Latest / Gladden Longevity Podcast / From Cancer Survivor to Health Innovator - Episode 313

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From Cancer Survivor to Health Innovator - Episode 313 · Gladden Longevity Podcast

• 0:00
  And so first and foremost, we've reinvented what toothpaste can be.
• 0:04
  instead of certain fillers, we use coconut oil.
• 0:08
  Instead of artificial preservatives, we use radishes.
• 0:11
  Instead of fluoride, we use hydroxyapatite, which is a naturally occurring mineral that is actually already present in our teeth, to remineralize teeth.
• 0:22
  we created a special formula Now we have four formulas that include micronutrients on top that are absorbable through your mouth.
• 0:30
  So We have a fortified toothpaste with vitamin d and with Calcium in it.
• 0:34
  So both calcium and vitamin d are very valuable for topical.
• 0:38
  So for your teeth Literally and then for your body as it's absorbed
• 0:42
  sublingually under your tongue and transpugally through your gums and your cheeks.
• 1:14
  Welcome everybody to this edition of the Gladden longevity podcast, where we're here age hacking, if you will, by answering five big questions.
• 1:22
  How good can we be?
• 1:23
  How do we make a hundred new 30?
• 1:25
  How do we live well beyond one 20?
• 1:28
  How do we live young for a lifetime?
• 1:30
  And how do we develop a 300 year old mind?
• 1:34
  And today I'm going to be speaking with, Kashif Khan.
• 1:37
  you may know him from the DNA company.
• 1:39
  He's from Toronto and he actually.
• 1:42
  was the founder of the DNA company, which has gone on to become a international brand in genetic testing.
• 1:48
  And we're going go down the rabbit hole on some genetic testing that I think you're going to find absolutely fascinating.
• 1:54
  We're going to talk about hormones, women's health.
• 1:57
  We're going to talk about kids.
• 1:58
  We're going to talk about anxiety, depression, PTSD.
• 2:02
  It's really far reaching conversation, but it's really, I thought really a wonderful conversation.
• 2:07
  So I hope you enjoyed as much as I did.
• 2:09
  Welcome everybody to this edition of the Gladden longevity podcast.
• 2:12
  I'm your host dr.
• 2:13
  Jeffrey Gladden and today I'm here with Vlad Vuckecevic Hopefully I got that right Not bad, right so Vlad welcome to the Gladden longevity podcast
• 2:25
  Thank you for having me.
• 2:27
  I've been listening for a while and it's good to be on.
• 2:30
  Oh, well, great.
• 2:31
  Glad to have you here.
• 2:32
  tell us a little bit about your journey here.
• 2:35
  I know that you had some struggles as a child, I believe, that kind of got you focused on health and longevity and probably even survival in some way, or form.
• 2:47
  So maybe walk us through that a little bit.
• 2:49
  Absolutely, so it's my origin story.
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  So, my name is Vladimir.
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  I was born in Serbia, hence the name.
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  And I was living a relatively normal childhood life as a five-year-old in Serbia.
• 3:03
  This was 1990.
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  And then I started having pains in my right leg, kind of right in the middle of the femur, of the thigh bone.
• 3:13
  uh And initially we went to the doctor.
• 3:16
  They chalked it up to growing pains, you know, don't worry about it.
• 3:20
  It's fine It kept coming back over and over again every few months and then eventually they did a An x-ray of the bone and they realized that it was most likely a cancerous
• 3:32
  tumor uh in in the right femur ah Initially, they didn't know what type of cancer so they had to do a biopsy and they they concluded that it was it was
• 3:43
  which is a relatively common cancer for children, particularly as they're growing, mutations can multiply and become cancerous relatively quickly, particularly in the bones.
• 4:01
  And that being 1990 in Serbia, or back then it was a country called Yugoslavia, was a very awful diagnosis because there wasn't very much chemotherapy or treatment back there.
• 4:12
  But thankfully my parents knew someone here in the United States and we made it to Sloan Kettering in New York in 1990 where I was treated.
• 4:23
  So I went through chemotherapy, numerous surgeries, removing the bone, putting in other pieces in there, other bones.
• 4:34
  And then eventually I also developed a secondary cancer called AML leukemia.
