BY PETER BOWES | MAY 24, 2023

What is the most important thing in your life?  

For most of us the answer is a no-brainer.  Our health and the wellbeing of our loved ones come first.  It is a philosophy that Simone Gibertoni carries with him every day, in his role running Clinique La Prairie (CLP) in Montreux, Switzerland.  The medical spa has been nurturing the longevity of its clients and patients for more than ninety years, with science-based interventions to extend healthspan.  

This podcast is produced in association with CLP, with whom this podcast shares a common goal of helping people live longer, better lives. 

LLAMA host Peter Bowes recently visited the clinic to learn more about its methods, and the mission of its CEO to promote healthy living opportunities around the world. 

In this interview we cover: 

• Clinique La Prairie’s 92-year history
• CLP’s mission to change lives based on evolving science, new technology and education
• Four pillars to build a better life: Medical, nutrition, movement and well-being
• Movement rather than exercise 
• Understanding genetics and epigenetics.
• Creating a routine to incorporate movement
• What it means to live a holistic lifestyle
• Living a life that revolves around good health, beyond the confines of the medical spa 
• Developing longevity hubs around the world
• The daily regime, built around diagnostic testing, including genetic screening, at CLP
• The role of a personalized diet 
• Questioning why some of the world’s most successful business people overlook their own personal health?
• Lifespan is falling in the western world.  Why? 
• How Covid has changed attitudes towards everyday health
• What the phrase ‘health is your wealth’ means to us all
• The longevity economy and the booming interest in healthspan
• Telling stories around human longevity that resonate with everyone
• The future and Vision 2040  

Health is your wealth…you don’t think about this if you are healthy, but then if you are not healthy, that’s the only thing that you focus on

Simone Gibertoni

Read a transcript

Listening and viewing options: Apple Podcasts | You Tube | Audible | Stitcher | Tunein | Spotify | Pandora Podcasts | Google Podcasts | BuyMeACoffee

Connect with:

Clinique La Prairie:  Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube

Simone Gibertoni: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram |

Previous conversations: 

A Holistic Approach to Healthspan: Simone Gibertoni and Dr. Adrian Heini – May 5, 2021

TRANSCRIPT

Simone Gibertoni: [00:00:02] Health is your wealth, which is true. You don’t think about this if you are healthy, but then if you are not healthy, that’s the only thing that you focus on, unfortunately. And people that are not understanding it until sometime is too late.

Peter Bowes: [00:00:18] Simone Gibertoni is the CEO at Clinique La Prairie – CLP – the Swiss Spa clinic, with a long history of science based longevity interventions to help us live longer and better. Hello again, I’m Peter Bowes in Montreux, Switzerland. Welcome to this episode of Live Long and Master Aging – on the road in Europe at what really is a beautiful setting just off Lake Geneva. Simone Gibertoni is a prominent voice in the field of human longevity with a vision for the future that extends much further than the hallowed halls of this almost century old medical spa. There is plenty of wealth here, but Simone is on a mission to extend the benefits of targeted interventions much farther afield and also to challenge what healthcare should really mean.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:01:06] I would say better preventive medicine, functional medicine. What we are doing here is about two things. Anticipating instead of curing and approaching longevity, not looking at the disease, but looking at the person.

Peter Bowes: [00:01:23] For our second podcast conversation, but the first in person, We sat down in the gardens at Clinique La Prairie to discuss the key pillars behind CLP’s approach to human longevity.

Peter Bowes: [00:01:35] Simone Gibertoni welcome back to the Live Long and Master Aging podcast. Really good to see you. Good to be here. 

Simone Gibertoni: [00:01:42] Yes, finally you can see the place now. Last time we were in the middle of the COVID, last time we had this conversation. So I’m really happy that you can finally be here and see in person what we are doing here in Montreux.

