Pursuit of Wellness - Plastic Surgery: Your Questions Answered w/ Dr. Anthony Youn

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

Ep. #61 Breast implant illness, BBL’s & more. Our conversation with America's holistic plastic surgeon Dr. Anthony Youn takes us behind the scenes of his transformative journey, where the commitment to his team and the desire to spread light in dark times led to an explosion of followers across online platforms. We navigate the glamorous yet complex terrain of plastic surgery, where Dr. Youn marries entertainment with education, sharing the emotional and professional shifts that define the industry, and how he champions a patient-first approach in a world obsessed with perfection. Dr. Youn doesn't shy away from tackling the hot-button issues head-on. He provides a candid look at the nuances of breast implant illness, the intricacies of various cosmetic procedures, and the considerations that patients should weigh before making life-altering decisions. Our conversation delves into the realistic expectations of treatments, the rise of non-invasive options, and the ethical responsibilities resting on the shoulders of medical professionals.  Dr. Youn shares invaluable anti-aging advice and his holistic perspective on maintaining health and vitality. From the debatable safety of certain surgeries to the effectiveness of collagen supplements and skincare treatments, we cover it all. If you've ever been curious about the interplay between wellness and cosmetic enhancements, this episode is a treasure trove of knowledge from one of the leading voices in the field. Products Mentioned: Younger For Life - Dr. Youn’s new book Leave Me a Message - click here! For Mari’s Instagram click here! For Pursuit of Wellness Podcast’s Instagram click here! For Mari’s Newsletter click here! For Dr. Anthony Youn Website click here! For Dr. Anthony Youn’s Instagram click here! For Dr. Anthony Youn’s book click here!

And then I had one patient that completely changed everything. So she was a woman in her 60s. I bring her to surgery. We do the operation on a Thursday. Operation goes perfectly. Sent her home. Came back to work on the following Monday. And I had a message from her daughter.

And the message was, why did my mom die? This is the Pursuit of Wellness podcast. And I'm your host, Mari Llewellyn. Hi guys, welcome back to the show. If you're new here, my name is Mari Llewellyn and this is the Pursuit of Wellness Podcast. If you're here, I applaud you because we are starting 2024 on the right foot. We are talking all things wellness, nutrition, mental health, and so much more, which is why I'm excited about today's episode. Believe it or not, although it's all about plastic surgery, we talk a ton about wellness and anti-aging and things you

can do naturally to help with your appearance. Dr. Anthony Yoon is known as the holistic plastic surgeon he is also known as the most famous plastic surgeon on TikTok and today he answers all of the questions we are all dying to know is breast implant illness real is it avoidable are BBLs safe which procedures are actually worth it and so much more Dr. Anthony considers himself a holistic plastic surgeon. He's someone who believes in nutrition and health before surgery. We talk about the real health implications of having work done and the recovery that needs to take place afterwards. I love the fact that Dr. Anthony is really honest about plastic surgery. I feel like this topic is very taboo and there's kind of a lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to plastic surgery. I feel like this topic is very taboo and there's kind of a lot of smoke and

mirrors when it comes to plastic surgery and social media makes it look like plastic surgery is like a really easy simple quick fix and it isn't. So today we talk about all the procedures that are actually pretty intense and the ones that are maybe not as intense. I took the opportunity today to ask Dr. Anthony all of the questions I've always wondered and see discussed online as well. I've never had plastic surgery done myself, but I've definitely thought about it.

And I thought that this discussion was kind of an opportunity for me to treat it like a consult with a plastic surgeon who actually has a three-year waiting list. So this is all really good information, guys. I hope you love the episode. Just a reminder to click the subscribe or follow button wherever you're listening to the show. If you enjoy it, please leave a review. It really helps me make the show better and see what you guys want more of. And don't forget to follow me on social media

at Mari Llewellyn. I love interacting with you guys there. Without further ado, let's hop into the show. Oh, also, just a quick reminder, guys, our POW hats, Pursuit of Wellness hats that say In My Healing Era, which you guys have been dying for, come out on January 8th, which is when our next episode actually launches. So mark it in your calendars, January 8th. We did not get a ton of hats. So hop on that while you can. Okay, guys, today on the show, we are joined by Dr. Anthony Yoon, also known as America's Holistic Plastic Surgeon. Anthony, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. You guys have probably seen him on TikTok. He's known for reviewing celebrities' plastic surgery. He's also the most followed plastic surgeon on social media with over 4.5 million subscribers and 8 million on TikTok, correct? Yeah, so almost five. I'm almost at 5 million,

I think on YouTube. So yeah, it's crazy. That's incredible. Small town plastic surgeon out of Michigan. Wow. So how did you get so big on social media? Like, when did that happen? So I did a lot of TV for a while. And then I pivoted to social media probably about seven, eight years ago, because almost like an actor, I started noticing that these TV spots I used to do for like talk shows were going to younger, better looking doctors. And I started seeing the writing on the wall. I'm like, well, maybe I'll pivot to social media because I like getting my message out there. And so I did that for a few years. And then the pandemic hit in March of 2020. And I found myself in an empty office with no patients, no income coming in, and 11 employees

that I had 10 or 11, I think 10 or 11 employees that I had promised to pay for as long as I could. Who knows what was going to happen at that time. And so I looked at my bank account. And of course, it's March, I had just paid off all my taxes. And so I didn't have much in my bank account at the time. And I had to figure out how am I how am I going to pay my employees. And the biggest check I was getting at that time was from Google for my YouTube channel. So I said, why don't I just start making more content? And then I started really thinking about the situation at that time and how scary it was for so many people,

but I wanted to help in some way. And so what I started doing is not worrying about creating content of being like that doctor type, creating educational stuff. And I just started creating things that I thought would be fun and educational and entertaining. And if I could just take people out of that horrible, scary, lonely time for 10 seconds or 30 seconds or maybe a minute, then that was a real privilege. And I had so many messages from people after that saying, thank you for keeping me company

during the pandemic, that it meant so much to me. And, and my socials just exploded after that. What I love about what you do is you kind of like pull back the curtain on Hollywood's secrets. Like you talk about the plastic surgery that everyone's getting done or might be getting done. And ways, you know, people have little hacks of how to look better. And I think the reason people gravitate towards it so much is there are all these unanswered questions. Even me, I'm like, you know, I've lived in LA for two years now. And one of the first things I noticed was how does everyone look this perfect at the bodies, the faces. So I really appreciate the fact that you add some transparency to this industry. How did you initially get into plastic surgery? So I, like many second generation Asian Americans, when I was born,

my parents decided I was going to be a doctor. And my dad is a physician and he's, you know, I wasn't going to be any doctor. I was going to be a transplant surgeon or a cardiac surgeon or a brain surgeon, you know, these high powered surgical specialties. So I, as a dutiful son, I went to medical school. I finished that. And during medical school, when you have to decide your career, I did general surgery, which I thought, OK, I'm going to go into surgery. And it was 3 in the morning, and I saw a 60-year-old man stumble out of the call room to go to a trauma. And I thought, I don't want that for myself.

Like, that's not me. And I did trauma surgery in ICU. And honestly, I'd never enjoyed it because I was always so worried about my patients. I was so worried about screwing something up. And if somebody got hurt from what I did, how could I forgive myself? And so I realized that those types of surgical specialties

just weren't for me. Like I could not have something bad happen and say, oh, well, next patient, you know? And so for a little while, I thought, well, maybe I'll do family practice because I like dealing, you know, helping people with their problems, maybe long-term. And then I found the field of plastic surgery. At the time it was reconstructive surgery, which I thought was really interesting. And I've been an artist in my past and it just drew me in.

