[00:00:53] Gabby Reece: Hi everyone. Welcome to the show. My guest today is Dr. Anthony Youn, plastic surgeon extraordinaire. He’s sort of like the plastic surgeon that’s trying to get you not to get plastic surgery. He knows all the treatments. We talk about supplementation you can do for your skin and hair and ways you can, you know, keep your hair growing, your teeth whitening.

How does he feel about Botox and fillers and all these things? So we break it All down. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Anthony Yoon and his latest book out is called Younger for Life. So, uh, Dr. Yoon, thank you for joining me. I feel like we talked, what, maybe 18 months ago. I can’t remember exactly.

[00:01:33] Dr. Anthony Youn: Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that.

[00:01:36] Gabby Reece: And you have a new book out, Younger for Life.

[00:01:37] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yes. Yeah. I’m very proud of it.

[00:01:41] Gabby Reece: This is very, this is very much in my wheelhouse because what I see, I know you’re being sneaky. I see what you’re doing here. You have this big audience now and you see patients.

You obviously, you know, have a. You can, you know, what is it? The most natural plastic surgeon, but really what you’re, you’re trying to do. And I see it and it’s so clear in this book is give people real tools and empower them to support obviously their health, which then ends up supporting their skin. So this book, you’ve really done that.

[00:02:18] Dr. Anthony Youn: Oh, well, that, that means a lot coming from you, Gabby. I really do appreciate that.

[00:02:24] Gabby Reece: Well, what is it in you that is almost going against your business model? Because you’re one of the people out there, sort of saying, yes, these treatments are available. We can talk about at the right time or right age, what you should be doing.

And we’re going to dive into all that today. But you’re also. Not directing everybody to the injection and cutting and laser and do all these things sign. You’re, you’re, you’re sort of having a much bigger conversation. What happened to you from the time that you entered into school, chose your profession and now are here doing this type of work.

[00:03:03] Dr. Anthony Youn: So I was always taught that the goal of being a plastic surgeon was to bring people to surgery. And we have some sayings in plastic surgery to cut is to cure. Or the only way to heal is with cold steel. And so for years, I honestly, I gauged the success of my practice based off how many facelifts I was doing,  because, you know, people may trust almost anybody to do their life with suction, but if they trust you to do your facelift, then you know, that they’re really, you know, that you’ve hit the, the, the pinnacle. And so I thought that at one point in my practice, I had hit the pinnacle of success when I had.

I’ve done a bunch of TV shows. I had people flying from all over the country to have facelifts done by me. And then I had a patient who had a terrible complication from a facelift operation. It wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t mine. Um, but it really got me into rethinking what I was doing. And I realized that the goal of being a plastic surgeon should not be to bring people to the operating room, but it should be the opposite of that.

: It should be, how do I keep people out of the operating room yet still help them to look and feel their best and feel like hopefully they don’t need to go under the knife. Uh, and so I spent years kind of figuring out a new way to do just that. I studied doctors, holistic doctors, nutritionists, dermatologists, skin care specialists, and I came up with this concept of autojuvenation, which essentially is using your body’s own regenerative abilities.

To rejuvenate itself, because I firmly believe that our bodies are incredible read regenerative, have incredible regenerative abilities to turn back the clock. But we just need to give it those tools and the right environment in order for it to do so.

[00:04:38] Gabby Reece: Do you have anything from your childhood coming from a different culture that any of these things were practices?

I mean, even things like herbs and teas that get practice and have been baked into other cultures for thousands of years, as I feel like as Americans, because we’re teenagers. Per se, or the, the length of the notion of our country and some of our traditions that we, you know, we didn’t get a lot of that.

Was that ever part of just your house growing up?

[00:05:04] Dr. Anthony Youn: To an extent, yeah, because my parents were first generation immigrants from South Korea. They moved here just a couple of years before I was born, and then I grew up in the middle of Michigan in a tiny town called Greenville, and essentially we were the only Asian family for the most part.

And so my life was a bit of a story and contradictions. So at home, we’d be eating a Korean diet, which would be rice, vegetables, fish, garlic, kimchi. And then I’d go out with my friends and we’d be eating McDonald’s, burger King, KFC, pizza, Hutt, Wendy’s, and all that type of stuff. And at the time it’s like, I didn’t realize just the huge difference in health promoting that the different diets we’re doing. And it’s funny, Gabby, because now I make, I have this kind of funny video series, it’s kind of tongue in cheek of how to age like an Asian. And so, I bring up some of these things that are kind of, kind of tongue in cheek, but some of it’s true, you know, and one of the things is, is kimchi, for example, you know, kimchi is one of my favorite foods and Korean foods.

It’s a staple in our diet. We eat with almost all of our meals. Well, when you think about it, it’s basically fermented cabbage, which with a bunch of hot sauce on it with fish paste. Sometimes you get tiny little shrimp that you put into it, and then in Korea, sometimes they’ll bury it for a while to let it ferment and get real stinky, and then you eat it.

And I ate a lot of it growing up, but I never realized how healthy it is for your gut, for your microbiome, and then actually for your skin. Uh, and so yes, there are definitely these, these practices that, that are, you know, practiced, let’s say in Asia, uh, especially like in Korea that really are health promoting, but we never really you know, put that much thought into it, it was just kind of a way of life.

And now we, when we’ve actually studied it, we’re finding, wow, you know, a lot of these modern conveniences and the modern advances in food and, you know, and, uh, science, science of food creation and how to make something palatable and hyper palatable is actually bad for you and especially bad for your skin.

And so what I try to do. You know, is try to appeal to people’s sense of vanity. You know, sometimes improving your health, it’s not enough to tell them, Oh, you can get emphysema if you smoke cigarettes or you could get heart disease. But if you tell them, Oh, you’re going to get wrinkles. If you smoke, they go, Oh, well, in that case, I’m going to stop.

[00:07:25] Gabby Reece: it is crazy. I joke, even in the language of wellness, let’s say self care. To certain guys, you’ll be like, you know, you’ll get bigger muscles and to women, you’ll be like, if you do some ice, apparently maybe some, you know, cellulite, the appearance of cellulite and they’re like, Oh, okay. I mean, if you go, Hey, mood elevation and all these things, they go, okay, it doesn’t, it doesn’t connect us.

So, I actually think that’s why you’re in a really important position. And with this book, because listen, I, I read a lot of books doing the show and you’re saying the same things that an endocrinologist might write in a book. Someone who’s writing on anxiety and depression, but you’ve package it really in skin and showing the direct correlation.

And so I, I actually think in certain ways, because we are nutty this way and vain and social media, and all these things that you’re using the tool in such an important way. So you mentioned auto rejuvenation – the body’s ability to rejuvenate itself.

Why did you, what was, was, did you have an aha moment in your practicing go, oh, you know what, we can really, we, we can really practice. Tell this to our patients.

[00:08:39] Dr. Anthony Youn: So what ended up happening is I really started realizing honestly after this patient had this complication and I really started thinking about what am I doing in practice?

You know, am I truly doing no harm? You know, here I’m performing cosmetic operations on people. I’m essentially taking somebody who’s healthy. I’m making them unhealthy. And just to help them look better, essentially. And so the, you know, the whole idea of autojuvenation came to me because I knew I had to find a new paradigm.

I had to find a new way to help people to turn back the clock. And it’s funny, you know, because we have a lot of friends in the holistic health space and we’ll ask our friends, Hey. What should I do to have beautiful, younger, vibrant skin and they’ll say, heal your gut. I’ll ask a dermatologist, what should I do to have healthy, vibrant, youthful skin?

They’ll say, wear sunscreen and use a retinol. And you ask a plastic surgeon and they’ll probably say, try Botox and have a facelift. Well, really what I want to do is create this idea and this concept and test it. And we did test it of how do you combine a true integrative approach to turning back the clock of your skin?

: And it was combining what the holistic health practitioners are teaching with traditional medicine, traditional skin care and noninvasive treatments to create this concept of autojuvenation. This idea that our body has these amazing regenerative abilities, we just have to give it those tools. And so I focus on five main things with autojuvenation.

It’s what you eat, when you eat, nutritional supplements. Skincare and noninvasive treatments. And I believe that if you focus on these five things that the vast majority of people, 80, 90 percent or so can hopefully feel amazing and feel great about how they look and not feel like they have to go into the knife or even the needle, uh, to feel and look amazing.

[00:10:19] Gabby Reece: Maybe let’s start to break that out. I do appreciate though that in the book you talk about the history I mean we’re going back a long ways in Egypt and India the notion of creams and skincare has been around For a really a long time

[00:10:35] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah, I mean Cleopatra used to supposedly take baths in milk and what does milk have in it?