Peter Bowes: [00:01:54] And what an extraordinary setting. Spring has finally sprung; it seems in Montreux.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:01:58] A wonderful day. It was raining until yesterday and today is a wonderful day. So, it’s good to be together.

Peter Bowes: [00:02:02] Yeah, it’s really good to be here.

SPONSOR MESSAGE: [00:02:04] This episode is brought to you in association with Clinique La Prairie, the award-winning spa clinic and pioneering health and wellness destination. Nestled on the shores of Lake Geneva in Montreux, Switzerland. Combining preventative medicine with bespoke lifestyle and nutrition plans, Clinique La Prairie offers a holistic approach to living fuller, healthier, and longer lives.

Peter Bowes: [00:02:30] And what I’m getting is a sense of the history of this place, more than 90 years now of experience that I’m seeing for myself that you are building on. And this is scientific experience in the field of longevity and following, this is what you do. You follow the science as it develops and change the treatments according to the science to get the best results for longevity, to live the best life and perhaps extend Healthspan.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:02:58] Yes, sure. I think that you said it all. Ninety years of of history of Clinique La Prairie, which of course is everything started in 1931 with the Niehans, which was this doctor that since already at that time, this idea of focusing on innovation and trying to find the latest and more effective technology for longevity. So while there are I would say, Peter, while there are some clinics like us that are following strictly one philosophy for us, it’s very important to do what you just said to scout all over the world and to develop. Of course, because a lot is developed by our self, what we feel is most effective today for longevity. And of course what was effective 20 years ago is not effective today or at least today we have we have technology which are much more effective. What makes us unique compared, I would say to a lot of the development that are happening in longevity is that we need to apply this technology to real people. So we have this challenge of having clients from all over the world from 80 countries every year in average. So we have guests from 80 countries all over the world coming to us for an average one week. And we have to deliver during this week the best technology, change their life, educate the people, because it’s not only a question of what we are providing to them in term of therapies and technology, but how we educate them to continue to do what we hope they are going to do when they leave Clinique La Prairie. And then there is the story of the follow up that we will discuss what we are building all around the world. It’s all about really changing their life for the better.

Peter Bowes: [00:04:43] And what is the main goal? What do they say to you that they want to achieve through the few days that they spend here? But then the follow up, as you describe it, because clearly you can’t change a life in five days.  

Simone Gibertoni: [00:04:55] Exactly. I have to tell you first, when I feel that I’m really achieving the goals of CLP is when we have clients that is leaving and is telling us already after one week, maybe it’s the first time that the client is coming to CLP. Gentleman you have really changed my life and this is where we know that we have really fulfilled our mission, which is, don’t forget, is helping people to live a longer, healthier and better life. This is our mission and this is what clients are coming to us. This is why clients are coming to us because they want to get the latest technology in our four pillars. I mean, I think our listener now, they know already. But just as a reminder, medical is the first one, nutrition is the second one. Then we have movement and well-being. So the best technology for longevity in these four pillars.

Peter Bowes: [00:05:48] Interesting you say, and you’re not the only person these days that uses the word movement instead of exercise. Is exercise a little bit of a scary word for some people. And that actually if you incorporate I found this with a lot of people, if you incorporate movement into your life, which can be simply walking as opposed to taking a bus or some other mode of transport, if it’s a short enough distance that that can produce tremendous results. You don’t have to go to a gym and do a vigorous workout, I think is the message.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:06:19] Yes, I would say there are two messages here in the pillar movement. The first one is that it doesn’t exist – an exercise, which fits everybody. So I think it’s very important in whatever we do. There is this idea of customization we were discussing about genetic epigenetic. We have been the first clinic to ask a genetic test to all our guests. We have been the first clinic in the world to do epigenetic testing. And this idea is that based on the diagnostic part, that is always the element at the beginning of our stay, we are able then to customize all the other treatments. And in this customization there is of course also the movement part and sometimes is exercise, sometimes is not exercise, like you were saying, it’s just integrating in the daily routine a movement part. By the way, we know all the studies about the longevity are telling us that a lot of these people living a very long life, they was not exercising in reality. They had routine in their daily life to integrate, like you were saying, movement in their life.

