David Letourneau is the president of Enyrgy, a company that develops precision UV light devices for health applications. He brings five years of experience in the UV light industry and has previously worked on UVC sterilization products during the early days of COVID-19.
Nate Wheeler is the host of the popular Manufacturing Insiders podcast. He also owns weCreate, a nationally recognized marketing agency that helps manufacturers grow, save money, and become more efficient.
In this episode of Manufacturing Insiders, David Letourneau explains how his team engineered a medical device that requires rejecting 95% of LED components to meet safety standards. Most manufacturers accept standard binning tolerances, but Enyrgy developed nano-precision LEDs that demand extreme quality control measures. The company balances global component sourcing with domestic assembly while navigating complex regulatory requirements.
David reveals the manufacturing challenges behind building app-controlled hardware that must deliver precise dosages within narrow safety margins. He discusses beta testing methodologies, sensor integration for real-time adjustments, and the supply chain strategies needed to scale production from Taiwan-sourced components to Arizona-based assembly. Learn how precision manufacturing requirements reshape everything from vendor relationships to tariff planning.
Nate Wheeler (00:01): Welcome to Manufacturing Insiders. Today I have David Letourneau with me. He is the president of a company called Enyrgy, which has made a really interesting product that allows anybody to boost their vitamin D levels on the go without access to the sun, like a lot of us up north have a problem with. David has a long history in business with about five years in the UV light industry and has been through a couple different iterations.
I’m really excited to pick your brain today, David, about how you got into this, what’s been your process for bringing it to market, and how you’re contracting out the different components involved in the assembly. So welcome to Manufacturing Insiders.
David Letourneau (00:50): Thank you, Nate. My pleasure to be here.
Nate Wheeler (00:53): Awesome. So Enyrgy, I know that you were involved in the UV space in the past, and there are a lot of interesting products that come out of that. The one that I’m most familiar with are the sanitizing applications of UV light. But as we all know, UV light plays a pretty important role in human health and vitality, and that’s really what you’re into now. So tell me a little bit about the product.
David Letourneau (01:24): Sure. Just for background on that, yes, we have a UVC product that’s really effective that we developed during the early days of COVID. So we do participate in that space and it’s a wonderful application of light. This is a great way to sterilize, to just create safe spaces whether it be in your home office or in a medical facility. I’ll just put that in the background as our starting point.
But as far as Enyrgy goes, we met, I say we, Scott Hansberry is my co-founding partner in this company. And we met some doctors out of LSU that were doing an FDA clinical trial peer reviewed at Baylor during the early days of COVID with regard to treating critically ill patients in the ICU using UVB light. Just to zip to the end of this, their success rate was 60% reduction in mortality using UVB light only.
Nate Wheeler (02:45): I’m not surprised. I’ve read research studies. I know China was doing a big research study on the efficacy of combining vitamin C with vitamin D. And essentially what they found is that if you have adequate levels of vitamin D and vitamin C, you’re not going to die from COVID.
David Letourneau (03:03): It took about a year for the researchers to really understand the relationship between COVID and vitamin D. But once they did, that’s exactly what they found out is that the people that died had very low vitamin D levels and the people that breezed through. I’m a good example. We had gotten into this space already prior to that. And I was fortunate not to get COVID in the early days. I didn’t get it till three years in.
I was already in the rear view mirror really when I finally got it, didn’t even know I had it. I just was feeling a little punky one afternoon and decided I should go just get this checked out. They tested me and said, yeah, you got COVID. They did a PCR and the next day phoned me and said, yeah, you got COVID. I said, well, I think I had it because that was yesterday. And I felt a little off for just literally a few hours that afternoon. I took a nap and that was it.
Nate Wheeler (03:52): That’s phenomenal.
David Letourneau (04:01): Yeah, because my vitamin D, of course, because this is our business, my vitamin D level is typically between 80 and 100. That’s measured in nanograms per milliliter. And that’s the US measurement, by the way, if you’ve got followers in other countries, they’d be about two and a half times that in nanomoles per liter. So that was exactly what we’ve seen.
Nate Wheeler (04:22): Okay. That’s a good level. So 80 to 90 is a good level. Is there an average level?
David Letourneau (04:30): 60 to 100 would be where the researchers would say, put yourself there and you’ve got a great baseline for your health. Now the average level is more like 20 to 30. In fact, when we first got into this, I said to Scott, okay, I’m outside all the time. I ride my mountain bike four times a week. I like to hike. I want to be outside. That’s just what I do.