Well milk has lactic acid Uh, which helps to exfoliate the skin. It also can potentially moisturize the skin as well with healthy fats too. So, you know, this is vanity is something that’s been around for a long time. Obviously, you know, beauty standards have changed over the years. You know, what we may have valued even 20 years ago, we may not value quite as much today.

Who knows what we’ll value in the future. But I think one thing has always in general, stayed the same. If you take, I guess, Peter Paul Rubens out of it, uh, is that healthy has always been beautiful. You know, beautiful has never really been unhealthy. And so the first thing I really try to do is help people to improve their health because you know, the healthier you are, that’s going to show, especially in your skin.

[00:11:22] Gabby Reece: Let’s talk about, and right. And for me too, it’s, I always say there’s like matte people and shiny people. And it isn’t about like an aesthetic about their actual physical appearance. It’s just their vitality. And I think people don’t realize they think we’re responding only to a physical appearance, but we’re also responding to their vitality, to their health.

And being like, Oh, I’m attracted to them. It’s like, yeah, because they’re healthy. And you, so you, you basically created a younger for life program. Maybe we can just go into the buckets because the other thing I’ll say, and, and I see a lot of people now. creating books like this. This also is a workbook.

It’s a cookbook. It has ingredients, but it also like you spell out the, you know, the right types of foods and fats and the micronutrients specifically. Um, and so I want to just say to people that this, everything that we’re talking about is. spelled out many times in this book as a, as a workbook. So going into, let’s talk about the skin first.

First of all, how would somebody know what type of skin they have?

[00:12:29] Dr. Anthony Youn: So there’s different ways, you know, we have different categories of skin. You know, sometimes we category skin by skin color. Uh, and that’s important if you’re having some type of an invasive procedure like laser treatments. Other times we can, uh, divide skin in the basis of, uh, hydration of the skin, you know, or how sensitive your skin is.

So the first thing I would look at really, when you’re looking at just In general, taking care of your skin, you know, is your skin sensitive? Is it dry? Is it mixed? Or is it oily? You know, and most people have kind of mixed skin where they have patches that may be a bit oily and other patches that are a little bit dry.

The main reason why that’s important is when you’re using skincare products. So for example, a cleanser, there are cleansers that are better for oily skin and some that are better for skin. That’s more sensitive. So if you’ve got oily skin, then I recommend using a more foaming cleanser. If you’ve got drier skin or more sensitive skin than a milky or a hydrating cleanser is going to be better for you, it’s also important when you’re looking at things like moisturizers.

Now, moisturizers are not something that is mandatory for anti aging. You know, there is this false belief that moisturizers will keep your skin looking young. Well, moisturizers are like drinking water, you know, they are imperative, they’re helpful, they hydrate your body, but there’s nothing about drinking water that’s going to necessarily slow down the aging process.

Just like applying moisturizer is going to hydrate your skin and it may look a bit, you know, plumper just because we’re hydrated, but it isn’t actually going to actively reverse the aging of your skin. Um, so if you’ve got oily skin, then you may not really need to use much of a moisturizer. So if you’re living, let’s say, in Hawaii and you’ve got fairly oily skin, then, you know, and you don’t feel like you want to use a moisturizer, by all means, don’t.

But then there are other treatments like retinoids, retinol being the over the counter version where the type of skin is very important. Because you’ve got, if you have thick, oily skin, then using something more aggressive, like a prescription strength retin A may be more beneficial for you. But if you’ve got more thin, sensitive skin or drier skin, then using something more mild, like an over the counter retinol that might work better for you instead.

[00:14:27] Gabby Reece: you really like the retinols.

[00:14:31] Dr. Anthony Youn: That’s a hero product. It is. And you know, and that’s not something that I would say, oh, I’m special because I like retinol. Most doctors who really know, yeah, they’ll talk about retinol because it’s the most proven, you know, when, and the studies have actually been done on prescription strength, retin A or tretinoin.

And what they have found that with prescription strength, tretinoin, so basically retinol is the over the counter version. Prescription strength is retin A. And they’re both called retinoids because that’s kind of general term for them. But when you actually study prescription strength retin a, we found that it can help to thicken the dermis of the skin or the deeper skin.

It can help to smooth the skin. It can reduce fine lines and wrinkles. It can improve pigment pigmentation and it can even reverse early pre skin cancers. Uh, which is a huge deal. If somebody has a history of skin cancer, especially on the face, uh, then using a retinol or ideally a retin a may help to prevent new ones from showing up.

And so really it’s kind of like a jack of all trades for an anti aging cream, but it’s hard for some people to tolerate. And so if you’re, if you’ve tried using retinol and you’re like, geez, it makes me too dry and flaky, then go with one with Bacutial, a product with Bacutial. Bacutial has been shown in one study, it’s just one study.

head to head to have very similar effects anti aging wise as retinol, but to be much easier on the skin.

[00:15:48] Gabby Reece: I love that because I was going to ask you how to actually even say that word when I read it in the book. I go, okay. So really quick as somebody, and again, this might be part of my interest, you know, I’ve obviously spent a lot of time in the sun.

I’ve heard from a few dermatologists that sun, well, first of all, we know it’s one of the king things that can create a, you know, an aging look on your skin. You talk about sun expressions, fiddling with your face and smoking as some of the real things that can age skin. So as somebody who has been in the sun and continues to be in the sun, um, I have heard that sun exposure,, obviously the, the look of the skin is aged, but it can cause like sunburns can cause irregular, uh, cells, but that actually skin cancer itself for the most part is genetic. Am I, am I off the rails on this? Because this is, there’s actually no real, I’ve heard anyway, and that’s why I want to ask you, there’s not a ton of science saying that sun, with the exception is now you can have irregular shapes or types of cells, there’s not a direct line to actual melanoma.

[00:17:01] Dr. Anthony Youn: With melanoma is there is definitely a genetic component to it. But with all of these types of skin cancer as well, it’s whether it’s basal cells, squamous cell or melanoma, all of those are impacted by the rays of the sun. Uh, and when we look in general, just to kind of explain kind of the mechanism of it.

When we look at overall aging of the skin, there are five main causes that I focus on of why our skin ages. Uh, nutrient depletion, number one. Number two, collagen degradation. So our collagen getting thinner. Number three, chronic inflammation. Number four oxidation or free radicals and number five is a buildup of cellular waste.

Now, when sunlight hits your skin and it causes damage to the skin, it impacts two of those pathways. It causes chronic inflammation and it can actually create free radicals. Free radicals are these molecules that basically damage our DNA of ourselves and they are neutralized by antioxidants. Um, so antioxidant rich diets are basically, you know, so if you’re eating the rainbow fruits and vegetables, which is great for your skin and for your overall health, the main benefit of that is that you are fighting those free radicals.

So getting all that sun exposure. You know, I have never honestly heard a myself a dermatologist say, you know, sun, you know, since skin cancer doesn’t have to do with the rays of the sun, if anything, I’ve heard actually the opposite is that it’s directly proportional to how many sunburns you get and how much sun exposure.

That being said, there are things that you can do even now after, you know, you’ve been a professional volleyball player, you’ve been out in the sun a lot in your life. What can you do to reverse some of that that’s gone on actually being on for your face. a prescription strength tretinoin may reverse early precancers that haven’t come out yet.

Now the problem is you won’t know when it reverses because it just won’t turn into a cancer. Um, but that can definitely be helpful. Yeah. And I think because people say I’ll be, by the time this show comes out, I will be 54 and um, I, people go, Oh, what is it? I go, well, it’s certainly my genetics. You know, it’s like looking at your skin.

[00:19:05] Gabby Reece: That’s I know, you know, what’s going on, but it’s genetics. Um, but I also think because I’ve had a pretty healthy lifestyle, I’ve had a healthy life, my whole adult life. Cause, cause you, you talk about sugar and processed foods and all these things, which I, you know, how passionate I am about this and people, I think sometimes they just don’t connect it.

So I think that that has also protected me. You know, and what you’re talking about. So maybe we can just go into those, those nutrient depletion, uh, you give a list of, of supplements and let’s just, we can, we can make it really simple. You like to eat more vegetarian style with maybe some fish protein. But really you’re talking about eating real food.

[00:19:52] Dr. Anthony Youn: So nutrient depletion, there was actually a study, you know, one of the things that our friends will always say. Uh, is that our soil is depleted of nutrients and our produce is not as healthy or as nutritious as it used to be. Is there any science to show that?

And actually there is. There was a study that looked between the years of 1950 and 1999 at the produce sold in the United States and found a significant reduction in six key nutrients. Three of them that really stood out to me. Vitamin C protein and iron. So our food, our fruits and vegetables are not as nutritious as they used to be.

