out. It's a bad thing. So you don't want to have too much oxygen. So what's interesting, a lot of people now are buying hyperbaric chambers for their homes if you can afford it. And the idea is, so hyperbaric chamber has been shown to increase NJF, nerve growth factor, that makes brain cells grow.
Francois Vix: So I used to run ICUs and stuff like that. Turns out if you give long term 100 % action, it... Yes. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. ⁓
Eugene Lipov: However, you're doing good things there, but consider actually it's toxic, that's a problem. That's why we were talking about the glycidine plus hyperbaric chamber could be synergistic. I always look for synergy. Help as much as you can with two different approaches. So that really works beautiful for that, I think. I'm not, frankly, I don't know anything about the glycidine. I will look into it. So this is not, please whoever is listening to it, do not look at it as a sales job for me. I'm not an expert. We're talking to an expert. Do your own research. But I think it's a fascinating concept. You and I also talked about the immune impact. Tell me more about that. What does glycidine do to the immune system?
Francois Vix: So this is not, in the was listening to it. Do not look at it as a sales job for me. I'm not an expert. If I were be an expert, do your own research. But I think it's a fascinating. Yeah. Well, glycidine is really the key point of difference between glycidine and other antioxidants is really the immunomodulation. Not only it has
Eugene Lipov: I'm sorry to interrupt you. Compare and contrast, you will, with vitamin E. A lot of people use that as antioxidant.
Francois Vix: Yeah, vitamins are what we call secondary antioxidants. So basically they have a very short lifespan when they stabilize or as we say scavenge, know they are free radical scavengers. When they scavenge free radicals one molecule of vitamin will neutralize one free radical. SOD ⁓ has a catalytic effect. one molecular of A study can neutralize well over a million free radicals. So you're talking very different...
Eugene Lipov: It's a little more effective is what you're saying. I'm just kidding. It makes sense. mean, it's factors of magnitude higher because you actually, SOD actually choose out three radicals. Right.
Francois Vix: Yeah. SOD actually chews on pre-eridic. Exactly and it's produced by our own body so it's on cold 24-7 while vitamins you have to replenish your stock you know through food you know your body doesn't produce.
Eugene Lipov: Right. And they also, vitamin E, correct. So vitamin E, for example, everybody has been taking it for years. But the problem is a lot of times you can get toxicity, mercurial toxicity, because a lot of times comes from fish and there's a lot of mercury and this doesn't cause any of that. Just to give you a feel. Anyway, Glycidin and immune system. Please tell me about it. I'm fascinated by that.
Francois Vix: No. Anyway, you said you did an immune system. tell me about it. I'm fascinated. Yeah, so it will have a modulating, controlling, upregulating effect on your immune system. And I'll give you, to illustrate that, I'll give you, we've done quite a fair amount of research in dermatology, and especially in one disease called vitiligo, which is an autoimmune disease. So and you have in my back you have someone you know who's suffering from vitiligo here and basically vitiligo
Eugene Lipov: If I may, you don't remember this is lay people's path. So with the ligo, basically you lose the pigment and you get the whiteness like you showed. So it can be very disturbing. Okay, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Francois Vix: Yes. Yes, yes, I will explain. I will explain vitiligo. Yeah, so vitiligo is an autoimmune disease. It means that your immune system is in overdrive. so basically you're losing the pigments on your skin and this is due to the fact that pigmentary cells, yes, are called melanocytes.
Eugene Lipov: Melody.
Francois Vix: So melanocytes migrate from the dermis to the epidermis. And on that voyage, as they migrate, the immune system is going to damage them. And it will prevent those melanocytes from sticking at the level of the epidermis. That's why you have those white patches. So my product does not stimulates the production of melanocytes. For that you need to have natural lights or UVB or stimulates the production of melanocytes. But what the product will do, it will control the immune response so there will be less damage at the level of the melanocytes. So it's again, it's the up regulating effect of the
Eugene Lipov: How does it do that? How does it do that?