So I said, I know I’m gonna be good, because I’m in the sun a lot and I’m in Arizona, so that’s lots of sun. And so I tested, I was 34. And it just underlines how everyone is low. People, they want to get tested. So if I could nag on your listeners and your viewers, I would say, get tested, find out this is baseline for your health.
70% of the diseases of humanity have a relationship with vitamin D. So you want to know where your vitamin D is. If you’re low.
Nate Wheeler (05:34): Sure. So what do you think is the reason… I mean, I know a lot of times people default to this idea, which I push back on, that there’s some systemic issue why they can’t absorb or create vitamin D. I like to think that humans are created pretty well and that there has to be some other reason. Like I think to myself, perhaps it could be the use of sunscreen. Maybe that’s why they’re not getting the vitamin D from the sun. Maybe they’re just going out with pants and shirts all the time and they’re only getting sun on their face and so they aren’t exposing enough surface area. Like, what do you think the reason is?
David Letourneau (06:15): We know what the reason is. Let’s roll back to our ancestors. They say the cradle of civilization is East Africa near the equator. We were designed to get our vitamin D, obviously the most important supplement. We were designed to get it from the sun. We, like I say, we, meaning our ancestors, got lots of it.
We’re also a little hairier and dark because we were getting too much of it if the truth were known, and that’s why. But as we moved away from the equator, we lost our hair, we lost our pigmentation in our skin, and that was purposely so that we could absorb more sunlight. And that worked really well up until just a couple of decades, well, a few decades ago when civilization really moved indoors to work, indoors to play and there’s your first problem.
Then you add sunscreen and dermatologist warnings and all of that to it and you end up with an epidemic, which is what we have today. If you look at how many people are under, if you say that the baseline should really be 60, which is the researchers that we work with, we have a scientific advisory board, medical advisory board.
These are the most sophisticated people in the vitamin D business, led by Dr. Bruce Hollis out of the University Medical Center, South Carolina, Charleston. 46 years of doing vitamin D research. There’s not a lot he can’t tell you about vitamin D. And what we know is that we should be between 60 and 100. Well, if that’s your definition, almost everyone is low.
If you’re fortunate enough to have 40 or 50 levels, you’re gonna have a lot of protection from a lot of things, but there’s still more benefits that would come with higher levels. And so, it’s almost everyone. Our own experience puts it at about 19 out of 20 people, because we have a rapid test for vitamin D that we use a lot now in facilities that have our device and people that want to be tested. And we can get a vitamin D level in 15 minutes now, a really good test that we have.
Nate Wheeler (08:35): Yeah, which is the first of its kind that I know of. It’s part of our platform for this whole vitamin D application, if you will. And so one out of 20 might have levels. Like we’re testing 40, 50 people regularly and typically it’s one, two or three out of 50 might have a decent level.
Nate Wheeler (08:58): So I take vitamin D3, I think I take 5,000 IUs pretty much every day, at least in the winter time. Do you think my levels are, I mean, obviously I want to get tested, but what do you think that does for me?
David Letourneau (09:19): If your body, if your chemistry works to absorb and your body wants the vitamin D and will assimilate it, you could have a decent level of vitamin D. The challenge with oral is, again, research-based, about 25% of people do not absorb, assimilate, or make use of vitamin D orally. It’s a waste. And we run into them all the time.
David Letourneau (09:44)
If people go to our website, there’s a testimonial by a very knowledgeable guy who is actually in the red light business, so he knows a lot about phototherapy. When I first met him, he was quite excited and said, “I’m really anxious to see if what you’ve got works.” He had wanted to raise his vitamin D levels his whole life and had never been able to. He said that years ago, he was taking as high as 20,000 IUs a day, and his levels weren’t moving.
So, he got our device for his office and his home. In 10 weeks of treating himself about five times a week, he went from a baseline of 37 to 78. He was excited.
Nate Wheeler (10:29)
Wow, he probably felt a little different, right?
David Letourneau (10:34)
Absolutely. The early benefits you get are related to common issues. If you’re not sleeping well, have low energy, or experience basic aches and pains, vitamin D could be a contributing factor. You have to realize there are about 37 trillion cells in our body, and almost all of them have receptors for vitamin D. That’s your first clue as to how important this is.