That is actually true. And so that’s one reason why I am a fan of nutritional supplementation. Now I’m not a biohacker. I don’t take 50 pills a day. I know that that’s not typical for people for me. I focus on some very basic supplements that I think everybody should consider taking. One is a multivitamin. Very simple. You don’t, you know, you don’t have to take my multivitamin, take whatever one that you feel comfortable taking. I think that’s super important. Um, so nutrient depletion is a big part of it. Um, the second thing is going to be collagen degradation. We’ll talk about protein because I know you brought that up.

So once again, our collagen really is the, is the backbone of our skin. It composed about 70 to 80 percent of the thickness of our skin is collagen. And that’s the part of our skin that caused our skin to feel tight, to feel strong, to feel smooth when we’re younger. But we start losing about 1 percent of the thickness of collagen every year, starting maybe in our mid twenties or so.

Women after menopause start losing about 2 percent a year. And that’s why you may see women who are in their 70s and 80s and their skin can be so tissue paper thin that it can actually tear if somebody scratches them. And so really focusing on healthy sources of protein, that’s a great way to help support collagen synthesis.

What are healthy sources of protein? You know, I think fish is great. I’m a big fan of grass fed beef, of pastured pork, uh, pastured chicken. Uh, if you’re plant based, then obviously beans, legumes, you know, and, um, soy, I encourage you to go non GMO. Um, but really, I think the big thing is pushing the protein, especially as you get older to fight sarcopenia or a loss of muscle as you get older.

So there’s a lot of kind of keys with it. It’s definitely nuanced and as you go through changes of life, you need definitely different things. And what I try to do in the book is kind of give a general guideline that anybody can follow. And then what you want to do is talk with your physician or your functional medicine provider or nutritionist to kind of then zero it in on your life situation.

[00:22:27] Gabby Reece: Yeah. And even something like you’re a big fan of omegas. So if you are vegetarian, they have algae based omegas that are quite powerful. So it’s just reminding people to there is a way to do it. And you talk about that. There’s actually. It’s kind of five types of collagen, it’s not one size for, you know, collagen isn’t just straight across collagen.

[00:22:49] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah. So collagen supplements are definitely really controversial. Um, and I honestly, I don’t know why, because, you know, it’s funny cause I’ll post something on social media and people will comment, they’ll say, Oh, well my family doc said, don’t bother taking collagen. He says it doesn’t work. Well, the fact is, is, you know, I’d say five to seven years ago. If somebody says, Hey, the studies say collagen, it’s, you know, the studies aren’t supportive or we’re not really sure then, okay, that’s a valid response, but really it isn’t anymore. There are so many studies that have looked at collagen supplements and how they impact the skin.

So for example, Gabby in 2021 and 2021, there was a meta analysis, a combination of studies, meta analysis of over 1100 patients. And you looked at 90 days of collagen supplementation, hydrolyzed collagen peptides. And found a statistically significant reduction in wrinkles, uh, and improvement in hydration and elasticity of the skin.

And there are even studies that are prospective, randomized, placebo controlled clinical trials, where they have taken people, put them on a collagen, hydrolyzed collagen supplement, and then actually biopsied their skin a couple of months later, and found an increase in the amount of collagen in their skin.

So if anybody tells you now that the science is not clear or that, you know, the studies don’t show that they’re wrong. Like the fact is there is a ton of studies out there. And if they say that it’s that they actually haven’t looked at the studies, that’s the thing because they’re out there. And, you know, I think, you know, in, in medicine in general, especially traditional medicine, and I’m guilty of this, especially early in my practice.

Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know. And when you think about it, it’s a true thing. You know, doctors a lot of times don’t know what they don’t know. When I go to a plastic surgery meeting and they give us lunch, you know, you’ve got to see what’s in this lunch. It’s typically a turkey sub on white bread, and they have like a chocolate chip cookie that’s been, that’s an ultra processed chocolate chip cookie.

They might give you a banana or an apple, uh, and then they give you maybe a little thing of like potato salad and then a can of Coke. And we’re plastic surgeons. We’re all about the skin and health. And like, this is what they feed us. Like, this is what we feed ourselves. And that’s what everybody eats. So I think that there is a an epidemic in traditional medicine of we don’t know what we don’t know and for me for a long time, I was part of that until my eyes were open and I started realizing that, oh my gosh, there’s so much that I don’t know.

And that’s what I spent the past many, many years learning that and trying to share now with everybody.

[00:25:17] Gabby Reece: You have to almost feel fortunate that you had that opportunity during the, you know, parts of your earlier part of your practice to be able to integrate that, that concept into your practice. That’s so, that’s really fortunate that you, you were able to do that.

And the other thing people, I interviewed Dr. Pedre, who also reminds us that collagen is also very healing for the gut. So, you know, it’s, again, we are, it’s so connected and I think we try to separate the interior, you know, the outside from the inside. And. You know, it’s like, well, what’s come, what’s coming first?

[00:25:54] Dr. Anthony Youn: So real quick, let me just to finish on the college and thing, because I actually never answered your question. So it is important. If you are looking at college of supplements, there are five types of collagen and you want to make sure if you’re going to take a college of supplement that you’re taking the right one.

So the first thing is that collagen is a large protein. And the argument that people make that that’s such a large protein that it won’t get absorbed through your gut is an interesting one, and it may be true, but that’s why you take hydrolyzed collagen peptides, because when they hydrolyze the collagen, they take that large protein and they break it down into individual amino acids or peptides, which are small groups of amino acids, which are much smaller and much more bioavailable so that you can actually absorb it through your gut.

So the first key is make sure that your collagen supplement as is hydrolyzed because that way it’s broken down to make it actually easily absorbable by your gut. And the second thing is you want to make sure you pick the right type of collagen. So, um, really five types of collagen. Type one is in your skin, hair, nails and bones.

Type two is in your cartilage. Type three is in your muscle. Four and five aren’t as important. Four is in your kidneys and five is in the placenta. Um, and so if you’ve got, let’s say a thinning hair and you want to take a collagen supplement to see if it gets better, it won’t help you to take a type two collagen supplement.

You want to take type one. On the flip side, if you’ve got joint issues, then taking type 2 can be very helpful for you. Usually the bones and the joints kind of go together, so you may even benefit from a type 1 as well. But just keep in that mind that there are these different types of collagen so that you buy the right one.

You know, like, if you’ve got arthritis problems and you take a beauty collagen for type 1, it might not help you as much unless type 2 is in there as well. Yes.

[00:27:31] Gabby Reece: And you, and again, you spell this out like a workbook, uh, in your, in everything in your book. So it’s, it’s important. So the, one of the other factors is inflammation.

And, and again, this is the same for disease. Chronic inflammation is probably the impetus for 75 percent of chronic disease. And it might express itself differently in different people, but you’re saying that that’s also one of the five reasons that our skin ages.

[00:27:58] Dr. Anthony Youn: And I think it’s really important to differentiate acute inflammation and chronic inflammation.

So acute inflammation for our skin can actually be a really good thing. So, for example, if you get a cut on your skin, our body heals it by creating acute inflammation around it to help protect it so that it heals. When you get laser treatments, when you get chemical peels, when you get microneedling, all these treatments are creating an acute injury or acute inflammation.

In the skin that damages the collagen, but just enough so that college and when it heals, it heals in a tighter fashion. Chronic inflammation is a whole other deal. And the main factor, the main cause of chronic inflammation of our bodies diet wise is sugar. And so if there’s one recommendation that I would have, if you’re talking about diet and the skin, it would be to reduce the amount of sugar you eat, because sugar can impact and cause chronic inflammation by two main pathways. The first one is that the sugar can actually bond to the collagen of your skin. Now I mentioned the collagen of the skin. They’re like these logs of a log cabin. And as we get older, those logs start to fray. They start to fall apart a bit.

And those are those collagen fibers getting basically older. When sugar comes along, sugar will actually bond to those collagen fibers and cause them to fall apart even more. And that sugar collagen hybrid, that connection, are called advanced glycation end products, appropriately titled AGEs. And that’s one way that sugar will actually physically cause you to age prematurely, by actually bonding to that collagen.

And then the second way, uh, something that you have covered here on the podcast before, but it’s insulin resistance. It’s when you get all these chronic sugar spikes, you get chronic insulin spikes, you can get insulin resistance. The sugar goes up. Uh, when you have high levels of insulin, there actually are connections being made scientifically between that.

And let’s say inflammatory skin disorders like acne. So if I could make one, you know, one change would be to reduce my sugary 20 percent of the calories of the standard American diet come from sugar sweetened drinks. 20 percent soda pop, energy drinks, fruit juices. You know, if you’re somebody who’s listening to this now and you’re like, well, geez, I drink three cans of soda pop a day.

