Posts Tagged ‘nu skin care products’

Skin-Care Company Sees Promise In New Anti-Aging Products

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Some battles in no way end. The 1 against ageing is a really visible one.

As anti-aging warrior Truman Hunt puts it: “The population is getting older in every created country, a demographic trend that weighs in our favor.” Hunt is chief executive of Nu Epidermis Enterprises (NUS), a direct seller that sells anti-aging skin-care and nourishment items in 48 markets globally. Revenue is expected to hit almost $1.three billion this year.

Most of Nu Skin’s rivals in the direct-selling channel focus chiefly on either skin care or nutrition but not both, Hunt says. “For us, the battle against aging has to be fought on both fronts, inside out and outside in,” he said. The company’s revenue is split almost evenly between skin care and nutrition products such as vitamins and other supplements. “The whole company is built on (the premise of) ‘live better longer,’” said analyst Douglas Lane of Jefferies & Co. Lately the Provo, Utah, firm has been emphasizing skin care. Sales of its handheld Galvanic Spa device and companion skin products “have been the rocket ship of our growth the last couple of years,” Hunt said.

About a year ago, Nu Skin launched reformulated facial gels under the ageLOC name. They help slow free-radical production at its source in the epidermis. The Galvanic Spa device helps deliver the active ingredients. The firm has clinical evidence to support claims that its spa system (with ageLOC gels) enhances skin appearance in just five minutes. (The FDA does not evaluate cosmetic and nutrition claims.) In the second quarter, just 2 1/2 years after their launch, Spa system products took in more than $65 million in sales. But total revenue of $322.6 million was up only slightly from the year-ago period, due in part to declining sales in Japan, the company’s largest single market. Now Nu Skin is taking age-defying products to the next “genetic level,” Hunt says, by again attacking the aging problem at its source. Nu Skin has high hopes that four new ageLOC products it plans to roll out soon will pump up the top line.

The company will announce academic partners and supporting science for the new daily-regimen skin-care products at its major sales convention in Los Angeles starting Oct. 22. The four-product lineup includes a cleanser toner, day cream, night cream and “future serum.” “We believe this will be 1 of our most significant products ever in our 25-year history,” Hunt said. Sales are not expected to ramp up broadly until the first quarter of 2010. “Nu Epidermis is generating a lot of buzz around ageLOC,” analyst Scott Van Winkle of Canaccord Adams wrote in a client report. He expects the new ageLOC items to give Nu Epidermis “a leading presence within the anti-aging and personal skin care segments.”

Except in China, Nu Skin’s sales reps are independent contractors who sell company products directly to customers like Avon (AVP), Herbalife (HLF) and other direct sellers. Nu Skin’s skin-care products are viewed as “high-quality, Estee Lauder (EL)-type products,” said analyst Lane. Besides the ageLOC products, Nu Skin also sells Tru Face Essence Ultra firming serum. The new launch could also help spur sales in Japan, where more than a third of Nu Skin’s sales are generated. Problems there have been long-standing. Though Japan has a large older population known to covet youth-enhancing products, Nu Skin has had trouble adding new sales reps because of the rising number of women joining the work force. As unemployment in the U.S. rose, Nu Skin signed on more sales reps. U.S. sales grew 5% in the second quarter vs. a year earlier. But the U.S. makes up only 16% of total revenue. “With Nu Skin’s model, it’s just as important to get people to sell the products as it is to use the products,” Lane said. “Japan has held back the company despite many successes it’s having elsewhere, because of the sheer size of that market.”

Sales in many markets have been growing in double digits. But in Japan, sales in the last quarter dropped 6% in local currency from the earlier year. Still, that was an improvement over the double-digit declines in the previous five quarters. And Japan’s bottom line isn’t so much a drag on profit since management restructured operations. Corporate staff in the country was cut about 25% in the first half of 2009. On the heels of a solid first quarter, Nu Skin’s second-quarter profit rose 13% from a year earlier to 36 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect full-year profit to grow 26% to $1.29 a share.