Peter Bowes: [00:07:25] That’s exactly what I mean, because movement can be getting on with your life and doing those daily chores. If you’re at home, if you’re at work  

Simone Gibertoni: [00:07:35] Don’t take the elevator.

Peter Bowes: [00:07:36] Well, exactly. We live a very convenient life these days with elevators, with dishwashers, with all the apparatus that we can use to make things easier. But it isn’t necessarily good for our health.  

Simone Gibertoni: [00:07:49] Absolutely But here you are opening another subject, which is the subject of routine. Because at the end, all this technology, once you leave Clinique La Prairie is the point is how we integrate all this technology in your daily life and we know that one of the secrets is to create a routine. So walking to go to the office, don’t take the elevator now, because this is giving this is giving consistency to what we do in the long term.

Peter Bowes: [00:08:14] You mentioned epigenetics, which I think, as you say, the audience is probably familiar with. But maybe you could just elaborate a little bit in terms of what that means and how you can incorporate the science behind epigenetics for the people that you see here.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:08:31] Let’s say, to make it to make it very simple, there is this distinction between genetic, which is your something which is fixed is your gene. And when you do the genetic test, I always tell to our clients, if you come in ten years and we repeat the same genetic tests, the result, of course, is the same. Epigenetic is the way you are expressing your gene. And I’m. I’m Peter. I’m used to make the example I have personally. My kids are twins. No. And I used to say that their genetic is the same, but if one of them is always eating French Fries and hamburger every day and every night, in the long term, the expression of their gene is going to be different. Because then in the epigenetic you are evaluating the lifestyle. How the lifestyle is expressing your gene. That’s why it’s so important to have both. And that’s why today epigenetic is so important in the field of longevity because it’s a way to evaluate how the lifestyle is affecting the expression of your gene, how you are playing your piano.

Peter Bowes: [00:09:36] And I think the message is that there is a tremendous amount that we can do for ourselves. There is very little that’s predetermined, even though we might think that or even sometimes use it as an excuse.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:09:47] Absolutely.

Peter Bowes: [00:09:47] There’s a lot that we can change and it comes down to the fundamentals – diet, what we eat and how we move. And the amount of movement.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:09:56] Sleep – these are all the elements. What you said is very important because in fact, if we would have sit together to talk about longevity ten years ago, we would have said yes. 80% is genetic. There is a little bit that we can do, which is lifestyle. But at the end, if you have been lucky, you are lucky. If your genetic is bad, it’s finished. Today after ten years. We know that the story is very different.

Peter Bowes: [00:10:24] And that’s an extraordinary change, isn’t it, in just a decade?

Simone Gibertoni: [00:10:27] It is extraordinary. I would say the percentage then, depending on the people you talk with. But I would say the percentage is reversed. Probably you could say 20% is genetic, 80% is epigenetic. But this is proving, in fact, that what we are doing can change life because at the end, what we are doing is working on the lifestyle of the people, of course, delivering therapies to them, but also working on the lifestyle of the people in the holistic way. Because that’s the other point. I guess you have discussed it many times. I personally believe we will not have the magic pills that is going to solve all the problem, but the approach must be an approach which is an holistic approach, considering the four pillars for us.

Peter Bowes: [00:11:09] And this is a lifetime’s purpose, isn’t it? And I guess the people that come here feel particularly passionate about it. But you can, if you like, do the education while they’re here, but nothing’s going to be achieved if you go back to your old ways on day six and day seven. So what do you do to to nurture people in terms of their enthusiasm for what they’ve learned here and what they can continue to do when they’re back at home, wherever it is in the world?