• 4:42
  So leukemia is pretty common, unfortunately, as an outcome of being treated for other cancers from the chemotherapy.
• 4:51
  then, yeah, finally I had to more chemotherapy.
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  And then finally I had a bone marrow transplant in 1994.
• 4:58
  So about four and a half years after my initial diagnosis, I finally had a bone marrow transplant and that, thank God, has been the...
• 5:09
  the conclusion of that journey.
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  And so I've been cancer free for about 30 years now since that five year-ish ordeal during kind of a formative period in my youth.
• 5:21
  And so that was a very, that shapes everything that I do and how I do it.
• 5:25
  Right.
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  mean, between the ages of five and 10, that's really when you're on some levels kind of coming of age really as a childhood into a, you know, not quite teenager, but close to it.
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  Right.
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  So, um, what kind of, what kind of imprint did that leave on you?
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  Well, I didn't know what death was.
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  That's right.
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  When I was diagnosed as a five-year-old, it was more about pain.
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  All of a sudden, there was all this pain in my life.
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  uh Pain from the cancer, pain from the treatments, pain from blood work, from all the...
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  uh all the other things associated with the treatment.
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  But then as I got older, six, seven, eight, nine years old, ten, I realized what, you know, mortality is and what death is.
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  ah And what is really at stake here isn't just, you know, short-term pain, but is a much more existential challenge.
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  And so I think by the end, by the time I was nine or ten years old, I very much kind of
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  grew up quickly during that period of my life and realized what's at stake and what we can lose and what we can gain and what life is and what it isn't.
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  And kind of that's been the foundation of what I do and how I live.
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  It's a really interesting thing because I think, um, you know, I had some health challenges when I was five years old.
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  Um, but they weren't life threatening.
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  I had, you know, post-tropical, Maryland, a fright of some of my kidneys were damaged and I was, you know, home from school for a couple of weeks.
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  And I thought that was kind of a thing.
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  And then I had some other challenges, that ended me up in the hospital on a couple of occasions.
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  I swallowed a peanut down the right mainstream, of my.
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  right lung, right main stem brachus, right?
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  And so I had to have a pulmonoscopy to basically take it out.
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  had pneumonia.
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  I was in an oxygen tent, know, things like this.
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  So not the not the typical childhood.
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  So I had a little bit, you know, I remember getting ether and that sort of thing being put to sleep.
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  And so I had some some medical challenges early on, but at no time did I think
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  that there was actually mortality at stake.
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  And I think the difference for you is that as you went along this course, you probably, maybe not initially, but at some point you started to realize, hey, I'm really kind of
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  playing for my life here.
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  that, yeah.
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  And so that's, right?
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  And so that's a big deal.
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  At what age would you have started to think about that?
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  Was it at age five or seven or nine or six or?
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  I think it was with the secondary diagnosis.
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  with the leukemia, seeing my parents experience kind of fear and extreme...
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  It's almost like they were traumatized with the first experience, but it came back within a year or two.
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  And so it was that secondary diagnosis when I was eight years old that really kind of drove the point of mortality and the big picture.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  home.
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  And so I remember, you know, being eight, nine years old sitting or lying in bed, like thinking about angels and God and, and ah heaven and hell.
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  And I think not even theoretically, but almost literally.
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  And so I don't think that's the usual thought that most kids have at that age, but it was kind of forced upon me.
• 8:57
  well, that's fascinating.
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  And did you have any help kind of processing that where your parents kind of in a position to be able to help you process that or were there outside people from the hospital that
• 9:07
  were able to help you talk that through or how did that work?
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  that's a great question.
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  mean, that was still early 90s, so like 92, 93, 94.
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  And in childhood cancer world, that's like a different era, particularly around mental health, around the holistic support system.
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  My parents were and are wonderful.
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  They were
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  They were always there for me.
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  My mom basically ended up being my, you know, my Sherpa, my guide ah throughout the whole experience.
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  And my dad was there as well.
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  He worked so he would pop in and out.
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  But, you know, I think also Eastern European family, right?
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  You don't know about mental health as much as...
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  you would think uh more traditional background.
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  So it was more of a intangible support system.