Just take that first step and go to two, you know, maybe drop down to one. Doing that is a huge, huge benefit for your body. Uh, and, and, and taking these steps, you know, eventually they can become cumulative, you know, try to definitely do that for yourself.

[00:30:22] Gabby Reece: Do you have, I mean, you must have experiences where you have a patient and, um, for whatever reason, they’re, they’re all in and they make big lifestyle changes.

And, and you, you said something really important that I always want for people to approach it this way, the invitation to take small things out. You don’t have to flip your whole life and change everything all at once. I think it’s too overwhelming. I think it’s hard to adhere to. So you, like you said, could you just take one out one thing out. If you smoke a pack a day, could you smoke half a pack? I really want to encourage people because it’s about the long term success. Totally agree. Yeah, because I think it is hard and people are doing the best that they can, but if exactly. They want to make changes. It is about slow and realistic ways that they can do that.

If, have you had a patient, I’d love to hear if you, I mean, if one crosses your mind of somebody who’s like, okay, I’m all in. And then from one year to the next, it’s like they’ve become, you know, three years younger.

[00:31:25] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah. So we’ve seen that. Yeah. And we’ve had that a lot of people. Um, so a couple of ways that we’ve done it.

There are people who have taken my recommendations where they say, Hey, I’m going to, I’m going to get rid of the diet or the dairy in my diet. I’m going to reduce the amount of sugar that I eat. I’m going to reduce the amount of soda pop. And we’ve had so many people that have told me that, you know, my, my muscle aches got better.

My joints felt better. My skin looked clearer. You know, I can see patients that come into my office and just by looking at their skin, I can tell immediately if they’re a smoker or a non-smoker, I can have a pretty good idea of the type of diet they have. You know, I look at your skin and you’ve got a nice rosiness to your cheeks, but it’s not red inflammation that you see sometimes in people who will come into my office where it’s like.

You know, they’ve got, so, you know, you’ve got nice color, but then there are people who have too much color because we know they’re so inflamed. And then on the opposite side, there are people who are eating such a horrible diet that their color is literally sapped from their skin and their skin is very ruddy and it’s very flat in texture.

Um, so I see that all the time, you know, as far as actually seeing certain years come off, you know, we did actually this, this test, this doesn’t have to do with the diet, but this is actually just skincare, where we put people on a very simple skincare regimen. It literally took two minutes a day And we had them do it every day for a total of two months.

We took photos of them before they started the skincare regimen. And then those of them two months after, and then we put those photos online and ask people how much younger do they look and they looked an average of about five years younger. Now, this wouldn’t work for you because your skin looks too good.

You know, these are people who come in and they haven’t really been doing much with their skin. Um, so it’s very realistic than a span of two months of just getting on a certain clean, uh, clean kind of skincare regimen that you can see changes like that. And then in the book, we’ve got a 21 day jumpstart where we literally had people make certain changes in their diet.

We had them start just intermittent fasting just twice a week for two weeks of the three. We had them take certain nutritional supplements, very basic stuff and get on that two minute skincare routine and found after three weeks a significant improvement in the health of their skin, the quality of their skin, where people would go out to dinner with them and they wouldn’t know they’re doing this 21 day jumpstart and would be like, wow, what are you doing with your skin?

That looks amazing. Not knowing they were doing this. And we even had people off the street come up to a couple of our, uh, of our people and just randomly say, Hey, I just want to let you know, know what’s your skincare regimen because I want to get skin like yours. Um, so making these simple changes, you know, people need to know that you don’t have to have surgery, you don’t have to have Botox, you don’t have to get like a big expensive laser treatment, just start with the basics, clean up that diet a bit, take some basic nutritional supplements, start yourself on a good skincare regimen, and you can really see big changes.

[00:34:05] Gabby Reece: So, quick on the two minute skincare routine, you, there’s an exfoliating twice a week ish, am I right about this? Can you just guide us and, and I don’t want to get off the five buckets, but exfoliating your skin sometimes is you, I’m wary around it cause you know, a lot of the stuff is harsh.

So can you, can you direct us on how to pick a good one if they’re not using your stuff specifically?

[00:34:30] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah, so you can, you can exfoliate in two different ways. You can chemically exfoliate or mechanically exfoliate. Koreans are the masters of mechanical exfoliation. If you’ve ever been to a Korean spa, they will exfoliate your skin to the point where you feel like you’re bleeding, but your skin will never feel better and softer afterwards.

In my house we have this, it’s, it’s our quote unquote washcloth, but I swear to God, you can actually stand down a two by four with this. With this cloth that, that my parents would always have us use. Um, so you can do that mechanically with the face. You gotta be careful, you know, there is, we, we have had a tendency in the past for us to be over aggressive with our skin.

Our skin does contain a microbiome, one that we’re just learning about. Trillions of bacteria in the surface of our skin. That’s super important to the health of our skin. Um, so you can exfoliate using a mechanical exfoliator. So you can use a scrub, just make sure that scrub is mild enough to that.

If you are doing it once or twice a week, that you’re not feeling irritated afterwards. If your skin is red, if it’s irritated after you’re doing it, let’s say twice a week, then maybe it’s too aggressive for you. The other option is you can do chemical exfoliation. And those are, let’s say, alpha hydroxy acids or glycolic acids that you can get in peel type form.

You can get that, a lot of skincare companies have it. Do that once or twice a week and that will chemically exfoliate your skin. That’s going to be more gentle. That’ll be gentler for a lot of people.

[00:35:53] Gabby Reece: I actually also learned this and have been doing it where a friend of mine, who’s in skincare, I use the lactic acid yogurts, not a real yogurt, not the one where they put the lactic acid in, but the one that it doesn’t say that they put it in.

And I’ll tell you what, on your body, literally after a few times of using it, it feels significantly different.

[00:36:15] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah, and that really goes back to the whole Cleopatra taking milk baths. I mean, it’s the same idea. You know, this is stuff that has been wisdom passed down for centuries. Oxidizing. Oxidization.

[00:36:26] Gabby Reece: Free radical. Oxidation. Yes, things like that. So that’s the other thing that attributes to, to skin aging. How do we manage that? Because the, you know, I remember I’ve taken things for free radicals since the nineties. And then all of a sudden, I think five years ago, someone was like, well, we’re not sure it could be a myth.

And I go, of course, but, um, I’m always willing to try things when the downside is nothing happens. I always think that’s a pretty safe bet.

[00:36:54] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah. I mean, you know, it’s always good to be trying. Uh, so there was a time in the past where, you know, so where we thought that oxidation and free radicals were the actual, the cause of our aging period.

So what is that? Well, basically the fact that we’re alive, we’ve got, uh, our body creates a waste products that are called free radicals, just our metabolism by the, by the actual act of metabolizing. So these free radicals are molecules that can damage the DNA of our cells. And they are neutralized by antioxidants.

Antioxidants basically neutralize free radicals, preventing them from damaging our cells DNA. Now, our body, in somebody like yourself, Gabby, you have probably pretty good homeostasis, where essentially the amount of antioxidants in the free radicals are fairly even without you necessarily doing anything extra, like taking an antioxidant supplement, because you take great care of your body.

But that’s not the case for everybody. In people who, let’s say, smoke cigarettes, Uh, people who are in a very polluted environment, uh, people who are eating a lot of, uh, ultra processed, uh, deep fried foods, they’re actually filled with free radicals. And when we get so many free radicals that are anti our natural antioxidants are getting overrun, there’s just not enough of them to neutralize the free radicals.

Then we enter a period that’s called oxidative stress. And this is where the free radicals are so numerous that they’re constantly attacking. The DNA of our tissues. Okay. And that can cause premature aging. Um, and so that’s a big thing. And once again, a lot of this comes down to diet. Certain types of diets are filled with free radicals, mainly these ultra processed foods.

And for people wondering, what exactly is an ultra processed food? Well, I mentioned earlier, you know, I grew up in a small town in Michigan and I, you know, my parents, you know, would feed me rice and vegetables and fish and garlic and kimchi and stuff like that. And then I’d eat these fast food types of things.

And really when you look at ultra processed, it’s a food that does not look like the food it originated from. So for example, a Twinkie, which is technically vegan is ultra processed and it is from a plant or some type of plants. But you can’t have, you can’t tell, like, what plant is a Twinkie from, like, it looks nothing like the original form, versus rice and vegetables, you know, and like steamed broccoli and spinach, like, you know what those foods are from.

And so those ultra processed foods are filled with free radicals, and we know that they will damage the DNA of our cells, when our, when our cell’s DNA is damaged, it can cause premature aging, and it can even, in the end, lead to things like cancer. Now, I’m just going to go on a complete aside right now, Gabby, because one of the big things that’s super popular, uh, is ozempic.

