The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 63. The Truth About Skincare, Inflammatory Ingredients to Avoid with Dr. Barbara Sturm

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

Key takeaways you’ll learn in this episode: The top ingredients to AVOID in skin care products. What are the biggest myths in skin care? What skincare trends are damaging your skin? Check out all of Dr. Barbara Sturm’s skincare products: https://www.drsturm.com/ Check Out Dr Sturm’s Ingredients to Avoid: https://bit.ly/TUHIngredientsToAvoid Get weekly tips from Gary Brecka on how to optimize your health and lifestyle routines - go to https://www.theultimatehuman.com/ For more info on Gary, please click here: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/thegarybrecka ECHO GO PLUS HYDROGEN WATER BOTTLE http://echowater.com BODY HEALTH - USE CODE ULTIMATE10 for 10% OFF YOUR ORDER https://bodyhealth.com/ultimate Are you overwhelmed with skincare products, understanding the ingredients, and which ones are causing you harm? Gary is sitting down with Dr. Barbara Sturm, an aesthetics medical doctor, founder of a leading natural skincare line, and the creator of the PRP Facial, also known as the “Vampire Facial!” Dr. Sturm shares her thoughts on retinol, sunscreen, and her innovative anti-inflammatory treatments and philosophy on maintaining youthful, glowing skin through proper nutrition and lifestyle habits. You’ll learn all about her simple and effective skincare routine and discover how to take control of your skin health! 00:00 - Who is Dr. Barbara Sturm? 03:30 - What are the biggest myths in skin care? 05:00 - Why you should STOP using retinol. 11:00 - The top ingredients to AVOID in skin care products. 17:00 - What facial procedures do you recommend? 20:00 - Top things that should be in everyone’s skincare routines. 24:00 - What skincare trends are hurting your skin? 27:45 - Why you should focus on anti-inflammatory living. 28:45 - What supplement can you take for fuller hair? 32:00 - How do you know if a sunscreen is safe? Should you always use it? 39:45 - What can I do to help with anti-aging? Connect with Dr. Barbara Sturm on Instagram: @drbarbarasturm Gary Brecka: @garybrecka The Ultimate Human: @ultimatehumanpod Subscribe on YouTube: @ultimatehumanpodcast The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some of the unknown dangers about, you know, what's out there in the skincare world. Retinol is one of the product's ingredients which cause inflammation, a destruction of your skin barrier. There's so many things wrong with using that. I mean, like, would you throw acid pills on your kidneys? We do all these things for our skin and we think it doesn't matter. It does matter what we put on our skin. These poor young girls are going into these big box retailers at very young ages.

They're applying all of these chemicals and hormone disruptors to their skin. Because these lip balms have really scary ingredients. And you put it on the lips, and then the kids eat it. Sunscreen pulled from the market for cancer-positive properties. Everybody tells you, use sunscreen 24-7. Of course, because you've destroyed your skin practically. So it's actually better if you...

Today we are joined by Dr. Barbara Sturm, a medical doctor and acclaimed German aesthetics doctor and trailblazer in the realm of anti-inflammatory skincare. From pioneering the renowned blood facial, also known as the vampire facial, to launching globally recognized skincare lines, Dr. Sturm has seamlessly blended science and aesthetics to revolutionize how we approach skin health. Today, we'll delve into her innovative treatments, her philosophy on skincare, and how she continues to push the boundaries of beauty and wellness. Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, Gary Brekka, human biologist, where we go down the road, everything anti-aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. As you just heard, today's guest, who also happens to be a very close personal friend of my wife's and I, been to her home many times in Switzerland, spent a lot of time with this beautiful soul. She has made such an impact on the world of skin care, cosmetics, women's beauty.

She is none other than the esteemed Dr. Barbara Sturm. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Gary. I'm so excited to have you on here. I love you so much. Thank you for having me. I love you, too. You're one of our closest friends.

And, like, every time we spend, like, a few weeks or months apart that we get together, we just eat each other's face. Oh, my God. We just talk science all the time. And it energizes me. And we're just, like, you know, making plans and talking. Yeah, already, just for those of you guys that are watching, she had a flight. She's moved it how many times now? Three times?

Four times? Just since she's been here today. Because we couldn't get the podcast started because we had so much to talk about. But I think the world of you, I mean, you're an MD, first of all. You founded one of the most incredible boutique skincare lines in the world. My wife and I use it. Yeah, I have thousands of our clients that use it. And it's not just that you have this incredible boutique skincare line and just a world-class design packaging, but you really, really deeply care about the ingredients. And this is where you and I first, you know, came together years and years ago. We were actually going to co-formulate a product using exosomes and her MC1 cream. And I just became enthralled and fascinated with the amount of time and energy and the exhaustive way that you care

so much about ingredients and skincare. And I love for you because I'm trying to build my female audience, right? And they're always like, Gary, all you have on is men. You talk about men's stuff. So today you have women on talking about women's stuff. But the guys are going to get a lot out of this too. But, you know, I want you to talk a little bit about, first, some of the unknown dangers about, you know, what's out there in the skincare world. And some of the big myths about the best ways to slow down or reverse the aging process in your skin. This is where we are so similar with our approach. And for me, it's so important that I just not only care about the ingredients and the products,