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  uh We're there for you, we're always supportive that I felt constantly and that enabled me to survive and to proceed.
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  And then in terms of the hospital, we did have a social worker who was really, really incredible.
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  ah
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  even back then Sloan Kettering had a cadre of social workers who really did everything from counseling through to booking a stay at the Ronald McDonald House if you needed a
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  night in the city as opposed to going back home to the suburbs or something like that.
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  And that's grown over time now, especially with the knowledge of how much mental health affects
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  physical health throughout the process.
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  So there was something, but it wasn't as mature as it would be now.
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  It's hard to make generalizations, but my sense of Eastern European culture is that it's a little more stoic.
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  It's a little less sort of overtly loving, touchy feely.
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  It's a little more stoic, a little more, I'm not sure what
• 11:14
  what the term would be beyond that exactly.
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  I don't think it's harsh, it's, it's some sort of maybe meat and potatoes.
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  You know, we, this is how we do it.
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  We go about our business, you know, that kind of thing.
• 11:24
  Yeah.
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  it's part of the socialism, communism, post-World War II uh ethos that permeated Yugoslavia.
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  It wasn't part of the Soviet Union, but it was close by.
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  It was in the middle uh between East and West.
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  uh So religion was still frowned upon significantly.
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  religion was frowned upon.
• 11:46
  Yeah.
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  wasn't like in the Soviet Union where they removed churches and all that, but it was definitely not kind of encouraged at all.
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  And so there wasn't that.
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  And then in terms of mental health, yeah, mean, the idea of what a therapist is or any sort of uh support of that kind was far away.
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  And it probably still lacks...
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  what we get here for better or for worse.
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  yes, there's definitely a stoicism and a coldness that is more pragmatic.
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  Mm Yeah, that's it.
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  A bit of pragmatism.
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  So but that being said, let's say that's a cultural norm.
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  sounds like within your family, your mother was very attentive.
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  And I don't know if she was a very warm personality or nurturing personality or if she was more attentive and sort of custodial on some level.
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  Or how would you how would you characterize that as a young child?
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  that she went into a battle.
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  Like that, that she went into battle with the goal of, you know, saving her child and take care of what's in front of us.
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  Because we had a double, double,
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  traumatic experience in that one was the diagnosis and then two was moving to a whole new country uh for treatment.
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  I didn't speak any English as a five, six year old.
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  My mom spoke a little bit of English because she learned English in school, in grammar school and high school, so she could get along.
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  So I think none of us had time for anything beyond survival.
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  And that was the goal for those first four or five years is like,
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  Yeah.
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  take care of my child, make sure he's okay, and survive.
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  And that's what we did.
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  That's what we did.
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  Yeah.
• 13:35
  just and did you have siblings also or were you you did?
• 13:39
  Okay.
• 13:40
  two years younger, so I was young and she was even younger at that point and she ended up being my boom arrow donor.
• 13:51
  okay.
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  I was going to say, did she end up kind of being an ally for you, either emotionally or whatever in both ways?
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  Yeah.
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  Right.
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  now we're quite uh profoundly because when you give someone bone marrow, it's stem cells, right?
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  It's the core of who you are.
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  And it's a very unique experience.
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  uh For instance, my blood type changed.
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  So uh
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  I went from an O blood type to an A positive blood type ah after the bone marrow transplant.
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  ah So it literally reconfigured the thing that makes your blood and thus your blood type.
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  yeah.
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  Yes.
• 14:39
  Yes.
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  It is.
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  She did.
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  She did.
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  And she was eight years old.
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  when she did it, I was 10, she was eight.
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  She barely knew what was happening.
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  The bone marrow uh donor process, I think it's important for people to know it's bad, it's not like giving an organ.
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  uh So everyone should be open to giving bone marrow because we all have it and we should be trying to help.
• 15:07
  ah But it is...
• 15:08
  of it.
• 15:08
  You're not going to run out of it.
• 15:11
  yeah.
• 15:14
  Right.
• 15:14
  your bones in usually in the spine or the hips, the hip bones and they extract, yeah, bone marrow.
• 15:23
  And so that's how they take it.
• 15:26
  um And I think, you know, she had to have general anesthesia for that process.
• 15:29
  She went into the hospital.