Simone Gibertoni: [00:11:37] That’s Peter. I have to tell you, that’s been my obsession since I came in Clinique La Prairie was, of course, to be very proud about what we were delivering during the week here, but then asking ourselves what can we do after? How do we ensure that there is a follow up with all our guests? And today we are relying a lot on the digital part, which is for sure is very important. We are ourselves building a big platform to keep connected our client. But the more I was talking with our client, the more I was feeling that they needed a real help once they were back home. And that’s why we decided to do this – we call it this international development, which for us at the end is a way to follow up with our client. So we said, we look at the list of our clients, I was telling you 80 countries, but in reality, more than 80% of our clients, they were living in 40 cities all around the world. You can name it in New York, Beijing, Shanghai, Paris. So we said, why we don’t start to build? We call it Now Longevity by Clinique La Prairie center, which are not clinics like Clinique la Prairie. They are day centers. You can go during the day. But where do you find the four pillars? And you find people there therapist, doctor, nutritionist, which are speaking the same language as CLP because our own center so that the people when you are back to London you don’t go to a nutritionist which is telling you different things compared to our philosophy or you don’t have a coach, which may be yes, you go sometimes, but you are not able to follow, but you go in a place where they know everything about you because you have been here and they are able to follow up on our philosophy.

Peter Bowes: [00:13:27] Give me an idea. And I’ve experienced it for myself in the short period of time that I’ve been here, What the experience is like and what’s coming through to me is, is how personalized it is here, down to differences in diet, differences in terms of what we’re capable of doing as far as movement is concerned, because you’ve got a vast range of ages of people here. People have lived a life and maybe not necessarily can do, you know, the most intensive of exercise, but you cater everything according to the particular needs of of individuals. And a very specific on that.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:14:04] Exactly. By the way, you said something which is very important. We sometime in our field, we are so much into longevity that we think that people that have five hours per day to do what we recommend them to do, which is not true. So the question is exactly a person. That’s why I admire a lot. And sometimes I’m making also longevity talk with people, which I see. They have a very busy life. For example, a  singer I don’t know, or businessman, super busy life, but they are able to integrate these ideas that we are sharing on longevity in their routine because that’s the key. No? And how is the program in Clinique La Prairie? First of all, majority of our clients are stay for one week, some of them for two weeks, depending on the program. And the program is starting from a diagnostic part because first, we want to know everything about you because we need to customize the stay based on your need. We said about the genetic, we said about the genetic. This is happening starting from the second time we are really able to deliver the genetic and epigenetic test in four days. So while you are here, we can get explain to you how does it work. But then we are we are going to use this data starting from the second day. But there is a full diagnostic part, including radiology blood test already on Monday. And then the program start. And every day, based on the diagnostic on Monday, there are activity depending again on the program in the four pillars. So you can see a doctor for two hours. Then you see a therapist in the spa for one hour. Then you see our nutritionist. Each of our guests has a nutritionist which is assigned to you, which is going to with the chef, work to customize your food. And also the nutritionist has the role to make the education throughout the week. Because when you leave you you need to learn the way, the right way for you to eat. Then we have the movement part. So maybe you see the coach. So every day, depending on the problem, you have eight, nine hour of let’s cll it activity, which is visit coaching, therapists, nutrition classes, always 1 to 1 with our with our therapists. We are quite proud to say that we have in average five experts for each of our guests fully available to you. So we have 300 people of staff for maximum 50 guests, so you understand immediately how the program can be customized when you come to CLP.

Peter Bowes: [00:16:31] And diet is all important, and I’ve noticed the very specific attention to the needs of of individuals not only paying attention to the to the to the fads and to the likes and the dislikes in terms of everyday diet, but the kind of diet that is most appropriate for an individual. And it really comes home to me how individual and how different we are and how difficult it is to to say to a general population that this is the right diet because there isn’t a right diet for everyone.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:17:00] Absolutely. That’s very true. And that’s what we are always saying. You know, when you do a detox, there are some rules that people are saying to everybody, don’t drink coffee, stop completely drinking coffee. This is an example, but we know that this is not true. There are people who can integrate very well coffee, people who cannot, people who can eat a lot of different food, other people. Of course, there are general guidelines and we are we tend, of course, to teach to the people, which are the general guidelines. But then, like you said, each of us is different. So the important thing, even in nutrition, is to have this information and to use this information. And now we in the diagnostic part, with genetic epigenetic, but also with other tests, we are able to customize very well and to understand very well which is the right food for you.

