Realfoodology - Diet for Anti-Aging, Breast Implant Illness + The Truth About Fillers & Botox | Dr. Anthony Youn

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

EP. 177: Check Out My new FREE Grocery Guide! Dr. Anthony Youn, America's Holistic Plastic Surgeon, is here to promote his new book Younger For Life. Together, we explore autojuvenation, uncovering how the body can naturally heal and regenerate. Dr. Anthony Youn shares his wisdom on aging gracefully, blending minimally invasive techniques with natural remedies, and dives deep into how our dietary choices can either hinder or promote our skin's ability to fend off the signs of time. We share actionable skincare strategies tailored to both morning and evening routines, designed to shield your skin from everyday stressors and maintain its youthful elasticity. Additionally, we delve into the beneficial practices of intermittent fasting and the crucial role of protein intake, especially for women navigating the post-menopausal phase of life. Our episode aims to inspire you to embrace a more informed and health-conscious lifestyle, with guidance from one of the most trusted voices in holistic plastic surgery. Topics Discussed: 00:09:26 Autojuvenation Concept Explanation 00:17:30 The Influence of Diet on Facial Aging 00:20:07 Traditional Medical Training and Skin Health 00:21:52 Dietary Do's and Don'ts for Aging Prevention 00:25:38 Soda, Energy Drinks, and Fruit Juices: Impact on Skin 00:28:08 Unveiling the Truth about Water Consumption for Skin Health 00:30:15 Fillers 00:31:01 Hydration's Role in Collagen Production and Wrinkle Prevention 00:33:40 Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) and Skin Rejuvenation 00:47:06 Antioxidants and Phenols: Key Players in Skin Health 00:47:13 Embracing the Benefits of a Vegetable-Rich Diet for Skin 00:51:04 Overlooked Connection: Diet's Impact on Skin and Aging 00:52:05 Swapping Sugary Drinks for Pure Water: Why It Matter 00:58:05 Breast Implant Illness 01:09:44 Morning and Evening Skincare Routine 01:14:00 The Comprehensive Impact of a Healthy Diet on Skin Check Out Dr. Anthony Youn: Younger For Life - Book Online Instagram Sponsored By: Organifi www.organifi.com/realfoodology Code REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% Off LMNT Get 8 FREE packs with any order at drinkLMNT.com/realfoodology Cured Nutrition www.curednutrition.com/realfoodology REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% off Check Out Courtney: @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com My Immune Supplement by 2x4 Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database Produced By: Drake Peterson Edited By: Mike Frey

On today's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. Your body has regenerative abilities to rejuvenate itself. Our body is just an amazing structure and it always wants to rejuvenate itself. I mean, I do surgery and I still operate two to three days a week. If I do a tummy tuck operation, you make an incision from hip to hip, we lift up skin, we pull it off, we cut it out, we stitch everything together. Essentially, it takes somebody who's healthy, you make them unhealthy, and it's amazing how quickly they can heal, especially if you give them even more tools to do so. Hello, friends. Welcome back to another episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. Today's guest is Anthony Yun. You may recognize him from his videos on TikTok and Instagram. He is known

as America's Holistic Plastic Surgeon, and I am so excited about this conversation. I have been wanting to do an episode like this for a while because you guys know that I am all about skincare and all about doing minimally invasive stuff to slow down the aging process while still supporting our body's natural rejuvenation abilities. And that's exactly what Dr. Anthony Yoon does. In today's episode, we talk about something called autojuvenation. We also dive into the main causes of aging skin, what to avoid and also what to consume if you want to help prevent aging while supporting your body and its natural processes. We talk about post-surgery and protein,

beauty from the inside out. He gives his super simple skincare routine. We also talk about Botox. We talk about fillers. We talk about breast implant illness. We talk about PRP, the vampire facial, intermittent fasting, and how that can actually affect your aging skin.

I mean, this episode was so chock full of information. I am so excited about this book. And if you guys want to get your hands on the book, it literally came out today on January 2nd. So make sure that you guys check out the link in the show notes, order the book, and I hope that you guys love the episode as much as I did. As always, if you could take a moment to rate and review the podcast, it means so much to me and it really helps the show. I appreciate your support, guys. Tis the season for a giveaway. I'm so excited. We are finally doing another Real Foodology podcast giveaway. And one lucky winner is going to win an AquaTrue carafe, which is the glass carafe AquaTrue water filter that I have. It's a reverse osmosis countertop water filter that is

my favorite. I have been using it for two or three years now. And you're also going to get an Air Doctor 3500. The EPA has said that indoor air is way more polluted than outdoor air now, thanks to all the pollutants that we have in our homes. And we're spending so much time in our home that it is so incredibly important to have an air filter so you have clean air. So one lucky winner is gonna win an AquaTrue and an Air Doctor. And it is so simple for you guys to sign up for this giveaway.

All you have to do is go to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review. That is it. Make sure that in the comment section after you've written your review that you leave your IG handle, your Instagram handle, because without that, we're not gonna be able to get ahold of you. Now, if you have already left a rating and review on

Apple Podcasts, I have another solution for you. But I really do want to reiterate that this is to help with the ratings and reviews. So if you have not left one yet, if you guys could take a moment to leave a rating and review and then leave your Instagram handle, it takes about two seconds. If you have already done that, Apple Podcasts will not let you do another one. I have a solution for you. So go to your Instagram and upload any Real Foodology podcast that you want. And then just make sure that you tag at Real Foodology so that I see it. And then just write me a little message underneath and just say, this is my submission for the giveaway, because otherwise I'm not going to see it and I won't know that that's your submission. So good luck. I'm so excited about

this giveaway and I hope you win. Are you looking for a natural alternative to alcohol to help you unwind at the end of the day? I personally have been totally rethinking my relationship with alcohol. I don't really drink a lot as is, but I have really been tapering back even more so than ever before. And I do like to have some natural alternatives for the times that I just want to unwind, lay on the couch, have a relaxing night, turn off my brain a little bit. And one way that I do this is by eating cured nutrition serenity gummies. There's no artificial flavors, sugars or dyes, and there's a blend of science-backed supporting ingredients like full-spectrum cannabinoids, ashwagandha,

reishi mushroom, and L-theanine. I love all of these ingredients, especially L-theanine. It's something that I've been taking for years, and it's also the component in matcha tea that helps to calm down your nervous system. So it really helps with anxiety. Reishi is the king of mushrooms, and it's also really known for its ability to alleviate stress. Ashwagandha is used in Ayurveda for fatigue, nervous system exhaustion, and just overall stress. And then of course, CBD, full spectrum cannabinoid extract,

is really great for stress and anxiety and is known for helping your body to slip into a more deep state of relaxation. If gummies aren't really your thing, they also have rise caps that are a great alternative to coffee, or you can also take them with your coffee depending on your caffeine intake that really just help to turn on your brain and help with focus. And there's also night caps. If you struggle with any sort of insomnia or struggle with falling asleep or staying asleep, the night caps from Cured Nutrition are a great all natural way to support deep restorative sleep. And of course, while you're on Cured Nutrition's website, if you have a dog, I cannot recommend their dog

treats enough. Turkey is so obsessed with these treats that every single time I just open my pantry door, because he knows where they sit at the very base of the shelves in the pantry, he goes straight, he like beelines in there every time he sees me in the pantry and he just begs for these treats. And I've never seen him beg for treats like this before. Like he truly is obsessed with these and they have a little bit of CBD in there. And so they really help him because he's a more anxious dog

and they really help to just calm him down. Cured Nutrition is offering an exclusive 20% off discount just for you, my listeners, when you purchase any of these products I just mentioned. So the Rise or the Night Caps or the Serenity Gummies and even, yes, the dog treats. So if you visit curednutrition.com slash realfoodology and use the coupon code realfoodology at checkout, you're going to save 20%. So again, that is cured, C-U-R-E-D nutrition.com slash realfoodology.

And the coupon code is also realfoodology. There's nothing more comforting than a warming cup of hot chocolate before bed. I know coming from me, that may sound a little counterintuitive because you're probably thinking, how is hot chocolate healthy for you? But I've got a little hack for you and it's called Organifi's Gold Chocolate. First and foremost, the most important thing here, it has one gram of total sugar in it. So you get the satisfaction of having a comforting, cozy little sweet treat after dinner without all the loaded sugar. And it's like with this one, you get a twofer, a two for one, because you also have the added bonus of things like turmeric, lemon balm,

turkey tail. There's also magnesium and there's reishi in there. So whenever I drink this at night before bed, it gets me really sleepy and ready to wind down, and it really improved my sleep. There's also a blend in there that helps with digestion. There's acacia, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, and turmeric. So if you have this after dinner, it's also going to help with your digestion, and it's going to get you ready for bed. My favorite thing about Organifi products, outside of them being all organic, they're also glyphosate residue free. If you have listened to this podcast long enough or paid attention to my Instagram, you know that glyphosate

is a huge, huge concern for all of us in this country. Glyphosate is a known carcinogen that is being sprayed. It's an herbicide that's being sprayed on all of our crops that are not organic. And it's also being leaked into organic products as well, organic foods. So this glyphosate residue free stamp is so incredibly important and it's one of my favorite things about Organifi outside of their actual products, which I love. If you want to try this hot cocoa from Organifi or any of their other products that I mentioned today, make sure that you go to Organifi.com slash Real Foodology and you are going to save 20% on your order. Again, that's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I

dot com slash realfoodology. Anthony, let's get into it. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast today. You are actually the first plastic surgeon that I found on here. And it's exciting to talk to you about what you do, the book that's coming out, and just how, what I love so much about your work is that you do try to come from a bit of like a more holistic lens than I see other plastic surgeons. So it'll be very exciting for my audience to hear. Yeah, I have a lot of questions for you about plastic surgery and your books.