• 15:31
  It was a very, for an eight year old, a a fraud experience.
• 15:35
  No, it is a big deal.
• 15:37
  Yeah.
• 15:38
  Yeah.
• 15:38
  can and should think about doing it, I think.
• 15:41
  Because it's a very, it's not like a blood type.
• 15:46
  It's a much more uh specific match that is required.
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  And so finding the right match oftentimes is very difficult for people.
• 15:55
  I was lucky, we were lucky that my sister and I were exact matches.
• 16:00
  Yeah.
• 16:01
  perfect.
• 16:02
  Wow.
• 16:02
  So I guess you guys are probably very close to this day, I would think.
• 16:06
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:08
  Cool.
• 16:08
  And so then, so you make it through this by age 10 and then what, how does that sort of start to play itself out in your teenage years?
• 16:18
  mean, people could have all kinds of reactions to it, right?
• 16:20
  Everything from denial to...
• 16:22
  trying to move as far away from as possible to embracing as part of their story to, mean, it could be, it could be one of a hundred different responses to that, right?
• 16:30
  So yeah.
• 16:32
  I took it in two ways.
• 16:33
  One was I knew I didn't want to be a doctor.
• 16:36
  I didn't want to spend my life in hospitals in that way.
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  So I tried to learn as many other things as quickly as humanly possible.
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  Everything from history to literature to programming to everything that isn't medicine.
• 16:53
  But on the flip side, internally,
• 16:56
  I did end up being somewhat of a hypochondria in that uh every little pain, every little discomfort, every little change can be triggering in some way.
• 17:07
  So even though was trying to or run away from health and wellness, it was a daily part of my life, both literally and psychologically.
• 17:16
  the bone cancer that I had, my legs don't function in the same way.
• 17:20
  So I can walk and I can I get by but I can't run, I can't jump, I can't do any major action.
• 17:26
  So there's limitations there but then also it's always in your head in terms of thinking about it and being cognizant and aware and so I've always, you know, taken vitamins and
• 17:38
  minerals.
• 17:38
  I've always tried to
• 17:42
  I didn't know what eating right was, but I've tried to eat right and now I've learned that.
• 17:45
  So it's been a part of my life in those two ways consistently and now it's kind of those two have reconnected in my entrepreneurial life, but it took a while for that to happen.
• 17:57
  Yeah.
• 17:58
  And, and I suspect that you do ongoing cancer screening at this point in time as well, right?
• 18:03
  Um, and probably doing at least annually, if not every six months or something, looking just to make sure everything's okay.
• 18:11
  It's funny because there's both the protocol-based...
• 18:15
  So the thing that Sloan-Kettering does as part of their long-term follow-up, so they do chest x-rays and echocardiograms for the heart because the heart is often very much
• 18:25
  affected by chemotherapy, as you know, over long periods of time uh post-treatment.
• 18:31
  So the heart is a big...
• 18:33
  uh kind of part of my body that is regularly evaluated.
• 18:37
  uh But Sloan-Kenton actually, like after you were cancer free for about five plus years, perspective, and I think this generally accepted perspective is like your risk level goes
• 18:49
  down close to where it would be if you were just an average human being.
• 18:55
  And so I...
• 18:57
  I both accept that and don't accept that at the same time.
• 19:00
  So I have my own additional regimen of ah checkups and testing to do.
• 19:07
  So for instance, I do a full body MRI every year out of pocket on my own.
• 19:12
  I do additional blood work beyond what they do there every six months or so.
• 19:19
  And so I've created my own kind of uh mini
• 19:23
  awareness system or early detection system that I think is becoming more and common for people.
• 19:30
  Yeah, no, there's some and there's some really cutting edge stuff coming forward now and actually being able to detect the presence of cancer before you could ever visualize it.
• 19:42
  You know, on an MRI scan or things like that, right?
• 19:44
  Yeah, through blood work, right?
• 19:46
  uh Yeah, some of which is not particularly useful and some of which is actually getting really good.
• 19:52
  So.
• 19:53
  We're in kind of the Wild West period for that type of testing.
• 19:58
  Yeah, yeah, it's an evolving, rapidly evolving field.