I also care about the outcome for the patient. So I'm at service to my patient, and I love when patients get a result and have effective products which help them to slow down their aging process, but also give them an immediate result. And that has to do with the ingredients we use in the products, but also the formulation we do. So we're working on formulations for years and years and years. And it's important that many things take place,

like an anti-inflammatory process, because that's where I think you're headed towards products which cause inflammation on the skin. So I'm an anti-inflammatory doctor. My background is anti-inflammatory science. I started in the orthopedics. I helped pioneering a treatment where you basically take the patient's blood, you process it in a certain way, you create anti-inflammatory proteins, re-inject those into the joints to take down inflammation and slow down the aging process so inflammation aging goes very very close together and here i come back to your situation where you think okay which ingredients

actually cause inflammation on the skin and that we find in skincare products a lot that starts from retinol retinol retinol because everybody says to take retinol you can walk down the grocery store aisle and retinols everywhere everywhere and they sell it to kids they sell it to everybody but retinol is one of the products ingredients which cause inflammation a destruction of your skin barrier sensitivity on your skin there is so many things wrong with using that and you know the industry tells us okay it accelerates your cell turnover it you know creates baby skin whatever but you know our skin has tasks functions it's our largest organ protecting our system it's intertwined with

our immune system i mean like would you throw acid peels on your kidneys or liver would we do that crazy way to look at it so with the skin we think oh we scrub it off we resurface we do all these things um to our skin and we think it doesn't matter it does matter what we put on our skin has a um has a correspondence with our immune system with our system there are dendritic cells underneath the skin that's why when you put hormones on testosterone for example or whatever it is you put it on your arm or in your leg or you know you just have this effect through application on your skin and that's the same with our skin care and that's why we need to be

knowledgeable about skincare ingredients so we know what's going on when we put certain ingredients on our skin. And for those of you that are wondering why she has a bandage on her arm, we did. We did vitamin C IVs right before the podcast. I actually just took mine off, but we did vitamin C IVs. No, I thought it's chic. Yeah. No, it is very chic. It actually really makes your eyes pop.

It looks great. But I think there's so many, you know, you go to these big box retailers. I won't say the name. You know, several of them have crept up in our town. I live in Miami, but we split time between here and Naples. And our youngest is 16 years old. And so she goes into these big box retailers. I go in there with her. I have no idea what I'm doing in there. But I spend some of those bottles around and look at the back of

those labels. And I know these are major hormone disruptors, major causes of inflammatory conditions, certainly at a cellular level. And then you start to look at all of the, aside from the food supply and everything else, these poor young girls are going into these big box retailers at very young ages. They're applying all of these chemicals and hormone disruptors to their skin. And they're starting their menstrual cycles at very, very, very early ages. They're throwing their menstrual cycle off in their pubescent years um so talk a little bit about a lot of problems and not just i mean i'm 16 years old pepper is nine the whole community of the eight nine year old they're all crazy about skin pepper's your daughter yeah um pepper's my

daughter yeah yeah and so they're crazy about skincare and they know all the brands i don't know they know probably you know some tiktok whatever then friends talk and you know they're crazy about skincare and they know all the brands i don't know how they know it probably you know some tiktok whatever then friends talk and you know there's so much buzz out there they go into the retailers they buy some brands and they don't know what's in there they just want to use it they want to do like a really elaborate skincare routine and then they get their rashes i get calls from my friends oh my kid put kid put this on. What can I do? So as parents, it's very hard to stop them. Because then also if you don't buy it for them, they trade with their friends. It's crazy.

They come with these skincare ingredients. I told Pepper, listen, this ingredient causes cancer. Really, cancer? Can I have your lip balm? Lip balm, for example. Because sometimes as parents, you think, oh, just give her the lip balm. It doesn't matter it's just what this is even more dangerous because these lip balms have really scary ingredients and you put it on the lips and then the kids eat it well in the u.s 23 23 bands of of sunscreen have been pulled from the market for cancer causing properties and if you think

about sunscreen causing skin cancer just you know 23 brands the law about filter and skincare hasn't changed for over 20 years and you know there's like this what do you mean filter and skincare yeah the the skincare like the the the filter the the sunscreen hasn't been changed the law hasn't been changed for over 20 years they're still using the same filter that's why when you come to europe buy your sunscreen better in europe because they're using way more modern filters but you know in general filters and skincare is not the greatest ingredient so if you damage your skin constantly retinol glycolic acid peel you damage damage damage so your skin is vulnerable it's raw Sun even penetrates harder. You get more pigmentation, more aging.

It can cause cancer, inflammation. So you do so much damage that everybody tells you, use sunscreen 24-7, 24-7. Of course, because you destroyed your skin practically. Right. So it's actually better if you strengthen your skin, make what you got the best it possibly could be, you know, make it like away from inflammation, hydrate, nutrition, telomerase activation, exosomes. Put that on your skin, heal and repair, heal and repair, make it super, super, super strong so that sun, if you cross the street in the sun, that it doesn't, you know, destroy the sun. You know, Gary, come on. How important is sun for so many reasons?

Oh my God, it's so important to you. I talk about it all the time. I think that most of us are not getting enough sun. We're not moving. It's not that we're getting too much. We need, we need our lights. We need the sun for our respiratory tract, for our immune system, for our bones. Very photovoltaic beings.