This is why I say 70% of diseases generally have a relationship with vitamin D in some form. It’s a minor inconvenience to not sleep well or to have a little ache or pain. In the midterm, it’s also somewhat minor to be sick regularly with the flu, colds, or other things that are going around. That will happen if you’re low on vitamin D because all those cells are waiting for it and can’t perform optimally.
Long term, the things that happen become much more serious. Going back to the doctors we met from LSU, they told us not just the COVID story, but they said they know we can have a huge impact on MS. We know that this has an impact on Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and a lot of different types of cancer. For example, women with a vitamin D level above 60 have an 80% lower incidence of breast cancer.
Nate Wheeler (12:02)
Wow. These conversations start to make my blood boil because I have such antipathy for the pharmaceutical industry and its desire to monetize human health so dramatically. Real, preventative treatment, which vitamin D is a big part of, gets swept under the rug because it doesn’t make any money. You can’t make money off of vitamin D; it comes from the sun.
David Letourneau (12:53)
You’re absolutely right. So if you look at where to get vitamin D, we’ve talked about supplements. There’s some benefit there, no question, but it falls short significantly. The reason it falls short is that roughly 25% of people just can’t make use of it. Beyond that, it doesn’t have as big an impact on your immune system, which is the main thing you want from your vitamin D.
Research shows it doesn’t have the impact that it should. When we get our vitamin D from light, our immune system is coupled with it and performs optimally. That’s why you’ll have higher energy and won’t get sick as often. Then, 20 or 30 years later, you hopefully will have some defense against these really serious diseases that take decades to develop and appear later in life.
So, if you move on from supplements and ask, “What about food?” That’s the first thing we think of. If I eat right, shouldn’t my vitamin D be fine? The answer is no; we weren’t designed that way. Our body isn’t set up for that. Vitamin D is added to milk and various other products.
There’s also vitamin D in red meat and wild-caught fish, which is a decent source. There are a number of other foods, like shiitake mushrooms. However, research shows that the most you could ever get from food is 15 or 20%, and that’s if you were paying close attention and eating all the best vitamin D-rich foods.
You’d get pretty sick of them because there aren’t many foods that naturally contain vitamin D. It’s more like five or 10% for most people that they might get from their food; it’s just not possible to get enough that way. So then you ask, “Why don’t I just go out in the sun?” That’s a good idea. Don’t wear sunscreen for the first while, but when you do go in the sun, just don’t burn.
Nate Wheeler (14:42)
Right, that’s what you should have been doing.
David Letourneau (15:11)
Go often and don’t burn. But here’s the problem. I think you’re in Pennsylvania, correct? We’re talking here in May of 2025, and you’re about to start getting a decent amount of midday UV where you are. In Arizona, I get UV year-round, but even there in December, January, and February, we still only get a window that’s about two hours wide at midday.
So what are you doing at noon? You’re working. You’re doing this sort of thing. It’s unfortunate, but north of the 35th parallel, which runs from approximately Las Vegas to Atlanta, you have several months where you get zero vitamin D from the sun.
David Letourneau (16:08)
You get zero UVB. You can go out and say it’s a beautiful day, and you hear a lot of people talk about the benefits of morning sun for resetting their circadian rhythm, getting blue light, and so on. That’s all true, and we get a little red light in the mid-morning and later, which is also good.
However, you don’t get any UVB for several months in many locations. The challenge with the sun is controlling exposure to avoid burning while trying to get UVB, which is necessary for vitamin D production. The difficulty revolves around your location and the time of day. Even where I am in Arizona, I’m like everyone else and working in the middle of the day.
David Letourneau (17:05)
Here’s the biggest problem of all: natural sunshine is 95% UVA and only 5% UVB. We do get a lot of good from UVA; you get endorphins, serotonin, nitric oxide for cardiovascular health, and BDNF for brain health. We want all these things; they are awesome. The problem, and dermatologists have jumped on this bandwagon, is that there’s just too much UVA.
Since it’s 95% of sunshine, the risk is high. When we manufactured our device, it was a significant engineering problem coupled with a medical background to figure out how to build it. We were starting with a clean slate, as no one has created a device that delivers phototherapy this way.
David Letourneau (18:04)
We started by deciding to make our device 95% UVB and 5% UVA. We still want some UVA, just not so much of it. That’s why today, a two-to-four-minute treatment is all it takes. You can do it once a day or even just three times a week. It’s applied to the bare skin on your stomach, and then you turn around and do your back, so it’s very convenient.