• 20:01
  There's some things coming forward with a company out of India called TZAR, T-Z-A-R, that seems to be very robust and being pretty well documented for early detection and actually
• 20:13
  characterization and actually even able to discover other kinds of disease processes before they're actually full blown, so to speak.
• 20:21
  That's one to keep an eye on, uh TZAR, T-Z-A-R.
• 20:25
  um Yeah, so that'll be interesting.
• 20:29
  They're trying to get set up here in the US for testing.
• 20:31
  I think their lab will be located in Denver.
• 20:34
  It's interesting though, like when I go to my doctors, they kind of look at it a little bit askew, right?
• 20:42
  They don't love self-driven medicine very much.
• 20:47
  ah
• 20:48
  don't have a capacity for it.
• 20:49
  Basically, they're locked into a thought process.
• 20:52
  And it's like, come to us when you're having a symptom.
• 20:55
  So it's like, but if you're the client or the patient, it's like, well, geez, I don't really want to show up when I'm having a symptom.
• 21:02
  I'd rather show up so I can steer the ship away from that iceberg.
• 21:06
  Right.
• 21:06
  So.
• 21:07
  not certain cancers where by the time you have symptoms, it's too late.
• 21:12
  Yeah.
• 21:13
  Yeah.
• 21:14
  too late, but in your case, but it gets later all the time.
• 21:17
  Yeah, it's late.
• 21:17
  That's right.
• 21:18
  like internal organ cancers where um those symptoms come much later in the development of such cancers and for many people and it could be problematic.
• 21:28
  But I think the tricky part with self-diagnosis or these awareness systems is that you're always going to find something.
• 21:34
  So like I have like five things I'm monitoring now uh in my body because of the
• 21:42
  That's right.
• 21:45
  wherewithal that I've had to look for things.
• 21:47
  So it's a tricky subject, I think, and I think it's not clear.
• 21:52
  We talked about mental health earlier.
• 21:55
  Now I'm aware that there's like five things in different places.
• 21:58
  like, oh, if it changes too much, it might trigger a biopsy or something like that.
• 22:04
  it's somewhat of a scary thought, but it's also reassuring at the same time.
• 22:08
  Yeah, well, I think for each of us, it's the idea is to kind of be proactive and preemptive as opposed to reactive.
• 22:18
  um And there are a of people that will simply sort of, you know, bury their head in the sand and say, well, geez, I don't even want to know.
• 22:25
  know, I hope it doesn't happen, but I don't want to know.
• 22:28
  And if it does happen, well, I guess I'll try to deal with it then, you know, but that's a
• 22:32
  Right.
• 22:33
  I don't think that's really the camp that we fall into because we feel like there's so many resources available to us now that weren't available to you, you know, when you were
• 22:41
  five years old, eight years old, whatever.
• 22:44
  So I think I think that's that's reassuring on some level.
• 22:48
  So how is this how is this translated?
• 22:52
  These experiences, how is this translated into your, you know, business endeavors?
• 22:57
  Because you're you're kind of in that space.
• 22:59
  Right.
• 23:00
  So.
• 23:00
  so thankfully after my treatment...
• 23:03
  My family and I were able to stay in the United States because my dad is a very high skilled mechanical engineer and so he got he was able to get a good job here and through
• 23:14
  that we got our citizenship.
• 23:19
  it was a very it's interesting because the cancer brought me to the United States and brought me to my my life in some way so there's a blessing in that experience as well.
• 23:30
  And so I grew up in the New York area I went to New York
• 23:34
  I ended up studying economics and philosophy.
• 23:39
  I also taught myself how to code, so I started to get interested in technology.
• 23:43
  After that, I did management consulting for a few years for big companies like Citibank, Pfizer, mainly doing new products, new product development.
• 23:52
  When I turned 25, I said, okay, this was fun, but I can't work for the man anymore.
• 23:56
  I have to build something on my own.
• 23:58
  And so I started my first company when I was 25, a company called Rocket Hub.
• 24:03
  And it was really a company to help other entrepreneurs.
• 24:06
  So helping people raise money online through crowdfunding.
• 24:10
  So that was one of the first, you know, I wanted to learn by helping others.
• 24:13
  And so that's what I did.