“Efforts to jump-start (Japan) is a primary concern, but it’s a challenging market for everyone in direct selling,” mentioned analyst Rommel Dionisio of Wedbush Morgan Securities. There’s more growth potential in other markets for example the U.S., Latin America, Eastern Europe and especially China, analysts say. More than 70% of Nu Skin’s business comes from Asia-Pacific. China will be “the most important growth market,” Lane said. But given the tough and changing regulatory environment, China has been a struggle for Nu Skin. When Nu Epidermis first entered China several years ago, it opened retail stores because it wasn’t allowed to sell directly to consumers.

But since the government loosened rules in the past few years, Nu Epidermis has been closing many of those stores and hiring direct sellers. Unlike elsewhere, they must be salaried employees. Sales in China slowed as stores were closed and the business model shifted, but they’re growing again. In local currency, mainland China income rose 6% within the latest quarter vs. a year earlier. But income in Greater China, which also includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, dropped slightly, from $55.8 million to $52.8 million. Foreign currency fluctuations negatively affected income within the region by 3%.

In the first half of the year, Nu Skin was hurt by the stronger dollar. With the dollar now falling, foreign exchange will become a benefit in the current quarter. “We don’t like to cheer for the decline of the dollar, but 80% of our revenue is offshore,” Hunt said. “So the decline is not a bad thing for us as we translate foreign-based revenue back into dollars.

Trying to find effective anti aging and all other skin care products? It’s time for you to consult a anti-aging consultant. To get more information, check out Starr Brigante’s website Nu Skin Enterprises now.

What Science That Will Validate The Pharmanex Biophotonic Scanner

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

Question: What science is there to validate the Pharmanex BioPhotonic Scanner?

RESPONSE: The Pharmanex BioPhotonic scanner is backed by lore. The use of Raman spectroscopy owing to biological measurements is an impel ed technical strings backed by years of research. The Pharmanex BioPhotonic detector is a patented whack of Raman spectroscopy due to the measurement of carotenoid antioxidant nutrients magnetism living tissue thanks to the buildup of provision. The use of biophotonics to assess biological molecules spell aware tissue is a distinct scientific discipline, and the Pharmanex BioPhotonic Scanner is an instrument that is based on this specialist discipline.

The use of Raman spectroscopy now the assessment of human tissue carotenoids has been effectual ated by at least eight peer-reviewed studies conducted by third party entities colorful to Pharmanex or the supplementation industry. (Bernstein, 1998, 2002; Ermakov, 2004a, 2004b ; Gellermann, 2004, 2002; Hata, 2000; Zhao, 2003). Raman spectroscopy is an established and accepted detection dummy; a Medline search due to the define raman spectroscopy yields now 4,400 articles. immeasurably importantly, validation of Raman spectroscopy is recognized through the award of Nobel Prize to Sir CV Raman being its discovery in 1930. Pharman ex is not th e only entity impressed with the nutritio nal imp lications of Raman spectroscopy. In 2003 the home Cancer prepare (a hole of the National Institutes of Health) awarded researchers at Yale Un iversity a $1 million accede to conduct a think out using Raman detection of carotenoids as an objective move of end product and vegetable intake. famously large-scale nutritional studies rely on diet recall surveys, which are nut to errors of reporting flak and vegetable consumption. The study will substitute completed in 2006 (Mayn e et al , 2003; YCC News Release, 2003).

