Tackling Aging with Dr. Carl Giordano Chief Science Officer at Rebesana

Dr. Carl Giordano joins us on From Lab To Launch!

Carl is the co-founder and Chief Science Officer at Rebesana, a company dedicated to healthy aging and longevity. After years of studying science-backed research on health and aging, orthopedic spine surgeon Carl developed a proprietary supplement to target health on a molecular level.

That supplement, backed by scientific publications, delivers a direct signal to cellular pathways in order to maintain health, longevity, and an athletic lifestyle as we age. The secret to slowing aging and extending our lives is closer than we think.

Show notes
https://rebesana.com/

Biology of Healthspan and Lifespan  40 min version

https://youtu.be/CCRzkdEcjHw  

The Biology of Food Explained

https://youtu.be/oa_9opqZ3fY

Biology of Healthspan25 min version

https://youtu.be/qyLaX_r1Esc

Lipids

https://youtu.be/vjEKQvu5Al0

Qualio website:
https://www.qualio.com/

Previous episodes:
https://www.qualio.com/from-lab-to-launch-podcast

Apply to be on the show:
https://forms.gle/uUH2YtCFxJHrVGeL8

Music by keldez

Transcript

Meg Sinclair: 0:24

Hello everyone and welcome to From Lab to Launch by klio. I'm Meg and I'll be your host. Thanks for tuning in. If you haven't already, please sub subscribe and rate the podcast. We're coming up on 80 episodes, which has been a lot of fun for our team. If you ha, if you like an episode, please share it with any of your science or biology nerd friends, we know you have some, and if you'd like to be on the show, please fill out the application linked in the show notes. Today we have Dr. Carl GI with us. Carl is the co-founder and chief science Officer at revana, a company dedicated to healthy aging and longevity. After years of studying science backed research on health and aging orthopedic spine surgeon, Carl developed a proprietary supplement that targets health on a molecular level. That supplement backed by scientific publications delivers a direct signal to cellular pathways in order to maintain health, longevity, and an athletic lifestyle as we age. This is something that applies to each of us because, well, we all age, don't we? All right. Let's bring in Carl. Hi, everyone. Welcome to From Lab to Launch. We're so excited to speak, be speaking with you today. You're exactly the type of person we love to have on the show because everyone here could learn so much from your research and expertise.

Dr. Carl Giordano: 1:44

Thank you.

Meg Sinclair: 1:44

Thanks, Carl. To get us started, could you tell us a little bit more about your background and how you went from being a spine surgeon to co-founder of an anti-aging supplement company?

Dr. Carl Giordano: 1:54

Sure. Yeah. That is somewhat of a circuitous route, but uh, yeah. I am a fellowship trained orthopedic spine surgeon. But I do have a very strong background in applied science. I spent a little time at Rockefeller University doing genetic work. I also, uh, spent some time in the surgical oncology branch of the n I H. So I've got my background in sciences. Uh, my background before medical school was chemistry. So those types of experiences provide you with kind of a broad understanding of how complicated science can be, but in a very methodical way you can solve problems. And I followed the field of lifespan healthspan and cancer risk reduction, uh, research for probably over 20 years outside of my main line of work, which is obviously orthopedic spine work. And I felt as though it was time to participate in the distribution of this type of information to the public cuz I just don't see the public catching on. And that was kind of my real motivation, uh, to get into this field.

Meg Sinclair: 2:58

Interesting. And so aging is inevitable for all of us. Um, but very few of us know what actually causes aging. How do you explain aging from your research?

Dr. Carl Giordano: 3:09

Sure, and look, aging can be different things to different people, but in its simplest form we age because the cells in our body lose their identity. People don't really understand or remember that every cell in your body has the same d n A in it. So what makes a brain cell versus a skin cell is what genes are turned on and off in that cell. And if the, if the cell is turning the right proteins on and off, your cell maintains its identity. When the wrong proteins are made, the wrong genes are turned on and off, your cell loses its identity. So imagine a brain cell all of a sudden functioning as a skin cell. I mean, that's how you get cognitive decline. Imagine a cartilage cell converting to a skin cell. That's how you get arthritis. You know, imagine a cardiac cell changing into a bone cell. That's how you get calcification in your, you know, vasculature. So when your cells lose their identity, you start to age. And that is basically what's referred to as the information theory of aging. And that that is not a new theory that's been out there for a long period of time. But the bottom line is when your cells lose their function, you start to age. And that's the way everybody should think of aging today. That's a great perspective.