And I ended up coming out here to LA for a month. I worked with the Beverly Hills plastic surgeon and I just thought that the combination of artistry and technology and surgery and using your hands, all that stuff just really appealed to me. And so then I ended up going to the field of plastic surgery. And where did the term holistic plastic surgeon come from? So yeah, what happened is, is I went through traditional training. So I'm an MD. I did three years of general surgery, two years of plastic surgery residency. I did a fellowship with that Beverly Hills plastic surgeon here for a year. And then I went into private practice and I got on all these TV shows and my process exploded.

You know, interestingly in surgery, there are certain operations that you do that you take pride if you're able to do it. So if you're a general surgeon, the big operation is a Whipple. This is a massive 10-hour cancer operation that if you are so lucky to do a Whipple as a surgeon, then you know you've made it. In plastic surgery, it's probably the facelift. You know, a lot of people, they may trust almost anybody to do their lipo, but if you're going to do their facelift, you know that you've really reached the top. So for many years, I actually gauged my success on how many patients I was doing facelifts on. And I reached a point where I had over a one-year waiting list,

I had all these patients coming in from all over the country to have surgery, including facelifts done, and I had thought I reached the pinnacle of success. And then I had one patient that completely changed everything. So she was a woman in her 60s, healthy woman. She came to see me, wanted a facelift. I thought, looking at her, hey, this will work fine. Like she's going to get the result she's looking for. And so I get her cleared by a cardiologist. I bring her to surgery. We do the operation on a Thursday. Operation goes perfectly. We kept her overnight in the hospital, which was my routine at the time. Saw her Friday morning.

She looked great. Sent her home. Had a normal weekend that weekend. And then I came back to work on the following Monday, and I had a message from her daughter. And the message was, why did my mom die? When we first got Arnold, I knew we had to have a little bit of a different approach to our other dog, Lulu. Every dog is so unique and different. And our trainer recommended using a dry food for Arnold because it would help with his

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So you guys know I talk a lot about how important protein is. We've had a lot of experts on the show mention how important it is that we're getting enough protein in our diet, especially as women. And sometimes it can be difficult to find protein that is delicious, plus sourced sustainably and from a really good place. That's also really important. And that's where I found Maui Nui venison. Now before you tune out because it's about venison, trust me guys, this does not taste gamey at all. It is absolutely delicious. Plus this company has a really cool mission. I actually spoke to one of the founders recently and this is the only stress-free 100% wild harvested meat on the market. And when I say stress-free it's because they actually hunt the deer during the night time. So it's the best way

to source meat because they're actually not stressing the animal out during its death. Plus this is from the axis deer in Hawaii which is an overrun population of deer that need to be lessened anyway and that's about reclaiming abundant food systems and preserving the delicate native ecology of Maui. So this is game that needs to be caught regardless. And Maui Nui is creating delicious, easy to cook meat out of this system. So I love the fact that it's not gamey. It's easy to cook. It comes frozen. You can actually cook it frozen, which I think is really, really cool. And they have so many options options they have different steaks you can order bone broth and jerky sticks which is the perfect snack I highly recommend you guys start by trying their all natural venison jerky sticks it's so freaking

delicious and I think it's something that the whole family would love Greg is absolutely obsessed this is something we keep in our pantry. It's a super high quality, responsibly sourced red meat that doesn't taste gamey. And there's so many different options on the website. Highly recommend you guys try it. You can get 20% off your first order of fresh venison, jerky, broth, and Ohana subscription. Go to mauinuivenison.com slash pow to get 20% off your first order i'm going to spell it for you guys m-a-u-i-n-u-i-v-e-n-i-s-o-n dot com slash pow p-o-w mauinui venison the healthiest red meat on the planet delivered directly to your door. And I mean, it floored me. So I was obviously devastated. And I tried to look and see like, what happened here? And it turns out she had a heart attack over the weekend. And when nobody was around her and she died.

And it sent me into a complete tailspin. And I, for months, questioned, you know, should I, you know, am I a bad doctor? Is there something I did? I went through everything that we did. You know, there's no medication issues. It's like, really, there was nothing we could have done. We even had her cleared by a cardiologist. The only thing I could have done is not operate on her.

That's the only thing. And so, and you can tell them, it still has shaken me to my core. And so it really got me into thinking that the goal of what I was always taught as a plastic surgeon, to bring people to the operating room. You know, we say in surgery, to cut is to cure. The only way to heal is with cold steel. And it made me realize that that goal is completely wrong. My goal should be the opposite. It should be how do I keep people out of the operating room? How do I get people to look and feel the way that they want to feel and not have to put them at risk of dying from surgery,

you know? And so that sent me on this course to holistic medicine. I was never taught nutrition in medical school. I was never taught all this preventive stuff. You know, when people would come to see me before all this happened and they say, hey, Dr. Yoon, what should I do with my supplements before surgery? I'd say, well, just go off of all of them and stop smoking and that's all you have to worry about. And it really got me into learning. So I really went and dived deep into nutrition literature, into the books written by a lot of our now common friends. And I learned so much and I spent years really focusing on that and creating this concept of autojuvenation. How do you combine what you eat, when you eat, nutritional supplements, clean skincare,

and optional non-invasive treatments to turn back the clock using your body's own regenerative abilities? And that's what has come to become the book that I've written here. That's amazing. So now would you say your specialty is non-invasive treatments

and recommending lifestyle plans? Not necessarily, because I'm still a surgeon. And there are situations where surgery is your only real option. Okay. And so I see, you know, one of the operations I do a lot of are tummy tucks. So I see women who come to see me, they've had three, they've had four kids, their skin hanging from their tummy. They've got a separation of their muscles with a big hernia in the middle. And yes, I do tummy tucks on them. I do get people who come to see me and I still do facelifts, people who've got jowls and hanging skin. You know, I think we have to be realistic at the same time. There is so much power that we have with non-invasive options and with diet and supplements and skincare, but there's nothing I'm going to put on your neck that's going to make loose hanging skin

go away. You know, there are things we can do now to reduce fat non-invasively, you know, we can tighten skin, but you know, if there's skin hanging over your eyelid and you can't see very well, like I can't, you know, you can eat as many green leafy vegetables as I can give you, that's not gonna make that skin go away. And so it really is using plastic surgery as a last resort. Okay, I love that mindset. And I really appreciate you telling us that story because I know that must be a difficult one, but it does give so much insight into what you do.

And I'm glad we're talking about the tummy tuck and the loose skin. I think the number one comment and misconception I see about myself is that I've had a tummy tuck and loose skin removed because I never have had any type of surgery. But I did have a dramatic weight loss. Yeah, 90 pounds. 90 pounds. And people's biggest question for me is why don't I have loose skin, which honestly, I'm not sure. I think it was just because I was young, maybe. And I wasn't

overweight for a very long time. So what would you recommend for people who do have loose skin and want to fix that? So it depends, I think, on the amount. How much loose skin do you have? And so the way I describe it to patients is there's a difference between lifting and tightening. If you've got so much excess skin that it's truly hanging, then you have to consider some type of a lift. Now I consider a tummy tuck to essentially be a lift because you're cutting out excess skin. You know, and in the past, that's really all we did in plastic surgery is lifting. So we had facelifts, eyelid lifts, neck lifts,

you know, tummy tucks are essentially a lift, a breast lift. And I don't think we're ever going to get to that point where you can do something to make excess, significant amounts of excess skin go away. Tightening is possible though. You know, If things feel a bit loose, but maybe they don't look really loose, then yes, we have treatments that can tighten that skin and can make that better. But you also have to be realistic in what you can get with these non-invasives. And I think that's where some people go wrong the other way. And they say,

hey, don't have surgery. Let me do this laser on your tummy and it's going to make that skin go away. I have so many patients who come to see me. They go, wow, I spent five grand on these laser treatments or on CoolSculpting or whatever to improve my tummy. Do you think I need a tummy tuck? And I take one look at them sometimes and I apologize. I'm like, I'm sorry that they put you through all of that and had you spend all that money. They should have just recommended tummy tuck from the beginning because sometimes it really is the only option and honesty is really the number one thing. So what would you say is your specialty now?