For our mental health. We cannot exclude ourselves from the sun. But if we destroy our skin on a constant basis, obviously, you know, we have to use all these filters. So let's talk about some specifics. What are, you know, if they're going to take a pen out right now and say, what are some no-fly zone ingredients that moms and dads and everybody listening to this podcast could say, okay, these are some things I definitely want to make sure are not in my cosmetics, not in my skincare regimen, because advertising is so good now. And, and, you know, the men and women they're using in these ads are so beautiful. And you just like, God, I would love

to look like that. If that's all they're using, you know, I'm in, but what are, what are some of the absolute no fly zone ingredients that we should know about? I think the more simple ones we can totally remember quickly, you know, is like perfumes, fragrances. Shouldn't be in skincare. So will it say perfumes, fragrances? Fragrances, yeah. Okay. It would say that, and it destroys your skin barrier, too. And these are also parabens, phthalates.

Yeah, parabens. Exactly. Mineral oils, I would stay away from mineral oils. Mineral oils. High percentage. Because mineral oil sounds great. It's petroleum, basically. When they say mineral oil, they mean petroleum.

Yeah, it sounds great, but it's not great for you. It basically clogs your pores, takes hydration out. You need hydration in your skin. You know, I always compare grapes with raisins. Hydrated skin cells are grapes. Raisins are the dehydrated skin cells. And obviously, the grapes look better on your skin, on your skin barrier. They're more, you know, robust.

So things like hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid, for example. And, you know, these grapes have better osmosis channels to take on active ingredients because we also want to go through all our cell divisions. And therefore, we need the nutrients. We need the we need the hydration we need you know support for our cells so i always want the skin to be hydrated hyaluronic serum is a great hydrator um but i've formulated every single product to be super hydrating to the skin and if someone has dry skin they have to fix it dry skin is is really a skin killer with everything aging, whatever it is, rashes. I want to jump on that, but I want to go back to the ingredients.

What are a couple of absolute no-fly zone ingredients? And then for sure, glycolic. For sure, retinoid. Retinoic acid. Hydroquinone. Hydroquinone. Then acid peels everybody does acid peels i did a whole list i would i would share like a list where also check products specifically

for ingredients and we say okay this is not for sensitives this is not for um and you have this list i have this list i will share okay if you send that to me i will make it available in the show notes for you guys so that you can actually get this list. So we have an exhaustive list because it's hard to memorize all of these different. High concentration of alcohol. High concentration of alcohol is not only terrible for sleep, it's terrible for your skin. Yeah. I mean, since I've stopped drinking almost entirely, my wife and I, our sleep scores have gone through the roof.

I actually just did a podcast earlier today with the CEO of Sleep Aid. It's a sleep cooling mattress. And so I have all these ways of tracking my sleep. And of all of the things that I've done to hack my sleep, you know, the greatest impact on my heart rate variability, my resting heart rate, and the percentage of deep sleep and REM sleep that I get has absolutely been zero alcohol. For sure. And sleeping is so anti-inflammatory. A good night's sleep.

That's helping my skincare routine too. So now, you know, the basics of a good male or female skincare routine at any age. First, you have to hydrate. Hyaluronic serum. Hyaluronic serum. And these are not expensive, right? Hyaluronic acid. Mine is not expensive right hyaluronic acid mine is quite expensive but also it's the best formulation i mean like seriously you want to

get the benefits out of it so you need to have different molecule sizes but also the diffusion matters you know because sometimes they oh your hyaluronic serum is not highly concentrated yeah highly concentrated hyaluronic serum is basically like a gel that wouldn't penetrate the skin so it needs to be perfectly formulated so that it penetrates the skin goes in all the cell layers and hydrates deeply in a long term but also superficially in the short term so you get all the benefits and that's your grape maker so your hyaluronic acid not only has different molecular sizes it actually protects the barrier it protects the surface of the skin and then goes into the skin. And what kind of procedures, if you will, are you a fan of?

Chemical peels, microneedling, microneedling with radio frequency, dermabrasion. For people that are listening that want to, you know, that have these options to refresh their skin, and I've had cosmetic surgeons on and all kinds of physicians on, I'm always interested to know, you know, what can we do to just enhance the beauty of our skin without borrowing from our future, which is what you're telling me these chemical peels do. You get some short-term gain, you're just borrowing for sure i wouldn't do chemical peels i wouldn't do laser unless you have like underlying problems like cbr acne or acne scarring but pigment look if you do a treatment for pigmentation you take off healthy skin layers with the acid peel or with the laser so you make your skin totally raw vulnerable so now you sit in front of your computer with the HGV light or you go outside. So you have the sunlight. You have pollution bombarding your skin and actually causing inflammation on your skin, which your skin is not protected of right now.