• 24:14
  I found that that company was successful.
• 24:16
  It grew.
• 24:17
  We were acquired after about three and a half, four years.
• 24:19
  Then I started my second company, a company in the creative space that was an art technology company that would show art and photography through a digital display.
• 24:30
  We grew that we required.
• 24:32
  And so after two successful
• 24:33
  startups, said, okay, what do I do every day?
• 24:35
  What do I want to do next?
• 24:37
  Mm-hmm.
• 24:38
  And that's really where the origin for better and better comes from in that I take vitamins and minerals every day.
• 24:44
  I take these fistful of pills and I hate it.
• 24:48
  And so I was like, why don't I turn my next company into something that is actually pretty personal near and dear to my heart, which is day-to-day health made easier.
• 24:58
  And so that's what better and better is.
• 25:00
  It's taking one of our most profound and present habits.
• 25:05
  is oral care, brushing our teeth and adding other value to it.
• 25:08
  So not only do you get clean teeth, but you get a dose of vitamins, minerals, supplements through sublingual and trans buccal absorption, all of those micronutrients in our
• 25:19
  toothpaste.
• 25:19
  So we've created kind of like a two-in-one solution that allows you to get a little vitamin D.
• 25:24
  without actually having to think about it.
• 25:26
  And so that's the premise for Better and Better.
• 25:28
  And that's where we want to go with the company is use what people do and make it better.
• 25:33
  And so that's what we're doing.
• 25:35
  We started with oral care and I think in the future there'll be a whole portfolio of other products as well.
• 25:41
  Yeah.
• 25:43
  Yes.
• 25:45
  so tell it walk us through the, assume it's a, is it an oral healthcare system or is it a toothpaste per se or is it a, what is it exactly?
• 25:57
  fundamentally, we looked at what exists in toothpaste today.
• 26:01
  And what mainly exists in toothpaste today is industrial-grade soap combined with fluoride ah put in your mouth.
• 26:09
  And we said, okay, that does have some benefits, but it also has lot of potential downsides as well.
• 26:17
  And so first and foremost, we've reinvented what toothpaste can be.
• 26:21
  instead of certain fillers, we use coconut oil.
• 26:25
  Instead of artificial preservatives, we use radishes.
• 26:28
  Instead of fluoride, we use hydroxyapatite, which is a naturally occurring mineral that is actually already present in our teeth, to remineralize teeth.
• 26:39
  So first and foremost, we built the toothpaste from the ground up.
• 26:42
  That does no harm right do no harm and then on top of that we created a special formula Now we have four formulas that include micronutrients on top that are absorbable through
• 26:54
  your mouth.
• 26:54
  So We have a fortified toothpaste with vitamin d and with Calcium in it.
• 26:59
  So both calcium and vitamin d are very valuable for topical.
• 27:02
  So for your teeth Literally and then for your body as it's absorbed
• 27:07
  sublingually under your tongue and transpugally through your gums and your cheeks.
• 27:11
  Then we have a detoxified toothpaste with zinc and vitamin B12, both very important micronutrients for a plethora of health reasons, but also, again, very important for the
• 27:20
  mouth.
• 27:20
  B12 is good for canker sores and for other inflammation, and zinc is good for antibacterial and antiviral properties.
• 27:29
  uh And then we have a children's multivitamin toothpaste as well that includes some of those micronutrients at slightly smaller doses for children.
• 27:36
  And so it's really, like you said, a system that incorporates everything you need to keep your mouth clean and healthy, plus a boost of micronutrients and additional value.
• 27:48
  And in the future, we're going to expand both horizontally, still have more formulations, but also vertically have other
• 27:53
  products.
• 27:54
  Like for instance, we're working on a floss that has
• 27:57
  vitamins in it.
• 27:57
  not only, when you're flossing your teeth, you can also get a dose of vitamins through your gums, which are very powerful in terms of delivering a macronutrient.
• 28:06
  So we view it as a system, like you said.
• 28:08
  Yeah.
• 28:10
  Not yet.
• 28:11
  Mouthwash is interesting because most mouthwashes are, you know, alcohol-based that may actually do too...
• 28:20
  they're too good at what they do.