So I do all types of cosmetic surgery from face to breast to body. There are certain things I don't do that just aren't my thing. So I don't do massive weight loss operations. There are specialists for that. I don't do genital cosmetic surgery. That's just like not my deal. And then I don't do nose jobs. Nose jobs, I did them for 10 years, but they're tough. And nose job patients, when you look at body dysmorphia, the highest percentage of people with body dysmorphia who are plastic surgery patients are nose job patients. And with nose jobs, there's a lot of elements that you don't have control over with scar tissue and things that I just never loved doing them. So about, you know, after 10 years,

I gave them up. A lot of girls in the office wanted me to ask you about nose jobs, because apparently once you get one nose job, you're likely to have to get a couple more. Is that accurate? So nose jobs have the highest revision rate. Okay. And that's one reason why I don't like them. And so the problem with nose jobs is that whenever you do a nose job surgery, anytime you cut on the body, you create scar tissue. Studies have shown that from a normal speaking distance, if you have literally one millimeter of scar tissue or one millimeter of asymmetry on the nose, it can be visualized from a normal speaking distance.

And so the problem with that then is there's this, some of this is out of your control as a surgeon. So you can get somebody who has some scar tissue that develops and it looks like their bump is still back or comes back a little bit and now they're unhappy and they want another operation. The problem is you bring them back to surgery, you're going to create more scar tissue and you don't have control over that scar tissue and it can become kind of this like spiraling that can happen with people who undergo too many nose jobs. So with nose jobs, you just have to be very, very careful. See a number of plastic surgeons, very carefully look at their before and after photos. And you want to make sure that

your vision for how you want your nose to look like completely matches your surgeon's vision. Okay. Because there's some doctors where all their noses look the same. And if that's their style and you don't like their style, then don't pick that doctor. When would you say no to someone who comes in for a procedure? So I say no to maybe one out of every five patients who come to see me. And the main reason why is they have unrealistic expectations. They are expecting something that I literally cannot give them. We do estimate that about 10% of plastic

surgery patients have body dysmorphia. And that's essentially where they look in the mirror and they see something different than you and I would see. And they unfortunately sometimes will undergo a lot of cosmetic procedures to try to correct a perceived deformity that technically isn't even there. And so really, I think, but the number one thing is people who come in and they think that we can get one thing and it's just not possible. You know, they bring a photo of, let's say, Jennifer Aniston, but they don't look anything like Jennifer Aniston to start with. It's like, yeah, you can't change people that dramatically. So obviously, this show is about wellness, and we give a lot of advice on nutrition, sleep, exercise.

At what point do you think when someone has exhausted all of their possibilities, they eat well, they sleep well, they exercise, but they still have one thing that they're super insecure about, is that the moment you'd say, I'd recommend surgery? So for my patients, for example,

we've talked about facelifts, who are thinking about, let's say, a facelift surgery. Basically, I'd recommend surgery? So for my patients, for example, you know, we've talked about facelifts who are thinking about, let's say a facelift surgery. Basically, I tell them, okay, because so facelifts, basically, they will lift the jowl area, the lower face and the neck. Okay. And I tell them, okay, when you get to that point where you cannot stand that appearance so much that you would spend upwards of $20,000 or more, go under the knife for three and a half hours, get permanent scars around the ears with a potential risk of scar problems, blood clots, bleeding issues, and all of that, but you are so excited to get rid of that loose hanging skin that you are 100% on board to do it, then that might be the right time to do it. Okay, so you've got to consider all the potential negatives and you want to make sure that

all those positives of you feeling better about that area truly outweigh those negatives and not just barely, but really, really outweigh them because bad things can happen. Yeah. And I feel like I really appreciate you saying that because I think something that's happened on social media is it makes plastic surgery look really casual and I've never had plastic surgery but I've been to a consultation before when I thought I wanted my boobs done I didn't I needed to go to realize that um but when I learned more about what the actual procedure would be and the recovery and the limitations I might have that changed my mind a little bit and I think people need to be aware

that it isn't just like a quick before and after, right? Like there is some recovery time and things that you need to be prepared for. Yeah. And I think especially with implants, I really tell patients, look, this is a lifetime of multiple more operations throughout your lifetime. These will not last you the rest of your life. If you can be completely happy with your appearance and with your life without implants, then by all means, try to avoid getting implants. Okay. But if you just feel that, man, I cannot feel great about my appearance without that. And you want to, you know, and you're okay with having multiple more surgeries throughout your lifetime, then you want to go in that direction. I'm happy to chat with you about it. But at the same time,

yeah, I get people who come in to see me and they have, you know, they look, their breasts are like a full B cup. They are beautiful. They're great shape and everything like that. And they say, well, I want implants. And some of them I say, look, are you sure you want to take that risk?

And I turn some of them down. And sometimes I get upset because they assume they're going to walk in your office. They're going to pay you and you do what they ask you to do or they tell you to do. And it's like, no, you know, I'm going to do what I feel. I'm going to offer you what I feel is in your best interest. And sometimes what you think is in your best interest may be different than what I think. And that's OK. But then we may have to agree to disagree. Have you noticed a rise in boob job requests since Alex Earl has risen? So it's always been the number one plastic surgery

for years. Ever since 2006, when the silicone implant moratorium, the ban here on silicone implants was lifted, it's been the number one plastic surgery. My waiting list now is over two years long. So I haven't necessarily seen that. I think I've seen a lot of the opposite with breast implant illness concern. Okay of the opposite with breast implant illness concern. Okay, yeah. So breast implant illness, what is that? Like what's happening in the body and how do you know when you have it? So breast implant illness essentially is a constellation of symptoms that some women appear to get after undergoing breast augmentation. And those symptoms, I mean, there's a list of like over 100 of them. The most common ones are going to be brain fog, muscle aches, fatigue, rashes,

hair loss, joint pain. Those are kind of the most common things, but there are so many other symptoms potentially there. This is something that's very controversial in plastic surgery. So the dogma has always been breast implants are safe. They don't make people sick. And what happened basically is that silicone implants were available for a long time. And in 1992, the FDA here banned the use of silicone implants because a lot of women were concerned that they were making them sick. So there was a moratorium on the implants in 1992. There was class action lawsuits, Dow Chemical went bankrupt, and they were only allowed to be used in an FDA approved study from 1992 up to November of 2006. In November of 2006,

the FDA looked at these studies and said, hey, these implants appear to be safe, we're going to lift the moratorium. And that really was looked at by plastic surgeons on a whole as a stamp of approval that implants are safe and that this whole concern with breast implant illness is not right. Fast forward about 10 to 12 years, social media gets really popular and women start sharing their stories on social media and they start congregating on websites and then Facebook groups came along and they start really congregating there telling their stories. You know, for me, once again, I was traditionally trained. I went through all my residency, all that.

And I believe the dogma. I was always told studies show that implants do not create these autoimmune symptoms. And patients ask me, I go, that's what the studies say. But did I look at the studies? And so as all of this stuff happened, you know, with my patient and me really starting to look into holistic medicine, I started looking into implants, started questioning everything. And I started looking at websites from BII people sharing their stories and I started looking at their citations and the scientific articles that they were showing. I'd never seen these.

I'd never heard of these. These are in like the rheumatology literature and things. So I started reading them and I started reading stories that these patients are sharing. And I started realizing that I was wrong. Like this dogma is not right. So I ended up going on social media and I shared that I think breast implant illness is real. And yes, there was a lot of pushback from my colleagues. I was rising within the ranks of our societies as being an up-and-comer in plastic surgery and potential future, even potential president and things like that. And within the span of just a couple months, all of a sudden, all my committee assignments

were gone and I was persona non grata. I am someone who is guilty of subscribing to a ton of apps and paying for them and never cancelling them, even if I don't use them. Like my phone is absolutely full. I recently downloaded Rocket Money and it severely humbled me. And it was like, you need to get rid of these subscriptions. It was so freaking helpful. I highly recommend if you're someone who's trying to save up or be more financially conscious in 2024, you need Rocket Money, especially if you're like me and you have a ridiculous amount of app subscriptions. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find

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have to do is take a picture of your bill and Rocket Money takes care of the rest. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash pow. That's rocketmoney.com slash pow. rocketmoney.com slash pow rocket money dot com slash pow. And I'm not sure I've never been told by anybody that this was why. But then I've talked to some plastic surgeons. They say, well, these things do not happen by coincidence. You know, and I had some friends of mine, plastic surgeons who would call me and say, hey, look, you really got to stop with this BII stuff. People are not happy with you.