Peter Bowes: [00:17:49] Is it a hope of yours? And indeed, do you see it happening that people will come here and then talk about what happened to their friends and to their family? Because clearly not everyone can come here.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:17:59] Sure

Peter Bowes: [00:18:00] Not everyone can afford to come here or has the time or the the family situation that would allow them to spend a week away to devote to themselves. But do they talk about it and educate their children or even their parents about diet and movement and the different regimes that they’ve experienced?

Simone Gibertoni: [00:18:18] Uh, it’s very true what you say. I just give you a small example. We had once a businessman who had over 100,000 employees working for him, and he came at the clinic. He learned a different way of eating and he decided to change the menu in all the the cantina. How do you say all the, his plants, ntegrating some of the things that he learned with us. So this is, for me, a perfect example of how you can start from one person. But then influence potentially thousands of people. And this is part of what we do. Of course, there are a lot of information that we are giving to even to the people that are not coming here. Of course, we want to share as much as we can all this information for the way we are billed as a clinic. The experience is in a sense, like you said, is quite unique and customized. So not everybody can come here, but this is part of our business model and we don’t want to change it. But of course we hope that we can share as much as we can this information. And let me say another point which is related more, if you want, on the from the company and business side, what you said, let’s call it word of mouth was talking about the experience is our main marketing. So the only thing we want is that people are leaving and talking about the experience to friends and families. And that’s how we we have built our credibility over time. In fact, the result of the experience is the most important part for us.

Peter Bowes: [00:19:54] Because that ultimately has to be the goal, doesn’t it, to change populations. If we’re talking globally and we look at the health problems that people are experiencing and the life span in the Western world should be rising, it’s actually falling…

Simone Gibertoni: [00:20:09] It’s falling absolutely. 

Peter Bowes: [00:20:10] …in even in the United States, the average life span is actually now over the last few years, falling, which is really a sad state of affairs when you think of the knowledge that we have…

Simone Gibertoni: [00:20:21] Absoluetly

Peter Bowes: [00:20:21] …to try to to go in the opposite direction. So it is about education, isn’t it, and about changing the minds of populations.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:20:29] Absolutely. And we don’t have to forget that if you take Europe, for example, over 50% of the people over 50 years old, they have certain kind of morbidity … So what you said is very true. We are going unfortunately on the opposite direction and it’s all about education. That’s very true. But like we said, you know, sometimes the hour is not enough in the sense that I think that if you stop on a street, whoever is passing by and you ask them, what is the right way of eating, they’re all telling you I should eat more green, I should eat less meat, etcetera, etcetera. But then the question is why they don’t apply it. So I think, again, what you were saying at the beginning is our also know it’s our commitment how we can really change their life because the hour is not enough, the strategy is not enough, but we need to help them to apply this strategy.