• 28:21
  They get rid of too many bacteria and really...
• 28:24
  screw up your oral microbiome.
• 28:27
  So we're trying to develop a mouthwash if we do that wouldn't do that.
• 28:32
  we're thinking about what we can do.
• 28:34
  Yeah, there it is.
• 28:35
  one that actually, basically is salutory or at least permissive for some of the really good bacteria that are responsible for helping the body make nitric oxide, that would be
• 28:48
  very useful, quite honestly.
• 28:50
  So we have some mouthwashers that don't, that don't destroy those bacteria, but we don't have any that I'm aware of that actually.
• 28:58
  work as probiotics for it, if you will.
• 29:01
  I, you're preaching to the innovation choir here.
• 29:03
  So I think that, and also additionally, the tricky part with mouthwash is it's liquid, right?
• 29:08
  So you're literally selling a bucket of mostly water combined with some other stuff.
• 29:14
  So I think we would also want it to be more of a, maybe either a solid that dissolves in water or something of that nature where you're not wasting.
• 29:26
  Yeah, tablet, kind of like an Alka-Seltzer tablet or something like that, that kind of dissolves with...
• 29:30
  could, yeah, that makes sense.
• 29:31
  That way you get a, you get a unknown dose.
• 29:34
  Yeah.
• 29:34
  funny you look at like the statistics of the US About 97 98 percent of people brushed your teeth thankfully uh half of that floss So about 45 to 50 percent of people floss on a
• 29:47
  semi-regular basis and then about less than half of that use mouthwash so we're looking at it both uh you know, entrepreneurially and uh Market size might market reach
• 30:01
  cost, ah daily use, toothpaste is used on a daily basis, floss less so and alkoa shime less so.
• 30:09
  it's like, an interesting challenge being both trying to build something that is really good for people, but also trying to make a business out of it as well.
• 30:17
  Have you been able to check any kind of blood levels or anything to see if the nutrients are actually getting into the system?
• 30:23
  myself, I've been the guinea pig in a few of our founders and founding team.
• 30:28
  We do plan on to do a clinical evaluation uh later, probably next year.
• 30:35
  That's part of our roadmap.
• 30:37
  So, but when in the development of the toothpaste, we did use 26 existing clinical studies across the world ah that do show this actually works, particularly
• 30:49
  vitamin B12 and vitamin D, and then some of the other smaller molecule micronutrients.
• 30:58
  The stuff you can't do yet is like iron or some of the heavier things.
• 31:06
  So we used those 26 clinical studies.
• 31:08
  We created the toothpaste based on them with our chemist and with our formulator.
• 31:14
  And we are careful in what we say and what we do.
• 31:18
  And then next year, we hope to even expand the reach of our capabilities further.
• 31:25
  Yeah.
• 31:25
  But I mean, it's a powerful mechanism.
• 31:27
  The mouth, as you know, is the beginning of the gastrointestinal system.
• 31:32
  And it's a big deal.
• 31:35
  And there's a reason why people maybe do some things that are less beneficial, like nicotine or THC.
• 31:42
  Mm-hmm.
• 31:43
  or depends who you ask, uh cocaine or like other things people put in their mouth first because it instantly goes into the bloodstream and ah is felt very quickly.
• 31:55
  So we know that mechanism is quite powerful.
• 31:58
  What's the story behind Better and Better?
• 32:02
  Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's a play on dumb and dumber, except now it's Better and Better, or, yeah.
• 32:09
  did grow up in the mid 90s.
• 32:12
  um It's funny, maybe subconsciously that was part of it.
• 32:18
  uh No, I think it's like, it's really two things.
• 32:23
  One is it's better for your mouth and it's better for your body.
• 32:27
  Kind of a double benefit.
• 32:31
  it implies kind of uh a multi-level benefit.
• 32:35
  And then the second part is that it implies that it's never done.
• 32:40
  So we're always getting better and better.
• 32:42
  We're on version 3.1 of our toothpaste right now, and we're very public about it.
• 32:49
  Like these are the ingredients we've added, these are the ingredients we removed, and we're gonna continue to do that.
• 32:53
  We're gonna continue to get better and better as there's more data, as there's more science.
• 32:59
  Yeah.