And I had doctors commenting on my social media posts saying that people don't respect you anymore and stuff like that. But you know what? My thought, and there was that part of me that's like, should I be quiet? And in the end, I said, you know what? This is the truth and F them. I'm going to put it out there. And so I believe it's real. I still do breast augmentation surgery because I don't believe it affects everybody. I think that the vast majority of women who do get implants do tend to do really well with it. I've done a lot of augmentations in my career, but now I am seeing more people that we take them out. And really when you look at the science, really it comes down to is if a woman has symptoms that they think are BII and you take their implants out, there's a 55 to 85% chance that their symptoms are going to get significantly

better. And some doctors will say that that's all psychological. That's just because they think they're getting better. Some other people will say that all implants are toxic and they should be banned from existence. And I think like most things in life, probably the truth is somewhere in between. There are probably some people who implants just don't work well with their body and taking them out makes them much better. And then there are other people who probably do just fine. Yeah. Wow. An incredible story and so interesting that you were, you know, one of the first surgeons to talk about this. And I really applaud you for doing that. And getting that reaction from

the community just shows once you start affecting someone's bank account, that's when people get angry. Well, and I think a lot of people don't realize that the studies that are performed on implants are typically funded by the implant companies. And the people who do these studies are doctors who some of them are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not sometimes millions of dollars by these implant companies to give lectures, to do studies on the products, you know, to present at meetings, at podiums. And so, you know, you get a lot of beneficial type of accolades by putting this stuff out there, you know? And for some people, this is their bread and butter. This is what they make their money off of. And here's this doctor who's trying to cut into my, you know, my living. So of course they're going to react in a

bad way, but really in the end we're physicians. And like the number one thing is always doing what's best for the patient. And for me, it's always like looking at that direction, like what's best for my patients and for the health of my followers now, because now it's like, geez, there's so much more than just my patients. Yeah, and probably a lot of young people following you too. And I also think it's great to get the information out there and still give people the choice

because you can choose to do many things in life that might harm you, right? There's always a chance. I like horseback riding. I could fall off my horse and crack a rib tomorrow. I think what we don't have, which at some point, I'm hoping we get that, is we need statistics of what is your chance of getting BII if you get implants. And we just don't have that. Like if I would love just to be able to tell patients, you have a 20% chance, you have a 10% chance, you have a 5% chance, just so that people can

quantify that and make an educated decision for themselves. Because right now, unfortunately, you know, I, I explained it to them and I said, look, we don't even know what the chance of you getting this are. So you just have to keep that in mind. What about the sauna? Because part of the reason I decided to not get them was I am obsessed with the sauna. I'm in there three times a week, super, super hot. Have silicone implants been tested under that level of heat? And what's happened? Are they melting in there? Like what's going on? So I have a good friend of mine who's a plastic surgeon who made that comment about the sauna and how it melts your implants. And we're friends. I don't say good friends, but we're friends. And he's a really good guy. And I don't know why he made that statement, but honestly, it makes no sense.

Okay. So when you're in a sauna, your body temperature is going to go up, but it's not going to go up by more than a couple of degrees at the most. Because even if a sauna is, let's say at 140 degrees, your body temperature is not going to go to 140 degrees. If you did, you would die. You would die way before that. We get a fever and we're at 102 and we are feeling crazy because it's our body's like out of whack. So the temperature of your body does not go up and down anywhere near that much. Second thing with these implants is that, you know, we have implants that are the same ones that we implant in people and we will use them as sizers, basically as temporary implants. So somebody says, hey, I'm not sure what size I want. Can you see which one looks better? We can put in these temporary implants and take them and

put them out. And those will actually get put in an autoclave and they will get sterilized over and over and over again. So those are put at very high, high temperatures because you got to kill all the bacteria. And this is not a real study, but as a TikTok video a long time ago, I took a silicone implant, I put it in my microwave. And this was during the pandemic. My office was closed. There was nobody around. I'm like, well, I'm searching for ideas of what to do. So I'm like, let me see if I put a silicone implant in my microwave, when does it actually melt? And I had it in for, I think it was like seven or eight minutes or something to the point where I was afraid that something like my microwave would get messed up. And I took it out and it was like, I mean, I had to use oven mitts and stuff and it was still intact and I still have it in my office

today. Wow. Okay. So I love that doctor. We're friends. I had dinner with him literally just a few weeks ago. I 100% disagree. If you've got implants and you want to go in a sauna, by all means do that. Your body temperature is not going to melt your implants away. And then another question for you. Since I'm someone who is really health conscious and I like care a lot about what goes in my body, I've always kind of thought if I want to get a boob job after I have kids, could I do a fat transfer? Okay. So fat transfer, I differ from a lot of my colleagues on this. So fat transfer essentially is you take fat from one part of your body and you inject it into the breast to make the breast bigger. There are limitations of what fat transfer

can do. If you put fat into a breast, only about half, sometimes less of that fat will actually stay. First of all, you need enough fat to harvest to inject it fat will actually stay first of all you need enough fat to harvest to inject it into the breast second of all once again at least half that fat will go away usually and then depending on the quality of your skin fat's not going to stretch the tissues out like an implant will it won't reshape it it will just kind of fill in if you're if you have empty tissue it may fill it in but it's not going to actually reshape and stretch out but the main thing that i look at fat and this is a question that I've asked some of my colleagues and nobody has answered. So people say, oh, fat grafting, it's a very safe operation. You should

do it. If you get your implants taken out, inject fat. Here's a very theoretical question that nobody ever talks about, but that is like huge on my mind and why I don't do fat grafting breasts much at all. One in nine women will get breast cancer in their lifetime. It's just the way, you know, these are the statistics. Breasts are a cancer prone organ. It stinks, but it's the truth. Fat is chock full of stem cells. Okay. And now you don't hear a lot about like controversies with stem cell harvesting and stuff like that, because we get so much we can get through our fat. And so what happens then when you take a cancer-prone organ and you inject it filled with substances that are filled with stem cells?

And let's just say, Mari, that you have a cluster of dysplastic precancerous cells that are sitting there in your breast right now. And they're not going to become a cancer until you're probably 140 years old because they're such a small thing and they don't grow very quickly. Now let's say you take that cluster of dysplastic potentially precancerous cells and you inject a ton of stem cells around it. Stem cells are cells that are so basically young that they will turn into essentially the organ that you inject them into. Is that going to then cause you to develop a lump when you're at the age 40 and maybe develop breast cancer at a much earlier age? Nobody knows. But does anybody talk about that? I've never heard anybody

talk about that. And so the surgery itself is a very safe operation to perform because it's just lipo and injecting fat. But what are the long-term ramifications of it? Do we know that that might not increase your risk of breast cancer? And I don't know that anybody has ever even asked that. I asked that at a meeting a couple of times to people who are presenting, and they kind of brushed me off of like, oh, well, you know, we don't really worry about that. Something might be there.

Okay, interesting. I'm glad you told me that, honestly, because it's always been in the back of my head, you know, as an option. Why doctors aren't thinking about this and bring it up? I don't know. And maybe there's something I don't know. I've tried to research this. I just haven't seen anything on it. Well, let's put it out there and see what we get back. Because I'm curious. Let us know. Can I get a fat transfer in my boobs? Maybe I'll get calls from plastic surgeons. They're like, what are you doing talking about this? Yeah, I'm going to ruin your reputation with this.