Totally fine. No, thank you. No, I appreciate you having me. I mean, when you have a podcast called Real Foodology and you're like, well, how does plastic surgery fit into that? Well, you can. I strongly believe that that can fit in this idea of holistic plastic surgery, which I'm happy to go in with you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm very excited because I have a lot of questions about that. So

let's first dive into, so I've heard you talk about this a lot, something called autojuvenation. And I want my listeners to hear about this and what is it? So autojuvenation basically is this idea, and I know it's true, where your body has regenerative abilities to rejuvenate itself. And the key though, is that you need to give it the tools and the environment in order to do so. Our body itself, I mean, our body is just an amazing structure and it always wants to rejuvenate itself. I mean, I do surgery and I still operate two to three days a week. And just for example, if I do a tummy tuck operation, you make an incision from hip to hip, we lift up skin, we pull it off, we cut it out, we stitch everything together. Essentially, it takes somebody who's healthy, you make them unhealthy, and it's amazing how quickly they can heal, especially if you give them even more tools

to do so, like the right nutrition, like supplements, like skincare products and all of that. And so this idea of autojuvenation is a fact that your body has these innate regenerative abilities that we have essentially forgot about in traditional medicine and traditional plastic surgery and even dermatology. And it's getting back to that and getting people so that they can turn back the clock naturally. I love that so much. You know, there's, it feels like there's this divide between like people that are really trying to go for more like holistic route. And then, you know, obviously like plastic surgery, I feel like more than ever has exploded online. And I love that you're merging the two together

because I think there can be a healthy medium, you know, because I think most people can say that they desire to age gracefully and they want to support their bodies, like natural aging process, but would like to, if not reverse, at least like slow it down as much as possible. And so finding that meeting in the middle is so cool. And that's why I love like

you still do these surgeries and you still can talk about all this, but then you also really talk about our own body's ability to rejuvenate itself, which is like not many doctors in your position are talking about that. It's kind of funny because you and I were friends with a lot of holistic and alternative medicine physicians. And if you ask them, you say, hey, what should I do to get beautiful, healthy, glowing skin? They'll say, heal your gut. If you talk to a dermatologist, what should I do to get healthy, beautiful skin? They'll say, wear sunscreen and use a retinol. And if you talk to a plastic surgeon, they'll say, get Botox and maybe have a facelift. Well, you take the facelift and if you want the Botox out of it, although a lot of holistic practitioners, alternative medicine experts use Botox.

But if you just focus on just what you said, a true integrative approach that combines food, and the food, it combines skincare, it combines environment. That's really, I think, where you can get the most power. And when I look at this concept of autojuvenation, it's five specific things. It's what you eat, when you eat, nutritional supplements, skincare products, and if you desire, non-invasive treatments. And I strongly believe that if you follow these five things, and I have that in my book, Younger for Life, that 80 to 90% of people can get the skin that they want, can look as youthful as they want without going under the knife. Yeah, that's amazing. So let's talk about from that lens,

like what are the main causes that you're seeing that are contributing to aging skin? Yeah, so I focus on really four main things, although technically it's five. The first one is gonna be nutrient depletion. And this is something that you have talked about on your podcast before. There's this belief in natural medicine circles that our soil has been depleted of its nutrients due to the industrial farming practices. And so the belief then is that

our food is not as nutritious as it used to be. The question is, is there any real proof to that? Well, there actually was a study that was performed literally for 49 years between the years 1950 and 1999 and found us to a significant reduction in the nutritional components of fruits and vegetables six different ones three of which have really stood out to me and those three are protein iron and vitamin C so So this study, which ended way back in 1999, did show that our produce is less nutritious than it used to be. And this ended, like I said, 24 years ago. So just imagine where it's at now. So nutrient depletion is one thing. The second thing is collagen degradation. And so our skin is composed 70 to 80% of collagen. Collagen is a part of our skin that makes it nice and tight and smooth and youthful and strong. And as we get older, we lose about 1% of the thickness of our collagen

every year. Women after menopause lose upwards of 2% a year. And that's why you may see women who are in their 60s and 70s, and they've got real thin skin to the point where you scratch them and you can actually tear the skin. The third cause of aging of the skin is chronic inflammation. Now there's acute inflammation that can be a good thing. You get a cut on your skin, your body creates acute inflammation to heal that. You get a laser treatment, you get chemical peel. These are also ways to create acute inflammation that can be beneficial for your skin. But it's chronic inflammation that can be a big problem that can cause premature aging of the skin. The next cause of aging of the skin is free radicals or oxidation. Free radicals basically are these damaging molecules that will damage the DNA of our cells, and they're neutralized

by antioxidants. Where do you find antioxidants? You find them in colorful fruits and vegetables. Where do you find free radicals that you can get through your diet? From ultra-processed foods. And so really focusing on those colorful fruits and vegetables to reduce oxidation and limiting or completely getting rid of those ultra-processed foods can make a huge difference in the health of your skin. And then the fifth cause of aging that I focus on is buildup of cellular waste. As we, just the fact that we're alive, our cells are functioning and they create intracellular waste, waste products that sit in our cells. These are proteins, they're organelles, they use mitochondria.

And what happens is you can get a buildup of this cellular waste that basically slows down how our cells work and how they function. And the way to get them to function better is to get rid of this cellular waste. And the way to do that is a process called autophagy. Autophagy is intracellular recycling. And this is a process that can occur if you stop eating for a period of time. And that's one reason why a lot of people are big on intermittent fasting, not only for helping your energy level, for helping for some people with weight control, but it actually can help you look younger too. I just have to tell you, Anthony, it's so refreshing to hear all of this coming from a plastic surgeon. It is so refreshing because this is such an

important component of the conversation. I tell people this a lot. Like I've been, I personally have been talking about this from this lens for about 15 years now, from a lens of like, not only does what you put in your body help with like your physical body, but your skin. And I have so many people, so I'm 39 years old and I can't tell you how many people, like when my boyfriend first met me, he thought I was 28. Everyone thinks that I'm like 28, 29 years old. And everyone's like, what are you doing? What's your secret? I'm like, my biggest secret is that I have been taking really good care of what I've been eating and the products that I've been using on my body and what I've been exposing my, my, you know, my physical body to since I was like 23 years old. You know, I really dialed that in.

And I saw the importance of eating, like you said, the antioxidants and making sure that my body is able to like fight off free radicals. And, and look, I'm not sitting here at all claiming any sort of perfection. So I don't want anyone to like, you know, think that anything other than that. But I just say that like, you know, there's so much talk about skincare and yes, skincare does work, but truly how you find that beauty from aging is really from within and what you're eating. So from that lens, I feel like you've touched on this a little bit already, but let's dive into it a little bit more. So what are some of the things that people can do from that lens of avoiding versus what they

should be eating to help their skin not age so quickly? Yeah. So if we focus on kind of those causes of the aging, the first thing is going to be that we'll focus on is the collagen depletion. So basically collagen is a large protein. And once again, we lose that collagen 1% typically a year, 2% in women after menopause a year. And so what we want to do is have sufficient amounts of healthy protein in our diet so that that collagen does not deplete quicker and we can try to support it. So how do you get collagen in your diet? Well, it's protein and eating sufficient protein. Especially this is a great topic now that's a huge hot topic right now. A

friend of mine, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon has just written a New York Times bestselling book about this. And there are people who are also talking how important it is, especially in women after menopause. There's this belief after menopause initially that, oh, for us to be healthy, we should reduce our protein level. But more and more, we're realizing that in order to avoid sarcopenia, which is when our muscles essentially get smaller as we get older, we need to really have enough protein. And once again, the same thing with collagen. Now, I'm also a big fan of collagen supplements. Collagen supplements are definitely a hot topic in medicine. And there are a lot of traditional doctors who don't believe in collagen supplements, but there is a ton of science to show that collagen supplements do work to help with aging of the skin.

There was actually a meta-analysis back in 2021 where you took people and you put them on 90 days of a hydrolyzed collagen peptide supplement and found after those 90 days a statistically significant improvement in wrinkles, hydration, and elasticity of the skin. And they've even done studies where they have taken a look at somebody, they put people on collagen supplements for anywhere from two months or longer, and then they will actually biopsy their skin afterwards and find that the collagen is thicker in their skin after taking a collagen supplement. So that's the first thing, you know, that I would look at as far as adding is making sure you get that healthy protein and

potentially try a collagen supplement. Before we move on to the next one, I do want to ask you something about protein specifically. So I've heard this anecdotally, but I want to hear from a surgeon's viewpoint. People that eat more meat or just more protein in general, like higher quality, more bioavailable protein sources, tend to heal a lot quicker as far as like from surgery. Or I've heard many women tell me that comparably to like one childbirth versus the other one, when they were eating more like animal source proteins, that they actually healed a lot quicker from childbirth because the protein and the collagen actually helps with the wound healing.