Peter Bowes: [00:21:25] And do you detect and I think I do to some extent, a change in attitudes. Clearly, we can talk about the longevity economy and the business of longevity, but there does seem to have been post-COVID, a surge in interest in well-being, that more and more people are talking about it. And there does seem to be that acknowledgment that if you were in a good state of health, you don’t have underlying conditions. I think we all learned this during the pandemic that you’re in a better physical state to to withstand the next virus, whatever it happens to be.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:21:57] Absolutely. I think it’s all coming down to what you were saying about genetic and epigenetic in a sense. I think before COVID, the majority of the people… I would say two main things. Majority of the people, they were thinking that they could not even again for us, that we are into this world is strange. But the majority of the people, they would not think that they could influence their overall immune system situation reaction to the viruses. So they had this idea and they learn. I don’t think COVID brought anything positive, but there has been this learning that we can influence much more our overall health situation. That has been the first point. And then there has been also a very positive knowledge on wording related to longevity. Immune system. Before COVID, not a lot of people, they know what was the immune system and it was even existing an immune system. And now we came to the point that if you talk about mRNA, people are understanding no? They are understanding about genetic understanding about the epigenetic because for two years we have talked about this. So now when we talk about technology and mRNA for cancer people, people they understand and again, like you said, don’t forget that we had here in CLP clients that maybe they had five private jets, but they never did a checkup in their life. You say, how possible? 

Peter Bowes: [00:23:32] Crazy, 

Simone Gibertoni: [00:23:32] Crazy. You know. How possible? Because they were not aware of the way they could live a different lifestyle to influence their health. Well now they know.

Peter Bowes: [00:23:43] It often strikes me as as crazy, as you describe it, someone who has several private jets and is running a business empire takes very little care of themselves. And you see it time and time again.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:23:55] You confirm yourself in your experience?

Peter Bowes: [00:23:58] Oh totally. And these are educated people. These are clever people in the world of business, but not being clever about their own bodies. And that psyche has to change.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:24:09] Sure. You know, we had this 5 or 6 years ago in our advertising. We had this claim: ‘Health is your wealth,’ which is true. What is? You know, health. You don’t think about this if you are healthy, but then if you are not healthy, that’s the only thing that you focus on, unfortunately. And people, they are not understanding it until sometime it’s too late. Preventive medicine is about this, I would say, Peter, preventive medicine, functional medicine. What we are doing here is about two things. Anticipating, you know, instead of curing and approaching longevity, not looking at the disease, but looking at the person, which is also something that we have a little bit lost in the, let’s say, traditional medicine.

Peter Bowes: [00:24:57] Exactly. Because the whole body is is all important.  

Simone Gibertoni: [00:25:03] Peter Bowes: It’s all connected.

Peter Bowes: [00:25:03] It’s all connected. So our sleep is connected to our microbiome, is connected to every physical aspect of our being. And again, that’s part of the educational message, isn’t it?

Simone Gibertoni: [00:25:13] Absolutely. So if you are not sleeping and you are simply taking the pills to sleep, you are not going at the origin of the problem. And maybe, like you said, the origin could be a completely different type of problem, can be stress, can be microbiota, can be, can be a lot of different things. But we want to go at the origin of the problem and we want to go at the origin before the disease starts to start to be there.

Peter Bowes: [00:25:36] Now you used the phrase health is wealth, and I totally agree with you. I mean, the most valuable wealth to me is my good health. And I often say that. But talking of wealth and I mentioned the longevity economy. The longevity economy in itself is about wealth. And there’s a financial side to that. There’s the physical well-being side of that. But to move forward, I get a sense that the longevity economy, which is clearly growing, must be nurtured and must be allowed to grow. What do you see the future like in this area? I see it booming at the moment with huge potential.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:26:15] I see. I see two things happening. Peter, of course, it is booming. The just to give you an idea of the statistic, you probably talk about this already. Before COVID, the longevity industry was supposed to grow 8 or 9% per year. Now we are almost at the double. So between 15 and 20% depending on the research. So it’s for sure an industry which is growing very fast. You don’t have a lot of industry growing at this pace. So that’s why everybody is getting into it. But when everybody is getting into an industry, you know what’s happening, then it’s very important to remain serious, to do the things slowly, like we like to do, to build on your experience and not just to build on the trend of the market. So that’s a little bit the risk that we see. Uh, we have ourselves some technology that we propose to our clients knowing that maybe if you take during the week they are not effective. But we tell them, we tell them, listen, we want you to try this technology, but you know that to be effective, you need to do this for at least 20 times when you are back in New York or in London, because otherwise it’s not working. Sometimes this is not fully explain. The efficacy sometime of some therapies are not yet proven. So I think that’s a little bit the risk. When you go too much into the marketing and you lose a little bit the science, which is still our foundation. So we have 50 doctors in Clinique La Prairie and every time we decide to introduce something, the first thing they are asking me is, do we have proof is scientifically proven and we have to go through all this step before we introduce some new technology. And so this is what I would like to see this industry booming, but still keeping the seriousness as credibility, because otherwise we all risk, you know, if we lose the credibility.