And then how about like a lift? What's going on with the lift? I've heard the scarring is worse. So lifts create scars. It doesn't matter what type of lift you're having done. Facelift, eyelid lift, breast lift. Breast lifts create lengthy scars. And typically those scars extend circumferentially around the areola, eyelid lift, breast lift. Breast lifts create lengthy scars, and typically those scars extend

circumferentially around the areola, vertically down, and horizontally just above the crease of the breast. They are long scars. The scars are permanent. They never disappear, and there's always a potential risk that those scars can thicken on you. That's the big trade-off with breast lift, because whenever you cut skin out of the body, you will create a scar and that scar is permanent. So for a facelift, the scars are around the ears. For a breast lift, once again, that's called an anchor scar where it goes circularly around down and underneath. A tummy tuck essentially is like a tummy lift and you get a hip-to-hip scar and a scar around

your belly button. Thigh lift, you get scars in the groin area. I've never heard of a thigh lift. Why? Okay, back to the fat transfer concept and then I'm going to move on to aging. But I just have to get this out of the way. What's happening with the BBLs? Because if you're saying that you could lose the fat in your breasts, couldn't people with BBLs lose the fat in their butt? So the butt essentially is fat and muscle. And BBL surgery stands for Brazilian butt lift. And essentially, it's an

operation where you liposuction fat from one part of the body and you inject it into the butt. BBL has had a bad rap in the last many years because of a lot of deaths associated with it. So it has been touted as the most dangerous cosmetic surgery because there was a study many years ago that found a 1 in 3,000 mortality rate from this operation. The key with the Brazilian butt lift, though, is back in the day when these statistics were coming out, doctors were injecting fat into the muscle of the buttocks. And the reason why they did that is because whenever you inject fat, the fat needs to get blood supply for it to heal into its new location, okay? Because if it doesn't have blood supply, it dies, your body absorbs it and goes away. And so what has a lot of blood supply are muscles.

Our muscles are filled with blood. And so if the idea is like, well, then I'll just inject fat into these muscles, the fat will stay, the muscles will look bigger, and now you've got a much nicer looking butt. The problem with the butt is that the butt also has some of the largest blood vessels in the body. And so if you inject fat into these muscles and next to these blood vessels, or even worse, if you tear these blood vessels while you're injecting the fat, the fat can enter the blood stream. And I kind of describe it, it's like the missiles going into the Death Star, where that blood or that fat, if it gets into your bloodstream, it can go to your heart and lungs and you can die almost instantly. And that is a death of BBL. And so now, unfortunately, what happens is you've got doctors who are doing this. A lot of them,

you know, that kind of made big news were in Florida where they would do, you know, three, four, five of these BBLs in one day, just getting in and these horrible death rates going on. What's happened since then is that the societies have actually gone through and done a lot of safety and testing and like, how do we do this safely? And if you inject the fat into the subcutaneous layer, the layer above the muscle, then it does appear to be a very safe operation. And so now a lot of doctors are even using ultrasound guidance to see like, where are they injecting the fat, making sure that it's not in the muscle. And if it's done that way, then yes, you can do it very safely. There's also other ways to enhance

the buttocks a lot harder. Like some people are injecting filler like Sculptra into the buttocks, and that's a way to fill the buttocks as well. Sculptra is relatively safe to inject. It's just the problem with Sculptra, it's mainly used for the face. And so the amount that you have to inject Sculptra into the buttocks to get even a modest change gets really, really expensive. And then obviously there's like the illegal stuff where people put oil. I mean, there've been people who've injected Fix-A-Flat into people's butts. You know, if you get a flat tire and you have this canister with this tube that you put it into your tire and it fills your tire up? No, no, no. With like some foamy stuff? No. There have actually been people, there's a person in Florida who was injecting fix-a-flat into people's butts, injecting liquid cement before it solidifies into people's butts.

Are those people alive, do we think? Some of them have died, yeah. One of the people that were doing it, that person was actually arrested and put in prison. Thank goodness. All those people have done that. They've actually fled to other countries and stuff. Yeah. It's crazy. Just don't have a cosmetic procedure done in the basement of a hotel room or something like that. Just yeah. Make sure it's an actual real cosmetic center. The BBL industry is dark, guys. Okay. Let's transition from BBLs to aging. You are releasing a new book called Younger for Life. You look very young. So I feel like you have all the tips. What are some of the best tips you have for aging overall in lifestyle? So yeah, the way I separate it is kind of like in the book is kind of the what to eat, when to eat supplements and skincare. Okay. And so as far as what to eat, you've been great with covering what you do and a lot of

people have come in. A few things that I want to just kind of point out. Number one, sugar is a great ager of our skin. Okay. So if you can pick, really, I could pick two categories of food that age our skin most prematurely. There's technically five different ways that I focus on that causes skin aging. Nutrient depletion, inflammation, oxidation or free radicals, collagen depletion, and buildup of cellular waste. Now, inflammation and free radicals, big food is a huge part of that. And so what causes inflammation? Sugar. Okay, so sugar causes inflammation and can damage our skin by the process called glycation and glycation means is basically a process where sugar can bond to the collagen of our skin

and cause the collagen to become prematurely aged that's one reason why sugar is terrible for your skin the second reason why is that chronic sugar spikes can cause chronic insulin spikes that can lead to actual inflammation as well. And then you also get like blood sugar instability and insulin resistance and things that you've covered on the podcast too. And so if I could pick one great ager of the skin, number one, it's sugar.

20% of the calories in the standard American diet today come from sugar sweetened drinks. 20%, I mean, it's shocking. Power drinks, you know, like energy drinks, soda pop, fruit juices, and all that. And so just trying to reduce a little of that that you drink can be a huge impact on your skin. Second thing that causes aging of the skin is with the free radicals and oxidation, and that, the type of food that has the most free radicals, ultra processed foods. Okay, so when foods are ultra processed, they're taken from their natural

form and put into essentially a fake form, one that makes it hyper palatable, so easy to eat and overeat them. That actually those foods actually contain free radicals. Yeah, and I always point out things like the Starbucks drinks that everyone gets every day, like the frappuccino, the pumpkin spice latte. I know people are obsessed with them. They're part of the ritual, but there's so many better ways of getting your coffee in and just like being aware of the ingredients because coffee is something we're having every single day, guys. So take a look at the ingredients of your creamer or whatever you're ordering from Starbucks. I'm someone who had a really rough acne journey for like 10 years. And only recently have I had clearer skin, which is amazing. But now I'm starting to think about scarring, aging, you know, all the topics

we're talking about here. So even if I mean, I was kind of lucky because my skin would tell me if a food was bad. So I knew right away, okay, I had something I shouldn't have had. So I've gotten pretty good at eating for my skin. But I feel like having that aging in mind too is really important. At what age do you think we should start thinking about, you know, skincare for aging, anti-aging practices? So our skin is composed about 70 to 80% of collagen. And that collagen makes up that tightness and the youthfulness of our skin. We lose about 1% of the collagen of our thickness of the collagen every year, starting about in our mid twenties or

so. Women, after they go through menopause, lose upwards of 2% a year. And that's why you see some women who are maybe in their seventies and their eighties and their skin can be tissue paper thin to the point where they scratch against something and it tears. So one of the big focuses is going to be trying to get that collagen, continue that collagen to be nice and healthy and actually have a lot of it in your skin. So once again, you're looking at your mid-20s, that is a pretty good time to start, if not technically earlier. You know, the thing is in The thing is in your 20s, you seem to be able to bounce back from so many things. You can have a bender and the next morning feel fine, whereas somebody who's in their 30s and 40s, it can take a weekend to recover from

something like that. But the problem is, even though your body recovers quickly because you're young, you still are damaging your body. I see people who come to see me who are in their early 40s and they have tons of sun damage on their skin. And I ask them, wow, are you getting a lot of sun? They go, no, I'm never in the sun. And I'm convinced that this is damage that was done back when they're in their 20s that now is starting to rear its kind of ugly head on them. And so really it's never too late to get on a healthy kind of whole foods type of a diet. It's never too late to use good, healthy, preventative skincare. I mean, it's never too late to do things with mindfulness and with activity and lifestyle modifications to stay healthy. Even though you may not feel those effects so much when you're early 20s, you will feel them eventually.