Are these, uh, semaglutide, are these medications that slow down gastric emptying? I was having a discussion with my wife the other day, she’s a physician as well. And one of the concerns I have, you know, I know a lot of people who are on it, I think it’s great if you’ve got type 2 diabetes, if you’ve got, you know, obesity that’s really harming your health, then people lose a lot of weight from it.

But we know that there are certain foods that are filled with free radicals, and we know that the gut slows down when you’re on these medications. And what happens theoretically then? When you take food that’s supposed to traverse your intestines in a span of 24 hours. But now it takes 36 hours to go through your gut and you’re getting all these free radicals.

You’re getting the internal cells of your gut lining exposed to these free radical rich foods. For much much longer than they’re normally used to is that going to increase our risk of problems like let’s say colon cancer in the future I don’t know like unfortunately traditional medicine sometimes is not good at following this type of stuff for a long term before we approve it You know for everybody to use,

[00:40:32] Gabby Reece: And I think to your point if somebody was really dealing with obesity or type 2 DB diabetes where it’s like hey it gets you If you’re been really obese, and then all of a sudden you get to a place where now you’re really motivated and you make the lifestyle changes.

And then there’s other things with Ozempic, right? Like losing tons of muscle mass, depression. I think there’s even like suicidal tendencies, like there’s some kind of unusual framing going on around that. Um, I did hear a funny joke that the very, um. Thin women of the nineties are pissed off because they cardioed and starved themselves to death.

And now these women now are just taking Ozempic, but I guess that’s a, for another, another time.

[00:41:11] Dr. Anthony Youn: So many people are on it now.

[00:41:12] Gabby Reece: I heard it’s sold out. I, uh, I also want to remind people, for example, I’m, I’m relatively healthy. I’m always, I’m going to navigate things myself by getting my bud work done. I don’t methylate out exterior pollutants particularly well, right? So you’re talking about the pollutants that we create inside our body just by living and that’s one type of methylation that I can do pretty well. So just for people to realize. If we can get a little look under the hood, I think sometimes we think, Oh, if I do everything perfect, it still means it’s, you know, I’m, I’m able to manage everything and just to let people know that we might need to always tweak it here and there.

I take iron supplementation. I have very low iron and things like that. So, even though I eat well and exercise, I’m always still work doing my best. Uh, so I just want to remind people it’s. It’s, it’s a moving, it’s a constant conversation and checking on and, and it isn’t a place that we’re supposed to arrive at or be perfect.

So, you know, just to remind them, um, so cellular waste now, is this different than senescent cells? Am I, am I right? Am I wrong about this? It’s like when you talk about cellular waste.

[00:42:23] Dr. Anthony Youn: so the way I look at it, now, senescent cells basically are cells that, I don’t know, zombie cells, some people call them, but cells that have basically stopped dividing because the telomeres have shortened down so much.

And we don’t really know exactly what the function of senescent cells are with overall aging. I think that’s something that’s still in question, but we do believe that they have a pretty big role to play. We’re just not exactly sure how. So what I’m talking about is the buildup of cellular waste and that Um, kind of like the same way our bodies create these free radicals, our cells create intracellular waste products, their proteins, their organelles, their used mitochondria that can build up inside of ourselves.

And our body undergoes a normal process called autophagy. Autophagy means self eating and essentially it’s a, it’s an intracellular recycling process. To where our bodies will then use that intracellular waste for energy. When our body runs out of energy, uh, in order to create fuel, it will start by using those proteins on the inside of the cells.

Now  when those proteins are recycled for energy, it helps to clean our cells up, technically on the inside, and it causes them to function more efficiently, essentially more youthfully. So the process of autophagy essentially is this intracellular regenerating, rejuvenating process that can occur in all of us.

But like most things, as we get older, it slows down and it’s also impacted significantly by when you eat, essentially. And that’s kind of when you eat part of autojuvenation. And so in order for autophagy to kick in, Most doctors believe that you have to stop eating for a minimum of about 12 hours. Uh, that gives the gut a chance to rest.

It gives your body a chance to then realize that, hey, we don’t have fuel coming in. Let’s go ahead and create this intracellular rejuvenation process where we can use Our damaged intracellular organelles for energy that cleans everything up on the inside. But once again, the problem is, is with our standard American lifestyle, we’re constantly eating.

We’re grazing all day, and that does not allow our bodies to go into this autophagy mode. Now, I don’t think you need to go into a 76 hour fast or 84 hour fast or any of that type of stuff. Just doing 12 to 16 hours. You know, a couple of times a week if you can, maybe sufficient enough to really get that autophagy process going.

And really that’s a way to turn back the clock naturally on the inside. Once again, using your body’s own regenerative ability is to rejuvenate itself. Um, now I just need to make a mention too, because women, especially after menopause, you know, there’s this, a lot of talk about making sure they get enough protein.

And that’s one thing, you know, I’m a fan of intermittent fasting, I do it a couple of times a week. But there are also people who do it every day, and I think it’s hard, especially with women, after you go through menopause, you really want to push the protein to prevent sarcopenia, that breakdown of muscle, to do that in just two meals.

And so you want to kind of, as your body changes, just like you mentioned, you want to kind of adjust to that and see what works best for you.

[00:45:25] Gabby Reece: Yeah, that’s such an important point because I’m there, right? It’s like, you know, you’re stealing from Paul to pay Peter and who needs to be stronger at which time?

And to, and to listen to that. And by the way, on the days that maybe you’re, let’s say someone’s working and they’re going to travel and they’re not going to train as hard. Maybe that’s the day to make, you know, have a late lunch and then roll through and not eat until the next day kind of thing and figure that out.

But if you’re training super hard, maybe that’s not the time because you’re going to need more protein for recovery. So I really appreciate that differentiating point. What takes us really out of a fast?

[00:46:00] Dr. Anthony Youn: So that’s actually pretty simple. Anything that really is caloric takes you out of the fast. So when, when you’re fasting, whether you drink water, Black coffee or tea, as long as you don’t add anything into it, like sugar or like cream, then you will still be fasting.

Uh, there is a belief that some people have that if you have, let’s say, butter coffee, that you, that you aren’t breaking your fast, and that’s just not true. Um, although what is true, and one thing that I put in the book that I found really fascinating, uh, and this is kind of getting advanced stuff. is that even though you break your fast, let’s say, so let’s say if you start fasting at eight p.m. and then you don’t eat until noon the next day, what we ended up doing, uh, we have a 21 day jumpstart where we put people on this jumpstart for these 21 days to see if that can really improve their skin. It really did. But when they would, um, refeed after doing that, that 16 hour fast, we will put them on an autophagy supporting diet.

Essentially, there are certain foods that will break your fast. But can still stimulate that autophagy process to potentially keep going. We know that eating sufficient amount that eating healthy fats can actually help support autophagy. So when people would break their fast, we encourage them to eat essentially healthy fat foods.

Omega 3 fatty acid rich foods like cold water fish, like salmon, tuna, trout, mackerel, that type of thing. And then monounsaturated fats, which would be like avocados, olives. Um, nuts and seeds. Uh, and then the other group of foods that help to continue to stimulate autophagy, even though you’re breaking your fast.

Uh, our foods that are rich in polyphenols. And so those are going to be, uh, this is type of like antioxidant. Um, those are going to be like brightly colored vegetables or I’m sorry, brightly colored fruits and vegetables, darker fruits and vegetables like blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, black beans.

Those also can help support autophagy. So the idea that we did in the book, uh, is that we had people do this intermittent fast and they’ll break their fast just two days a week. Uh, by eating essentially a healthy keto, keto like diet, healthy fats and polyphenol rich foods.

[00:48:04] Gabby Reece: Yeah. And you, and you, and you talk about the importance of fiber and beta carotene and things like that.

Oh, yeah. So you, you really, you know, you get what I call kind of basic granular. You haven’t gotten so sciency that the householder is going to be like, whoa, this is too much for me. But you, you do honor enough of the science to really give service to people to support them. And you do talk about the shortening of the eating window.

So even if people maybe aren’t going to fast by, there’s such a power in shortening that eating window. So we aren’t doing that grazing on either side. Um, that studies show, especially in mice. of positive impact. So th is however you can do it or weeks are looking like options.

[00:48:53] Dr. Anthony Youn: Even if you just, You know, going and stopping eating at 8 p. m. and then not eating until 8 a. m. the next morning. Most of us should be able to do that. And that is sufficient, you know, some doctors believe that’s sufficient to get that autophagy process going. And, you know, and like with anything, you know, and, you know, you help people, you help train their bodies.

You know, you can’t start at one place and expect that you can just immediately go to another place. You don’t start by going for a jog and expect you’re going to run a marathon right afterwards. Like, your body, you do have to train your body even to do things like intermittent fasting. Uh, and so starting with that 12 hour fast, if you’re doing that, you know, that’s great, you know, and I try to encourage people like take these wins and yeah, if you can do a little bit more by all means do that, but maybe you’ll find that that is not the right thing for you.