David Letourneau (18:33)
It’s natural to the skin. These are the exact same rays you get from the sun, but we’ve made it less risky and safe. We call the dosages “precision engineered.” I know you want to talk about the manufacturing side, as that’s a theme of your podcast, so my apologies for running off on a tangent.
Nate Wheeler (18:50)
I’m interested in any topic that has a broad interest. I don’t care if you’re a manufacturer or a shoe salesman; you should be interested in vitamin D, so I think it’s a great topic. So, two to four minutes per day, that’s it? Wow.
David Letourneau (19:15)
Yes, it depends on your skin type. You and I are pretty pale. I’m a skin type three, and you’re probably a low three, I’m just guessing. You would start at one minute, and as you go through more treatments, you can get as high as two minutes. That’s it: two minutes on the front and two minutes on the back.
Nate Wheeler (19:25)
And you could technically get sunburned if you did it for too long, right?
David Letourneau (19:42)
That’s why this is all run by an app. It’s app-controlled and, as I said, precision-engineered. We know what dosage we’re giving you. We have a medical team that put together the protocols, so when you download the app for the first time, you fill out a questionnaire. We’ll ask you about your skin type, tanning habits, hair color, and eye color. This all determines the optimum dosage we can give you.
In that two-to-four-minute treatment, you’re getting the equivalent of two to four hours of healthy sunshine without the risky part. We are very excited about what we can offer people because, as we’ve already discussed, all the conventional ways of getting vitamin D are difficult. That’s why so many people have low levels; it’s not easy to maintain them.
David Letourneau (20:39)
Everybody’s body chemistry is different, so some of our bodies just don’t produce it as well. If you’re overweight, it’s harder for you because vitamin D is fat-soluble and gravitates to fat cells. If you have darker skin, it just takes longer. For example, an African American will probably start at a two-minute treatment, front and back.
David Letourneau (21:07)
They need to do it more often than you and I do because it’s harder for them to get enough vitamin D. Research is clear that the darker the skin, the more challenging it is, and the lower your vitamin D levels are likely to be. The older you get, the more challenges you have as well. Your skin ages, unfortunately, not that gracefully, as we know from a little wrinkle here or there.
Nate Wheeler (21:28)
I’ve been religiously using beef tallow on my face, and I think it works and makes a big difference.
David Letourneau (21:41)
Well, I was wondering what your secret was. So, I have to go with the beef tallow.
Nate Wheeler (21:44)
Well, part of it is I’m only 41, but I think I’m doing pretty good for my age; I’ve still got my hair. You had some previous experience developing fixtures for UV lights, so I assume that solved a lot of your initial design challenges. Tell me, how did this idea come about? I imagine it was somewhat organic. What are some other uses for UV light, and what was your next step in bringing this product to market?
David Letourneau (22:26)
Those are good questions, and we could go on for hours on this topic, but I don’t think we will today. We acquired a company that had multiple patents for the light card, the actual LED that is the brains in the center of all this. The brilliance of it is that it’s nano LEDs. We took this to a level where we reject most of the product.
Since we’re talking to manufacturers, if they’re in the LED space, they understand “binning,” which is the process of deciding which LEDs we want. When we’re binning, only about five percent of the product passes, on average. So, we’re rejecting 95% to start with.
David Letourneau (23:24)
That’s a big part of the reason we say we’re “precision”—because we start with precision. With this light card, we handle heat really well; we have the engineering behind us to perfect that side of it. We can build an LED light card anywhere on the light spectrum. This company started in visible light.
David Letourneau (23:52)
It was developed for lighting in Hollywood, and we have a spectacular light for that industry in terms of uniformity. Typically, past lights, like various types of incandescents, have hotspots, which makes it difficult to do a good job with lighting. Our visible light, with a 200-watt power source in a five-inch cube, will light up half an acre. If you take a light meter to any point in that area—the far side, the other side, or the middle—you’ll get a very uniform reading, which is unheard of in lighting. That’s just one example.
Nate Wheeler (24:43)
So you’re targeting that very specific wavelength range, from 290 to 300-and-something nanometers, which is where you get the most vitamin D production. Is that what you’re doing?