So yeah, there are actually studies in our wound care literature that shows that taking certain types of proteins like glutamine can definitely help with wound healing. You know, one thing that I did, it's interesting because I went through traditional medical training. I did four years of undergrad, four years of medical school. I got my MD at Michigan State University. I did three years of general surgery residency training, two years of plastic surgery residency, and another year fellowship after that. And throughout all that time when we did so much surgery, we talked almost nothing about nutrition and how to optimize your nutrition prior to a regular surgery. Now we learned about if somebody was critically ill on a ventilator and we had to

give them nutrition via tubes or via IVs and what to give them for that. But we never really talked about, hey, I've got a patient who has an elective operation coming up. What should we put them on nutrition-wise? And honestly, for years, Courtney, I had patients ask me, Dr. Yoon, I'm on these supplements. What should I do prior to surgery? And for years, I told them, just go off of it. You'll be fine. Because I didn't know what I didn't know. And I think that's something that many years ago, I came to this realization that, geez, I've been practicing traditional medicine and I don't know what I don't know about nutrition, about skincare, about holistic health. And I just at one point had this epiphany that there's so much that I need to learn that traditional doctors aren't taught.

So yes, the answer is, is that we do know that when you look at the study, skeletal muscle, when you have anesthesia, your body uses skeletal muscle for energy and it breaks that skeletal muscle down. And so one of the things I do with all my patients prior to any type of a major operation is I put them on protein powders as a way to help to stimulate that and to give them sufficient protein so that they don't get this skeletal muscle breakdown afterwards. Wow, that's really fascinating and important for people to hear. So let's continue back. You were going to continue on like other things that people should be avoiding and eating for aging skin. So I mentioned chronic inflammation is a great ager of our skin. And the biggest source of chronic inflammation is sugar. So sugar creates chronic inflammation

of our skin through two main pathways. The first one is called glycation, where essentially, I mentioned earlier that our skin is made 70 to 80% of collagen, and the collagen is in fibers like the logs of a log cabin. And as we get older, when we're younger, those logs are nice and tight and they're smooth and they're strong. And as we get older, those logs start to fall apart. They start to kink and fall apart. And what does sugar do? Well, sugar comes along and sugar, being the bad thing that it is, will bind to the actual collagen of our skin. The sugar will directly bind to the collagen of our skin, causing those collagen fibers to become even more kinked, even more prematurely aged. And that combination of collagen, sugar, that hybrid, that combination is called an advanced glycation end

product or appropriately titled an AGE. So literally sugar, people don't realize that sugar will literally bond to the collagen of your skin, causing it to be prematurely aged. The second way that sugar ages our skin is chronic inflammation. And this is something you've talked about on your podcast before. You get chronic spikes of sugar because you're eating either a lot of refined sugars like white rice, white bread, white pasta, or maybe you're just drinking a lot of sugary drinks. 20% of the calories in the American diet are sugar sweetened drinks. It's like crazy. And so what happens when you get these chronic sugar spikes, and then that can lead to chronic insulin spikes, and chronic

insulin spikes can eventually lead to chronic inflammation. You can get insulin resistance, where your cells are not responding to the insulin anymore. It's not taking it in, and the sugar blood sugar goes up, and now you've got insulin resistance. You've got type 2 diabetes, and it really goes down from there. So I would say that if they're, you know, the first thing that I would take out or reduce in your diet, if you truly want healthy, beautiful, younger skin is to reduce the amount of sugar that you eat. That will reduce chronic inflammation. The second thing to take out of your diet, ultra processed foods, because once again, those then contribute to oxidation and free radical formation.

Yeah, this is just so fascinating. I love it. There's so much conversation around, you know, you should be eating a healthy diet for the physical aspect of it around the body and like people's weight and all of that. But there's no conversation about how it physically changes your skin and especially in your face with aging. And I know so many women listening to this are going to be like, oh my God, I've never thought about this before. Why are we not talking about this more? And there's so many things that you can do to help with that. What do you think about, you know, you hear about this all the time on Instagram and TikTok, like drink tons of water, like hydrating really helps with your skin. Do you think that actually really helps with collagen and

with wrinkles? You know, it helps kind of like a moisturizer helps. You know, some people say, oh, you know, my mom, she's got great skin because she's always moisturized. Well, moisturizing will hydrate your skin and temporarily it can make it look more plump. So it looks younger, but it's not going to truly slow down the aging process because it's not going to do anything for free radical formation. It's not going to do anything for inflammation necessarily. You know, it's not going to slow down the collagen degradation. It's not going to get rid of intracellular waste. So really drinking water is fantastic. I mean, it's great for your overall health, but is it going to make your skin younger other than kind of hydrating it from inside?

Not necessarily. Yeah. Yeah. Well, your skin ends up being a reflection of everything that you're putting in your body. So if you're feeding your body super nutritious, nourishing foods, like a rainbow of different vegetables with all the antioxidants and the phenols and everything, of course, your body is going to show that. Your skin is going to show that you're going to radiate from within. And so it's definitely important to drink enough water. And I think the issue right now is that so many people are just like not into drinking water and they're drinking a ton of sugar sweetened coffees. You know, they're drinking a lot

of soda pop, they're drinking energy drinks and fruit juices. And it's like, you know what, part of it, you know, drinking a lot of water is, hey, let's get rid of all this other bad stuff. And let's just drink pure, you know, I love reverse, triple reverse osmosis filtered water, but let's drink pure water. And that's definitely going to help you. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and a lot of people too, hopefully are not drinking tap water anymore, but then when they're over filtering, they're not adding the electrolytes back in because we don't realize that when we filter, when we have a really good filter like that, that we need to filter out all the toxins and the pesticides and pharmaceuticals and everything else that's in our water, but then you need to add back in those life-giving electrolytes.

Exactly. And especially too, as people are eating a more whole foods diet that, yeah, I mean, you don't get a lot of those added salts and things that you get in all the flavorings when you go to restaurants and stuff like that. So for me, I take electrolytes actually, usually twice a week. I don't do it every day necessarily,

but when I operate, I found that it helps me with preventing cramping and stuff like that, so. Oh, that's fascinating. Probably from the magnesium. It could be. Yeah. It's either that or maybe the potassium. I'm not sure, but I do find that if I'm in the operating room for a really long time, I can get a little cramping of my hands. And so I myself will put some like Elementi or I've got one from Peak Tea that's beauty and I throw that in and I do think that helps. You know, that's beauty. And I throw that in and I do think that helps. You know, it's funny. I was just going to ask you about that with the Peak Tea

because they add something called hyaluronic acid. Do you think that helps? Because obviously, I think hyaluronic acid works for the skin, but do you think it works internally as well? You know, I haven't seen any studies to show that. I know that's one of their big things and I'm a huge fan of Peak Tea. It's my wife's absolute favorite and I've done some sponsored branded posts with them too. Whether taking it by mouth truly helps with your skin, I'm not sure. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring moisturizer of the skin. Using a serum with hyaluronic acid is fantastic. And then our injections, our filler injections, most of them, the safe ones are made of hyaluronic acid, but whether taking it by mouth will improve your skin. Like I said, that's there. That's what they have. And I wouldn't argue with them, but I, I haven't looked for studies on that yet.

Well, friends, we are officially in hot chocolate season. I am declaring hot chocolate season, and I am so excited because that means that I get to go back to drinking my nightly salty hot chocolate from Element. I personally know that whenever people first see that Element has a chocolate salt, they get icked out by it. Guys, trust me, you do not want to sleep on this. And during the winter, they come out with other flavors. So far, I have seen the caramel chocolate salt come back. I am praying, fingers crossed, that they bring back the mint chocolate salt, but do not quote me on that because I don't know yet if it's coming back. But it is so freaking good. One of my best friends actually drinks the chocolate salt in her water every day, just with cold water. I have not tried

that yet, but it sounds like it'd be pretty good. But trust me when I tell you, if you put a little hot boiling water with either the chocolate salt or the caramel chocolate salt, you will not regret it. It tastes like a salty, sweet, the most delicious hot cocoa you've ever had. It is insane. Just please trust me. Write me on Instagram. Let me know after you have tried it. It is so good. And if you have any concerns about the sodium levels in Element, I highly encourage you to go back and listen to my episode with Dr. James Denick. He wrote a book called The Salt Fix, and he talks all about how we actually got salt wrong and how imperative salt is for every day. I will note, guys, it is important that if we are consuming this amount of salt

to be working out every day, just making sure that you're sweating, moving your body, getting your lymph moving and sweating out toxins. I don't think we talk about that enough, just how important it is when we're hydrating also to make sure that we are sweating. If you want to try Element today, that is L-M-N-T. Make sure that you go to drinkelement.com. Again, that's drinkelement, L-M-N-T..com slash real foodology and you will be able to claim a free element sample pack when you make a purchase through that link the sample pack includes one packet of every flavor this is the perfect offer for anyone who's interested in trying all the flavors or who wants to introduce a friend to element they offer no questions asked refunds on all orders so if you don't like it,

you get to send it back, but I'm pretty sure you're going to love it. So if you guys want to try Element today, again, that's drinkelementlmnt.com slash realfoodology. Okay. Speaking of fillers, I really want to ask you this from like a holistic lens. I have really stayed away from them personally, and this is not to shame anyone. Like I love everyone's journey and everyone that, you know, what everyone wants to do. They scare me a little bit because injecting anything like that in the skin worries me. And then on top of that,

I have seen a lot of people where they get it a lot under their eyes or in their cheeks. They end up looking so puffy that I want to avoid that. But just from an actual like health lens, holistic lens, how bad are they? Because I've heard from some people that if you just get the hyaluronic acid, it's not really anything of concern, but there's probably preservatives and stuff in there. I mean, what's your stance on that? Yeah, I think from... So the original filler was collagen.