Meg Sinclair: 4:37

Mm-hmm. What is the current state of longevity research and how are you unlocking the T key to slowing that aging process and dare we say, even reversing it?

Dr. Carl Giordano: 4:46

Yeah, well look, those are two good questions. Um, because. I think what you wanna ask is not, can we reverse aging? Cuz people view that as science fiction. I think what you really wanna ask is, can we accelerate aging by doing all the wrong things? And can we decelerate aging by doing all the right things? And the answer is a resounding yes. There's no question we can accelerate aging or we can decelerate aging. There are ways to actually reverse aspects of aging. And if you look at the articles published, uh, You'll see that they can take an older mouse and reverse the age all the way back to a young mouse. Don't forget the people that won the Nobel Prize in this field that occurred in 2012, where they took an adult cell and reversed the age all the way back to a stem cell. So age reversal is real, but we're not gonna do some of those things to actually reverse aging in the human population. But we can certainly slow aging, decelerate aging, and we can certainly accelerate aging. So the field is fairly sophisticated today. Uh, there are a lot of signal molecules and I, and I refer to this category, uh, as the category of signal molecules. I think when we talk about aging, we think about exercise. We think about diet, and we think about signal molecules today, and I put vitamins and minerals in the diet category. And obviously we're not gonna talk about exercise and diet, but they are very important categories. But the third leg of that trinity, so to speak, is signal molecules. And the signal molecules basically work in a way to, uh, focus on three or four key areas. The, you know, in those areas are certain longevity gene pathways. Which you might have heard of. They're called sirtuins, a pk and m tour. I don't want to get too scientific, but that's one category. The longevity gene pathways. The second category are your Tels, which you may have heard of. They are the, mm-hmm. The caps on the ends of your d n A. Uh, a third category is glucose metabolism. We want to keep our glucose levels down low, cuz as they rise, you glycosylate proteins and the proteins become less efficient. And then the fourth category, or all the anti-inflammatory antioxidants. So tho those are the, the, the four big categories to address lifespan and healthspan today that are inside the signal molecule, uh, molecule category. And the science is fairly sophisticated and very convincing with regards to slowing and decelerating the aging process if you participate in that category of signal molecules. And that is basically the category of revana. You know, obviously my website talks about diet and exercise, and I have a bunch of YouTube videos on that, but Revana is in the category of signal molecules. Well, that leads

Meg Sinclair: 7:57

us right into Revana. Can you tell us more about Revana and your

Dr. Carl Giordano: 8:00

recent launch? Sure. So Revana, um, launched just in January of this year. Um, took a lot longer to put it all together than we thought, but, um, Revana basically provides five main components. And again, those are the components that work on those. Four categories that we talked about, and one is n m N, which you may have heard of. The mononuclear tie gets a lot of publicity and it should, it's a, it's a great molecule. It works to raise something in every cell in your body called N A D. And as your n a D levels drop, your cell loses its identity. So n m N, very important. So that is one of the components of Resana. But you know, what I felt was, was lacking in this field was you can buy nmn, but yet somehow it leaves out all the other pathways that we're talking about that are important. Uh, nmn works on the sirtuin pathway, but somehow the a and PK pathway, the mTOR pathway, the telomere pathway, the glucose pathway, and the antioxidant pathways are left behind. So we tried to provide a, a, uh, A supplement that would address all of these. So burberine was one of the components, and you may have heard of burberine, it's kind of the non-prescription hypoglycemic that's out there. If you look at something like Go Low, you know it has burberine in it. It's again, to try and maintain your blood sugar level. And people do see weight loss from something like that. But the goal of burberine is to lower your blood sugar and, and, and keep it at what's considered a healthy level. Um, the third component of revana is otro, which again works more on the telomere pathway. Then we've got, uh, resveratrol, which works more on, uh, some of the other longevity gene pathways, and then Quercetin is in there, which is the fifth component of Revana that works to remove the CIN cells. In your body, the cells that lose their identity, you wanna remove them so that your body can re replace those with, you know, normal cells. And all of these function as very powerful antioxidants, which is very important because the free radicals, which everybody gets throughout every cell in their body, causes damage to the cell. Damage to the D n A and again, contributes towards. Uh, the, the aging process. So we wanted to provide a comprehensive product based upon all the science that's been out there for the past 20 years, because it's very cumbersome to take all of these individually, very cumbersome, to figure out what the correct doses are. Very cumbersome to figure out how when you take them, you maximize their absorption. So that was our goal. And I would preface it by saying a lot, all the original research was done by the scientists, the PhDs at these, you know, great institutions at Rockefeller, at, at Harvard, at m i t, at all the great institutions. The, their research is what led to the development of me putting it all together. Um, and I see, you know, some of the other companies are slowly kind of jumping on the bandwagon and making combination products, but. I think is the, is the first combination product that supplies them all. Because it's also important to recognize that the whole is worth more than the sum of the parts. They're all synergistic. They all have to be taken together, and that's why we decided to put this all together. I think that's

Meg Sinclair: 11:45

such an important point. The whole picture and accounting for all of those pathways is important.