So you cause post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. So actually, instead of making it better, you're making it worse. So what I did was i created a brightening line and a darker skin tone line and the better b and those products together actually helped to loosen the acclimation of yellow and dark spots so it doesn't go from today to tomorrow like a quick fix but like after three four weeks you see such a great um difference while you still hydrate while you still protect your skin barrier while you hydrate and you know make your skin the best most beautiful organ and you it looks great you know so you don't damage your skin but you take ingredient signs to make

your problem go away um you know i noticed that you at your locations, you do certain facials. So what kind of facial procedures do you do there and which ones do you support? If somebody's listening to this podcast, they're like, wow, I've been reading about Morpheus or lasers or microneedling or any number of things. Morpheus is very, very trendy right now. And we have the Morpheus 8 in our spa in London. And it's radiofrequency and microneedling together. And I haven't done it because I'm always like, you know, I'm staying a little bit away from a little more intense treatments. And that definitely causes a, you know, light form of inflammation, which you can treat

right away with exosomes and hyaluronic serum the calming serum etc and this is like a thing you do once right you know i think what's really problematic is the constant inflammation you know if you do a microneedling once in a while obviously we do exosomatic microneedling we do you know we i created the blood facial so yeah what they call the vampire facial this this is the founder of the vampire facial. 20 years ago. They coined it the vampire facial. 20 years ago.

Yeah. I was like, okay. And was this from the platelet-rich plasma that you were originally using to put into joints, to reduce inflammation in joints? So it was not just growth factors like the PRP, but also anti-inflammatory proteins. And where do you get these anti-inflammatory proteins? You spin them down in the blood? Yes. Okay. So you take the blood, you spin it down, you not only get the platelet-rich plasma, the PRP, which I think most people have heard about.

But also the anti-interleukin-1, the anti-inflammatory support system. And how do you separate this anti-interleukin-1? You just spin it. So at a different rate? It doesn't even need, like exosomes, it needs a ultra high centrifugation it needs a normal centrifugation with 8 000 rpm and then once you extract this

how do you apply it to the skin do you apply it or do you inject it you do inject it okay i mean like you do all kinds of thing i did a blood cream i i mixed um the blood with the hyaluronic you mean the patient's blood yeah with the hyaluronic. You mean the patient's blood? Yeah, with the hyaluronic acid. So I injected patients with hyaluronic acid combined with your blood. With the patient's own blood. So with their own serum, you're basically capturing the healing power of the body and just concentrating it in the face,

which is similar to what we do with injuries, with repetitive use injuries and post-surgical rehab. We put platelet-rich plasma into the joint to accelerate healing. Exactly. Which I'm a huge fan of because you're just basically taking all the power of the healing body and you're just concentrating it. My knee surgery. She just tore her ACL skiing. Yeah, now I'm so on Gary.

But she was standing and not skiing. This woman rips. So her and my wife are both like super expert skiers. where acl skiing yeah no i'm now i'm so on gary but she's standing and not skiing this this this woman rips so her and my wife are both like super expert skiers and when we were in switzerland we were staying at her place she has the superhuman protocol so i was doing the red light and everything and and the two of them went out and just ripped down that mountain and then you just standing there just standing in like doing nothing you know, I'm very diligent with my red light now and with my PMF and oxygen. This helped really very much the healing. Yeah.

No, the red light is amazing. Red light, PMF, and then obviously your own platelet-rich plasma. Your knee looks amazing. So again, if you're listening, basic skincare routine is hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid. This is for me the white t-shirt of your skin care routine okay morning and night there's no there all the time morning and night you need the hyaluronic serum or the super anti-aging serum one of the two serums morning

and night and then one face cream and that depends a little bit if you have oily skin you use the face cream light or the clarifying face cream if you have a little more mature skin you use the super anti-aging face cream or if you have normal skin face cream the normal face cream. If you have a little more mature skin, you use the super anti-aging face cream. Or if you have normal skin, face cream, the normal face cream. But if you have these two products and the cleanser, you already have the most beautiful, glowy skin. Just don't mix it with any crazy products. But the skincare routine can be as simple as that.

Okay. And then do you have the enzyme cleanser, the powder? I do, yeah. I put the powder on. Sometimes I do it in the steam room yeah do it in the shower it's amazing i'll do it in this when i go in the steam in the morning because i shower in the steam room i'll get in the shower i'll get in the steam i only do it once a week but and i put your enzyme powder that's the most gentle form of exfoliation my face feels really clean but it feels tight almost dry when i get out and then that's when i put the hyaluronic calming calming hyaluronic no i have so many serums you know yeah i have so many serums

because the serums are the power tools of your skincare routine and they're very targeted high concentrated you know we have the niacinamide the good c we have like you know clarifying whatever you need super anti-aging so you can layer the serums and it's like your little pharmacy at home and you can really depending on where you are in the world what's your problem right now want to do something on pigmentation do you just want to hydrate or you know do you want to do an elaborate skincare routine or do you want to have like something small and short and quick simple so you can really choose match and um match and choose no man matching shoes i'm not sure if that i think i think mix and match mix and match okay i was gonna say i think you just made up a word this language is not my mother i think we just made up a word mention shoes those are shoes

you wear in a mansion. But you can also put them on your face. Guys, if you've been watching the Ultimate Human Podcast for any length of time, you know that one thing I do not do is push products. I do not just let any advertiser into this space because I believe that the products that appear on the Ultimate Human Podcast should be things that I use every day in my life

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on the benefits of hydrogen water, including reduced inflammation, better absorption of your supplements, better absorption of your foods, better balance of the stomach acid, and it feeds an entire class of bacteria in your gut. Hydrogen water, in my opinion, is the most beneficial water that you can drink. And now you can take it wherever you go.