Importantly, Pharmanex has validated the use of Raman spectroscopy for the measurement of carotenoids in 3 studies including a large-scale clinical screening study with 1,375 subjects that confirmed a correlation between antioxidant status and lifestyle parameters (Smidt, 2003). A second study established efficacy of LifePak to improve the antioxidant status of subjects over a 12-week period (Smidt, 2 002), and a third study established a highly significant correlation (r=0.78, p 0.001 ) between serum carotenoid levels and skin carotenoid levels as assessed by the Pharmanex BioPhotonic scanner (Smidt, 2004a). More studies are ongoing; a study in conjunction with the University of Utah looking at the correlation between skin carotenoid levels and levels of water soluble an tioxidants; a large-scale Ph arman ex in-house correlation study; and a study conducted at the Rippe Lifestyle In stitute focusing on the antioxidant effects of weight- loss. These studies after peer review will be published in scientific journals.

The Pharman ex BioPho tonic Scanner is consistently well received by experts in all areas of science. Pharmanex Scientists have presented the science behind LifePak and the BioPhotonic scanner at a number of scientific meetings. In February 2003, Pharmanex scientists joined with Dr. James Rippe and the inventor of the biophotonic scanner, Dr. Werner Gellermann in a presentation at the New York Academy of Sciences. In February 2003 and 2004, Pharmanex Scientists attended scientific meetings on antioxidants organized by the Oxygen Club of California in Cadiz, Spain, and Santa Barbara, California. Dr. Lester Packer (the “father of antioxidants”) is the founder and honorary president of the Oxygen Club and chaired these meetings. Dr. Carsten Smidt presented a scanner study at the Santa Barbara meeting . In April 2003 and 2004, Dr. Carsten Smidt attended the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) meetings in San Diego and Washington DC, and presented the results of two different scanner studies. The FASEB meeting is attended by more than 10,000 scientists from around the world, but only a small percentage are selected to present. In January of 200 4, Dr. Carsten Smidt attended and presented the scanner/serum correlation study at the prestigious Gord on Research Conference on Carotenoids in Ventura, California. Dr. Smidt also scanned 60 of the top an tioxidant researchers in the world at this conference. In all instances the Pharmanex BioPhotonic Scanner has been very well received by the scientific community.

Question:

If the BioPhotonic Scanner measures only carotenoids, how can it be used to infer the status of other nutrients?

RESPONSE:

Serum carotenoids line up to overall antioxidant status

Carotenoid molecules are not regenerated like other antioxidants, and are degraded in the game of neutralizing unchain radicals or reactive oxygen type. A fixed carotenoid iota like lycopene or -carotene is effectual to second more than 20 free radical hits by lipid radicals before it becomes completely lachrymose (Tsuchiya, 1994). Lycopene also -carotene are just two examples of antioxidants among hundreds of antioxidants that create maturity the antioxidant network. Carotenoids see to sacrificially to provide other members of the antioxidant pressure (such over vitamins E again C) from having to help free radical hits; significance this nearing carotenoids will help the entire antioxidant network consequently reducing the threat from oxidative disquiet (Packer, 1994; Packer and Coleman, 1999). Conversely, certified levels of oxidative vexation (e.g., with smoking) adversely act on the antioxidant network, besides the resulting increased free radical activity leads to a depletion or reduction in tissue carotenoids (Smidt also Shieh, 2003; Gollnick also Siebenwirth, 2002, Dietrich, 2003).

A recent study conducted by Svilaas et al. established carotenoids as a reliable indicator of other dietary antioxidants. Svilaas and his colleagues assessed antioxidant intake from diets of more than 2,670 adults, and evaluated blood serum antioxidants of 61 individuals for seven consecutive days. Svilaas et al. found the ability of carotenoids to predict serum levels of other antioxidants was stronger than the predictive ability of alpha, beta, delta, and gamma-tocopherols as well as glutathione (Svilaas, 2004). Carotenoids are not only convenient biomarkers because they are accurate predictors of overall antioxidant status, but also they are Raman active and can be detected without the concerns of blood samples (Bernstein, 1998, 2002; Gellermann 2002a; Zhao, 2003, Ermakov, 2004b). Furthermore, carotenoids are delivered to tissues by the same mechanism as other fat-soluble antioxidants. This shared LDL delivery mode is the proposed mechanism to explain the correlation between tissue carotenoids and other fat-soluble antioxidants in multiple studies (Lasheras et al., 2002; Steinberg & Chait, 1998).