And to start on those healthy habits, I think is early on is important. You know, we try to do that with my kids to an extent because they're high schoolers and they want to go out with their friends and go to Jimmy John's and, you know, and these sub places and stuff. You know, I'm not going to tell them don't do that. But at the same time, when you're at home, we're going to try to get you the right types of foods and stuff. Do you recommend taking a collagen supplement? Oh yeah. So that's controversial. Really? Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you go online on social media and you say, hey, collagen supplements are great. I've done that before. People come out of the woodwork to attack you saying that my doctor said collagen supplements don't work. So collagen,

once again, we lose collagen in our skin. That's one of the main ages of our skin is collagen degradation. So how do we then replenish the collagen and prevent our skin from thinning and aging prematurely? Well, number one, collagen is a protein. It's a large protein. And so you want to make sure you get enough protein in your diet. So your trend towards focusing on protein, I think, is very, very good for your skin. But then comes collagen. If you take collagen, is that going to improve your skin? The fact is that a lot of traditional doctors will say it doesn't help. And they go online and they say it doesn't help because your stomach acids will break that collagen down. And how do you know it's going to actually get to your skin? So the fact is that

there are many studies that have looked at this. And I tell this story. It's very interesting. There's a doctor on TikTok who I really admire and respect. He's an older gentleman. He's probably in his mid-60s. He's a cardiologist with some type of a nutrition degree, like maybe a master's or something. And he's got a big bushy beard. And he talks about nutrition and cooking and all that type of stuff. And very matter-of-fact, like, you know, he's like the ultimate resource of it because he's an old professor type. And he made a video a couple

years ago stating that, you know, if you think that collagen supplements work, you are wrong. Studies show that they don't do anything. If you want to take a collagen supplement, just go to the store and buy gelatin. That's the same thing. And I saw this video. I'm like, oh man, like I really like this guy, but I can't agree with that. Fast forward, literally just a few weeks or a month or two ago. And that video comes up on my TikTok as I'm scrolling. And I'm like, oh, why is this video coming up again? And then before the video ends, he comes on screen, he swipes the video away and he goes, I was wrong. Collagen supplements do work. I've looked at the literature and they do work. I was wrong. Collagen supplements do work. I've looked at the literature and they do work.

I was wrong. Good for him. A lot of people online don't want to admit when they change their mind. Yeah, I was like, that's awesome. So the science basically, there was a meta-analysis back in 2021 where they looked at over 1,100 people. They took 90 days of collagen supplement and they found a statistically significant improvement in wrinkles and skin hydration and elasticity. 1,100 people. They took 90 days of collagen supplement and they found a statistically significant improvement in wrinkles and skin hydration and elasticity. 1,100 people. There are studies that have been performed, prospective randomized controlled clinical trials, like the gold

standard of studies where they have taken people, put them on collagen supplements, hydrolyzed collagen supplements for two months or so, and then they biopsy their skin afterwards and the skin has thicker amounts of collagen in it. There are other studies where they actually draw their blood and see more higher levels of these essential amino acids that are present in collagen in their bloodstream and stuff. So really, there's a ton of science to show that collagen supplements do work. I do recommend them. You know, there's so many anecdotal stories on top of that of people who tell me, you know, oh geez, it made such a huge difference.

A couple of keys here. If you're looking for a collagen supplement, you wanna find a hydrolyzed collagen peptides because then that collagen is broken down into individual amino acids or peptides, which are groups of a small number of amino acids, making it small enough to actually digest it. That's the first thing. The second thing is that there are different types of collagen too. Okay. There's type one collagen, which is basically our skin, our hair, our nails. There's type two collagen, which is going to be in our joints like cartilage. And there's type

three collagen, which is in the muscle. So if you're taking collagen because you've got joint aches, but it's type one collagen, that may not help you so much. If your collagen is just type 2 or type 3 collagen, but you want it to improve your hair, then that may not work. So you want to make sure that the type of collagen that you are ingesting matches what you're using it for. Would you also say eating meat or bone broth and things like that would also help in this department?

So I'm a fan of bone broth, but if you were to ask me, doctor, is there any scientific evidence that ingesting bone broth improves my skin? The answer is no. I have not found any studies to support that bone broth, that drinking bone broth will improve your skin. However, I have never found any studies that show that drinking bone broth does not improve your skin. So I don't think that I could not find any studies on it, but it does make sense because what is bone broth? I mean, it's pure collagen. You allow that bone broth to cool off and it becomes gelatin and that's the collagen. So I think that in medicine, we tend to, as physicians, say, well, if it's not written in our literature, it must not be true. And so doctors may say, well, where's your evidence-based medicine, your study to show that drinking bone broth improves your skin?

And the answer is, I don't have it. So then does that mean that it doesn't improve your skin? I mean, we can use common sense to say that it's filled with collagen. Collagen supplements improve your skin. So it should make sense that it does, but there aren't any actual studies to show it. And that's something that hopefully someday somebody will do it. What would you say some of your favorite skincare procedures are? Not necessarily procedures, but like treatments, non-invasive. Yeah. So there's one, you know, if you're looking at, so let's say you're listening

to this podcast, you're like, well, geez, I'd love to take care of my skin. I don't want to spend tons of money and, you know, or maybe I live in a small town. I don't have access to a med spa or a doctor. First thing that I would recommend is looking into red light therapy. I was going to ask you about that. So red light therapy is something that's really interesting because the holistic community is all on board with red light therapy. And if you ask a plastic surgeon what they think about red light therapy, they may look at you with a blank stare because it's really just not in the discussion in plastic surgery or I don't even think much in dermatology. So red light therapy, essentially, you're using red light. The idea behind it, and I don't think it's ever been

proven, but this is a belief, is that the energy of that red light will help power mitochondria. Like that energy gets transferred to power mitochondria. That energy gets transferred to the mitochondria, which are the powerhouses of your cells, to increase production of ATP. And the idea then is if you power your mitochondria, it's essentially getting it back to a more youthful, kind of better working form, essentially. And so that can be anti-aging in and of itself. So are there studies to support red light therapy to improve your skin? And the answer is yes, there are. There was a study of over 1,000 people where they used red light therapy.

I think it was for 90 days or so. And 90% of them had an improvement in the tone of their skin and 80% had an improvement in the tightness of their skin. And so there are definitely studies there. There even have been split face studies where they have done the red light therapy on one side of the face and not on the other side and found a statistically significant improvement in fine lines and wrinkles and skin hydration and skin tone on the side that was treated. Wow. I've been doing red light for my acne scars. Like I did it last night. I'll just meditate in front of it naked actually, because I

want it on my whole body. And I feel like I've already seen an improvement in my face. I've been doing it for like two weeks. Yeah, I think red light therapy for somebody who wants a DIY type of thing at home, I think it's a great treatment. And there are a lot of options. You've got the handheld devices, I'm not a big fan of because it's just kind of onerous to do it. You've got the tabletop devices, you've got the creepy looking Hannibal Lecter masks that you wear and stuff. But I think that's a really great option for people who want a budget-minded way to improve their skin. And the science appears to be supporting that that does help. What do you think of microneedling?