You can go to echo, E-C-H-O, H2O.com. That's echo, E-C-H-O, H2O.com. Enter the code ULTIMATE10 for a discount. Echo H2O, enter the code ULTIM ultimate 10 for a discount echo h2o enter the code ultimate 10 for a discount so what are what are some of the um trends that you see in in skincare because as a physician as somebody who's formulated all of these products that are that are chemical free and i'm a huge fan of chemical free living um you know the ultimate human is even developing some chemical free living products you and i might be developing some um what are some of the cringe worthy moments that

you see where you're you know you see an advertisement where you see things on the shelves and it just makes you cringe because you know that society has bought off on this and and lots of you know lots of your clients would be your clients, but lots of people would be using this on their skin. I mean, the skincare industry uses a lot of marketing to sell products. So if you look at all these giant, you know, corporate companies out there, I mean, they really look what's trendy. They put a lot of a trendy ingredient into a product and then they market it and sell it you know for example vitamin c is a good example you know vitamin c orally taken you can do two three gram whatever or intravenously but on the skin vitamin c lsl ascorbic acid just bombards the

surface of your skin and destroys your skin barrier it actually stings i put it on the other day but but the good sea it stings the good sea stings here no no no not the not yours because i found one in the bottom of my drawer yeah don't you say well i just didn't want to waste it so i just dumped it my wife is like what are you doing i dumped it my palm and i just splashed it on my face and it's like vitamin c because vitamin c they use for pig. And vitamin C isn't for pigmentation. Vitamin C is for radiant, you know, production of collagen and catching free radicals. This is vitamin C. But, you know, when L-ascorbic acid in 20% of the product bombards the skin barrier,

damages the skin barrier and does the same, like retinol, basically, taking healthy skin layers off. And that's what we don't want. We want the good stuff from the vitamin c that's why i created the good c which is under five percent not l-ascorbic acid and it's good for sensitive skin you can still get all the benefits of a good vitamin c that's why so what is that form of vitamin c so um is it different than l-ascorbic acid you know for me english words with you know I'll put it in the show notes. And it's cacao plum, which is 50 times more rich in vitamin C than an orange, for example.

Wow. Comes from the plants. And this is extracted and put into a skincare product. Everything we do also goes through a lab. For example, purslane, one of my favorite ingredients, which is telomerase activating, gets biofermented. And we get all the good stuff from the purslane, but we don't get the viruses. Wow.

So what is this? What's being fermented? So it's a process in a lab. So we ferment this herb to make sure it's reliable on concentration. It's not having any viruses, so it doesn't cause allergies. And you get the best out of it. So it's like, you know, when you get, I don't know how I can compare it to something, but you take the best of it out and leave the best out.

And leave the rest. And now you can apply this to the skin. Is the basis for the majority of your skincare products, are they plant-based? Are they animal-based? Are they animal-based? Are they marine-based? Our products are vegan. All of them are vegan. But some things come from marine.

So we use astaxanthin, for example, which is a superoxide dismutase, for example. We use lots of plants. Superoxide dismutase. And are you getting these from algaes, kelps? Yeah, algaes, yeah. Okay. And these are formulated into your herbs?

These are in the supplements now. But purslane, for example, we use a lot of herbs. Like mostly everything is coming from the plants. Yeah. You know, so what right now is really exciting you about the future of skin care? Like what's your next big project? We were in the kitchen earlier. You were talking about chemical free living.

And, you know, you were talking a little bit about, you know, skin care goes beyond what you just put on your face every day. It has to do with your detergents and your soaps and your dishwasher detergent and your toothpaste and all of the things that we think our skin is protecting us from. But very often it is allowing in. Right. It's exactly right. So I'm a doctor. your toothpaste and all of the things that we think our skin is protecting us from but very often it is allowing in right it's exactly right so i i'm a doctor i'm not just like a skincare formulator or company which makes skincare so i'm very you know we're i'm like you like we're thinking as a whole you know and it's like you know anti-inflammatory living is like get enough sleep don't stress or de-stress you know have an anti-inflammatory diet, anti-inflammatory living is like get enough sleep, don't stress or de-stress, you know, have an anti-inflammatory diet, take anti-inflammatory skincare products, you know, don't go in the midday sun, things like that. So it's a whole lifestyle around it.

And the lifestyle also regards our body. So if I use a shampoo with silicones and sulfates and tensiles and microplastic and all these fragrances and all this crazy stuff, our scalp is skin. It's very permeable. It takes on all those crazy ingredients, you know. And then we wonder, why do we have dandruff? Why do we lose hair? Why is all of this happening to us?

Because a lot of women think that it's hormonal related, but very often it's chemical related. Yeah, and you know what? We straighten our hair. We do like all this kind of stuff and put all these products in our hair all the time and it's chemical related. Yeah. And you know what? We straighten our hair. We do like all this kind of stuff and put all these products in our hair all the time and it touches our scalp. So I created this hair care, the whole line for hair care because, and I put ingredient

science in. So we have a line which works for anti-hair fall. It works because we put ingredient science in. You told me you have a product that in what, three months grows 50% more hair? Yeah. Is that for men and women? That's a supplement. That's the growth cycle supplement.

It's amazing. Really? What is in that? What's in that growth cycle supplement? For example, I told you, this ingredient from the millet. It's something very special, and it's clinically proven and tested that it supports hair growth after three months for 50%. Wow.

