On Sunday tonight ` is it, could it just possibly be, the answer to eternal youth? My wife actually uses it, and she looks more beautiful than ever. (CHUCKLES) A potion to slow the ageing process. Can you actually see the results after using MitoQ? Is it a eureka moment for Kiwi science? Lightening, brightening, less fine wrinkles. Is it a eureka moment for all women? (PLAYS HARMONICA) BON JOVI'S 'YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME' Prickly but personable. Good? The sexiest man on the planet. Poodle-perm pop. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013 Kia ora, I'm Miriama Kamo. Pills, potions and placebos ` we have tried them all and we spend billions on them. But often there is no proof or science backing the claims these lotions and potions can slow down the appearance of ageing skin or improve your looks. However, is this the breakthrough? The makers of a new Kiwi product called MitoQ say they've got a world first in anti-ageing skincare. And they say they have the science to prove it. Here's John Hudson. Oh. (EXHALES) Enough. (CHUCKLES) It's a scary moment ` a group of friends all close to 40 facing up to the damage that age... Oh. ...is doing to their skin. A bad case of the chicken pox. Outwardly, their skin is still young and fresh,... Thank you. ...but under the glare of the ultraviolet flashlight, there's potential damage. So from here you'll need a dermatologist to have a good look at these areas. CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS But these women haven't come to see a dermatologist. Nice (!) (CHUCKLES) They've bravely volunteered to take part in a Sunday trial... UV brings up everything. UV brings up everything. Yeah. ...to see if a new beauty product can actually rejuvenate their skin. Worldwide, cosmetics is a $200 billion-a-year business, and nearly a third of that is spent on skincare. Prevention and protection is so important in regards to skincare. Women and, increasingly, men are prepared to spend big bucks to try to slow down the ageing process. And now a new Kiwi company is set to snatch a slice of that huge market with a remarkable invention. Its called MitoQ, a NZ made skin cream which it's claimed can do what no other beauty product can, and it's based on a breakthrough at the University of Otago by these men, chemistry professor Robin Smith and cell biologist Dr Mike Murphy. Can you actually see the results after using MitoQ? I believe you can. My wife actually uses it, and she looks more beautiful than ever. (CHUCKLES) ...dying away. You'll notice that males have a far tougher life than females. Mike Murphy didn't set out to make a beauty product. He was interested in curing diseases by trying to get drugs inside the tiny chemical batteries in human cells called mitochondria. It was clear that mitochondria were central to a whole range of different diseases, and so mitochondria going wrong can cause a whole range of different types of pathologies, like diabetes, ageing, Alzheimer's and so on. Our bodies naturally produce chemicals called antioxidants which help fight against disease. So Mike Murphy wanted to find a way get more antioxidants into cells. There was a crying need for understanding how to intervene in mitochondria. He said to me the, 'Here's the problem, I wanna get inside mitochondria.' And I said, 'How do you spell mitochondria?' Cos I didn't know much about it. But what Robin Smith is good at is making molecules. Give that a shake. And that's what he did for Mike Murphy. I was left with this interesting chemical challenge of marrying these bits together to make one useful molecule, and that's really how MitoQ came out. They make it sound simple, but what they achieved is incredibly complex. We can make a molecule of an antioxidant that gets accumulated many, many thousand-fold inside mitochondria. And that local, high concentration inside mitochondria can selectively prevent oxidative damage. And in the beauty business, preventing oxidative damage is a big deal. As you age, your skin cells become damaged by sunlight, pollution and ageing through a process called oxidation. FUNKY MUSIC Like this car, we all start out shiny and new, but already oxidation is at work. Eventually, that brand-spanking-new car will probably end up looking like this ` a rusty old hulk. Skin cells, like this balloon, start off plump and firm, but oxidative stress causes wrinkles, thinning and blemishes. Now, the makers of Mitoq claim their potion, their molecule, can penetrate the membrane not just of the cell but also the mitochondria. It was a world first. This is the molecule that we have invented and patented which we call MitoQ. It's hoped that MitoQ may eventually have uses in medicine, but its first commercial use is as an anti-ageing cream. Will you look more beautiful if you use MitoQ? You will see a reduction in the ageing process, a lightening, brightening, less fine wrinkles and things like that. So if you define that as beauty, yes, you will. Ken Taylor took the MitoQ invention and turned it into a beauty product. He demonstrates the effect on his