Microneedling, I think, is a very good bang for your buck. So microneedling essentially starts off with dermal rollers where you take these little rollers that look like paint rollers. They have tiny little pins and they create acute trauma. Essentially acute trauma, acute inflammation. So I mentioned earlier that inflammation is one of the great agers of our skin, but there's a huge difference between acute inflammation and chronic inflammation. Acute inflammation can actually be a really good thing for your body. When you get a laser treatment, you get acute inflammation, acute trauma to your skin, and the collagen as it heals, heals in a tighter fashion so your skin looks more youthful afterwards. If you get a cut on your skin, your body will create acute inflammation to heal that cut. That's a good thing. It's when inflammation becomes chronic

that it becomes a bad thing. So microneedling works essentially by creating an acute injury, acute inflammation to the skin. When you create an injury or inflammation to the collagen of the skin in a very controlled fashion, that skin essentially, and the way I describe it, our skin are like the logs of a log cabin, the collagen. And when we're young, those logs are nice and tight.

And it's like you got this brand new log cabin with these tight logs. And as we get older, those logs become a bit weathered. The collagen starts to fray. It starts to fall apart a bit. And what happens then is if you actually put that collagen under a certain amount of acute stress, whether it's with an injury like microneedling or with a laser treatment or with the acid from a chemical peel, it causes those collagen fibers to become damaged and to actually initiate the healing process. And that healing process causes that collagen to become tighter. And that's why most of these treatments give you tighter, more rejuvenated skin. Now, the real benefit, the reason why I'm a fan of microneedling, one big reason why is because when we look at cosmetic treatments,

the cost of the treatments are really based not necessarily off of what you get out of them, but how expensive it is for the doctor or the place to perform it on you. So if I buy a laser for my practice, that can cost me $150,000 to $200,000. If I buy an IPL for my practice, which is great for dark spots, also I think a great bang for your buck, that may cost me about $80,000. And you'll bet that that cost of those procedures are going to be passed off onto you. But micro needling device, about three or $4,000. Okay. And so micro needling is a great way if you're on a budget to create that acute inflammation, to get some tightening of the skin, rejuvenation of the skin, and just not have to pay that much for it. Got it. And then how do you feel about Morpheus 8?

Because I know in LA, I see billboards for it everywhere, and a few of my friends have had it done. What are your thoughts? So I had Morpheus 8 done probably a month ago to my neck. So Morpheus 8 is microneedling. It's radiofrequency microneedling. So microneedling, you take a little pin or needles, you puncture the skin and you get the benefit from that trauma. With Morphiasate radiofrequency microneedling, that needle goes into the skin, but the upper portion of the needle is insulated and the tip of the needle is not.

And that tip, once it goes in the skin, it emits radiofrequency energy or heat. Heat is a way, if you get your collagen, if you put the collagen under a certain temperature, which essentially is 42 degrees Celsius at the surface of the skin, if it gets heated to a certain temperature, what does it do? It gets damaged and it heals. That healing process causes it to become tighter and those log cabins become once again tighter and essentially more youthful again. And so I think right now, if you're looking at the gold standard for non-invasive skin tightening, Morpheus 8 would be the gold standard. But it

works differently in everybody. Some people get a pretty dramatic result, some people not as much. Therein is the challenge whenever you're dealing with any of these non-surgical treatments is that you might get a great result and then Fi does it and she doesn't get a great result because her tissue just hasn't reacted the same way or vice versa. And you can't predict it, unfortunately. We use numbing medicine and some people will use like Pronox, which is a nitrous to kind of get them a bit high when they're having it done. We just use numbing medicine. We leave it on for 45 minutes and people tolerate it pretty well. People wanted me to ask you about slugging. I haven't personally slugged before. What is slugging? So slugging is taking an occlusive moisturizer, typically Vaseline is the most common one, and just slathering it all over your face.

And then typically people will go to bed with it on and then their pillow gets all greasy and stuff like that. The idea behind slugging really is the idea that if you've got extremely dry skin, you can slug and then you wake up the next morning, you wipe it off and your skin is smooth and hydrated. The problem with slugging is that it's a couple of things. If you're using an active, like let's say a retinol, and you try to slug over that, you could be locking that retinol in and you actually could get an increased reaction from a treatment like that that you could be locking that retinol in and you actually could get an increased reaction from a treatment like that that you may not want. So that's the first thing. Second thing is depending on your skin type, like not everybody should slug. You know, if you've got really, really dry skin,

let's say you're living in, you know, Nevada or Arizona and, you know, it's cold out and there's just like no humidity and you want to do that because your skin just needs that hydration, then you can try it. But if you've got a tendency to acne, then I would really be careful. I will not be slugging anytime soon. Okay, so I have to ask you about threads. What are your thoughts?

Because there's some controversy around threads because I've seen people have amazing results and look incredible, but I've also heard really bad things. So here's the history of threads that a lot of people don't know. I started my practice back in 2004. And at that point there, I just started my practice. I trained like traditional plastic surgeons and these doctors started advertising this brand new non-surgical facelift called the ThreadLift. You take these permanent sutures and what you do is you take sutures, which typically are nice and smooth. They're

like fishing wire, but you make little cuts into those sutures so that when you run them underneath the surface of tissue, those little cuts will grab onto that tissue. And so then people go, wow, if I take this thread and it has these little barbs essentially into it, and I run it underneath somebody's neck, Look at how it pulls that skin up. And people go, wow, that's a non-surgical facelift. Let's do it. And they started advertising it to everybody. And people were just like, this is amazing.

And all these doctors are coming out in the woodwork, non-plast surgeons, plast surgeons, but to make their living doing this and all that. Fast forward six to 12 months, fast forward two years, and those results are gone. And there are studies now coming out that they only last a year at the longest, but these sutures are permanent sutures. So two, three years later, patients would come to me like, what is this thing sticking out of my face? And it's like, oh, it's your thread. And so we pull it out and clip it. And then a

couple months later, the rest of it starts coming out. And so then after a couple years of this, the threads go out of popularity and people forget about them for like 10 years. All of a sudden, a new group of doctors come around and these people say, hey, we've got this new absorbable suture with these little barbs in it. And look what it does. We pull it on the skin. Wow. It lifts the neck up. Look how amazing that is. And this is a non-surgical facelift. And these doctors don't know because they're new that this has been around and it's been, you know, we've gotten rid of it a long time ago and now they're doing it again. So threads essentially, the problem is, is that you cannot create a true change in the anatomy

of your tissues by pulling a thread through it. It's going to cheese wire through it eventually, okay? And that's why the results may only last six months if you're lucky up to a year. I don't think that they're really, really risky. You know, I mean, we do surgery. There's more risk technically probably with surgery than with threads. But the real key is being honest.

And if you're doing threads, if somebody says, hey, you know, Mari, you should do threads and your dermatologist says, yeah, let's do threads. It's going to cost you six or $7,000 or three or $4,000 and your results will last six months. And you go, hey, that's fine. I'll do it. Then by all means, like, if you want to do it, then fine, go ahead. But my concern mainly with threads is that people aren't telling them that, hey, you're spending thousands of dollars for a result that's probably going to be gone in six to 12 months. And if you're being honest with people and they decide that they want to do it

and they're willing to pay that, I do think that there are some celebrities who are doing that and they just pay it and get it done over and over again, then that's up to you. It does leave scar tissue behind, but these are now absorbable sutures. We don't have that issue of them kind of popping out 2, 3 years later. So that's my thought on it. Okay, good. That clears it up for me. Thank you. And

then Botox and fillers. So I've been pretty open on the podcast about me getting Botox and fillers done. It's pretty much all I do. And I get a lot of pushback because I also talk a lot about clean ingredients and healthy eating and lifestyle. And they're saying, well, how could you do that, but also put toxic ingredients in your body? For me, I like to approach life like a balance. I choose to eat well and live well, but I want a little Botox and filler here and there. How toxic are Botox and filler? What's happening in the body? So I get this all the time too, being a plastic surgeon, like, oh, you're recommending clean eating. It's like, what are you doing? You're injecting poison into people. So it's true. Botox is a toxin and it's one of the most powerful toxins that we know of in the universe. If you

inject a small amount of Botox into your body, you can die from it, from botulism very quickly. But if you inject the tiniest, most minuscule amount into certain muscles that create wrinkles, it can block the transmission of nerve impulses to that muscle and cause that muscle to weaken for about three to four months. There are certain wrinkles of our face that are dynamic wrinkles caused by muscles. And those are typically the frown lines between the eyebrows, the crow's feet, and the forehead, horizontal forehead wrinkles. Those are where Botox really works the best.

