Dr. Bejit Ideas, LOQZIN Inventor
Talks to Rikki Ninomiya, CEO of Nino Beauty

RN: Thank you for joining us, Dr. Bejit. I look forward to talking to you about the science behind LOQZIN Microbiome Gel Serum.

Dr. B: It is my pleasure.

RN: When did you start your studies in skin microbiomes?

Dr. B: I started studying skin microbiomes as a student forty years ago.

RN: Forty years ago? People are hearing a lot about skin microbiomes recently, but your research goes back forty years.

Dr. B: This was not an overnight discovery. Forty years ago, I was driven by the question of how centenarians live to the age of 100 in good health. My interest was not just in how some people are able to live to age 100, but how those centenarians maintain their good health. It was the ‘in good health’ part that really interested me.

RN: So what did you find?

Dr. B: I took my project to southern France, southern Spain, southern Italy, and to Okinawa, in southern Japan.

It was a challenging study because everyone was talking about the diet of centenarians and thinking that they ate special foods and lived a healthy lifestyle. But what I learned in my year-long study is that a lot of those centenarians were heavy smokers and had very bad diets and lots of drama in their lives. They didn’t necessarily do exercise or sports or lead the healthy lifestyle we were told they did.

But what I did notice, and that’s what changed the course of my research, is that they all had very good skin in common, as well as good gut health.

RN: So you started your research on skin?

Dr. B: Yes. I started examining the skin of centenarians and found that not only was their skin in good condition, but that they had unique microbiomes on their skin. They had microbiomes not only in their gut, but also on their skin.

Until then, the only thing I had been taught about skin was that it was the largest organ in the human body. Suddenly, for me, skin became the most important organ of the human body.

RN: That’s right. We think of microbiomes in the gut, but not on the skin.

Dr. B: Twenty-five years ago, this was a shocking realization for me because at the time everyone was talking about microbiomes of the gut. People started drinking probiotics, like yogurt, and talking about the importance of nutrition from the inside-out.

RN: So you’re saying that good skin is also one of the “Secrets to Longevity?”

Dr. B: Yes, I believe that the microbiome of the skin is as important, if not more, than the microbiome of the gut.

RN: Where do the microbiomes come from?

Dr. B: Our microbiomes come exclusively from our mothers. Microbiomes are passed along to babies in their first thirty days of life during birth or through breast milk.

Knowing this motivates the purpose in my work. Women are involved in all of the science and the projects that I am developing. Women are the stronger species.

RN: That’s really interesting. Can you explain the effects of the microbiome?

Dr. B: Let’s start with dryness. Have you ever wondered why our skin becomes so dry in the winter and not so much in warmer climates and in summer?

That’s because microbiomes produce oil in our skin and their growth is reduced in colder weather. This is one of the causes of dry skin.

RN: So microbiomes grow best in the summer?

Dr. B: Yes, and during the night. Have you ever tried to sleep in a lighted room? Then you know that the quality of your sleep is greatly affected. It’s because microbiomes don’t like light and grow best at night in a dark room.

Actually, everything is related to skin microbiomes.

RN: How much microbiome do we have in our skin?

Dr. B: There is approximately a half kilo (1.1 lbs) of microbiome in our skin. And, the total weight of our skin is approximately two kilos (4.4 lbs).

RN: So how does it work?

Dr. B: How it works inside the body is associated with gene expression. When you connect skin microbiomes to gene expression, you come to hormone balance.

RN: Hormone balance? What hormone?

Dr. B: The most important hormone we focus on in our research is serotonin.

RN: That’s interesting. We think of serotonin as produced in the brain.

Dr. B: The brain produces only 2-3% of our body’s serotonin. 90% is from the GI tract and 2-3% is produced in the skin

The neurons transmit from the skin to the gut to the brain, but there are no signs of neurons going from the brain to the gut and then to the skin.

RN: So serotonin is not just about mood?

Dr. B: No, not at all. Serotonin is very important for skin elasticity. It’s also important for the regulation of metabolism. It affects energy right down to the mitochondria, and it all starts with the skin microbiome.

Whether to produce serotonin or not is a function of the skin.

RN: I remember your saying that dry skin affects a person’s moods and stress levels.

Dr. B: Yes, dry skin has an effect on stress and affects the brain because, as I mentioned earlier, when your skin is dry in the winter or in colder weather, the microbiome is unable to grow. That affects your skin’s serotonin levels and can lead to feelings of stress and depression.

It’s important to take care of your skin since the condition of your skin has an effect on your mood.

Most people cleanse themselves with the most common skin care product – everyday bar soap. And we actually end up damaging our skin because the soap attacks the skin microbiome.

RN: Let’s turn to LOQZIN Biome Gel Serum now. Why is Japanese biwa is one of the key ingredients?

Dr. B: People think it is the nose alone that picks up the scent of the plants, like roses, but actually our skin also has olfactory receptors that sense the molecules of plants and their smell.

Plants not only have a scent and flavor, but they also have bacteria that can affect our health. To make our LOQZIN Biome Gel Serum, we take the bacteria from plants, like wild biwa (the seed, not the fruit), and we process the bacteria through a fermentation system. We use only the end product, ‘the metabolites’ of the microbiomes for the ingredients in LOQZIN.

RN: So LOQZIN helps improve our skin microbiome in the same way probiotics help our stomach microbiomes?

Dr. B: Yes, as I mentioned, every day skin bacteria is destroyed through washing with everyday soap products and these days, in the pandemic, through using disinfectants, like hand sanitizer. LOQZIN does the opposite. It increases and works to restore the bacteria in the skin. That is very beneficial, not only to the health of our skin, but also to our health in general.

RN: What an interesting interview. I am fascinated with the science behind LOQZIN Biome Gel Serum and delighted with the results that I am seeing on women using the product. I look forward to passing along your insights from your over forty years of innovative research in skincare.

Thank you, Dr. Bejit.

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