hands. His left hand has been treated with MitoQ. The right hand has not and does appear more wrinkly and rough. So what MitoQ is doing is, if you like, rejuvenating both layers of the skin, and it is, if you like, promoting healthy ageing by slowing down that ageing process that will rapidly accelerate if you are getting older. How soon should you notice a difference? On the skin-ageing process on yourself you will see the effect on fine wrinkling, you will see the effect on skin, particularly if you apply it for four to six weeks, which generates a whole new cycle of cells there. That was me four weeks ago, and this is me today. This is the claim from the makers of MitoQ in their new advert, part of a global roll-out of their new skin product... It's this innovation that makes MitoQ far more protective. ...and marketed entirely on the internet by one of the inventors, Dr Mike Murphy. ...enabling cells to help themselves prevent wrinkles and skin damage. Cheers. Cheers. Sante. Cheers. Sante. To our beautiful skin. These women are certainly concerned about what ageing is doing to their skin. At 42, what I hate the most is having dry skin in some places, wrinkles in some places, sun-damaged pigmentation in some places, and if something can fix that,... (CHUCKLES) Give you a face lift at the same time. Give you a face lift at the same time. Miracle cure. > But then I don't necessarily think it's something you can buy from the... Chemist. > Chemist. > From the supermarket. Yeah. No, I wouldn't put anything on my face you can just buy... (LAUGHS) So, what, if any, difference will MitoQ cream make to the skins of our volunteers if they apply it every day for a month? Hello. Hello. Oh, hello. Hello. Oh, hello. I'm the cat that's got the cream. We let each volunteer choose a box. Two of them contained unmarked jars of MitoQ In the other two was a plain aqueous moisturiser. Could the volunteers pick the difference between the very expensive MitoQ and the inexpensive moisturiser? After the break ` Well, if I were a consumer, I wouldn't be taking a leap of faith. the sceptical professor. OK. And the results of our trial. If anything, it's, um, got worse. WHIMSICAL MUSIC TINKLING When you save, you don't pay interest; you earn it. That makes saving the cheapest way to buy the things you want. In fact, once you start saving, you'll be surprised what you can afford. Grow your savings ` it's all part of being sorted. One month on, our four trialists are back to comment on what, if any, changes they've noticed in their facial skin. No, no different. If anything, it's, um,... got worse. I did say once at the supermarket they asked me for my ID, so... ALL CHUCKLE ALL CHUCKLE That was maybe the miracle of the cream, but I'm not sure. On week three, I noticed that my skin was feeling smoother and plumper, then last week I was really busy and didn't take very good care of my skin at all, and now I think I'm back to square one. Can't say I have noticed any difference at all. We can now reveal that Jane was using the placebo, the $5 moisturiser, as was Dianne. Jane and Nathalie were the two who ended up using MitoQ, which sells for $225 a bottle. So mixed results after one month of use and nothing like the claims made in the MitoQ advertisement. But that was me four weeks ago. And this is me today. But will a comparison of the ultraviolet light photos taken before and after applying MitoQ reveal any skin improvement? Sunday showed these before and after photographs to four dermatologists. They all said they could see very little difference in the surface appearance of the women who had used MitoQ. The science shows MitoQ does deliver more Q10 to the mitochondria, but does that necessarily mean that if you apply this cream, you're going to get rejuvenated skin? That's a big leap and` and that's a leap that` that we need to be cautious about. Margreet Vissers from the Centre for Free Radical Research is an expert on how cells respond to stress. While she accepts MitoQ is a remarkable invention, she questions some of the claims being made about it. Because the injury is caused by oxidative stress doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to repair that by adding an antioxidant later, so I think we have to be very careful around` as scientists around what we say. You really can't say that because this happens in the laboratory it is now going to happen to a person. But claims about beauty products, unlike pharmaceuticals, don't have to validated by human trials. For a beauty product, you don't have to prove necessarily that it's curing a disease. All you have to do is make it available, and people can decide whether they think it improves their appearance or decreases the amount of wrinkles in the skin. It's a possibility that this will happen in your skin, but that's not been demonstrated. If I were a consumer, I wouldn't be taking a leap of faith. I would be requesting better validation. Better validation could involve long and expensive human trials that legally aren't required for beauty products. Can you say that it makes you look