I have done in my office probably about 20,000 patients Botox. Not me, but I've got a team of injectors and stuff like that. Most I've seen as far as bad stuff, I think we've had maybe two patients who've had a temporary droopy eyelid from probably 20,000 patients. That being said, you can go down the rabbit hole with Botox, and there are Facebook groups, not tons of people, it's not like BII, where there's tens of thousands of women who have potential symptoms from their implants. But there are maybe a few hundred and stuff like that who believe that Botox may have caused them systemic issues. There was a study that looked at rats, where they had Botox injected into their facial muscles of the rat. And then they actually found Botox molecules actually in their spinal cord fluid of these rats. We don't know if there's

any, you know, a consequence to it. Now, Botox has been around cosmetically for decades, and it's the number one cosmetic treatment in the history of the world. And I don't know of a single proven, you know, major complication like that or systemic illness from properly injected Botox. And so for me, I feel very comfortable with it. You and I know a lot of healthcare influencers who are on the holistic space or alternative. So many of them have Botox.

You know, the fact that you're open with it, I think is important. Now, filler is a different story, okay? Filler started off, the original filler was collagen. Makes sense. Our skin is composed of 78% collagen. But collagen only lasts about three or four months. And so the newest fillers are hyaluronic acid fillers. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring moisturizer of the skin. And there's two main benefits of hyaluronic acid. The first benefit is that you can have hyaluronic acid fillers that are very thin that you can use in areas that have real thin tissue, like let's say under the eyes. And you can also make it real thick, in which case you can use it in places where you want to create more structure, like let's say the cheeks or the chin.

Hyaluronic acid fillers last anywhere from six months up to a couple of years. And the other benefit is that there's an antidote to them. You can inject an enzyme into that area that will actually melt that filler away, most of it within literally just minutes. But there are other fillers out there like silicone and other types of substances that are even FD approved that aren't reversible. And the big issue that I have with fillers, obviously, number one, a little filler can go a long way and can be really nice, but a lot of filler can make you look like, you know, not right and plastic and unusual. And we see that in Hollywood all the time. But the main thing that I worry about with fillers is intravascular injection.

Essentially, if you accidentally inject filler into an artery that supplies a part of your face, and if it clogs that artery, that part of your face or your body can literally die. It can necrose. It can turn black and die. And there are people who have had parts of their nose killed off from filler. People have lost parts of their lip. People have even gone blind. So a little bit of filler can be very nice.

You want to make sure that that person is doing it very safely, that they are using the right instruments, that they ideally are using a hyaluronic acid filler. Because if you do get a filler accidentally injected into a blood vessel, and I've seen that twice in my practice over the last 20 years, if you have that antidote to it, you can inject it and usually it will reverse it. But if you have one of the other fillers

that are not hyaluronic acid and you get that situation, then you just got to pray to God that somehow you do okay. So we want the hyaluronic acid filler. Restylane and Juvederm are the two big ones. There's also Tioxane is another one that's pretty popular, but usually in my office, we do Restylane and Juvederm products and period. That's what I have in my lips, Restylane. I also haven't had my lips done, I think in over a year now, and I feel like

it's still there. So there's a couple of things. Usually it goes away quicker in the lips. If you've had it done multiple times, I do believe that when every time you, it's like I mentioned earlier, every time you have surgery, you deposit scar tissue. I do believe for some people, every time they undergo filler injections, they can deposit a little scar tissue too. And so in some ways I've seen some patients who've had their lips done for many years and then they just stopped doing them because they never lose the volume. Some of them it's due to scar tissue. And then some people are just real lucky. And filler sometimes just sticks around.

Yeah. I mean, I would really prefer to not get it redone because it hurts so badly. In my opinion, it makes me want to faint. And I cry the whole time. I do. I do lip filler injections. I hate doing them. Not that I don't like, I just feel so bad when I'm doing it.

And I'm apologizing the whole time. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is sorry. I'm sorry. It is like a deep pain. But it does hurt and I feel bad. The things we do for beauty, it's crazy. But, you know, it's the look that people are looking for now.

Yeah. And as long as it's done in a safe fashion, you know, I mean, it's, hey, it can look really good for people. And yeah, I have to say it did make a big difference on my face and I'm really happy that I did it. I would prefer not to go back. Okay, Dr. Anthony, now it's time for the question we ask every guest. I started this podcast because I believe everyone's pursuit of wellness looks different. What does wellness mean to you? Wellness means to me, honestly, it's gratitude. And you know, our life is a journey. And for me, I have so much gratitude to all of the

good that has happened to me that for me, when I look at wellness, I look at trying to give back. And so I've got two kids who are high school age kids, and I'm just so proud of them that they're like kind, quote unquote, normal kids. I don't have them on my social media at all on purpose. But even more so, I think it's looking for a cause bigger than yourself. And so one of the things that my wife and I are dedicated to is adopting senior dogs. And so that's our big thing. And for me, when I look at wellness, it's like, I learn actually from these dogs that we adopt, because like some of them have major health issues. And I had this little guy, and I actually put him, he was like the final story in my book, where he was this little guy, he was 14 years old.

His name is Sammy. And he was given up for adoption because he was attacked actually by a bunch of pit bulls, was put in a hospital. And then his owner was actually in the hospital with him because they both got like so injured. And then when she brought him home, her boyfriend did not like him. So he basically put him in the basement and this rescue convinced her to give him up. So when my wife picked him up, he was in the basement of this rescue on a concrete floor. He's this tiny little guy on this bed that smelled of pee.

And we brought him home. And for about three or four months, he was really skittish. He tried to run away a few times. He absolutely had zero control over his bowel. So we had to put a diaper on him all the time. And after about three to four months, all of a sudden, it's like he let out a sigh and he was like home. And you see this thing happening. We've adopted five dogs, I think, in the last seven years.

And we've lost four of them. We have one right now. But you see how aging and the process of aging does not impact them at all. Like my little guy, he ended up having some spinal issues and I had to carry him around and stuff, but he was just so happy. And there's so much we can learn from these dogs and how they age so gracefully. And for me, like that's wellness. It's like, even when you go into your later years, trying to just appreciate that and appreciate the love and the affection and just meaning. And so for me, that's wellness. And so it's finding those types of causes beyond yourself. I love that. Thank you so much for

sharing. And thank you for sharing everything you did today. Where can people find you and the new book online? So the new book is Younger for Life. We have a website called autojuvenation.com where if you order the book, we'll give you a bunch of free gifts, including an additional recipe book, shopping lists, a quick start guide and a bunch of other things. So autojuvenation.com. I'm also all over social media and I have my own podcast called the Holistic Plastic Surgery Show. Incredible. Maybe we can give away a signed copy of the book. Yeah, happy to do that. Let's do it. Guys, all you have to do is follow Dr. Anthony and then follow the Pursuit of Wellness podcast page. We'll pick someone in the comments. So leave a comment on the most recent post and we will send

you a copy of the book. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Thanks for joining us on the Pursuit of Wellness podcast. To support this show, please rate and review and share with your loved ones. If you want to be reminded of new episodes, click the subscribe button on your preferred podcast or video player. You can sign up for my newsletter to receive my favorites at MariLewelyn.com. It will be linked in the show notes. This is a Wellness Out Loud production produced by Drakeke peterson fiona attucks and kelly kyle this show is edited by mike fry and our video is recorded by luis vargas you can also watch the

full video of each episode on our youtube channel at marie fitness love you pow girls and pow boys see you next time the content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only it is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and does not constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor or health team.