David Letourneau (24:59)
Yes, the UVB range is 280 to 315 nanometers. After much testing, we landed on a peak of 304 nanometers. You’ll see a lot of opinions on this, but the reason for our choice is that if you go lower, you get into the UVC range. For comparison, our UVC device is pinpointed at 265 nanometers, which research clearly shows is the “kill zone” for pathogens.
David Letourneau (25:28)
We can kill COVID in less than a second, just by moving our device across a surface. We can even kill MRSA and C. diff on a nanosecond timeline. The reason we got to where we are in our space is that we wanted to ensure there is no UVC in our device. You don’t want any of that on your bare skin.
So, we don’t have any UVC. However, we wanted to let in a little bit of UVA. We wanted a very narrow band, so we let in 5% UVA. Our device will not only deliver massive quantities of vitamin D but also provide the benefits of nitric oxide, serotonin, endorphins, and BDNF.
David Letourneau (26:27)
For people in manufacturing who have gone through this, they understand the time and money it takes. The challenge in developing this was getting the medical and engineering sides to work together to determine factors like power, distance, and containment. We don’t want any UV—UVA, UVB, or UVC—in our eyes. That’s why when you go outside, you wear eye protection like sunglasses. To avoid eye exposure, we designed the device to treat the torso, which is also a large, relatively flat skin area that we can treat with precision.
We also learned that not everyone’s torso is flat. If your belly intrudes into the device, sensors adjust the power accordingly. You still get the same dosage, but because you’re closer to the source, we don’t need to use as much power. This process took a couple of years. We then beta-tested it for about nine months in several facilities and homes in the Phoenix area. We were developing the app at the same time, as the device is entirely app-driven.
David Letourneau (27:52)
That’s where it gets really interesting. It’s been a great and gratifying journey to get these kinds of results. For people in Pennsylvania, what choice do you have? You can take oral supplements, but you’ll likely fall short. That has been about your only option until today. People suffer from seasonal affective disorder and all the other problems of low vitamin D, which are many. We’re pretty excited that we have something that’s valuable to virtually everyone.
Nate Wheeler (28:36)
That’s amazing. And is it still the case that there isn’t anyone else out there with a comparable product? Wow.
David Letourneau (28:45)
With our level of precision, no. There are lots of UVB products; UVB technology has been around for a hundred years, mostly in the form of bulbs. I refer to bulbs as indiscriminate because that’s the challenge—it’s just a bulb. Can you get the benefit of vitamin D from a UVB bulb? Yes, you can, but it’s tricky. You don’t want to get it in your eyes, so that’s the first problem. You also have to figure out how close you should be and for how long, so it’s challenging.
Nate Wheeler (29:15)
For sure. How long has it been since you completed the beta test phase and decided you were ready to sell?
David Letourneau (29:25)
A few months. We’re in the market now and just gearing up to do big things.
Nate Wheeler (29:35)
It’s interesting from a marketing perspective. This is something that should be at the level of a public service announcement. You shouldn’t even have to market this product; it’s a no-brainer. But you will have to, and you’ll have to compete with people who want to sell their pharmaceuticals, like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for SAD, instead of the natural solution. So, what’s your plan? What success have you had with marketing so far?
David Letourneau (30:21)
We feel that podcasting has been the most successful thing we’ve done so far. People who listen to a podcast like this—while some may be manufacturers interested in that side of it—are mostly healthy people who want to be healthier. In the medical business, the question is, do we want to be reactive, where I go to the doctor when I get sick, or do I want to go to someone who can help me avoid getting sick in the first place? If you slip and break a bone, reactive care is the only method, but so much of medicine should be more focused on prevention.
The interesting part is the whole area of functional medicine. Naturopaths, chiropractors, and even wellness professionals who aren’t doctors have assembled a huge amount of knowledge by researching and understanding what you need. That’s not considered medical. We’re not regulated by the FDA for this; we’re not designed to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. We do all that, but we can’t say we do.
David Letourneau (31:50)
This is a whole discussion that’s so important for people to take control of their own health and be preventive instead of reactive. As I said, you’ll still need reactive care now and then, but hopefully not much if you plan ahead. Many of these conditions are decades in development. You don’t get cancer overnight; it’s not something you catch when someone sneezes. It takes years to develop. Setting your body up for success is the challenge; that’s the planning that’s needed.