And I mean, it makes sense. I mean, collagen is most of our skin. The problem with the original collagen is it only lasts maybe two or three months. And so the newest fillers are all, most of them are made of hyaluronic acid. The good thing about hyaluronic acid, it's a naturally occurring moisturizer of the skin. And these companies can create it so that it can be very fine substance. So if you're injecting under the eyes where the skin is real thin, then you can use a real fine HA filler for that, for like the cheeks. So you can also make it fairly thick so that you can have um some strength to it so that i actually push tissues out a little bit um the the really the good thing about ha fillers is that they are reversible and that's the really important thing

so if you're going to consider getting an ha filler or any type of a filler i recommend going with the hyaluronic acid filler like rustling or Juvederm because if you are unhappy with the results, there's an enzyme that we can inject that will melt it away almost instantly. More important than that, where HA fillers can go wrong. I mean, you mentioned, yeah, you can get overdone and that's something that can be a bit insidious. There's a story with Courtney Cox where she said, well, initially she had a little bit of filler and she liked it. And then just gradually she kept doing a little bit more, a little bit more. And at some point she got to a point where she's like, geez, at some point I did way too much. And now I'm several treatments after that before I really

realized it. So if you're having filler done, make sure you do it small amounts at a time. Make sure you give yourself time to reassess because you don't want to be overdone. But the main danger with filler comes, and this is where filler is definitely more dangerous than Botox, is if it's accidentally injected into a blood vessel like an artery, then whatever is supplied by that blood vessel, it could potentially clog that blood vessel up. That body part won't necessarily get enough blood supply. It can become what we call ischemic, where you don't have enough blood supply for that part of the body to be alive. And even necrose, where the tissue turns black and essentially it chars and it falls off. So there are people who've had injections of filler. They've lost parts of their nose. They've lost parts of their lip.

People have even gone blind from poor injections of filler. So you just have to be careful. If you're going to get filler, make sure it's an expert injector working either out of an office of a dermatologist or a plastic surgeon. And make sure that they're using a hyaluronic acid filler, not silicone or some of these other permanent fillers that don't have reversal agents available. Yeah, that's really helpful. I will say something that I did a couple years ago, or it's got to be probably five years ago now, is I got PRP injected under my eyes, which I felt more comfortable with. Yeah, because it was like my own body's plasma. If you want to explain maybe to people what PRP is and what's your thoughts on PRP? Yeah, so PRP is great. PRP stands for platelet-rich plasma. And essentially,

what we do is we draw blood, we spin the blood down, and we separate out the platelets, which are chock full of growth factors. So we take out the actual red blood cells and it becomes just basically the plasma and the platelets that are kind of concentrated there. Now, what we can do to use that, you can use that in a lot of different ways. The most common way is we may do, let's say, and I think this is how you may have had it done if I heard right, you have microneedling done of your skin. Microneedling is a really nice treatment where essentially we're making hundreds of tiny little pokes into the skin. Now, the reason why this helps with the skin is because it creates acute inflammation. I mentioned earlier that chronic inflammation

is bad. It's aging for the skin, but acute inflammation can be the opposite. When you create a little bit of acute inflammation into the skin, you create this process of hormesis where a limited trauma can actually cause the skin or the body to heal. So it's actually younger and more effectively tighter. The skin is tighter. So it's the same ideas like if you go to a cold plunge, you put your body under a certain amount of stress, and your body then reacts by actually releasing these longevity proteins and enzymes, and then you actually benefit from it. When you create a controlled trauma to your skin, it does the same thing. The collagen gets damaged,

but when the collagen comes back and it heals together, it can heal in a tighter fashion. So lasers do this by using light energy to damage the skin. Chemical peels do this by using an acid to damage the skin. And microneedling does this by creating tiny pokes in the skin, creating that physical trauma. Now where the PRP comes in is you make these tiny pokes in the skin, you apply the PRP to the surface of the skin, and it will actually seep into those tiny little holes that were created. So you can actually reverse aging from the inside out. Those growth factors will affect your skin from the inside out, causing the dark circles to get a little bit better, causing the skin to look a bit improved. And we can even inject it into the scalp to help to grow hair as well. And so a very

safe way, using your body's own regenerative abilities to rejuvenate itself, it's classic for autojuvenation. Yeah, that's amazing. So I did that. And actually, when I got it done, I don't know if they're still calling it this, but they were calling it a vampire facial, which I loved. It really was. It's like freaky though. Cause you literally have like a, you have like a facial basically with your own blood, but I actually had them inject it under my eyes too, as if it was a filler. Like we did it with the microneedling and then they also injected under my eyes. And like I said, I, we did this probably five years ago now. And I still love the results because I had a bit of like, what do you call it? It was like concaved

in just a little bit under my eyes. And with the PRP, it completely helped it. So it can definitely help just because you've got all those growth factors in there and the growth factors are really healthy to basically turn back the clock a bit. And so it's interesting because you think, oh, it's from my own tissues. Like I've got it coursing through my body. Why isn't it doing that without me injecting it but for some reason you know when you really uh condense it and you you know inject that really uh condensed version where you've got a high concentration concentration is what I'm looking for um then it can really help with the skin and really I think bang for your buck if you're looking for a cosmetic treatment uh microneedling

combine that with PRP using your body's own regenerative abilities, that's one of the best bangs for your buck in overall cosmetic medicine today. I love that. Well, I'm sure it helps too, because your body is doing so much, right? If you're like actually, you know, causing a little bit of injury and you're like, hey, pay attention to this part, you know, I want you to really pay attention to this, then obviously your body's going to put all of its resources to it and help. And really, all of the skin tightening treatments out there work by the same fashion. It's creating this controlled trauma so that your body reacts by healing in a tighter fashion and the collagen in a tighter fashion.

And so that's just one way to do it. The simplest way, like I said, is using microneedling. Do you like Morpheus or any of those other kind of where it's a combination of laser and the microneedling? Yeah, so Morpheus 8, so I kind of mentioned, so microneedling, you make the poke. Some people just do microneedling. And if that's all you do, you still get a nice benefit from it.

You take that to the next level, you add the PRP on top of it, that seeps into those tiny holes to rejuvenate your skin from the inside out. Morpheus 8 is microneedling, but with radiofrequency. So essentially, you have a needle that goes into the skin. That needle is insulated all the way up to the tip of that needle. The tip of the needle emits radiofrequency energy or heat. Now you're getting heat into that deep skin that causes the skin to tighten up. And if you want to take that to the next level, you can do Morpheus 8. You get that radiofrequency mic to tighten up. And if you wanna take that to the next level,

you can do Morpheus 8, you get that radio frequency microneedling, and then after the treatment apply PRP onto the surface. Now you get that PRP to even go in and now you've got your kind of hitting aging in three ways all at one time. This is something that's super popular Morpheus 8. I have it done under my chin,

maybe every four to six months. Right now, the gold standard for non-invasive skin tightening is the Morpheus 8. And it's not like, you know, it's not gonna get red jowls on somebody. It's not gonna make a really droopy neck, you know, disappear. It doesn't make skin disappear, but it is a nice kind of subtle tightening treatment. Yeah. So I've done three treatments now. I didn't do Morpheus. I did Secret RF for the first two. And then the last one was Virtue RF, which was, I guess, like one step up from Secret. I've done three of them and I noticed such a crazy difference in the texture of my skin. And it really did. It pulled up around my jaw because I was starting to slowly

get a hint of like jowls and it actually really brought it up. It was, I'm a big fan. And SecretRF is basically very similar to Morpheus 8. That is radio frequency microneedling. It's just the name Morpheus 8 obviously is the one that most people talk about. But SecretRF is from a company I think called Qterra, which is a very well-established laser company. A lot of companies are coming out with their radio frequency microneedling devices. And I think they're really great for somebody who's your age, you know, when you're looking at 30s, 40s, early 50s, where the skin isn't sagging, you know, I still operate, you know, two days a week because the one thing that you can't treat non-surgically is when you truly have excess skin. And so if there's skin that's hanging from your