• 33:00
  Because, you know, some things like, for instance, have xylitol in our toothpaste.
• 33:04
  Xylitol actually is pretty good for the oral microbiome.
• 33:08
  It's good for various things.
• 33:10
  But then there are some potential negative side effects with xylitol in large doses for cardiovascular health if it's consumed as a sugar replacement, right?
• 33:19
  Some people use xylitol kind of as a replacement for nutritional sugar.
• 33:23
  So...
• 33:24
  That's an ingredient we're looking at.
• 33:25
  Like, do we want to keep Xylitol in our toothpaste in the future?
• 33:27
  Maybe, maybe not.
• 33:28
  And so that's where better and better comes in is that we're never done.
• 33:33
  We're always getting better.
• 33:35
  And that's kind of our brand promise is that, you know, this isn't the static thing.
• 33:42
  Most toothpaste in the market today have been in the market for 50 plus years from a formula perspective.
• 33:49
  the formulation.
• 33:50
  That's right.
• 33:52
  Right.
• 33:52
  and it foams and it's minty and they own 95 % of the market.
• 33:59
  But I think that's changing.
• 34:00
  So we're part of the change.
• 34:03
  do people get a hold of your toothpaste?
• 34:04
  Is it in supermarkets, Whole Foods, drugstores, online?
• 34:08
  Right now it's primarily in two places.
• 34:10
  One is our website, so betterandbetter.com.
• 34:14
  And then the second place is Amazon.
• 34:17
  So Amazon is a big channel for us because it's funny, more people search for toothpaste on Amazon than they do on Google now.
• 34:26
  So it's the starting point for search for these kinds of products.
• 34:32
  Both supplements and oral care.
• 34:34
  right.
• 34:34
  are bigger on Amazon than they're on Google.
• 34:36
  So we use Amazon almost as like a, as a marketing technique, as a marketing tool.
• 34:42
  We bring people into the ecosystem through Amazon.
• 34:45
  And then we really good subscription service.
• 34:47
  So people, people buy over and over again, cause they love our products and they want to get it every two or three months in the mail.
• 34:53
  Yeah.
• 34:54
  And then retail probably next year, we're talking to some of the big retailers you mentioned, but you know, it's a different, it's a different business model to be in
• 35:03
  retail.
• 35:03
  And so,
• 35:04
  We really want to be ready before doing something big like that.
• 35:10
  Okay, excellent.
• 35:11
  Cool.
• 35:13
  Good.
• 35:13
  Well, it's a pleasure chatting with you.
• 35:15
  Where do you where do you think you stand now in your own mental health development?
• 35:19
  Is this kind of an ongoing better and better thing to or how do you feel?
• 35:23
  How are you feeling about that?
• 35:24
  Maybe that's why it's named better and better because I was really talking about myself.
• 35:27
  I think it's never done.
• 35:30
  It's never done.
• 35:30
  ah you know, as I get, I just turned 40.
• 35:36
  So as I get older, there are other things that you didn't even have as a kid, know, cholesterol.
• 35:43
  ah levels or blood glucose levels or insulin resistance, all the metabolic health stuff that one starts to encounter later in life.
• 35:53
  So my goal is to be aware of it, be smart, but not let it ever take over day to day life.
• 36:03
  ah And sometimes I succeed at that and sometimes I don't.
• 36:09
  Well, I really commend you on your journey.
• 36:10
  think, I think what you've really done is committed yourself to a growth, you know, both in your entrepreneurial endeavors, your educational endeavors, your mental health
• 36:21
  endeavors, your, know, optimizing, managing your health endeavors.
• 36:25
  So I think that's, I think this is the key.
• 36:27
  This is the key thing, right?
• 36:29
  You can either acquiesce or you can take control to the degree that we can.
• 36:34
  And, um,
• 36:35
  continue to grow.
• 36:36
  yeah.
• 36:37
  that's right.
• 36:37
  Grow, fight, build, all those things and adapt.
• 36:43
  yeah, beautiful.
• 36:45
  Well, Vlad, it's been a pleasure chatting with you.
• 36:47
  Thank you for having me.
• 36:48
  Hopefully we can chat again soon.
• 36:50
  Yeah, great.