Dr. Carl Giordano: 11:52

Um, Yeah, I, I find that, and look, I, having done basic research myself, it's easy to focus almost with blinders on with your single molecule. It's hard to scan the entire literature of published work and try and, uh, uh, provide some type of uniform or and unified concept to it all. But based upon all the information that's out there today, those are the categories that we wanna address. And these are the molecules we want circulating on our body all the time. That's

Meg Sinclair: 12:27

fantastic. Yeah. And to have'em all together, um, as you said, and a holistic approach. That's really smart. Yeah. Um, congratulations on your recent launch. You did mention that it took longer, um, than you anticipated. What obstacles did your team encounter going from lab, from research

Dr. Carl Giordano: 12:43

to lab to launch? Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, it was quite a journey. Um, you know, when this whole project started, This started very organically in my, my neighborhood, where I realized I had a lot of really successful friends, smart people who just knew nothing about, about this field of healthspan and lifespan. I. Um, so my, my plan was initially years ago we were gonna have a neighborhood party and I was gonna lecture to them all and finally I would be the one being able to speak cuz they all seemed to be attorneys and bankers and finance people, and they're all smart, successful people. But they knew very little about this field. Um, and then the, and then Covid struck and we couldn't get together and we decided we'd put it on a website. So we put the website together. And then we realized it was very cumbersome to buy all these products individually, so we decided we would, um, put the product on the website not knowing. Once the attorneys looked at the website, they educated us about how the FDA does not allow for certain things to be said. So we had to remove a lot of information from the website, which was very frustrating. Had I known that, I'm not sure I would've put the product on the website. Because I think the information is very compelling if you understand it. I think if people can explain to you why these are very important, you will automatically jump on the bandwagon. But, um, I'm hoping people will read between the lines and understand these are very valuable things to take. We can talk about aging because aging is not considered a disease. We can't talk about any disease, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, Alzheimer's, things like that. We can talk about maintaining health, but we can't talk about treating or or slowing a disease, which was a little frustrating. We didn't know that at the start. So that set us back quite a bit. But ultimately we we're up and running and you know, we feel as though this information is very valuable and we hope that it gets out into the public media. That's terrific.

Meg Sinclair: 14:57

Health supplements, especially for aging, may get a bad rap given the state of the supplement industry. Thinking about snake oil, underdosing, lack of transparency and massive of quality concerns, especially post covid. How do you address the current state of the health supplement industry at Revana and making sure you stand out?

Dr. Carl Giordano: 15:15

Yeah, and look, I did not wanna be in the, uh, Supplement category, but I guess we are by default cuz I don't know what other category we would be in. I like to think of myself as in the signal molecule category or the messenger molecule category. Cuz when I think of supplements, I think of vitamins and minerals like vitamin D or zinc or magnesium. And look. Certain, you know, vitamins and minerals are important, but it's extremely rare to be vitamin deficient in this country. It's extremely rare to be, uh, mineral, you know, deficient in this country. But it can happen, but it's very unlikely. Um, So we are somehow in that supplement category, but I like to think of us as a separate category of signal molecules, which is the N M N category, the resveratrol category. We're talking about organic molecules or organic compounds that are found in nature. They're, they just, you just can't get a high enough dose of them. To be, you know, to see the benefits that we're looking for. Now the other issue is with the supplement market is sometimes doses and absorption get confusing. You know, you can't just swallow certain tablets that are fat soluble and expect them to be absorbed. Uh, so the dose is important because even if you do take these molecules with fat soluble substances like yogurt, Still, only a small percent get absorbed, and that's why you need a daily dose of them and you need a certain dose ingested because maybe sometimes five or 10% actually circulate throughout your body. So if you're taking a really low dose and only a small dose of that is getting absorbed, you're really not seeing the benefits that we've seen in the lab and most of the stuff that we have, the doses that we chose. The, the reason for a tablet versus, versus a capsule were because some of these molecules are absorbed in the distal GI system, not in the proximal GI system. So we, we don't want it to break up too quickly. We needed to get into the colon where some of them are absorbed or the distal intestines. So, you know, we tried to pick our doses based on all the publications, and some of these have track records that go back a thousand years around the world. So none of this is, is earth shatteringly new, which is also frustrating. This is information that's been out there. And look, I will tell you, even as a physician, uh, you know, I didn't know this 20, 30 years ago either. And like, I wish I had done all the right things for 30 years rather than just the last 10 years. Uh, so. The earlier people understand this, I think the earlier people will adopt it and, and utilize these principles, not just with the signal molecules, but with exercise and with diet. Cuz it all, it is all very valuable, but the whole supplement market I I understand has a bit of a cloud over it because there's a lot of snake oil out there for sure. Um, and that's why we picked the five components that have hundreds of publications. In terms of usage, safety, and efficacy. And, uh, they, some of those molecules that we chose may be replaced by other molecules down the road, which is fine. Our, our composition may change, but we need enough information in order to change our own formula down the road.