Peter Bowes: [00:28:12] Absolutely. Who do you think holds the responsibility for maintaining the momentum? Is it the the doctors and their relationship with their patients? Is it people like you, the thought leaders in the industry? Is it politicians or indeed journalists ensuring that these issues are got out there and talked about it? I mean, my sense is clearly it’s a little bit of everything, but I’m just wondering where you think the emphasis should be.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:28:38] I would answer like you because it should be a little bit of everything, because I think politicians, they will have a lot of upside if they are focusing on it. And we have seen it during COVID and we see it every day. Not the cost of treating this morbidity that we are talking about is huge for the community. And then of course, I think CEO like me running a company like us, of course we need to we should all on top of this we have – you said at the beginning – we have a brand which is which is there since 90 years. We should always take decision based on the long term. Our game has to be a game which has never which is never ending. So we have to be able to take decisions that we know we can sustain in the long term. That’s the key. 

Peter Bowes: [00:29:34] Exactly. So what’s next for CLP? You’re involved in quite a lot of global expansion at the moment?

Simone Gibertoni: [00:29:39] Yeah, Yeah, we have, listen in a nutshell, what we are building is, is this ecosystem. At the end we put at the center our client, our, our patients and, and the question we were discussing before is how can we change their life? So we have this four building block that we are developing, let’s say these four strategic guidelines. The first one is the creation of the physical center, and we have the longevity lab. We have also the health resorts. So we are building other clinics like CLP. We have already three on the way and and we want to reach ten clinics like this and 40 longevity hubs. So that’s the first step. The second step are the products. And for us the product is holistic health, which is our line of supplements, which is available and is a way to continue the therapies of CLP. But this is open for everybody. And then we have the product that we give during the stay, which are much more customized, of course, because when you come here, we know everything about you. The third point is this commitment that we have on innovation. So working and investing and researching and working with start up, we have done recently also a lot of investment in this field and the last part we mentioned quickly is the digital part. So how we can keep all this universe connected digitally, you know, and if we have done the physical places, the product, the digital part defined by the innovation, I think we have reached something which is important and credible and able to change the life of our clients.

Peter Bowes: [00:31:15] And important certainly to me, because I like to tell the stories of longevity and tell the stories of establishments like this one. And I think that’s a big part of the issue, isn’t it, in terms of getting the message out there, explaining, as you have done to some extent, the science and how it is relevant to people, but you need to get through to people. And I think you’ve referred to this. Everyone’s busy, everyone’s got things to do. And the story of longevity, I think has to be told and told around the world in a sense, so that it resonates with people.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:31:48] But listen, first of all, I want to acknowledge that you are one of the people that are telling this story and you are telling since long time and and is what you are doing is very important because we are doing with the approach, which is the approach of Clinique La Prairie. And that’s also what put us together now because we were approaching much more as a serious journalist who want to know the reality of the fact and not just talking about marketing, because also there unfortunately, we have a lot of claim that we are reading everywhere, which then if you go to see they are not in reality so true. So is is again I want to acknowledge that you have done a lot for our industry and some of the steps we have done it together. So we are we are very happy.

Peter Bowes: [00:32:32] Well thank you. And I’m enjoying doing it as well. And in many senses feel like we’re still at the beginning. There’s so much more work to be done.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:32:40] What what do you think? What do you think are the next step? Can I ask yourself, which do you think are going to be the next step of our industry?