You know, for me, I operate 2 days a week and on those mornings that I operate, I can’t fast because I found that I don’t function quite as well. So I’ll eat a high protein diet and that really helps me do well. So. I think that really the big thing that I try to have people take home here is that there are so many things that you can do to help you feel better on the inside and on the outside.

I think there’s so many of us go through life not knowing how great we can feel and how great we can feel about our appearance. Uh, and making just these small steps can put you in that direction so that hopefully you can realize someday that like, oh my gosh, I feel so much more energetic. I feel great about how I look.

And like, you know, I didn’t know I could feel this good. And I think that’s kind of the best thing that comes out of sometimes doing these little changes.

[00:50:20] Gabby Reece: Okay, so we were responsible. We talked about the stuff we’re in control of. Now, can we move over to the superficial fun stuff?

You, you have things that you’re sort of like, um, about and. I’m just gonna name a few. And if something jumps out to you, then you can talk about it. Whatever feels more important to talk about fillers that are not hyaluronic acid based. Am I getting that? Right?

[00:50:45] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yes. Yeah. Happy to chat about that.

[00:50:49] Gabby Reece: People are using the fillers a lot. So what’s the guide on that? And, and are you, if you’re 20, is it like, stay away from Botox and fillers? Help me out. Yeah.

[00:51:01] Dr. Anthony Youn: So Botox is the most popular cosmetic treatment in the history of the world. Five to 7 million Americans have it done, uh, every year. Uh, basically Botox is a neurotoxin. It blocks the transmission of nerve impulses to the muscles.

So essentially for three to four months, the nerve supplying that muscle do not cause that muscle to flex. And so any wrinkles caused by those muscles will smooth out. Three most common areas are between the brows. the forehead and the crow’s feet. Lasts about three to four months. Overall, I think it’s a very safe treatment.

We probably treat over 20, 000 people in my office. The worst I’ve ever seen is maybe two people with a little bit of an eyelid droop temporarily. So I think overall Botox is pretty darn safe as long as you have it done by the right practitioner. Filler is a different story. Filler is the number two most popular cosmetic treatment throughout the world, throughout the country.

Um, worst thing can happen with Botox. Usually you get a droopy eyelid. Worst thing that can happen with filler is that you lose parts of your nose, parts of your lip, or you go blind. People have gone blind from injections of filler. And the reason why is you can get what’s called intravascular occlusion, where the filler is accidentally injected into a blood vessel and anything being supplied, any body part being supplied by that blood vessel can literally necrose or die.

Um, and so how do you prevent that from happening? Obviously you wanna choose the right injector. Make sure it’s an injector that works in the office of either a dermatologist or a plastic surgeon. Make sure you’re using an hyaluronic acid-based filler fillers are made of hyaluronic acid or other substances.

Make sure it’s an HA filler. Two brands, Restylane and Juvederm. Two big brands. Fluoride reason why that’s important is because we have an antidote that can actually melt that filler away. So if you get an intravascular injection, the blood vessels clawed, we can inject hyaluronidase around it, and that will help to dissolve it away.

If you have one of the other fillers, you’re just plain screwed and you got to put some warm compresses on it and pray to God that the tissue is going to survive. And then the final tip with filler is to use a cannula if possible. They can be injected with a needle or with a cannula, which is like a blunt tipped needle that’s kind of bendable.

And the idea behind a cannula is it’s not foolproof, but it will lower your risk of an intravascular injection, lower the risk of that filler going into an artery, because the idea is it’s not supposed to penetrate through it.

[00:53:14] Gabby Reece: With, with the, with social media, you have very young women now in their twenties and stuff, getting both of this stuff. I mean, for me, would you say, Hey, if you’re in your twenties, maybe relax on the Botox. And I know there can be very young people with 11s and, you know, cause they’re really, they have a lot of expression or things like that. Is there a long term impact or not really? Do we know?

[00:53:36] Dr. Anthony Youn: So for Botox, the long term impact, uh, is that you may get anti bias to it eventually.

And so it’s the idea of. I mean, shooting your proverbial wad when you’re in your twenties, maybe when you’re in your forties and you actually can really benefit from it, you have antibodies to it and your body won’t react to it anymore. And so that’s the main thing with that is wasting of your money and then potentially, you know, causing your body to be resistant to it in the future.

Filler can leave scar tissue behind. Uh, and you can get these terrible complications. So filler, I would definitely take on a more serious note because yes, you know, you can have somebody inject filler into your lifts. You can get scar tissue in the lifts that can, if you haven’t done too much, can eventually look kind of lumpy and stuff.

Plus you can get that intravascular occlusion, which can be devastating. And so, filler I’m definitely more cautious with. Botox, you know, main thing is, hey, you know what, you turned 40, now you really can benefit, and now it’s not working. I mean, maybe by then we’ll have something better, who knows? What about threads?

Um, threads are something that are interesting. So when I started my practice in 04, uh, there was this brand new thing called threadlifts, where these doctors are saying it’s a non invasive facelift. Essentially, these are, these are sutures that they cut little barbs into, and if you run it under the surface of the skin, those little barbs will actually attach the skin and cause it to basically look like it’s lifted.

But the problem is, is that eventually the tissue will cheese wire through those little barbs and go back to where it started. Now, the initial suit, the thread lifts were made with permanent sutures. So people would pull up the neck and go, look at how amazing this looks. And then you go home and six months later, it would be back to where it started.

And then for, then sometimes you’d have these little stitches like protruding out of your face and dogs have to cut them out every so often and stuff. So these threads, uh, the threadless lost popularity, probably in the late two thousands, and now here we are, you know, a decade and a half later, there are new doctors coming around and being like, there’s this new thing called threadless.

I’ve never heard of them, but they’re amazing. Look at how we can lift the face with it. And the good news is that these threads are now absorbable, so they don’t leave a permanent thread on your skin. But the results still only last six months. It’s fine if you want, if you’re okay spending thousands of dollars for a six month result, but I think it’s so important for the doctors to actually tell you the truth, that they only last six months and you’re going to spend four grand on six month result. If you’ve got that money and you want to do it, then go ahead. I don’t think the, I don’t think the risks are super high, but it’s really just being honest with your patients because most, most of the doctors that my understanding aren’t

[00:56:03] Gabby Reece: And if you’ve ever seen someone who has an even good ones, Sometimes you’ll see from the side, there’s sort of this line pulling up. It’s a look that you can see it. So yeah, just to be careful. Um, you’re not into lunchtime facelifts. You think it’s a, it’s a no, it’s like silly.

[00:56:19] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah. So there, there are doctors who will advertise lunchtime facelifts.

There was one called the lifestyle lift many years ago where they had these ads on TV. It was very interesting, Gabby, because for several years, the number of facelifts performed by real plastic surgeons really dipped, and it dipped nationally because there was this thing called the Lifestyle Lift, which was they would have these ads on like cable TV of like, Look at how this person like it’s a revolutionary one hour facelift and the before photo would be a person looking down looking angry and grumpy and then the after photo the neck would be up and they’d be smiling and have full makeup and stuff and hair done.

And they duped all of these people into having this BS lunchtime facelift. Essentially, it was and it was a facelift just under under a local anesthetic. That anybody, any, you know, half, you know, half decent plastic surgeon can do, but there was nothing truly revolutionary about it just didn’t get very good results.

And so eventually the company went bankrupt because people eventually after a couple of years figured out it was a big scam, but now there are doctors here and there that are making up their own kind of names for them. And they’re kind of marking them at, Oh, this is a revolutionary mini face that I do in my office is going to be amazing.

And they’re just marketing gimmicks, you know? So the big thing with plastic surgery is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You know, there’s no magic in it. A lot of plastic surgery, little actual surgery. It’s just like geometry of like, Hey, you cut skin out and cut a centimeter of skin out, you’re going to be lifted by that centimeter that that skin’s removed.

There is no magic to what we do.

[00:57:47] Gabby Reece: How do you, I have had one Morpheus treatment. Um, and of course I was told and very careful about the depth. you know, that I went to somebody who understood not to go too deep. Um, so do you like microneedling Morpheus or any of those? How do you feel about those?

[00:58:05] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah, I think microneedling number one for bang for your buck is a great treatment. You know, when you’re undergoing cosmetic treatments in a doctor’s office, The cost of the treatment is going to be based to a large extent on the cost to the physician or the owner of that practice. And so, for example, it can cost me 200, 000 to buy a certain type of a laser.