Francois Vix: Well, it's, know, immunology is a very tough field. But it will have a modulating effect on any inflammatory response, like it will decrease TNF alpha. It will also ⁓ upregulate key anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-10, IL-17. It will also in allergy models, we've shown that it will upregulate also trags, lymphocyte T regulating trags. So it has a normalizing, regulating, normalizing effect on the ⁓ immune system by controlling the stress, yeah, oxidative stress.
Eugene Lipov: So can I ask you a question? No, I got it. let me, it's very interesting. So maybe we can figure something out really interesting. So, you my particular knowledge base is sympathetic nervous system. I would say I know it probably better than anybody in the globe currently and the immune impact of it. So it turns out when I do a sympathetic block, Stelagangdian block, it resets sympathetic system to pre-trauma state. Sympathetic system. If I put labeled viruses in the stellate, there is a direct connection to B cells, bone marrow, T cells, thymus. It drops interleukin-6, stuff you like about interleukins. Macrophage function reduces, right? So the question I am asking specifically is this. So SOD, so what you're saying, when somebody gets SOD increase,
Francois Vix: So you're saying when somebody gets SOD increase, it has a feedback.
Eugene Lipov: It has a feedback loop on the induction or immune system, right? Normalize it.
Francois Vix: Yes, it will up-regulate or down-regulate. Okay, it normalizes it. Yes.
Eugene Lipov: normalize it. Trauma, which everybody is traumatized, leads to dysregulation. So you're saying is leads to regulation of immune system.
Francois Vix: Yes, yes, exactly. And I just wanted, I may, for a minute, go back to the hyperbaric chamber. What we did with the hyperbaric chamber, because I know that will be of interest to you. So we worked with the chief physician of the German Navy. And the German Navy, was very concerned about the scuba divers. Because scuba divers, and especially as they age, they want to
Eugene Lipov: Mm-hmm.
Francois Vix: to practice scuba diving because they are better paid and if they don't do it and so on but they do develop ⁓ DNA lesions and because of the toxicity of hyperbaric oxygen. So what we did is that we took ⁓ and again by the way this is published you know I'm not telling you anything that is not published.
Eugene Lipov: Whatever. Okay.
Francois Vix: form of respect for you and your audience. So we took ⁓ scuba divers and normal people, put them into an hyperbaric chamber, put three bars of pressure and they let them breathe pure oxygen for three hours, for one hour. And then as they ex... yeah, no, one hour. And as they exited the hyperbaric chamber, we drew blood and we filtered
Eugene Lipov: Okay, but one hour is better than three hours. Too long.
Francois Vix: We selected the white blood cells and through a model, analysis model called the Comet assay, we can actually measure the damage on the white blood cells caused by the hyperbaric oxygen as we measure the tail moment of the white blood cells. I know it's a little technical, but basically...
Eugene Lipov: Basically, what you're saying is that hyperbaric chamber, high oxygen, burned out the white cells. White cells is defense against infections and other problems.
Francois Vix: Yes. Exactly, yes. So it's a very short-lived experiment because very quickly your system is going to rebalance and then there will be damage on the white blood cells, will no longer be visible. But you can visualize that if you draw blood just as you exit the hyperbaric chamber. And basically, to cut a long story short, when you pre-treat people
Eugene Lipov: Last copy.
Francois Vix: before exposure to the hyperbaric chamber for two weeks, you have no damage on the white blood cells. And ⁓ it's a very interesting model for scuba divers and other users of hyperbaric chamber, but it's a very interesting model for ischemia, for surgery, ischemia reperfusion, which subsequently we did also ⁓ work
Eugene Lipov: Perfect. Hold on, let's unpack that for a second. I know what means, I just wanna make sure the audience knows. Reperfusion, you're talking about open heart surgery when I go on bypass or thoracic surgery, So I've done a lot of that. So the problem after that, so you're pushing oxygen and blood, you don't have the lungs, right? So you're using high oxygen and all of the, what produces free radicals and plus people are stressed.
Francois Vix: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, thoracic surgery, open out surgery. Yeah. Okay. Bypass, yeah. Exactly.