neck, if you've got jowls that are hanging, you know, you could do things like Morpheus 8, you could do Secret RF. That's not going to make it go away, unfortunately. But something like yourself where you're like, I'm just trying to notice some loosening here. That's a great treatment for something like yourself because it can really kind of create enough change so that you feel like, oh, maybe I won't need to have surgery for a long, long, long time or hopefully ever. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully I won't have to get a facelift until I'm like 60, 70. Maybe never. I mean, I'm not a fan of doing surgery. Like some people say, oh, why don't I just get a facelift when you're 45? Because it's best to do it early. I'm not a fan of that

because it's big surgery. It's got big scars. I am a big fan of doing things like the RF early on because that can help to stave off the aging process and hopefully prevent you from feeling like you need to go under the knife or have like a really invasive treatment. Better to stay looking young than to try to reverse it if you can. Yeah, I totally agree. You mentioned bang for the buck cosmetic treatments. Are there some

other ones that you could share with my audience? Yeah, I think one that a lot of plastic surgeons, if you ask plastic surgeons, what do you think about red light therapy? A lot of them will look at you with a blank stare. It's interesting. You ask dermatologists, they know pretty much about it, but it's the alternative medicine experts that love red light therapy. And really red light therapy, I think bang for your buck may be the best thing out there. So red light therapy. And really, red light therapy, I think bang for your buck, may be the best thing out there. So red light therapy, essentially, it comes in different forms. You can do a handheld device. You can get a creepy Hannibal Lecter mask type of thing that lights up. I have one.

There you go. Oh, there you go. Yeah, you're scaring your spouse a bit. Literally right behind me. I see it. You can do the tabletop devices. You can do full beds. Red light therapy, it's believed to work by the light energy, that red light energy being transfused to the mitochondria of your cells, causing them to produce more ATP, which is energy. And so the idea is as we get older, the mitochondria of our cells don't function as efficiently. They're the powerhouses of our cells. And by using red light therapy, you can get those mitochondria to actually become supercharged. And now your cells are acting like younger cells.

So what does the science show? Does it actually work? Well, there are split face studies, meaning that you take a face, you split in half, not physically, but you split in half and you treat one side of the face with a sham laser, one that doesn't do anything, and the other side with red light laser or red light therapy essentially and they found after about 90 days of treatment is statistically a significant improvement in wrinkles and skin hydration and even in the collagen production of that skin so it does work there are multiple studies to show that it helps you know a lot of people are using for other things like you know injuries and all that type of stuff. I'm a plastic surgeon. I don't know about that stuff,

but I do know that it can definitely help with your skin. And if let's say you're listening to this and you don't have the funds to, let's say, go to a dermatologist or a med spa or something like that, this is a great way for you to do this at home. And that way, I think bang for your buck, I don't know if you can get better than a good red light therapy device. Yeah, I love that advice. And also it can double as a nightlight at night. I talk about this sometimes on my Instagram and my podcast that at night you want to avoid all those overhead fluorescent lights. I mean, you want to avoid them in general, but especially if you have them in your home, once the sun goes down, my apartment, it's cool. Cause it creates this really like sexy

vibe, but my apartment is like orange and red in my, you know, once the sun goes down, because I have all of these like orange, amber lights. And I have a lot of friends who use their like red lights as a light in their bedroom. You can also do like red light bulbs in your lamps, but anyways, like it really helps signal to your brain to start releasing melatonin. So then your body gets ready for bed and it makes it a lot easier to fall asleep. I mean, that alone completely changed the sleep game for me.

Oh, that's awesome. Just make sure you don't do it. If you ever live in Amsterdam, don't do that in Amsterdam. That's a great point. Because yeah, when you go around at night in Amsterdam and there's red lights in the houses, that's not where you want to be. So if you do, make sure your black curtains are down so no one can see you. Here in the States, you're probably pretty safe, but you may get some people knocking on your door in Amsterdam that you don't want. Yeah,

you're going to get some surprises. That's so funny. That's so good. Oh, I love that. So, okay. I'm trying to think, I have so many questions for you and I just, I love this has been so helpful. How, okay. So you mentioned intermittent fasting earlier, and I've also talked about this a lot on the podcast. I do something which I call intuitive intermittent fasting, which means that I'm not beholden to a clock. Like if I wake up in the morning and I'm starving, I'm eating. But if I which means that I'm not beholden to a clock. Like if I wake up in the morning and I'm starving, I'm eating. But if I wake up and I'm like, oh, I'm not that hungry, I'll wait until I'm hungry, like noon, one, whenever it is. There's a lot of conversation for women that it can sometimes mess with our hormones and it's not always great. So this has

been my workaround personally, as far as like listening to my body. From a aging skin standpoint, how can that really help with your skin, intermittent fasting? So it's the process of autophagy. Essentially what you're doing is you are cleaning out those cells because of that process of stopping eating. Now, one thing that we did that I thought was really interesting, and we have something in my book called the 21 Day Jumpstart, where essentially in three weeks, we improve your skin significantly by focusing on the type of diet, cleaning up your diet, intermittent fasting, and skincare and supplements. And so what we did essentially is we had, okay, one week where we put you on certain supplements and skincare products, and we just clean up your diet. We get rid of gluten, we get rid of dairy, we get rid of processed foods and foods with added sugar. And then weeks two and three,

we continue with the supplements and skincare products, but we also add in the intermittent fasting just two days a week. And so for two days a week, they would stop eating starting on, this is beginners intermittent fasting. So they would stop eating at 8 p.m. and then they wouldn't eat until noon the next day. And what we added in is something that I haven't seen somebody do before, but seemed to make a lot of sense to me, is we ended up when they started refeeding at noon the next day, instead of just eating a normal diet, they ate a diet that actually supported autophagy, that intracellular renewal. So a lot of people don't realize is that even though autophagy kicks in by not eating, there are certain foods that can actually help promote autophagy as well.

And then there are foods that will stop autophagy in its tracks. Typically sugar and protein, high protein, high sugar, that will stop autophagy. But what doesn't in general are healthy fats. And so when people started re-eating at noon, then the next day when they refed, then we would have them eat foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids like cold water fish, tuna, trout, salmon, mackerel, all that, and foods that are chock full of monounsaturated fatty acids like avocados, olives, olive oil, nuts, and seeds. And then the other group of foods that we know helps to promote autophagy are polyphenol

rich foods. And you mentioned polyphenols earlier in our talk. But we find that polyphenol rich foods like bright or dark colored fruits and vegetables also can help promote it. So then for the day that they refeed, they go on what we call an autophagy promoting diet and stay on that for the whole rest of that day. So the idea is that you could get potentially over 24 hours of autophagy, which is a great way to kind of supercharge it. Now, the issue with intermittent fasting every day, and I have some friends of mine who do, and we talked about earlier the importance of protein and getting sufficient protein, especially after menopause. Well, if you are intermittent fasting too much, then it's hard to get all that protein in essentially two meals a day. And so something

that you can, you know, with your intermittent or your intuitive fasting does make sense of getting to know your body and knowing like when you feel you have to eat versus when you can go without it for a while. And so initially I try to get people, hey, just go two days a week. But as you get to know how the process works and see what your body does well, because once again, you do need to make sure you get enough protein. You don't want to be intermittent fasting so much that you don't get enough protein in your diet. I'm so glad that you addressed that because that was going to be my next question is I was like, okay, well, if we're supporting autophagy, then how are we getting enough protein? So this is a great way to go back and forth.

I think that's really, really smart. And I tell people too, if you're hesitant or nervous to try intermittent fasting, another really easy way to do it is if you just stop eating your dinner, like you just said, like simply stop, don't eat any more food after like seven or 8 p.m.

And then if you just wait until the next morning, if you don't even wanna wait till noon, if you wait after like 7 or 8 p.m. And then if you just wait until the next morning, if you don't even want to wait till noon, if you wait till like 8 or 9 a.m., you still have been fasting for at least 12 to 13 hours. And that's a really easy way to do it without even noticing that you're fasting. And in my book, that's what I recommend is if you want to start with a 12-hour fast, you don't have to fast that long for autophagy to start kicking in. I think less than 12 hours may not be enough, but I really think that 12-hour cutoff is a great place for most people to start. You know, you do have to train your body to do well with that, you know, and part of the

kind of the blood sugar roller coaster that we go on, it makes it hard for some people to fast because they get hungry and they get hypoglycemic and they don't feel good. But as you train your body and you're not doing these ups and downs with blood sugar, you tend to tolerate it much better. And so it is a muscle like anything that you have to kind of exercise, train your body to get there. If you haven't done much intermittent fasting before, take those baby steps and that's okay. Those are still big victories. You will get there. You got to start somewhere with it. Yeah. Yeah, it's smart. And you brought up victories. You will get there. Just you got to start somewhere with it. Yeah.