It can cost me 100, 000 to buy an IPL device and cost me about 4, to buy a microneedling handpiece. So the benefit of microneedling, I mentioned earlier, it’s that acute trauma to the skin that causes the collagen to actually heal in a tighter fashion. And micro needling does that by making tiny pokes in the skin.

Now you can take that to the next level by adding PRP on top of it. PRP is platelet rich plasma, where we draw your blood, we spin it down and remove the platelets, which are chock full of growth factors. So if you microneedle a skin, you create these, these tiny little pokes in the skin. Those little pokes, those little, um, those little needle point pokes are going to act as channels to the deeper skin.

So if you make those micro needling, and then you apply the PRP on the surface, that PRP will seep into those tiny holes and will actually impact your skin from the inside out. Essentially rejuvenating your skin from the inside, using your body’s own cells, which sounds kind of like autojuvenation. Um, now you take that to the next level and you make the poke in the skin, but Insulated all the way up to the tip, and the tip emits radio frequency energy, or heat.

We know that if the temperature of the collagen of the deep skin gets to a certain temperature it will cause the collagen to denature and then tighten back up as it heals causing it to be tighter and that’s the idea of Morpheus 8. It’s radio frequency microneedling and if you want to take that to the next level you apply the PRP on the surface of it after you do your Morpheus treatment.I think it works great.

[00:59:56] Gabby Reece: Do you space those out by like a few months and get a set of three? I’ve sort of heard this or does it not really matter?

[01:00:03] Dr. Anthony Youn: So you want to space it out a good month, two months apart. And then usually we recommend, so we do it in my office. I get it done under my chin and my neck area probably every four months or so. We do recommend it though. Yes, I do.

[01:00:17] Gabby Reece: Does it hurt? I mean, I don’t remember because mine, they numb you. But does it, how do you deal with doing that just here? Like, do you numb it or you just deal with the pain?

[01:00:24] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah. No, I just put numbing cream over it and I’m pretty tough.

Just numbing cream. Yeah, we just use numbing cream. Yeah, you leave it on for about 45 minutes, the numbing cream. You just have to leave it on enough for it to really do its thing. And then I get treated. Yeah, it’s a little uncomfortable, but actually I tolerate it pretty well. Um, I know that there’s some people who are real sensitive to it.

So you think it’s good for the neck? I think that, yeah, for somebody like you or me, where, you know, we’re not in facelift territory, you know, the one thing that, that, you know, we’re talking a lot about non invasive treatments and stuff today, but the one thing that, you know, and I still do surgery a couple days a week.

Because the one thing that we can’t do noninvasively is get rid of hanging loose skin. When that skin is hanging, it doesn’t matter if Morpheus isn’t going to do it. You have to tackle it before that happens. Uh, and so for me, I do it maybe every four months, and my hope is never to truly droop that much.

Uh, I’m 51. Uh, so make yourself too. It’s like, you’re not a candidate for a face if you don’t have droopy, you know, skin and jowls and stuff. But that would be a nice treatment overall to kind of keep things nice and tight for you. We usually recommend starting with three to four treatments to space about one or two months apart and then maybe once every six months or so to get another treatment to just kind of keep things up.

[01:01:35] Gabby Reece: And then you like you red light you’re into.

[01:01:36] Dr. Anthony Youn: So if you’re talking any, you know, bang for your buck. So if you’ve got listeners and they are on a real strict budget, or let’s say you don’t have access to a med spa and you want to do something at home, no question, red light therapy is a great option.

And you know, you can get handheld devices that are less than a hundred dollars. You could get tabletop. Um, you know, kind of rectangular devices, you can get creepy looking mass to scare your spouse with all of those, you know, tend to work pretty well. The idea behind red light therapy is different than what we’re talking about with micro needling and lasers and stuff.

It’s not based off trauma, but the idea is that the energy from that red light will get transfused to the mitochondria of yourselves. The mitochondria, the powerhouse of ourselves, and it caused him to increase ATP production. So essentially causing yourselves to become energized. Uh, and that’s the idea behind the rejuvenation process of red light.

And there are studies, there are split face studies where they take a face split in half, not physically, but basically treating one half with a sham laser and then one with red light and have found a significant improvement after usually like anywhere from two to three months in the collagen of the, of the skin, in the elastin of the skin, uh, and in fine lines and wrinkles.

So there are scientific studies to support definitely the use of red light therapy for improving the skin.

[01:02:52] Gabby Reece: I love that. So I could go on and on. I’m gonna, I’m gonna start to wind it down. Um, you do though, remind people about like soybean oil and some of the oils that that is a no go. You want to accelerate aging, this is stuff that I’m talking about all the time for overall health, but I really appreciate that you did. I was sad about no bacon. Because of the sugar.

[01:03:17] Dr. Anthony Youn: Well, and that’s, yeah. And the advanced vacation end products. Yeah. The AGEs that’s bacon is, you know, I mentioned earlier how sugar bonds to the collagen and that creates AGEs.

Bacon does the same thing. It’s so sad. And that’s like the worst of all the foods. That’s the problem. So, I mean, I mean, I’m not an absolutist, so, you know, there’s certain places where I will definitely get their bacon because man, there’s so good. Uh, there’s actually a place near where you live in Venice, that I used to go to that was, they just had the best. It was so good. And every time we go there, we would go, but, um, it’s just a guideline about not every day.

[01:03:50] Gabby Reece: I do want to really quickly cover though, like, you know, liver spots, spots, sunspots, is there anything we can do to minimize those?

[01:04:05] Dr. Anthony Youn: So I would look at, it’s an inside outside option. Um, so from the outside, the easiest treatment, so easy as IPL, intense pulse light, and most med spas have an IPL device. IPL basically uses light energy to target the dark spots, cause them to be darker after about a week and then slough off. Usually you do need multiple treatments.

It’s not usually a one and done, uh, maybe even up to four to five to really clear it out. But the other thing is you want to ideally use a brightening cream, a cream that’s going to, um, fight the pigmentation issue. And essentially, you know, these spots are when you get UV radiation. Um, what happens is your skin uses melanin to protect your skin from UV radiation. And when you get a lot of UV radiation to your skin, it will clump that melanin together causing these spots. And so there are creams that typically contain kojic acid, licorice root extract or niacinamide that can help to suppress that melanin production so that you don’t get the, uh, the clumping of that, uh, of that pigment. If you want to try it, I’m happy. I’ve got a really good one. I use it every day on my skin for my beauty line and I’m happy to send that to you.

[01:05:08] Gabby Reece: Oh, yeah. No, I’m going to direct people. I want to check all of that out. Um, teeth whitening and hair because that is part of beauty.

[01:05:16] Dr. Anthony Youn: So teeth whitening, you know, there’s a lot of options for that.

In general, the first things that I would try most of a lot of times when our teeth are discolored, it’s because of surface staining and there are simple toothpaste. So. that you can get. Like, um, Colgate White, I think it’s got one. Um, there are toothpastes. Essentially what they have is they are a little bit abrasive, so you got it.

You don’t have to. You don’t use them all the time, but you use it for like a week and you can really get rid of a lot of those stains. Uh, I’ve also used hydrogen peroxide. You could do that in my crest white strips. Those I think work really well. Um, and then, you know, there’s so many people, as I’m sure you know, have been years.

Uh, where you basically put these things over your teeth, porcelain over your teeth. I warn people against caps. Caps are a way to get bright white teeth But they literally will shave the tooth down into like a little nubbin and it’s just to me It’s a bit horrifying unless you’ve got truly got teeth issues Um, so those are good options thinning hair There’s so many great options naturally to treat thinning hair And so this is something that i’ve been dealing with a little bit for the top of my head And usually what I recommend, if you have access to a functional medicine doc, then, you know, they’ll draw your labs because definitely nutritional deficiencies can be big there.

There’s something called telogen effluvium, where it’s stress induced hair loss. So the number one thing I would start is look and see, you know, are you really stressed? And if you are, look at ways to reduce your stress, whether it’s, you know, changing what you’re doing with your job, whether it’s meditation, yoga, so many great things, exercising short of that, there are nutritional supplements that are great for thinning hair.

There’s one that I recommend called Nutrofol. If you don’t have access to a functional medicine doctor, you can’t afford all those tests. Nutrafol is kind of a good supplement, a general supplement for anybody who’s got thinning hair. They’ve got Nutrafol for men, a separate one for women pre menopause, and a separate one for women post menopause, and one for women who are vegan.

So they’ve got different options depending on kind of the stage of life for you. So I would do a supplement. I would then do red light therapy or a laser helmet for your head. Uh, they make these, uh, one. I usually recommend one called iris store. There’s a bunch of them out there. They’re expensive. You know, you probably start about 500.

I have one that I wear every other night for about a half hour. Many, many studies in the dermatologic literature showing low light laser therapy can really help with thinning hair. Basically, the idea is it is like with red light therapy as it helps to add energy to those follicles. Uh, and then the final thing is some type of a topical, whether you use Rogaine or minoxidil.