Meg Sinclair: 18:49

Looks like you've taken a really research and science backed approach to your development there.

Dr. Carl Giordano: 18:54

Yeah, look, I, I do want this to stand separate out there from the vitamins and the minerals, which I think are the bulk of the, um, supplement market. Um, you know, you're starting to see other things enter into that market, but by and large it's largely vitamins and minerals. Um, you even start to see, you know, other stuff that's like, you know, vegetables pulverized into a tablet, but you know it, the idea of that is okay, but you as the public need to know you need a certain milligram dose of particular organic molecules. You need to know what that milligram dose is, because those are the doses that we see giving benefits in the lab. And in large epidemiologic studies, you know, large observational studies with large populations of people. So our science has evolved to a point where we know what those doses should be. So that's what we should be offering to the public.

Meg Sinclair: 19:54

I feel like there needs to be more education campaigns around aging and healthy

Dr. Carl Giordano: 19:58

aging. That's the problem. Uh, people view this idea of, uh, age reversal as science fiction. So I'm trying to get away from that. And when people ask me that question, I'm trying to redirect the question and reformulate it to be, can we slow aging? You know, can we accelerate aging? And we absolutely can. And that's the goal here. You know, we will have to wait about 50 years to prove that people that live this way and take these molecules live longer. You know, if you follow this field, you'll see people on, uh, in the field will boast at their. Biological age is 10 years younger than the chronological age. Well, I had my D n A tested, and I too was biologically 10 years younger, a decade younger than my chronological age. I've been doing this for a while. I will tell you my wife's biological age came back 16 years younger than their chronologic age. And I think it's not uncommon for women to probably, uh, age younger. Because they, they probably have been doing better for longer, you know, outside of the signal molecule arena. Their diets are better. They probably don't smoke cigars, they don't drink as much. So I think in general, you know, some of the stuff we do is probably a one-way street, but a lot of what we can do is reversible, but we will have to wait 50 years for me to convince you. I've lived, you know, 20 years beyond my expected age. And that's, that's a long time to wait. I think the information is so believable today that nobody should wait. Uh, and it's not just about lifespan, it's about healthspan. It's about living healthier and longer. Now, no one wants to live longer and be in a wheelchair. We wanna live longer after retirement and enjoy ourselves, play golf, sports, tennis, jog, triathlons, ski, all those types of things. So it's about living healthier, maintaining your present state of physical activity that you have now, and not seeing the slow deterioration that accompanies aging.

Meg Sinclair: 22:08

Absolutely. And we'll be back in 50 years for an update in this podcast. Yeah. Switching gears a little bit, back to you, Carl. What advice or lesson would you share with a friend who is starting a company in life sciences today?

Dr. Carl Giordano: 22:21

Well look, I would tell people not to be discouraged cuz there are lots of hurdles there. It's, uh, you know, I, I was told in the beginning that there was probably a less than 10% chance that this would succeed. Um, you know, there are a lot of roadblocks and financial burdens. And look as a, as a physician, this was never my primary source of income. And I think you need to be careful because, You know, there's a lot of competition, there's a lot of expenses. And for me, I went into this understanding if I broke EAP and I would consider that a success, I thought the information was valuable enough that the public needs this information right between the eyes. So I, I think, you know, if you're gonna go into something like this, you need to understand that it's not an easy process. It's expensive. And probably the one bit of advice I would give them is you need to, uh, uh, Enact interact with the attorneys early on. They will tell you what you can do, what you can say, cuz it might change the way you mold your product and your, your, your message to the public. I think that's good advice

Meg Sinclair: 23:32

to have your regular regulatory pathway mapped out. Yeah. As you get started. That's great advice. If you could go back to the start of your career and give yourself one piece of advice, what do you think it would be?