So it's amazing. But you can do so much with the products which touch your body for example for for the women here you know the female intimate area for example has a very low ph our skin by the way is acidic so if you wash your skin with soap which is very alkaline you mess up the ph and you mess up the microbiome which lives on our skin and for the female intimate which is very very acidic because there's just this one bacterium which needs the acidity and if you would wash yourself with soap it comes alkaline other bacterias come in and then the microbiome changes

then women get utis they get like all kinds of infections but this is like due to a change of the ph so if you create products which respect all these areas of our skin it's so much better and you know we talked about it like detergent whatever you wash your t-shirts with it comes on your skin and then you you you have this is like things which mig migrate into your skin as well. Every day. So it matters how you wash your clothes as well. So I created the detergent. I'm a little really wonka, you know.

You are really wonka. I'm just doing all of it. But I care so much about these things, you know. So tell me a little bit about the, you know, the line that you have outside of skincare i mean what are you doing in the detergents and dishwasher soap and and detergents to wash your laundry with what how are you getting the the dirt out and avoiding like harsh by the way the the detergent you know and we tested it and i hate for this to just be a product commercial but i want people to um to leave with the idea that it's you know chemical free living is more than just what you're putting on your skin.

It's performing super well, the detergent. What's it called? Dr. Sturm Detergent. Of course. How does it call? I have no idea. Dr. Sturm. It's called Dr. Sturm Detergent.

You know, weirdly, there's no fragrances in. It smells super good. Really? It gets all the job done. And I put skincare ingredients in, like aloe vera, purs all the job done and i put skincare ingredients in like aloe vera purslane oh you actually put skincare ingredients in the detergent so you actually get some skin benefit you just need tiny bits you don't need a lot it gets the job done it smells good and you do something good for your skin so this is all i wash my uh my clothes in and and where do you fall on sunlight?

You know, I mean, one of the things I tell people is that they wake up in the morning, you know, the first 45 minutes of the day, there's no UVA, there's no UVB rays. The first light is just a beautiful time to expose your skin to sunlight because you can also get the vitamin D3. But there is a pandemic of public policy against getting sun, know sunscreen sunscreen sunscreen all the time i see you know moms lathering their kids up in sunscreen before they go out they just think the sun is the absolute devil so where do you fall on you know sunscreens and um and sunlight exposure yeah you cannot demonize the sun as i said you're not born as a moon you need the sunlight so much and as i said obviously if you go if you take your kids to the beach if you go to the beach put sunscreen on definitely but you know if you strengthen your skin barrier

our skin also has a natural sun protection you know and then i did a supplement called sunskin with polyphenols to support your inner sun protection. Obviously, you have to balance. You also have to define what skin type am I. Do I get affected by the sun quickly or not? Am I very fair skin? Exactly. And then you need to use a good sunscreen, which has a nice protection, but also has a good filter.

What are some ingredients to look for in a sunscreen that would tell me that besides zinc um zinc oxide i mean i already i already put panthenol for example in in our sun drops our sun um sun block is called sun drops and panthenol for example already you know takes care of the damages possibly caused by the sun wow So it's a sunscreen that actually is beneficial for the skin. Yeah. So you can actually use it like a moisturizer. It's a skincare product. I already put like skincare ingredients, which help to, you know, help with the damages,

you know, caused by the sun. And that's something. But do you recommend that people constantly wear sunscreen every day that they go out outside, even if they're not outside now we have to talk about lifestyle too because you know it's also do you want to have no wrinkles do you want to have porcelain skin do you want to have no pigmentation do you want to not have any of the signs of aging then you better wear a big head wear sunscreen all day long gloves whatever you know use you know vitamin d as a supplementation i personally like to swim i like to do water sports i like to you know for me this is also life oh yeah you're

out happiness life sun for mental health you know obviously i you know my sunscreens are amazing i love them i don't mind them you know i i use them them 24-7? No, I use them when I need them. I know exactly how my skin reacts. This is where you have to really balance. And I know in America, especially, it's very, you know, people think sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. They do. Dermatologists tell you sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. But also if you think about dermatologists, they give you cortisone, antibiotics, lasers, acid pills, retinol, glycolic.

They give you all of these things which actually damage your skin barrier. Absolutely, yes. They have to tell you sunscreen 24-7. We talk about keeping what we got in the best shape and keeping our skin also functioning. So you decide when do you wear a sunscreen and when, you know, you don't need to wear it. I mean, there are even some articles that are pointing to the fact that as sunscreen has proliferated, the incidence of skin cancers have actually risen. I know, I know. In correspondence, which is really very interesting.

I don't know that I've read a clinical study, but I've read numerous number um that as the you know as the sunscreen industries really proliferated and all of these brands expanding to these um sunscreen brands and you know when you go into the shelf you have 7 15 35 50 now they have 70 and 100 i'm like how do you get 100 you know on also the difference between 50 and 30 is not that much. You know, one is 96% protection, one is 93%. I mean, there's not a big difference. It's the amount of sun exposure. So SPF 30, you could have twice as much sun exposure as SPF 15. Also, it's important when you use sunscreen, you have to use it everywhere.

Also on your ears, the back of the neck. And you have to use enough, and it has to get into your skin. Otherwise, it's not the right protection. Right. So it's also how we use sunscreen. But why do you think that there would be a correlation to the increase in the availability and use of sunscreens at the same time that you have a rise in skin cancers? I read that, and probably because, you know, as we already said, these chemicals are not amazing, you know, these are not great skincare ingredients. Yeah. And I think also very often, you know, we think that a lot of these pathologies and conditions are happening to us.