There was a study that compared topical rosemary oil to minoxidil and found very similar results. So that’s kind of a favorite for the holistic minded. Um, you want to make sure you use a carrier oil with it. Don’t just put essential rosemary oil on your scalp. That’s going to be too strong. Um, and so those are some great options for thinning hair.

I kind of do all of those myself because I want to keep my hair years ago, my wife and I, we filled out these like things where it’s like, what do you find most attractive about your spouse? And my wife put his hair and then like two years, a year and a half ago. I found out sitting on top and it scared the crap out of me, Gabby, because I’m like, Oh my gosh, I’m losing my secret weapon.

[01:08:26] Gabby Reece: Yeah, but you got that skin doc and that brain.

[01:08:29] Dr. Anthony Youn: But she didn’t put most attractive was skin or brain. She put hair.

[01:08:33] Gabby Reece: She’s like, his hair is hot. Oh my goodness. Water quality of water. Does it matter? Does it really impact our skin? Like, you know?

[01:08:43] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah. You know, I I mentioned earlier, I think water and like moisturizers are kind of the same thing. Like they’re, they’re very beneficial. I mean, water is more important than moisturizer technically, but you know, it’s, you know, some people, there are celebrities who will say, Oh, you know, how is your skin so youthful? You know, and they’ll go, Oh, I drink a lot of water. And it’s like, come on, that’s not going to reverse aging of your skin.

It’s going to help with hydration, with energy. It’s so good in general. Um, but at the same time, like. You know, that’s kind of a basic type of a thing, you know, and so, but it’s not drinking more water is not going to make your wrinkles go away. Just like make, you know, using a moisturizer now may make you look a little more hydrated.

That’s awesome. But it’s not technically going to treat those 5 signs, you know, those 5 cause of aging. It doesn’t tackle inflammation or. Collagen degradation or any of that type of stuff, but super important. And I also am a fan of triple reverse osmosis filters because God knows what’s in our tap water nowadays.

[01:09:34] Gabby Reece: I always say, and I’m going to be really honest with you that I’m going to go as long as I can. I don’t mess around with all the other stuff, but I almost just feel like I’ll get a facelift and be done with it, like one and done, and there’s sometimes conversations I’ll come to Michigan, there’s sometimes conversations that, oh, you shouldn’t wait till you’re it’s too late.

Like you should do it before everything goes down. What, what’s, what’s your feeling about that?

[01:09:58] Dr. Anthony Youn: So yeah, I, to an extent I disagree with that. Um, I think that that’s a reason why some people are like, Oh, you know, surgeons may say that cause they want to get more business and stuff. But in the end, the way I describe to patients is you’ll know when a facelift is right for you.

So first of all, a facelift basically treats the lower face and the upper neck. So it does nothing for the forehead or the eyelids, some for the cheeks, but not a ton. It really is mainly for the lower face and the upper neck. So it helps with jowling. and loose skin under the neck, platysmal banding, which the muscle bands that you can get.

Um, and it does that at the expense of permanent scars in front of and behind the ears and a little scar underneath the chin. The under the chin scar usually heals really, really well. It’s the one around the ears that you’re always a little worried about because especially if you have your hair up, those scars may be visible.

So what I tell my patients when they ask me, I don’t know, is it the right time for me? I tell you, I tell them like, you will know it’s the right time because When you think about getting a three and a half hour operation, you know, going under the knife for three and a half hours under a general anesthetic, having the risk of complications such as poor scarring, tissue loss, bleeding, nerve injury.

Uh, you’re going to get these permanent scars afterwards. You spend upwards of 20, 000 or more, be away for a good week or two weeks before you start looking good. And you are so excited to do that because you hate how your neck and lower face look. That’s when you know it’s the right time. Okay. You’re so excited because you can’t stand the appearance of this area so much that doing all that stuff, I don’t care because I so want to take care of this.

That’s when, you know, it may be the right time. You know, if you’re not there yet, I’d be like, Oh, no, like that. All the other stuff scares me. You know, I’d rather just have this then. Definitely. It’s too early. Yeah.

[01:11:37] Gabby Reece: Well, Dr. Youn, I’m going to just show your book 1 more time. I know people are listening. But I know you worked hard on this.

And again, I just appreciate that you’re using your knowledge and reach because you do have a huge audience on Tik TOK and on Instagram and you you’ve, you’ve done it, you’re being very clever because you’re mixing the worlds and then slipping in all this great and helpful information because. Listen, this idea of when you do look better, you feel better, everyone feels that way.

And I know we’ve gone a little off the rails with social media about the expectation of really what we’re supposed to look like. But I believe on the, in the things that you’re talking about this book, that there is a real, there are real tools that we have that we’re in charge of that can reinforce us looking really great for us, you know.

Forever. It’s like when I’m, when I’m 70, I’m not going to be thinking I should look 25. I mean, I’m in my fifties. I’m okay that I don’t look in my twenties anymore, but this idea of that vitality. So thank you for that. And, and can you just, you know, tell people all the places that they can find you and if they’re interested in your products and things like that.

[01:12:50] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah, so for the book, we have a website called autojuvenation. com, uh, autojuvenation. com. If you do buy the book, we will give you a bunch of free gifts, including a companion recipe book and a 30 gift certificate to our online store, yunbeauty. com, where I do sell my skincare products. Uh, yunbeauty products are made with natural and organic ingredients, uh, so we’ll essentially pay for the price of the book, uh, in, in free skincare.

Um, and I try to encourage people to find the book. Um, there are, you know, you can find anywhere that’s on Amazon, Costco, Target, all that stuff. But if you do want to support your local bookstore, uh, go to bookshop. org. Bookshop. org is a website. Uh, and what you can do is you can buy the book online there.

They’ll send it to you just like any other, you know, big retailer. But you can choose your local bookstore, uh, to send that profit to. So you just go to the right upper corner. It says choose your bookstore. Look for your local independent bookstore. You know, one maybe that doesn’t have the size to be able to create a big website for them.

Uh, and you can actually send a profit of that book sale to your local bookstore. So if you’d rather get it on Amazon, all these other stores, that’s awesome too. But just another, just a little tip for you. Otherwise autojuvenation. com to get your free gifts from it. And, um, yeah, thank you so much, Gabby.

[01:13:57] Dr. Anthony Youn: This was a lot of fun. I appreciate it.

[01:13:59] Gabby Reece: Well, actually you did a great job and I, I can’t wait to see, I wish you lived, you know, in my neighborhood.

[01:14:04] Dr. Anthony Youn: I wish I lived there too. My, my daughter says that she wants to move there when she, when she gets older.

[01:14:13] Gabby Reece: I appreciate you and, and, uh, I look forward to, to talking to you in another 18 months and see, and see what else you’ve learned and, and what’s new and exciting. Cause I have three daughters and I always say to them, listen, by the time you’re older, they’re going to, you’re going to roll into a tube. And, you know, some, they’re going to do something to, and then you’re going to roll on out.

[01:14:33] Dr. Anthony Youn: Um, that’s so funny because that’s what I joke is if I could invent one thing, it would be some type of a full body laser that you just get put in and then you come out looking younger.

[01:14:45] Gabby Reece: Maybe someday teenagers and acne if if we got if we have them eating overall pretty well Do you think no matter what? Hormones is gonna play wreak a little bit of havoc on them and they just have to ride it out Like when is it a point of it’s a it’s a lifestyle thing and it’s just it’s kind of their hormones, you know They’re going through it.

[01:15:04] Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah, I think that what I would look at is how severe is the acne? So if it was my child, I have two teenagers myself If they’re starting to get cystic acne where they’re starting to get a little bit of scarring, then I would act very quickly, you know, I would see a dermatologist, um, and see what options do you have?

Yes, definitely looking at diet. I mean, so many young people that age are eating fast food, which is totally, you know, can create inflammation for, and that’s a big source of acne. I would consider getting them on some type of a retinoid, um, you know, whether it’s a retinol or there’s, um, over the counter versions now that, um, Like a dapalene that you can get that those types of retinoids can also help to reduce, uh, acne.

Um, so there are a lot of kind of topicals that you can do, but, but in the end, if it comes down to like cystic acne that’s causing scarring. You know, that’s something that people have the rest of their lives. And so you really want to jump on that and get them to see a dermatologist as soon as possible.

[01:15:59] Gabby Reece: I appreciate that because I know a lot of parents are dealing with that. So Dr. Anthony Youn, thank you for your time. Thank you for the book.

[01:16:05] Dr. Anthony Youn: Uh, yeah. It was great to see you. And I’ll see you next time. Thank you, Gabby.