Nate Wheeler (32:27)
Exactly. I knew a guy who was always complaining about various health problems. I’d ask him, “When was the last time you took a walk and exercised?” and he’d say, “I know I need to do that.” Yet, he was always trying these wacky treatments and therapies. People just need to do the common-sense things we’ve always known about—the things that were intended to prevent disease. But this is the best of both worlds because it’s quick, easy, and accomplishes the goal. It’s just as easy as taking a pill, which people love to do.
Nate Wheeler (33:25)
I think it’s brilliant. Tell me about some of the challenges on the manufacturing side. How are you sourcing materials for the fixture, and how are you assembling it all?
David Letourneau (33:41)
We do production right in our facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, so we’re proudly American in that regard. However, as anyone in manufacturing would understand, with any level of sophistication, the components come from all over the world. That’s just the reality unless you’re building something very simple, which very little is. We have an office and a small warehouse in Taiwan where our supply chain manager works. We bring all these components from around the world into Arizona for assembly.
Nate Wheeler (34:24)
What volume are we talking about right now in terms of sales? Is it enough for the tariffs to have affected your price point?
David Letourneau (34:40)
If tariffs move forward at the level that has been discussed over the last 60 days, it would definitely have an impact. We are the manufacturer and sell direct, but we also sell through distributors who need to make their margin. It’s expensive to run a business, so they need a good margin, and every dollar added to the cost gets multiplied by the time it reaches the MSRP. If the tariffs went through at those levels, it would be significant. However, we’re feeling pretty confident that we’re going to be okay overall in terms of major impact.
We’ve just started selling, so we don’t have high volume yet, but we’re about to. We have two OEM distributors we are white-labeling for, and both are expected to be high volume over the next few months, so things will be ramping up quickly. We have certainly taken our bill of materials and priced it out: column A is today’s cost, and column B is the cost if that level of tariff comes in. Column B is significantly higher.
Nate Wheeler (36:02)
That’s an interesting model, pursuing the white-label approach. You could have a successful health practitioner put their name on this product and call it their own. Is that the main marketing strategy?
David Letourneau (36:25)
No, not really. We’re primarily focused on building our own brand. We have two white-label partners so far and might add one or two more, depending on their market space and channels. We want to be careful to avoid channel conflict, which can happen quickly. But mostly, we’re building the brand, and we believe the best way to do that is through influencers, social media, and lead generation strategies.
It’s a different world now. I’m a serial entrepreneur and old enough to have bought Yellow Page ads. Back then, if you were in business, having a Yellow Page ad was the big deal.
Nate Wheeler (37:23)
I remember my dad, who was a general contractor, used to run them. That was how he marketed 30 or 40 years ago.
David Letourneau (37:32)
Absolutely. It’s no different today in terms of needing to do SEO and get your name out there, and it costs money. Back with the Yellow Pages, you paid for a bigger ad to be listed first. You paid for your place in line, just like you do today. The concepts haven’t changed, so we’re using those same concepts.
Nate Wheeler (38:03)
It’s an interesting conversation around SEO and how that works for a new-to-market product. The challenge is that if the product is new, nobody is going to search for it directly, so you have to approach it from a different angle. I pulled up a tool I came across earlier that is really interesting. It’s the sunshine calendar from Grassroots Health. It’s pretty cool; it shows you by month, in a given latitude, how much vitamin D you’re essentially going to get from the sun.
The yellow is low sunshine, orange is moderate, and red is high. In January and February, where I am in Pennsylvania, I’m not getting anything. I get moderate sun in March, and then nothing again in November or December. It’s interesting to see visually. This is the type of thing I would be thinking about for SEO. If I have vitamin D on my mind, what questions am I going to be Googling?
You could also approach it from the angle of chronic conditions, cancer prevention, or reducing the effects of COVID or other coronaviruses. You can target the condition level by answering questions about the best way to deal with that condition, as well as targeting people who are already looking for ways to boost their vitamin D.
David Letourneau (38:49)
That’s a terrific organization, by the way. We know them really well. They are a very sincere, nonprofit organization and do really good work.
David Letourneau (40:27)
Agreed. We have an education job to do. As you said, no one knows about this specific solution. Being the first mover in this space is a huge advantage, but it’s also a challenge because we have to educate the market. We don’t have to educate people completely about vitamin D itself, as information is out there now, but a lot of it is inaccurate. A huge percentage of the medical community still thinks a level of 30 is fine.