younger? No, we can't make claims at this stage, because there is kind of a subjective claim. What we can say is there's very strong science, far stronger science than other beauty products that are out there already at the moment. Do you accept that MitoQ delivers a thousand times more Q10 than any other antioxidant product? In fact, that's demonstrably true in vitro. This is a much better delivery vehicle, but that's where your claim needs to stop. Aren't you just capitalising on the fear of ageing? That's a good question. Am I capitalising on the fears of ageing? Um, no. I think what we are trying to bring is some integrity to an industry that maybe has created a lot of misunderstandings, disappointments in the treatment of skin ageing. The women in our trial are continuing to use MitoQ, knowing full well that it could, it might, work but not will work. And in the end, as Professor Vissers points out, time waits for no one. Over time we weather the bad effects of oxygen exposure. So we know we can accelerate those things by doing bad things to ourselves, by smoking or being out in the sun too much, and we know that that has a downside. So we know we can slow some of that by preventing that damage from occurring. But we're not realistically going to get to be 100 years old and look like 20-year-olds. We're not saying you can stop a natural process, which is ageing, but if you can protect the mitochondria, you will have, what we would call healthy ageing. So it's not legally required, but the makers of MitoQ are running an eight-week trial with 20 women in the UK. Is it just me, or are there thousands of Kiwi women right now saying, 'Trial me! Pick me!'? We'll report back with the results of that trial. Next ` actors as activists, musos as messiahs. Do we take them all too seriously? Don't believe the hype. Don't believe your own bullshit. Don't believe because you make music you're doing anything special. You're just a songwriter. You're an entertainer. But when you get it right, it's magic. # You've gotta hold on, ready or not. # You live for the fight when that's all that you've got. Welcome back. Life's pretty good for Jon Bon Jovi. At 51, he's still got the boyish good looks, and he's still writing and belting out the trademark rock anthems. But, most of all, he still has star power in bucketloads. He can be prickly, but he's searingly honest and personable. Alex Cullen with Bon Jovi. (PLAYS HARMONICA) BON JOVI'S 'YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME' Good? I've heard one description of that time. That music is... Poodle-perm pop. # Shot to the heart, and you're to blame. # You give love a bad name. # Every kid wants to be a rock star, an astronaut or a baseball player. I was just young and dumb enough that it, you know, worked out before I had to choose a real life. CROWD CHEERS # We've got to # hold # on... I'm the CEO of a major corporation who is running a brand. It isn't a democracy. # ...to what we've got. # It's what we like to call a benevolent dictatorship. CROWD SINGS: ...livin' on a prayer. Welcome to Cleveland. Welcome to Cleveland. CROWD CHEERS Hi. Gidday, Jon. Gidday, Jon. Welcome. Gidday, Jon. Welcome. Thank you very much. Welcome. Welcome to beautiful Cleveland. Welcome to beautiful Cleveland. Alex is my name. Nice to meet you. Sorry you're in beautiful Cleveland. Sorry you're in beautiful Cleveland. (LAUGHS) BON JOVI'S "LIVIN' ON A PRAYER" You're looking pretty good, Jon. Let me say that much. > I guess I'm not a fat Elvis, if that's what you're asking, you know? Those years haven't hit me yet. # See the little runaway. # You wrote Runaway, and that changed your life. Yeah. I'd sent it out to every manager, record company, tried to get a record deal like any other kid. And there was a new radio station in the city. They were so new, they didn't have a receptionist. I knocked on the window of the DJ's booth, who said, 'Wait.' He came out on a commercial break. We talked. I waited till after his shift. We talked. He said, 'We're going to do a home-grown record. Leave the song with me. Good luck to you.' # She's a little runaway. # I think it's a hit! You got the deal, and they allowed you to choose your own band. How did you go about it? I put this band together for three weeks, because they all had other things to do too. 30 years later, I can't get rid of the bastards. 