Dr. Carl Giordano: 23:44

Oh, uh, I, I will tell you I probably did all the wrong things that everybody else does. Um, you know, when you're a busy, you know, orthopedic surgeon or when you're busy in any one of your fields, you don't have a lot of time. to take care of yourselves. You eat on the run you eat, you know, when you're eating in the hospital, in the operating room, in between cases, I can guarantee you there's nothing healthy about it. Uh, but I realize today like the Trinity to really maximizing health span and lifespan is exercise is diet. And it is, uh, the signal molecule. So I would've done all of this much earlier on had I known what I know today, and I'm trying to instill that information into my, my children who are now in their, their early twenties and late twenties. And people don't realize that we start to age probably in our mid to late twenties. That's when all these processes start. This goes back to the Vietnam War when young people had autopsies in restore cardiovascular disease. Occurring in their late teens and early twenties. So the aging process starts early, and all three of these categories are incredibly valuable and you gotta participate in all of them. You can't pick one or two. You know, you wanna maximize your outcome, you've gotta participate in all three of them.

Meg Sinclair: 25:10

Well, I like to think of myself as a time and gravity fighter myself. Mm-hmm. So now I have a third way to fight this battle of aging. Yes. Um, and keep myself healthy as I age as well. Yeah. Um, and for our last question, we'd love to ask our guests, if we ran into you at a bookstore, in what section would we find you?

Dr. Carl Giordano: 25:29

Well, I will tell you, I do have a book as well. Um, if, if anybody's interested in reading a story about what it's like to go to medical school and become an orthopedic surgeon, I have a book that's out there called Shoot the Moon. Um, and there is a little twist that's. Unraveled and intertwined throughout the book. Um, as I, I was exposed to a pretty tragic, uh, accident. Uh, luckily I survived, but, uh, the person with me did not. Um, but I think with regards to, um, you know, a book about this whole category, you know, not just about revana, but a, a book about me. I mean, I, I'd like to be in, in probably the section that deals with. Just everyday life. I don't wanna be in the science section, I don't wanna be in the health and longevity section. I, I want to somehow intertwine all of this with everyday life. I think when people start dieting or they start doing particular things for periods of time, they're destined to fail. This is a lifelong exposure where every day makes a difference. Um, and I think you've gotta start early on understanding how you are impacting your cellular identity in every cell in your body. And, and I want this to be part of everyday life, whether you're going to school or you're working or you're going to a party. You've gotta decide, you know, am I gonna smoke? Am I gonna drink? Am I gonna expose myself to toxins? You know, all of these things are impacting our cellular identity. The problem is, it's hard to measure. Now we're talking about a slow erosion. It's like emptying a swimming pool with a gallon of water each day. You can't measure it. And, but it's real. It's there. And I, and I want this to be just part of everybody's life. Sounds like you have another

Meg Sinclair: 27:32

book to write, Carl.

Dr. Carl Giordano: 27:33

Oh geez. I dunno about that. We'll see.

Meg Sinclair: 27:38

Well, thanks so much for joining us today. It was great to have you here. Um, where can our listeners go to follow along and connect with you?

Dr. Carl Giordano: 27:47

So I have a website called revana.com and there is a extensive section in the resource area of the website that has lots of articles to read. It has a very extensive bibliography where people can look up, uh, specific articles as well as recommendations for blood work that everybody should get, probably once or twice a year starting at a young age. Uh, I also have a bunch of YouTube videos that explain the biology of food, uh, the biology of lipids, which I think people need to understand at a young age. So if you wanted to find those on, on YouTube, uh, some of them are on my website. Not all of them are linked yet, but. If you were to Google on YouTube, uh, my name and lipids, I think it'll come up. Or a biology of food and it'll come up and I think you'll, you'll enjoy watching them and, and listening to them.

Meg Sinclair: 28:39

Terrific. Sounds like I have some reading and some YouTube

Dr. Carl Giordano: 28:41

videos to watch. You will enjoy them. Yeah. This has been great.

Meg Sinclair: 28:46

It's been eye-opening as I age into, uh, my next decade here soon. So thank you so much, Carl.

Dr. Carl Giordano: 28:52

Thank you. I appreciate it.