If you go to a major lab for a blood test, they’ll show “adequate” as 30 to 100. I can tell you there’s a really big difference between a level of 30 and a level of 100 in terms of long-term benefits. You don’t want to be at 30. That’s based on roughly 50-year-old thinking. The first thing researchers in the medical community discovered about vitamin D was its relation to rickets. That discovery was made in the UK, with all its industrial pollution and smog, and being located quite far north.
David Letourneau (41:53)
They discovered that children with rickets could be cured by sun exposure, though it took a long time to figure that out. Up until about 50 years ago, what we knew was that a vitamin D level of 25 to 30 nanograms per milliliter resulted in good bone calcification. This meant children were less likely to have rickets, and adults, particularly older people, were less likely to get osteoporosis, osteomalacia, and similar problems. Consequently, vitamin D was only considered in the context of bone health.
Since then, researchers have dug in and uncovered all these other benefits, such as its effects on breast cancer, prostate cancer, and MS, which become more significant as vitamin D levels go higher. With 60,000 to 70,000 research studies now completed, we know conclusively that the benefits continue to increase as levels rise. It takes years for this information to filter down, so if you go to a doctor who isn’t up to speed, they might say you’re fine with a level of 32.
You’re somewhat fine, but it’s like postponing the inevitable. You remain susceptible to many more medical problems later in life. It’s about getting your shield up for the long run.
Nate Wheeler (43:19)
That’s a good analogy; you could be a lot more fine. You’ve motivated me. I have two little ones and have been a big believer in vitamin D for a long time. I give both my kids vitamin D, though it’s a bit difficult with the infant; I just drip a little on his food.
David Letourneau (43:40)
That’s a great way to put it.
Nate Wheeler (44:04)
But this is a super easy way to do it. If someone wants to buy this product, what are we looking at for cost, and how do they purchase it?
David Letourneau (44:14)
The commercial version allows for an unlimited number of users and treatments, although the app restricts use to once per day for obvious reasons. The commercial version is great for a wellness facility, a doctor’s office, or a gym, as people frequent those places, and it costs $14,000. The home unit is physically the same but has a different app and is limited to six users, which is sufficient for most homes. That one sells for $3,442 on our website.
The website is ENYRGY—energy spelled with a Y instead of the second E. I think your listeners would appreciate a discount. If they enter WE100, they’ll get a $100 discount.
Nate Wheeler (45:26)
We will put that in the description. If someone reads the YouTube description, they’ve likely watched the video, so we can put it right in there.
David Letourneau (45:39)
Sure, you can put it in the show notes or even the title. It’s uppercase WE followed by the number 100, and that will get them $100 off.
Nate Wheeler (45:52)
If people were truly aware of their vitamin D levels and the long-term repercussions of not maintaining them, that price would seem like a negligible investment in their future well-being and all the conditions they could avoid.
David Letourneau (46:12)
Thanks. For someone who doesn’t want to pay for it all at once, like many websites, we offer financing with several different options. I think it’s as low as about $170 a month, so there’s really no excuse. I don’t know what you spend on your health, but I spend a lot because it’s necessary, and I feel phenomenal. When I say ‘a lot,’ it’s not a large percentage of my income, but I probably spend around $200 a month on various things I think are important for me.
Nate Wheeler (46:58)
No doubt, and this is definitely an easy thing to do. It’s fascinating to think about light. We usually just think of it as something that illuminates our surroundings, but light is magical. There’s research on red light, for example, and while it’s hard to pinpoint the exact mechanism, everyone knows it has benefits, even if we don’t fully understand it yet. I think we’re going to find out more about different wavelengths and their specific uses in our bodies. But this is one that we have figured out, and I think it’s pretty awesome what you’re bringing to market.
David Letourneau (47:37)
My wife, our family, and I are beach people. I think we’re drawn to the beach because who doesn’t feel great there? The water is nice, but I think it’s mostly the sun. You just feel good and have energy.
Nate Wheeler (47:56)
You’re showing a lot of skin and absorbing a lot of UV. Thanks a lot for joining today, David. I think this was an illuminating discussion. I really appreciate your time and wish you all the success in the world.
David Letourneau (48:55)
It’s been my pleasure to be here, Nate. Thanks. This has been a really invigorating discussion. I love your enthusiasm for vitamin D, which is separate from your business and is just related to your health and future. I’m excited to be offering this and look forward to seeing what else we can do in the future.
Nate Wheeler (49:19)
Sounds good, David. Thanks.
David Letourneau (49:20)
Thank you.