You know, I really believe that many of these are happening within us. Meaning that, you know, just like you said, if you live a pro-inflammatory lifestyle if you drink a lot of alcohol if you're actually exposing your skin to a lot of or exposing your your your blood your immune system to a lot of assaults micro assaults with all of these different you know um chemicals that we're exposed to and our water and our food and our air you're less capable of defending yourself meaning you're less likely to have it's nice that you say defending yourself our skin is also a defense system if you constantly destroy your defense system i mean we we need to do exactly the opposite we need to strengthen our skin strengthen give them the support it needs give the give the skin everything

it needs to maintain good health protection tool it's just such an important organ most of us have a very difficult time meeting our protein needs and certain protein sources like whey protein and others can be as little as 20 absorbable this is 99 absorbable and it has all of the essential amino acids that the body needs to build lean muscle, to recover, to improve our exercise performance, and most importantly, to repair after we have intense exercise. So this is called Perfect Amino by Body Health. It's, like I said, 99% absorbable. It only has two calories. Eventually the caloric intake has virtually no caloric intake. It will not break a fast. It tastes amazing. You mix it in water. I take this literally every single morning. If you're working out in a fasted state, you have to take a full

spectrum amino acid prior to your workout to preserve your lean muscle and make sure that you're recovering properly. And again, it will not break your fast so the caloric impact is virtually zero you get all of the full spectrum amino acids it tastes wonderful i use it every single day you can go to bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate that's bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate and look for the perfect aminos they actually come in capsules if you're on the go or it becomes in several flavors that they make in a powder which i love it's flavored with natural um uh means of flavoring so there's no artificial sweeteners in here so this is one of my absolute favorite products give it a try if you're working out at all you need a full spectrum

amino acid go to bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate that's bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate i love their lab tested products you can actually see the absorption rate for all of their products they've got great electrolyte protein combinations my favorite is the perfect aminos bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate. And now back to the ultimate human podcast. So middle-aged woman, let's say 35 to 60 years old, very concerned about the health and vitality and beauty of her skin. Where would she start? What would she get out of her routine? What would she add to her routine to to to have a world-class skincare routine that is not so cumbersome 15 steps um that she can do before she puts on her

makeup yeah so ingredient science a good hyaluronic serum you know like our super anti-aging serum is amazing for absolute hydration because what happens when we get older, our skin becomes more permeable and we have the transepidermal water loss. So we have to protect from dehydration. So the super anti-aging serum and the super anti-aging face cream are super, super good tools to really keep the skin barrier strong, give enough hydration, maybe take the super anti-aging supplement for telomerase activating from the inside you know so much about that i do but i mean for those people yes but telomerase activating and telomeres are

measure of your biological age their chromosomal they're sort of the top of a chromosome kind of like the uh the plastic piece on your shoelace right and as it as it gets shorter and shorter and shorter eventually the shoelaceays, so the chromosome dies, so the telomeres are a sign of your biological age rather than your chronological age. So this is telomerase activating. So the whole skincare line is telomerase activating, and I have a supplement corresponding to the skincare line as well. So hydration, anti-inflammation, telomerase activation and nutrition. So your cells go through your entire cell divisions instead of accelerating your cell

turnover, what the industry tells us we should do. So I believe in keeping your cells strong. Because as you accelerate cellular turnover, you really are borrowing from your future. You know, you're essentially just... I love when you say that. Yeah. You're just, you're essentially getting that benefit today, but you know, it's going to come knocking from your future. I love when you say that. You're essentially getting that benefit today, but it's going to come knocking in the future. Absolutely, yes. And then what I really like, if you get massages, or you use tuguacha, or you use a little vibrating tool,

not aggressive massages. What about a derma roller, the rollers that women use on their face with the microneedling? With the little microneedling. I've heard that those are terrible. But use like a very low, because they do it too much. You know, people think they need to bleed and they need to be red. That's, you know, self-inflicted damages. We shouldn't do that.

You know, if you want to do once a month a little microneedling with 0.2 millimeters, you know, fine. Do it a little bit with a hyaluronic serum. And then you follow up with a hyaluronic serum. Yeah, exactly. But don't make yourself bleed or something. But, you know, slight massages are great. And you know what? I always talk about the dry brushing, for example.

Not for your face, but for your legs and arms. Dry brushing is so great for exfoliation, for stimulating your fibroblasts, to produce collagen, for microcirculation. Really? Even in the skin of your arms? And how do you do the dry brushing? So we have a dry brush. You can get this also in any dry brush.

And you brush, I don't know, with the microphone. You brush your arms always towards the heart and the legs and your butt and everything. You massage, massage. When you're dry.

Dry, before taking a shower. It's's amazing and this will help with circulation from your skin especially here and the arms cellulite it's the best tool against cellulite there's nothing better and what do you what do you think about um there seems to be like a new laser treatment for fat and cellulite and skin toning and tightening every every week that I open a magazine. What about those men and women that actually have either saggy skin or cellulite or that cottage cheese appearance on the skin? Are you a fan of procedures to remove that? Try dry brushing first.