Yeah, it's smart. And you brought up a really great point about the blood sugar. So if you're feeling like you can't go an hour or two the whole day without eating, I would seriously revisit the foods that you're eating and also maybe get your A1C checked and see where your blood sugar levels are and if they're all over the place. Because that tells me that you're getting energy and then you're crashing and you're essentially just going up and down all day with your blood sugar levels are and if they're all over the place, because that tells me that you're getting energy and then you're crashing and you're essentially just going up and down all day with your blood sugar. And that is obviously going to age you, like we said earlier, but it's also going to have a massive impact on your metabolism and your overall metabolic health. And I will tell

you, I've talked about this as well, but for maybe new listeners, I am a reformed sugar addict. I was a sugar monster when I was younger, like crazy. There was not a day that I could go without having like gummy worms or like peanut butter M&Ms. And I mean, just even saying this out loud, I'm like, who was that person? But I was severely addicted to sugar. And when I was able to manage that, one of the first things that really helped me with that

was eating more high quality fats because when you're more satisfied and satiated, then you're gonna be fuller for longer. And when you're full and you're not going all over the place with your blood sugar and more satisfied, then you're not gonna be reaching for snacks every hour. And that satiety allows you to go longer without eating your next meal.

And that's how you really start to find more balance with your blood sugar. Totally, yeah. Because really, once again, you can train your body to eat intuitively so that you know when's the time to eat. And your body does not have to be constantly grazing. I mean, it's just what our society has told us all this time is that there are these things that we should do and it's just not right. And so really, I think, but taking those baby steps, I think, you know, if you've got friends who are, you know, I know people who listen to your podcast, they're like, oh, yeah, you know, I do all this stuff, you know, because

they've been listening to you. You've been giving them great advice for like so long. But it's their friends that they can try to influence as well. And it's like, hey, you know what, if you're having these things, just start slow. You know, I get, I have followers of mine who are, you know, in the quote unquote flyover states. And, you know, they're drinking six cans of soda pop a day and they don't know how horrible it is for their skin. They just know, oh yeah, maybe I gained a little weight, but they may even think that, oh, fat's the bad thing, not the sugar. Just taking these little steps can be huge for some people. And that's why I try to encourage people as like, look, you know what? If you're drinking six cans of soda pop a day to drop that down to three and to replace it with pure water, that's great. That's

an awesome start. Keep working at it because everything in life, it's a process and it's a journey and you got to put one foot forward at a time. Yes. And for those that are like, how the heck am I going to go from drinking six sodas a day to drinking water? There's things like Element. There's also FlavCity who makes a great electrolyte. You can put those flavored electrolytes in your water that are not going to spike your blood sugar and make the water a lot easier to drink. Totally. Yeah. I mean, you should be able to just drink ice water and feel like that's enough. And it just, it takes time. You know, it really does. Yeah. You just have to train your body and train your palate. Yeah, exactly. So I want to ask you about Botox because I get questions about this

constantly in my DMs and what I think about it. And I'm curious to know what your thoughts are from a holistic standpoint. Is it really that bad? Is it worth it? I've also heard that it can make your skin sag over time. So Botox is the most popular cosmetic treatment probably in the history of the world. Essentially what it is, it's a neurotoxin. So if I injected the small amount into you, Courtney, you would die by within minutes. But if we inject the most minuscule amount of Botox into a muscle that when that muscle flexes, it creates a wrinkle, then it can prevent the nerve transmission, those impulses that go to that muscle from happening for about three to four months and any wrinkles created by that muscle smooth out. And so there are traditionally

three areas that we treat with Botox. There are the frown lines between the eyebrows, there are the horizontal wrinkles of the forehead, and the crow's feet wrinkles on the sides of the eyes. Those are all what we call dynamic wrinkles. They're wrinkles caused by muscles flexing. And Botox prevents those muscles from flexing. It weakens them or even paralyzes them. And when it does, then those wrinkles smooth out. Results last about three to four months. There is an alternative to Botox called Daxify, where we're looking at closer to six months, potentially with that injection. And honestly, in my practice, we have, I mean, it's the most popular treatment we do. We have probably treated at least 20,000 people or performed at least 20,000 injections in my practice over the last 20 years, probably a lot more than that. I haven't kept count, honestly. And I have never had a patient have a serious complication from it of

all of those. And you can't say that with any type of surgery or even with filler. Now, there are some things that can go wrong. If it's injected too close to the upper eyelid, you can get a droopy eyelid because it can basically weaken the muscle that opens and closes your eyelid. If that happens, you can get kind of what we call eyelid ptosis where the eyelid won't open up all the way. That will go away after about three to four months. And if you really do a deep dive and you get into the, you know, you kind of get into the rabbit hole of Botox complications, there are Facebook groups with some people who believe they have systemic or inside reactions to Botox. I have talked with multiple dermatologists about this. People have been doing this forox. I have talked with multiple dermatologists about this,

people who've been doing this for decades. I have not seen any evidence to show that is a real significant problem. Now, there was one study where if you inject Botox into the facial muscles of a rat, and then you actually sample their cerebral spinal fluid, you can actually find Botox in that cerebral spinal fluid. So it's possible maybe that's something that can happen to us, but we have not ever seen that I know of any true, anything to come out of that. And so unlike, let's say, breast implants, where there is a lot more evidence to show of people having real systemic issues with them, I have not been able to find much of that in Botox.

That's why honestly, so many of our alternative medicine friends and colleagues who are all into organic food, they're all into cleaning up their environment stuff, they still get Botox because part of it is that the results are so impressive and part of it is that once again, I think it's so, so uncommon that people have a true systemic type of full body autoimmune type reaction to it.

Yeah, I think if it's used very sparingly and not used, you know, all the time and super intensely, and I would say like started later in life, like I've seen people on TikTok and Instagram talk about getting it at like 21. I'm like, what? No, that's called prejuvenation. And that makes no sense to me because you can eventually develop antibodies to Botox. There are people who've had it, you know, you've been using it for decades and then that just doesn't work as well afterwards.

So you know, just from a, I mean, from a selfish perspective, you know, why would you shoot your proverbial wad when you're in your 20s with it when you might need it later when you're in your 40s or 50s and actually could potentially benefit from it. And then when you get to that age, maybe you find that doesn't work anymore because you've had it so much when you didn't even need it. Yeah. Yeah. And my mom made a really good point years ago when I was asking her about it because my mom is really who I gauge for natural and more alternative stuff because she's very, very natural. And she brought up a great point. She said, Courtney, you know, this is one of the things that we have been using since the early 1900s in the medical system because they used to treat, well, they still do, but it was one of-

Muscle spasticity disorders. Exactly, and migraines with it. And we've been using it for a very long time. So she was like, out of everything, you know, as far as like big pharma goes, at least that's one that has the longest track record. And to me, that's what I always tell people. I'm like, look for the things that stand the test of time. Well, it's so widespread. There's so many people that get it done. And yes, there are, if you go into the rabbit hole, you will find stories of people who feel that they've got systemic reactions to it. I do believe in bio-individuality. I think that some people just have unexplained reactions to certain medical interventions that we cannot explain.

And so I would never tell somebody who thinks that that happened to them that they're wrong. But I do think that that's really few and far between. I think it's a very different situation, Botox versus let's say implants, breast implants, because I think that's much more common. And that's another thing I wanted to ask you about is breast implant illness. Can we talk about that? What is that? Yeah. So breast implant illness, let me just go over the history of implants. A lot of people don't know that. So breast implants back in the late 80s, early 90s, there was a huge hubbub because a lot of women came forward believing that their silicone breast implants were making them sick, causing autoimmune issues, hair falling out, unexplained rashes, muscle aches,

joint aches, brain fog, things like that. So there's a huge class action lawsuit against Dow Chemical. Dow Chemical went bankrupt from that. And then the FDA in 1992 put a moratorium on the use of silicone breast implants. So breast implants are all made with an outer silicone rubber shell, but what's on the inside can be either silicone or saline, which is essentially salt water. So from the years 1992 to 2006, all we used as plastic surgeons were saline or salt water filled implants. However, we were able to use silicone implants in an FDA approved study and in breast reconstruction. So fast forward 2006, the FDA lifts the ban on the implants, basically stating that

we believe that they're safe. And a lot of plastic surgeons looked at this ruling essentially as saying that breast implants are safe for everybody. They don't make people sick. And honestly, Courtney, I trained, I mentioned very traditionally, this is what I believe for in my career, because I was told by other plastic surgeons who trained me that the studies show that implants don't make people sick. And so that's what I believed. But the big question, Courtney,

is did I actually look at the studies? No, we were just told this. And so I went through my practice for many years, basically touting the dogma of plastic surgery that implants are safe for everybody. And oh, if you've got issues with it, it must be due to something else. So fast forward now into the late 2000s and their websites opening up now. People are putting websites about their stories about, I have my implants taken out and I feel so much better. And then Facebook groups come along and there are tens of thousands of women congregating on Facebook groups saying that my implants may be sick and I had them taken out and I felt better. And so I started hearing this and I'm like, well, all the doctors told me in my training that they don't make people sick. Let me look at the science myself. And so I started looking at not at our

studies, which a lot of our studies in plastic surgery are performed by breast implant people who do a lot of implants. So they make a ton of money doing implants. And a lot of implants so they make a ton of money doing implants and a lot of these studies are actually then supported by who who do you think implant companies so i said well let me look at these studies that these that these breast implant illness um advocates are putting up on the websites and stuff like that and i started seeing studies that i was never told of before and these are studies in the rheumatologic literature and the internal medicine literature and showing that people anywhere from about 55 to 85% of women who have implants that have these types of issues, when those implants are removed, their symptoms tend to get better. Not in everybody, but maybe about 55 to 85% of cases, which is a lot. And so I was one of the first plastic surgeons to actually come forward saying that I believe

breast implants do make some people sick. And I had a lot of pushback after that. I had articles that were written about me in major media. And after other plastic surgeons seeing this, they called me up, emailed me, commented on some of my posts basically saying that I should be quiet and that I don't know what I'm talking about and things like that. posts basically saying that I should be quiet and that I don't know what I'm talking about and things like that. So really what it comes down to now is that there's been such a huge groundswell of women saying that we're not going to let these doctors and these companies basically

tell us that we don't have a problem. And now plastic surgeons have actually come forward, in addition to myself, saying that we think this is real. There are now multiple studies being performed on breast implant illness to just try to figure out what exactly is going on here, because we don't know. We don't know why implants appear to do this. We don't know what percentage of women may get this. These are studies that are ongoing. And now really at every major cosmetic plastic surgery meeting, I credit the societies, there are panels on BII. And I've even been invited to some of them after initially people not being happy with me that I have gone public with it. Wow.