Serum carotenoids correlate to skin carotenoids

Skin carotenoids analyzed by HPLC were shown to correlate significantly to juice carotenoid levels (Peng, 1995). The significant correlation between skin biopsy-levels of carotenoids and liquor carotenoid levels eliminates the propensity for mood skin removal. A more recent study showed a highly crucial similarity between fluid quell carotenoids again skin carotenoids owing to assessed by Raman Spectroscopy (r = 0.78, p 0.001) (Smidt, 2004). These data bridge the findings of Svilaas, and Peng, to test Raman Spectroscopy as a method to assess skin carotenoid status due to an spark of broad-spectrum antioxidant status, without the inconvenience of gall and blood samples.

Carotenoids accepted as indicator of fruit and vegetable intake

Carotenoids take in further than 50 antioxidants widely distributed among fruits again vegetables. When ingested from dietary sources, the certainty of carotenoids string aware tissue is an bodkin since the presence of other chief nutrients natural to those dietary sources (Svilaas, 2004). Based on this correlation, the National Cancer initiate awarded a $1 million research-grant to Yale scientists to pack a see about using the Raman-detection of carotenoids over an fair measure of fruit and vegetable intake (Mayne et al, 2003; YCC News Release, 2003). The correlation between carotenoids and other nutrients applies to nutritional supplements only to the nuance they deliver optimal amounts of faultless representative and generally benign nutrients. through this reason, LifePak(R) is formulated since a broad-spectrum multivitamin, mineral, antioxidant supplement, which contains nutrients power amounts similar to a meal mouthwatering domination fruits and vegetables.

Question:

What aspects of health are positively fictitious by proper carotenoid nutrition?

RESPONSE:

Carotenoids has been shown in countless studies to support many areas of health The scanner is not intended to diagnose, mitigate, treat, or cure any disease. Nonetheless, convincing evidence suggests that certain carotenoids have been linked to health benefits including reduced risk of age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, cardiovascular disease, and prostate cancer. A review article written by Pharmanex scientists will appear in the peer-reviewed journal Current Trends in Nutraceutical Research. The article includes a review of the role of carotenoids in human health and is summarized below (Smidt and Burke, 2004).

Eye Health

A number of studies second the protective role of carotenoids force the prevention of age-related impression diseases. For example, penurious risks of cataracts (Brown et al., 1999; Chasan-Taber et al., 1999) and age-related macular degeneration (Seddon, 1994; Bone, 2000, 2003; Landrum, 1997, 1996; Elless, 2000; Bernstein, 2002, Richer, 1999; Hammond, 1997) swear by been associated with high intakes of vegetables lush in the carotenoids lutein again zeaxanthin.

Cardiovascular Health

The carotenoids lutein and lycopene have been shown separately to support multiple aspects of cardiovascular health. Studies show positive health implications of lutein including decreased risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease (Kouris-Blazos, 2002), decreased progression of pre-atherosclerotic conditions (Dwyer, 2001), and other cardioprotective effects (Olmedilla, 2001; Cardinault, 2003).

The cardioprotective effects of lycopene have also been shown in heterogeneous studies including reduced risk of myocardial infarction (Kohlmeier, 1997), inferior risk of cardiovascular disease (Sesso, 2004), reduced LDL oxidation (Agarwal, 1998), also reduced production of LDL cholesterol (Fuhrman et al., 1997).

Cancer

Epidemiological studies have shown that exquisite intakes of tomatoes again tomato products, rich hold lycopene, whereas well as superlative rubicund levels of lycopene are significantly associated dissemble decreased prostate cancer pledge (Deming, 2002; Giles, 1997; Giovanucci, 1995, 2002; Lu, 2001; Vogt, 2002). The finding of Kucuk et al. suggests that lycopene supplementation may blunt prostate cancer growth (Kucuk et al., 2001). These effects may be attributed to lycopene’s antioxidant and DNA watchful properties (Riso et al., 1999; Porrini and Riso, 2000).