Eugene Lipov: the immune system is out of whack. It actually, what's interesting, well, let's talk about that for a second, if you may. And this is my space, so we can, how we are interacting. So the new thing in surgery now is to do a stelliganglion block before surgery, like open heart surgery or abdominal surgery and older people. Because what happens is free radicals are produced, which you know all about free radicals.
Francois Vix: Yes.
Eugene Lipov: and they have cognitive decline after surgery. If you do the block right before the surgery, no cognitive decline. Why? The immune system is not whacked.
Francois Vix: Okay.
Eugene Lipov: So I think this would potentially enhance that even further. Adipofusion means hypoxia, meaning free radicals. This would prevent free radicals from going wild and affecting the brain, the body.
Francois Vix: think this... Yeah. ⁓ Exactly. Yes, exactly. what we did is that we by pre-treating and we did that on a model animal model pigs by pre-treating the animals before ischemia reperfusion with my products you had my product you had much less damage on heart cells and kidney cells.
Eugene Lipov: How long will pre-treatment do in you?
Francois Vix: about two weeks. Usually we have a two week period. And again, no, no, no, we haven't. Yes, yes, yes, but this is a...
Eugene Lipov: Maybe use the bio-humans to create tritium before carcid. We should do that experiment. We should talk about that. be a very... because currently the big thing is I know the kidneys are important, the heart is important, the brain is very important. Because if they come out, the kidneys are okay, heart is okay, the brain is whacked. That's not good. Okay, go ahead.
Francois Vix: Yes. ⁓ Yeah, but I'll be happy to share with you those studies, you know, as a... Yeah, yeah.
Eugene Lipov: I would love that. ⁓ I would love that. If you don't mind Hannah and the person who works with you, exchange information. I would love that. I'll send you some of my stuff that talks about the immune system. ⁓ think we can do some fascinating collaboration. I mean, for a nice scientist, I got to tell you, you're pretty sciencey. You're doing pretty good.
Francois Vix: Yes. Yeah. I'm all for it. You know I was very lucky to be in contact with very high level scientists and they were very generous with their knowledge and you know I'm a bit like a sponge so you know I tried to learn from them.
Eugene Lipov: Well, those people, the good scientists are usually generous. The bad ones who are nervous are not. If you don't mind, we usually do a 30 minute podcast. What I would like to do, if you don't mind, with your permission, we'll put it in the notes, the stuff you and I've discussed. ⁓ I would like to potentially do a Zoom with you later and maybe we can do collaborative studies. I may be able to help you with your product because I love the whole concept for longevity.
Francois Vix: Yeah. Yeah, sure. Maybe I'll be helping you. Because I love the whole concept. Full longevity, heart, surgeries, cognitive. All of that would be If you're okay with it. No, I'm all for it. I'll be happy to talk to you offline on this subject. In the meantime, I will share with you. You can have look at our website at dot org. It's whole new world for me. I did so many things on the
Eugene Lipov: heart, hemisurgeries, cognitive, all of that would be huge. So if you're okay with that, I would love to do that. It's a whole new world for me. I research things all the time. So I will do that. yeah, that'd be great. Any final words for our audience?
Francois Vix: Well, know, it's again, you know, there are tools and ways to improve your longevity, so you should use them.
Eugene Lipov: Well, this is a new one. I'm going to send you rapamycin information. You have to know about this. Also, there is a dermatological product for rapamycin. You should know about it. You called it BeautySpan. Is that what you called it?
Francois Vix: Yeah. Okay. No, my product is called Glycidine. No, Yeah. And BeautySpan. Yes. Yeah.
Eugene Lipov: No, no, no, I know. you said, remember health span, beauty span, beauty span. That's a new one. I love that. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. I really have enjoyed it. You've taught me a lot. ⁓ I hope our audience enjoys this discussion and thank you again. Thanks for being so patient with me. I'm sorry I was operating today.
Francois Vix: Thank you. Thank you again. I perfectly understand. Thank you for having me here today. was great conversation and I look forward to the next one. Thank you.
Eugene Lipov: I think we're going to do something interesting together. Thank you so much.