Peter Bowes: [00:32:47] I think we need to get the messages, the kinds of issues that you’ve been talking about through to people in a way that resonates and is relevant to everyday life. And yes, as you’ve reflected beautifully, really, you can come here and have a great 5 or 7 days and experience quite an intense few days learning a lot. But then it’s all about what you do when you go home, because human nature, sadly, is to revert back. So I think it’s important to tell the stories about movement, about diet. I’ve learned a lot in less than 24 hours here about diet, and I’m thinking about how it’s going to change when I go home and hopefully tell people about that. So I think it is it is getting the message out in a relatable way that I think is so crucially important. People have questions and sometimes don’t know where to turn. They spend very little time with their doctors, which I think is of concern. And people need accurate information, not exaggerated information as as you just reflected, but information that is truthful and is usable. I think that’s a big part of the future. From my perspective as the journalist telling these stories. I think that is one of the key areas of – it’s got to be one of the areas of growth, and that involves involving the media. Of course, it involves other media organizations, it involves television, it involves digital media. Embracing digital media. Social media, which the younger generations sometimes exclusively use to get their messages. They don’t watch traditional television or even read books, sometimes sadly. So it’s getting those messages out in a succinct but accurate and relatable way, I think. And I think what you’re doing with your some of your digital work is what you’re trying to achieve as well.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:34:40] Thank you. First of all, I have to say I’m very happy if we have been able to teach you something new. It’s already I’m already very proud because you are. And yeah, the question is, how do we help them to integrate this in their everyday life And, and when, you know, I think in a very interesting conversation that we are having with people like you and in conferences is really this idea of taking all this knowledge that we have developed in the last year on longevity and then applying it to client, which can be at the week here, it can be when they leave and sustain this change over time.

Peter Bowes: [00:35:20] Yes, exactly. And I think people have a yearning for that. I think they want it. And when we say health is wealth, imagine the worst times for families. What does it focus around? It focusses around ill health. If a loved one is sick or tragically dies and it’s a condition that perhaps could have been prevented or even just delayed until later in life.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:35:45] Exactly.

Peter Bowes: [00:35:46] Through this kind of education, I think that must be hugely valuable to people.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:35:51] Absolutely.

Peter Bowes: [00:35:52] Tell me, just in closing from a personal perspective, what you get out of this, you are leading this revolution to some extent. What’s the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning?

Simone Gibertoni: [00:36:05] The let’s say the vision and we have this, this idea that with this ecosystem that we have just discussed is we call it Vision 2040. So it’s something that we put almost when we did it 20 years forward. And this is for me, it’s that’s, that’s the vision that is really exciting me every morning. And I can tell you it’s a challenge because we are starting as a small company which is now really achieving what we were we were saying five years ago and hopefully, like you said, helping to educate people in this field. And then there is all the learning that you do, that you do in the process which is which is exciting. And like you said, a lot of things are happening. We have to be able to understand really and to separate the good from the bad. But I think it’s a field which is super exciting, and I would say I’m coming from, not from the longevity, longevity space. At the end what makes this business and what makes I think what you do very interesting is at the end, you want to help people.

Peter Bowes: [00:37:22] Exactly.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:37:23] You know, you don’t want to sell a product, or you want with all the respect, but at the end, at the end of this, there is this idea of helping people, in our case, living a longer, healthier and better life. But that’s what can really change their life for the better.

Peter Bowes: [00:37:39] I think it’s really inspiring work. It’s really good to be here. Simone thank you very much indeed.

Simone Gibertoni: [00:37:44] Thank you very much for the conversation again. Thank you.

The Live Long and Master Aging (LLAMA) podcast, a HealthSpan Media LLC production, shares ideas but does not offer medical advice. If you have health concerns of any kind, or you are considering adopting a new diet or exercise regime, you should consult your doctor.