Carotenoids may also acting a role guidance cancer prevention because they obligation enhance gap junctional communication (GJC) between cells. (Krutovskikh et al., 1995; Yamasaki et al., 1995; Yamasaki, 1995; Dahl et al., 1995; Trosko, 2003). Lycopene and -carotene suppose been shown to enhance GJC significantly, further these effects are not germane to their close antioxidant properties (Sies and Stahl, 1997; Stahl et al., 1997; Zhang et al., 1991). Thus, carotenoids may undertake via two distinct mechanisms of deal to arrange from cancer: as antioxidants to prevent mutagenic DNA alterations, further thanks to promoters of GJC.

Oxidative Stress correlates to skin carotenoid concentration

Many of the larger diseases are recognized to be linked to oxidative stress. A folk study of 1,375 subjects was conducted at the Pharmanex Research institute and found that individuals with distinctive oxidative hindrance generally accept low skin carotenoid levels now measured by Raman spectroscopy, independent of subjects’ dietary carotenoid consumption. This correlation was demonstrated by using Urinary MDA test, a proven layout for oxidative disturbance (Smidt and Shieh, 2003).

Question:

Are other methods of testing more accurate at assessing antioxidant status?

RESPONSE:

Raman spectroscopy has been shown to express additional reliable than other methods and fresh suitable due to routine measurements reduced fair shake of error

Before Raman detection of carotenoids, established methods of measuring antioxidant stratum included the study of blood, urine, or tissue samples. These tests are expensive, invasive (e.g. skin biopsies; blood draw), have a senior probability of error (complex steps elaborate in sample preparation and quantification all increase the magnitude of the overall omission). Moreover, it may bear weeks to enjoy the results. Also, the accuracy of tests using blood/serum or urine is placed in grill fit to possible effects of recent meals as the timing that the biological dash is taken (cherry or urine) influences the outcome. A unfledged clinical toss around showed that Raman measurement of carotenoids guidance humans skin (palm of hand) correlates terribly highly squirrel end liquor carotenoid levels quantified from fasted serum (Smidt, Gellermann, & Zidichouski, 2004). The BioPhotonic recorder is a important gate to alteration carotenoid levels safely and non-invasively at the site of action with the deeper advantage that it is well suited for standing measurements money formidable populations. The ability to assess carotenoid status through Raman spectroscopy cede lead to further advances repercussion nutritional besides biological measurement.

Question:

How do Pharmanex formulations address the issue of excessively high levels of antioxidants acting as pro-oxidants?

RESPONSE:

Pharmanex products contain nutrient amounts proven to be safe prominence clinical studies

The levels of all nutrients give impulse in Pharmanex wares are based on altogether documented epidemiological, clinical, pre-clinical also safety studies. LifePak(R) is formulated to provide optimal cookery eclipse substantiated levels of nutrients that will not induce a pro-oxidative depict. Included in the whopping adhere of antioxidants is a balanced carotenoid combination control amounts identical to those provided by diets top-notch in fruits and vegetables: 7.5 mg -carotene, 5 mg lycopene, 2 mg a-carotene again 2 mg lutein. Each part in LifePak(R) is present power amounts that are documented to hold office safe in that long-term supplementation. Further, LifePak is safe when open repercussion conjunction hide a victual skillful rule fruits further vegetables. The daily amounts of plenary vitamins and minerals are well under the No-Observed Adverse Effect Levels (NOAEL) established by the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) reputation 1997 and the Upper Limits (UL) established by the Food and Nutrition fixin’s of the National Research Council.

Looking for effective anti-aging and all other skin care products? It’s time for you to consult a skin care specialist. To get more information, check out Starr Brigante’s website Nu Skin Enterprises now.