Well, I'm really happy to hear that more people are paying attention to this now because I personally know a couple of people and obviously this is anecdotally, but I know women that have been affected by their implants and gotten taken out and drastically changed their health. So we know that this is definitely happening, at least from an anecdotal perspective. And I do want to say one thing that is so frustrating about what happens in situations like this is the medical gaslighting that happens where a woman, or not even a woman, just someone will go into the doctor's office and say, you know, I'm dealing with X, Y, and Z. And the doctor will be like, oh, no, no, no, no, that's not either. That's all in your head. Or, you know, you need to go see a therapist

to talk about this or like you're making this up kind of thing. And I love to hear that you're like actually working with your patients and listening to them because they're the experts on their own body. Exactly. And I had a patient actually who I did an augmentation on about 18, 19 years ago when I was really early in practice. And she came back to see me a couple, maybe two years ago, I saw her and she said, you know, I actually was with my husband. He was seeing a different plastic surgeon in town. And while we were there, I told him, oh, by the way, I have implants that were put in by Dr. Yoon a long time ago. And I think I've got these symptoms. And you know what that plastic surgeon said to her? He goes, stop by the front office and we'll give you a referral for a psychiatrist. Like that was, he just completely

dismissed her. And then he went back to talking to her husband. You know, this is a guy, there are unfortunately people in our field who, and it's typically the older people, it's kind of the old school surgeons where it's like, you know, everything I say is, is the truth. And, but the fact is, once again, is that I think that there's in the field of medicine, there are doctors who don't know what they don't know. And, and it's, it's a naivety or an ignorance, you know, it's, it's the fact that, you know, I get comments whenever I talk about collagen supplements and, and I'll get comments from people say, Hey, I, um, I actually asked my family doctor about collagen supplements and he told me don't bother, they don't work.

And it's like, has this family doctor actually looked at the studies of collagen supplements or are they just anti-supplement altogether because they were just taught that supplements don't work and they just believe it as a kind of a completely all supplements have a belief on that. And really, I think the fact is we got to look at the studies. Now, sometimes studies don't necessarily support what we may believe. Like for example, bone broth. I'm a big fan of bone broth. I'm assuming you are. What is bone broth? Bone broth is chock full of collagen. So is there any science to show that drinking bone broth will improve the health of your skin So is there any science to show that drinking bone broth will improve the health of your skin? Well, I've got good friends of mine who will tell their patients

and their followers that, but the fact is that there is no study to show that drinking bone broth will improve the collagen of your skin. However, there are no studies that show that drinking bone broth does not improve the collagen of your skin. There just aren't any studies done on it yet. But we can think about it and go, okay, well, bone broth is chock full of collagen. We know that there are studies of hydrolyzed collagen supplements that improve your skin. So it makes complete sense that it helps. And so I think there's, unfortunately, a lot of doctors will say, well, there's no study, there's no evidence-based medicine to show that bone broth will improve the health of your skin. So it must not do it. And the fact is, is you can't make that, you can't come, you know, you can't get to that

conclusion. It doesn't make any sense. Like the evidence is to the contrary, even though there's not a specific study to show that. But if you think about it rationally too, like you just said, we know it's chock full of collagen, not to mention my approach to this is always, it's not going to harm you. So what's the harm in it? If you like it and you enjoy it and it's chock full of collagen, then why not do it anyways? And that's kind of been my approach. There's not going to be a study for every single thing. Something that people really need to know is that a lot of these kind of interventions,

like for example, bone broth, it's not going to make the medical community a lot of money. So they're not incentivized to do a study on it. So of course there's not going to be a study on it. Exactly. Who's going to study that? Yeah. No, I totally agree. Yeah.

So that's kind of where we have to like take a step back and go, okay, well, why isn't there a study about this? Is it because it doesn't actually work or is there just no incentive to actually study it, you know? Yeah. And the mechanisms seem to make sense. But just because you don't have the actual study in front of you doesn't mean that it doesn't work. And there is so much though, I think in alternative medicine that there are studies to support it and doctors just don't pay attention to them. For years with collagen, I've had so many doctors, they'll say, well, studies are

inconclusive. And it's like, have you actually looked at the studies? There are some very conclusive studies out there. But more and more, I do think that traditional medicine is catching on, you know, I mean, 15 years ago, you talk about the microbiome and they poo-poo it like, what is that? You know, and now they're all talking about the microbiome. You know, there's actually even what we know now is there's a microbiome to our skin. And so even skincare products, you know, we're looking at using probiotics in our skincare products to help support that microbiome and going against some of the kind of traditional, more aggressive skin treatments and skincare products that we used to recommend in the past. And so this is ever changing.

I think that it's having an open mind and part of it's using a little bit of common sense and knowing that, geez, if you put all of these chemicals in these products and there's fragrances and you don't know what's in it, you could have a reaction. You know, when I have patients of mine who come to see me or followers say, look, I've got breakouts, my skin's on fire, it's inflamed. How do I settle it down? What cream should I put on my skin to make it better? The first thing I do is I say, hey, why don't you go off of everything and let's start you with the basics because it could be something that you're applying to your skin that's causing this,

versus you're applying and actually making it better. Yeah, yeah, there's a doctor I follow and he says this all the time. He says, logic is fast and science is slow. It often takes a long time. I think it's on average like 17 years of the science to catch up to what we already know logically to be true. So that's something that we need to all know that, of course, like we need science, we need these studies to show what we

already hypothesize to be kind of true, but we also need to not live and die by these studies because we have to remember that sometimes it takes a while for the science to catch up. And sometimes studies just won't be performed. Like, I don't know when we'll ever get a study on bone broth, you know, but does that mean that it's not going to help you or that you shouldn't bother with it? No, I think we look at it and go, okay, what's in it and what studies have we gotten that's on stuff that's similar? Yeah. Yeah. So before we go, you mentioned skincare and I don't know if you want to talk about like a simple skincare routine that people can follow. And I also just want to ask you, what is, if there's anything that we haven't covered today as far as your book goes or anything that we've,

you know, plastic surgery, anything we've covered that you feel like people need to hear? Yeah. I mean, I think the skincare routine is something we get questions on all the time because you can go to Sephora or you go to Ulta or you go to the local department store and it's so confusing what to put on your skin. And so what I'd like to do, and I know you've talked about your skincare routine on previous podcasts, but we have a very simple skincare routine in my book that I recommend that we actually put people on it and we found that it took only about two minutes a day to do it. Okay. And after putting people who normally weren't taking great care of your skin... Now, this wouldn't work for you, but for most people who are going don't take good care of their skin or they're kind of average,

they're using soap and water and some moisturizer, we put them on for two months. And then we surveyed people online to see how much younger did they look. And we found that they looked an average of about five years younger after doing this routine just for two months. And so the routine is super simple. Anybody can do it. You start off in the morning, you cleanse your skin with a cleanser appropriate for your skin type. So if you've got oily skin, you want to look for a more foaming cleanser. If you've got dry or sensitive skin, then look for something that's more hydrating or a milky cleanser. After that, you want to apply an antioxidant serum. Antioxidants, the most common one is vitamin C. And I mentioned earlier that one of the main causes of aging of our skin is oxidation by free radicals. And so what antioxidants like vitamin C,

put that on your skin, that will fight those free radicals and essentially protect your skin throughout the day from pollution, from automobile exhaust, from even free radical-rich ultra-processed foods. So the same way that you eat a rainbow fruits and vegetables, get that vitamin C, you can put that on your skin as well. Here's a little hack. If you want to add vitamin E to it, then vitamin C and vitamin E are synergistic when used together, you get an even better effect. Third thing that you want to do in the morning is I do recommend if you're going to be out to wear a sunscreen, at least an SPF 30. I know there's a lot of controversy in the alternative medicine community. Some people, I have a friend of mine who I did a podcast with and he was like, I put lard on my face. What do