Dry brushing. Do it for six weeks. Six weeks of dry brushing. There you go. Do it. Do it like two, three times a week. Do do it try it and see how your skin changes and if then you still have like scarring whatever you can put a little filler or what you know there's so many treatments which can help to to to reduce the damages yeah but um i would use the driver it's the cheapest

and most effective tool for firm skin. Yeah. I mean, I tell people that my favorite biohack is mineral salts. And a $15 bag will last you five years. And it's got all the trace minerals in it. So dry brushing, I'm taking that one away. This has been amazing. I mean, I think my audience is really going to get a lot out of this. Where can they find out more about you?

Where can they find out more about your cosmetic line, your skincare line? Where can they find out more about you? Where can they find out more about your cosmetic line, your skincare line? Where can they find out more about you? So I do a lot of, you know, I started during COVID for the kids. You do a lot of education too, which I love. Yeah, I love, I love to talk about it. And, you know, I love when people ask questions

and want to know, I try to help and give advice. So we started skin school during COVID. Skin school? Skin school. So we do regularly skin schools to learn about because you know as you we we like our audience to be experts because then they can make good choices for themselves how to live their best lives right and so we do master classes that we on youtube we do you know i do a lot of education also on our instagram channel dr

barbara stern dr barbara stern and our website is very informative we have doctor's notes which You know, I do a lot of education also on our Instagram channel, drbarbarasturm. drbarbarasturm. And our website is very informative. We have doctor's notes, which, you know, we show anti-inflammatory recipes, about persimmon, whatever it is, you know, we do a lot of education also on the website. Is this at drbarbarasturm.com or drsturm.com? Oh, drsturm.com. drsturm.com. Yeah.

Amazing. Well, I finish every podcast by asking all my guests the same question. If you see my podcast, you know this question is coming. There's no right or wrong answer to it. But what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human? Personally, you know, I feel always very young, you know, and I ski every day in the winter. You do. You really do. I mean, this woman's a maniac in the snow.

I've seen it myself. And I'm like a little bunny. I'm always running around, and I have pepper, and then we do all kinds of things, and lots of sports. And I feel like I want to stay in my possible best shape ever as long as I can. And so I believe a lot in everything, what Ultimate Human does, what you do. And I love all those, you know, tools. I have it at my house and I do it regularly.

Because we're not just friends. You've been a client of mine for a long, long time. So when we met, Gary and I, we couldn't stop talking because we were also talking about the same thing anti-inflammation hydrogen we did we just ate each other's face we were like oh my god i couldn't believe that yeah we drove our staff crazy yeah when we were talking the same stuff and then you know gary you're such a such a nerd that you get the best machines and the best you know products from everywhere so and i just gobble everything up and i was like okay i do this i do this i do this so i i love everything you do and so it's it's for me it's it's a it's a privilege to be being able to give all these sources to myself to my family i i

am yeah i mean we we shift the red light bed to Switzerland. I was like, wow, you're committed. You need like the strongest, you know, power. Yeah. That wasn't easy. Yeah. Yeah. We had to redo the power in her house and like she, but she wanted that bed. She wanted the PMF mat. She wanted the oxygen.

No, I believe in all of it. And I do it religiously. As I said, after surgery, I was on the red light bed sometimes twice a day. I really, I'm religious about it. I mean, it's really's really really really becoming a lot more mainstream now too and if you're disciplined and i'm very disciplined i'm you know i've since i'm 16 i'm eating only healthy food i'm so such a healthy eater i take my eight hours of sleep i'm so disciplined about all of it and i love it and i think it makes me feel better i think it makes

you look better so you heard from another ultimate i think you're an ultimate human too, Dr. Sturm. I appreciate everything that you're doing to make an impact in this world. Same. Same to you. I want to give this back because what you do is really changing a lot of how people think about health and being a patient. I want to just be a patient being healthy. I don't want to be a patient when it's too late, when I'm sick.

I want to know what I can do to have my best life. You know, I think the whole world is, not the whole world, but I think there is a massive movement of people that are very like-minded. I would say five years ago, maybe not so. You know, when we talk about red light and gene testing and chemical free living,

I think that it was falling on deaf ears but i think post-pandemic oh um just doesn't matter which side of the aisle you fell on i mean it just hit people in such a way that they said you know i need to wake up and become my own citizen scientist and at least start going out and trying to gobble up information you can find everything on google if you question something gary's saying or i'm saying just go on google there's so many studies out there be your own expert believe some of it you know research the other stuff you know i don't want to get called out for it i don't want to preach i don't want to you know this is my experience my knowledge and i share it i love to share it and i want everybody to get the the power of the knowledge for themselves you can be your own doctor you can

do everything yourself everything your own citizen scientist You can do everything yourself, everything. Your own citizen scientist. You can get all the clinical studies out there right there in a library. Yeah, I agree. Dr. Sturm, thank you so much for coming all the way from Stad, Switzerland, you know, and spending some time with us today. I think our audience is going to get a lot out of this. I promise you I will put those products that she referred to in the ingredients.

She's going to send it to me and I'll put it in the show notes. We will research more products. I want to get a whole list of all products out there, especially the ones which are interesting for the tweens because they are the most vulnerable. Lots of moms concerned and dads concerned about what's going on with their young daughters putting all this stuff on their skin. So we'll do as much as we can to put that in the show notes so you guys can have access to it i'll also put it up on the ultimatehuman.com website and make it available for download for free and as always that's just science