30 years later, I can't get rid of the bastards. (LAUGHS) > BON JOVI'S 'WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE' Check, check, check, check. You released those two albums that went gold, and then Slippery When Wet comes along and goes platinum. What did that do for the band? Slippery was our Like a Virgin, our Thriller, our One Direction, our Justin Bieber. It was our Back in Black. That was the one that took us from being a rock band to being, you know, that thing. # I'm a cowboy. # On a steel horse I ride. # I'm wanted # dead or alive. # Nothing prepares you for it. Then the question is, 'Can you hold on to that rocket ship and learn how to, you know, control it 'so that it's not just a memory?' # I've been everywhere. Oh yeah. # And I'm standing tall. # I've seen a million faces # and I've rocked them all. # How do you write a song? > If you're open to it, there's a song around you every day. You know, just read the paper, watch the news, live your life. You know, just read the paper, watch the news, live your life. Is there a song here now? (CHUCKLES) Boredom and shadows. And I could, you know... Because you're talking about yourself? There's always an opportunity. You've just gotta be open to it. Once in a while, once in a while, the truth is that we've hit some grand slams. You thought Livin' on a Prayer would suck. I didn't think it was good. Goes to show what I know. # Tommy used to work on the docks. # Tommy? Tommy? A kid I went to school with. Got his girlfriend pregnant, had to drop out of school and gave up his dreams, and that was that. That was the harsh reality. You know, still married, made it through, has grandkids now and is my age, but he stuck it out. It is that working-class optimism that shines through for that song? It's not a unique story. It's been told from the beginning of days. # We've gotta hold on, # ready or not. # You live for the fight when that's all you've got. # You don't really need to sing it; the crowd sings it for you. > You don't really need to sing it; the crowd sings it for you. > That's true. CROWD SINGS: Whoa, livin' on a prayer. Thank God. Those high notes at the end are a bitch. (LAUGHS) Could you live without fame? Fame was never a motivating factor. Uh, I love what I do, and I work really hard at it. But the process for me is different. This is my least, you know` Not my least, but one of my least favourite things to do in the universe ` sitting here with you in this room right now. Really? Really? Sure. Think I need to talk about me again? (LAUGHS) But you're a rock superstar. But you're a rock superstar. I'm done with it. Sitting here talking about me is bullshit. Really? You know what's cool? I either wrote or co-wrote those songs that I get to see come to life. That's cool. That's cool. That's cool. > That's cool. That's cool. > That's cool. How are you doing, Jon? Where are we? Where are we? Where are we? We're in Cleveland, and it's cold. (LAUGHS) # I don't wanna be another wave in the ocean. I am a rock; not just another grain of sand. # Jon Bon Jovi is an enigma. He can be prickly, he can be friendly, but above all, he is driven. # I'll be there for you. # These five words I swear to you. # Some people spend their lives looking for the one, but the one was right there in your history class. Next to me. Next to me. Next to you. > She was one of my best friend's girlfriend's, and he went and joined the navy. And one day I ended up giving her a ride home and just hounded her until she gave in. He never came back from the navy. # I heard there was a secret chord # David played... # How's Stephanie? > How's Stephanie? > Good. She is. She's good, thanks. Yeah? > What did you say to her when you heard? > 'What the <BLEEP>?' (LAUGHS) What do you say? You say, 'I love you. You know, what's going on? 'You know, what have we got to do to get through it?' But she's honestly fine, and I appreciate everybody's thoughts, because there was a lot of kindness out there in the world for my family. And that's all there really is to say about it, because who knew? And that's all there really is. She's doing great. She's whole. And that's all that matters. And what's your advice to families that might be going through something like that? All I can tell a family that's going to get surprised the same way I did is, 'I was as surprised as you are. Get through it. It's unconditional love. You figure it out.' # You know you're gonna live through the rain # Come on, keep the faith. # Faith! Up on that stage, you're thinking about the next song, you're thinking about the way it's performed, you're thinking about the lyrical content, you're thinking about what are you going to do after the show? It has nothing to do with the adulation, nothing. # Everybody's got to keep the faith. # Don't believe the hype. Don't believe your own bullshit. Don't believe because you made music you're doing anything special. You're just a songwriter, you're an entertainer. But when you get it right, it's magic. Well, you've got a gig pretty soon. I wish you'd let me go, for Christ's sakes. I have to go to work. I wish you'd let me go, for Christ's sakes. I have to go to work. (LAUGHS) You've gotta go to work. Thank you so much for, uh, making time for us, though. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming to Cleveland. (LAUGHS) Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you. Good night! CROWD CHEERS MUSIC STOPS So handsome. Thank goodness he cut the hair. Bon Jovi is down under late this year. He'll be touring Australia. Sadly, NZ doesn't appear on the itinerary. Now, we had planned to bring you the story of slavery in Chinese prisons, a Kiwi's harrowing experience. We hope to bring you that down the track. That's it from us for tonight. Check us out on Facebook. Ka kite i a koe a tera wiki. Hei kona.