you think about that? I'm like, okay. A lot of people are using beef tallow. Yeah. So I mean, I'm a plastic surgeon. I have had patients who come to see me who've had skin cancer on their face. They lose parts of their nose, parts of their eyelid, parts of their lip. You do not want skin cancer on your face. I fear for one of my favorite actors, Hugh Jackman, because he's had multiple skin cancers removed. I think he's the most, he's a handsome guy. I think he's probably the most talented guy in Hollywood. Yet I fear that someday he's going to have a skin cancer in the wrong spot. So because of that, if you're going to be out in the sun, definitely recommend using a sunscreen, at least SPF 30. Avoid oxybenzone and octinoxate. These are two chemical sunscreens that may be potential hormone disruptors,

may disrupt the coral reefs. Stick with the mineral sunscreens like zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, or there are chemical ones that are not considered endocrine disruptors like avobenzone and megzoral XL. Okay, so you do have options. Definitely get your sunlight in the morning, get your circadian rhythms going. You know, that's fine, but definitely gonna be out in the sun. Don't get all that damage to your your skin so that's all you do in the morning is you cleanse antioxidant serum like vitamin c ideally add vitamin e to it and then a sunscreen in the evening so important you have to cleanse your skin if you only cleanse your skin once a day make sure it's in the evening because you got to get rid of that day's worth of dirt and grime and oil and pollution and all that and then you want to apply ideally some type of an anti-aging cream the one we usually recommend that's super easy to find is a retinol. Retinols are derivatives

of vitamin A. Most big skincare companies have them. It's one of our top sellers, my skincare company, Youn Beauty. But you apply that, retinol will help to exfoliate the skin. It helps to thicken the collagen of the skin. It helps to thin fine lines, reduce fine lines. And studies show that prescription strength retinol, which is Retin-A, can even reverse early pre-skin cancers. Now, we don't know that retinol over-the-counter strength will do that, but we do know prescription strength can do it. So it's possible that even over-the-counter strength can do that. So that's a ton that this anti-aging cream does. If you pick one anti-aging cream, that's one we recommend. And then optional, if you want to apply a moisturizer over that, feel free. But once again, like I mentioned earlier, you don't have to, it's purely for

comfort. And then the final thing is once a week, if you have sensitive skin, maybe twice a week, if you have quote unquote normal skin, you want to use some type of an exfoliating agent, whether you want to use a glycolic or alpha hydroxy acid, or you can do a gentle scrub. That works to help get rid of that upper layer of dead skin cells. When you do that, it sends a cellular signal to the deeper layer of skin cells to turn over more quickly. And so it can really get your skin revved up. That's going to make it feel smoother, tighter, more youthful. And that's it. That's a two minutes, five years younger skincare routine. Once again, we go into more detail on that in my book.

I will tell you guys from personal experience, do not sleep on skincare because I was one of those people. I got into holistic, healthy eating at a very young age, the holistic health. And my viewpoint at that point was, as long as your diet is really good, you're taking care of your health. You're going to age really gracefully. And I had a point where I was like, I need to be paying attention to skincare because I started seeing like little wrinkles here and there. And my skin looked really dull. Like it just looked kind of like grayish. And I will say the number one thing that helped me with that was vitamin C. I was putting vitamin C on my skin every morning and it just like completely brightened up my skin. So do not sleep on skincare. It is so important. Yeah. I think just, you know, like a

true inside outside approach, that's definitely the way to go. I mean, you know, why not? I do think it can make a huge, huge difference to the health and quality of your skin is kind of treating it from that inside out. You can't just do one and expect that the other is going to be fine. It's like, you know, I know dermatologists who are using great skincare products and then you look at their diet and you're like, oh my gosh, what are you doing? And then I've got friends of mine who are, once again, they're holistic health experts and they're great with their diet and they're not, you know, they're getting a ton of sun and you could see the spots developing and the wrinkles and stuff. So ideally it's really, if you want to truly age

on the inside and out in a slow, the slowest fashion possible, it's kind of combine those two. And those are the kind of concepts of autojuvenation is using what you have, giving your body those tools and that environment to turn back the clock naturally. But once again, you got to do something. Your body won't do it unless you give it those tools. Yeah, I love that. I think it's a really great place to end.

But I do want to ask you one more question, which is a personal question that I ask all my guests. What's your health non-negotiable? So these are things you do daily or weekly just to prioritize your own health. So number one, I would say sleep. Sleep is so, so important for really rejuvenating your body. So I try to get a minimum of about six to eight hours of sleep a night. six hours. Sometimes I have to get up early for surgery and occasionally I with stuff I have to do with my kids and stuff. Otherwise I try to get a good seven to eight hours if I can. I'm a big fan of yoga. I think one of the big things as we get older that we really want to avoid is loss of balance and loss of the fast twitch muscle fibers. One of the things I talk about in the book is how do you stay young more ways than just your skin,

but how do you stay youthful and increase your health span, meaning that you're getting older, but you're still being active and you're feeling strong. And one of the things to do is yoga to help with the balance and then doing resistance training to help with the fast twitch muscle fibers, which are so important for keeping balance in case you accidentally lose it. The one thing you want to avoid as you get older is a broken hip. There was

one study that found that if you're over the age of 50 and you break your hip, you have about a 30% mortality rate over 12 months of that. Now I'm 51 and I'm like, dang, like I don't want to deal with that. And so how do you avoid breaking your hip? Well, what you do is you keep your balance by doing things like yoga so that you don't lose that. And then you work those resistance training to make sure that those muscles are working well. And so those are some things for me that I do as I'm getting older, you know, and I see like my parents and my in-laws who are in their eighties and I see how their mobility has reduced and they believe that walking is sufficient for exercise and it really isn't. You've got to do more than that if you want to stay limber and go hiking and do these active

things as you get into your 60s, 70s, and even 80s. Weight training is incredibly important for that. I also just want to say really fast for my listeners, I cannot believe that you're 51. Everyone needs to take your advice because you are really walking the talk because you look like you're like 32. You know what I do is I get people ask me all the time on social, like, how old are you? And I'm like, 88. And they go, wow, you look great for 88. You look like you're 40.

And then I get people who are like, how old are you? And I put 25. They go, dang, you look old for your age. You should start using your own products or you should go get a facelift and get some work done. No, I would seriously guess like you look like 32. So like, well done, everyone listening. We need to do everything that you recommend because it clearly works. It's auto-adjuvenation,

but I also have to credit, I do have Asian genes and there's that saying, Asian don't raisin. So maybe that helps too. That's amazing. I've never heard that. And I love that.

Well, thank you so much for your time and for coming on. This has been really fun, super informative. Please let everyone know where they can find your book, when it's coming out and where they can find you online. Thank you. So the book is called Younger for Life. It's available January 2nd, wherever books are sold. We always encourage people.

I mean, you can definitely get it. It's easy to get an Amazon and Barnes & Noble and all that stuff. But also, if you go to bookshop.org, that's a website where you can actually support your local bookstore. So if you've got an independent bookstore, a small bookstore that doesn't have enough of a presence that they can have a great online store, if you go to bookshop.org, you can actually choose your local bookstore. And then the sale, the profit of that sale will go to your local bookstore so we try to encourage people to do that but otherwise you can find on amazon target walmart everywhere

costco everywhere books are sold it's younger for life and then if you do go there go to auto juvenation.com autojuvenation.com is our website where we'll give you a ton of free gifts like a extra recipe book 30 gift certificate to my online store you and beauty if you want to try our natural and organic skincare products we'll get you started with $30, which will more than pay for the cost of the book. Amazing. Also, I love that website for the bookstore. That's really cool. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's great. A lot of people don't know that. So yeah, it's a really hot tip. It's a good tip. Well, thank you so much for your time. This has been really, really great. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast.

If you liked the episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a Resonant Media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie. Georgie is spelled with a J. For more amazing podcasts produced by my team, go to resonantmediagroup.com. I love you your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first. Do you suffer from IBS or other digestive issues? Are you looking for a new podcast to listen to? From the producer of the Real Foodology podcast comes the all new health and nutrition podcast Digest This, hosted by Bethany Ugarte. You may know Bethany as the face of the popular

Instagram page Lil Sipper, or you may have even read her book. Now you can find her wherever you get your podcasts. On Digest This, Bethany examines topics such as gut health, nutrition, the food industry, and highlights specific ingredients that can be beneficial or harmful to your gut health. She also explores non-toxic options in beauty, home, and cooking essentials. If it has to do with your health, Digest This is talking about it. Each episode features an interview with health experts, doctors, and wellness advocates, and delivers you information that is, well, easy to digest.

Bethany also delivers a weekly segment every episode called Bite of Knowledge, where she highlights an ingredient commonly used in food, skincare, household cleaning, you name it, and gives you the lowdown on the benefits or dangers that ingredient might have in your everyday life. From Botox, potassium, olive oil, and magnesium, all the way to those ingredients you can barely pronounce on the back of your cereal boxes, Bethany has you covered. There's a reason why it debuted at number two on Apple Podcast Nutrition Charts. Check out Digest This on your favorite podcast app. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday. Produced by Drake Peterson and Resonant Media.