Healthy Skin or Wrinkle-Free Skin: How Will You Age? with Dr. Anthony Youn

This episode discusses holistic approaches to skincare and aging, focusing on the impact of lifestyle, diet, and cosmetic interventions on skin health.

1. Holistic Skincare Approaches: Emphasis on integrating diet, supplements, and lifestyle changes to support skin health.
2. Critical View of Botox and Fillers: Discussion of the benefits and risks associated with common cosmetic procedures like Botox and dermal fillers.
3. Impact of Diet on Skin: Exploration of how certain diets, fasting, and specific foods can influence skin quality.
4. Use of Saunas and Red Light Therapy: Insight into non-invasive treatments that can enhance skin health.
5. Psychological Aspects of Aging: Reflections on societal attitudes towards aging and the psychological impact of our self-image as we age.

1: Introduction to Guest and Topic

Dr. Mindy Pelz introduces Dr. Anthony Youn, highlighting his expertise in holistic plastic surgery. The conversation sets the stage for a deep dive into aging and skincare.

• Dr. Mindy Pelz: "Today, we're exploring holistic approaches to manage aging skin with Dr. Anthony Youn."

2: Deep Dive into Botox and Fillers

The pros and cons of Botox and fillers are discussed, providing listeners with a balanced view of these popular cosmetic treatments.

• Dr. Anthony Youn: "While Botox is widely used, it's crucial to understand both its benefits and potential risks."

3: Lifestyle and Diet's Role in Skin Health

Discussion on how lifestyle choices, including diet and fasting, play a crucial role in maintaining skin health.

• Dr. Anthony Youn: "Integrating a balanced diet and regular fasting can lead to noticeable improvements in skin health."

4: Exploring Non-invasive Treatments

Examination of treatments like saunas and red light therapy, discussing their benefits for skin health.

• Dr. Anthony Youn: "Saunas and red light therapy can be great additions to your skincare routine without the need for invasive procedures."

5: Societal Perceptions and Psychological Impact

A look at how societal views on aging affect our psychological wellbeing and self-perception.

• Dr. Anthony Youn: "Our perception of aging can deeply influence our mental health and the choices we make about our skin."

1. Adopt a Holistic Skincare Routine: Incorporate a balanced diet, adequate hydration, and regular exercise into your daily routine to enhance skin health.
2. Be Cautious with Cosmetic Procedures: Consider the long-term effects and potential risks associated with procedures like Botox and fillers.
3. Explore Natural Skin Treatments: Investigate the benefits of non-invasive treatments such as saunas and red light therapy.
4. Educate Yourself on Skin Health: Stay informed about the latest research and advancements in skincare to make knowledgeable decisions.
5. Embrace Aging Gracefully: Focus on maintaining health and vitality through natural methods, rather than over-relying on cosmetic interventions.

Explore the secrets of aging skin care with Dr. Anthony Youn, America's holistic plastic surgeon. Known for his engaging TikTok advice and bestselling books, Dr. Youn shares expert insights on daily routines, the pros and cons of Botox and fillers, and lifestyle factors that influence skin health. Discover the benefits of infrared saunas, red light therapy, diet, and fasting in maintaining youthful skin. This episode is packed with practical tips and debunks common myths, making it a must-listen for anyone serious about achieving a healthy, glowing complexion.

People

Dr. Mindy Pelz, Dr. Anthony Youn

Companies

None

Books

"Younger for Life" by Dr. Anthony Youn

Guest Name(s):

Dr. Anthony Youn

Content Warnings:

None

Mindy Pelz
On this episode of the Resetter podcast, I am bringing you Doctor Anthony Yoon, and we are going to dive into what you need to know about aging skin. This is such a juicy conversation. So a little bit about Doctor Yoon, and he is so articulate. I'm so excited for you guys to hear this one. But he's known as America's holistic plastic surgeon.

He is nationally recognized, board certified plastic surgeon. You may, some of you may actually recognize him from TikTok. He had a whole interesting run with showing different do's and don'ts around skin and healthcare on TikTok. But he also, you might know some of his other best selling books like the age fix in stitches, playing God. He even had a tv, a public television special called the Age Fix, which had millions of views.

And he now has a really popular podcast called the Holistic Plastic Surgery show. And he has a new book out, which I highly recommend. We talk about it here in this interview. It's called younger for life. Now, let me tell you a little bit about what you're going to hear in this conversation.

So I wanted a more holistic approach to skincare. Everything from daily and nightly routines around skincare and stay all the way till the end. He talks about that. We unpack Botox. I start off this conversation wanting to know the pros and cons to Botox, and I think he gave a really good explanation of what you need to know and what the positives and negatives of Botox and fillers.

We talk about fillers as well. We then dove into lifestyle and what can you do to support healthy skin with diet and fasting and supplements. We even tackle everything from do saunas actually work? Infrared saunas, finished saunas, steam baths. I wanted to know about red light therapy.

What did he think of that? And of course, fasting. He has some really fun anecdotal studies, and he did his own case study before he sent his book out into the world younger for life, where he did a combination of fasting mixed with a ketogenic style diet. And you'll hear it from him, what he noticed in skin changes. Applying those two pieces, which I know a lot of you who've been following me, are fasting and are also doing the ketogenic or the ketobiotic diet that I recommend.

It's a deep discussion you're about to hear. I think this level of nuance and thoroughness is how we should be approaching skin. And Doctor Anthony Yoon was the one to bring it to you. So whatever skin answers you're looking for you find it here. So as always, I hope it helps.

And Doctor Yoon, take it away. Welcome to the Resetter podcast. This podcast is all about empowering you to believe in yourself again. If you have a passion for learning, if you're looking to be in control of your health and take your power back, this is the podcast for you.

Let me just welcome you. Thank you for coming to the Resetter podcast. You and I, our paths have actually crossed. We know a lot of people in common, but we've never had a conversation. So I'm really excited for this.

So thank you for joining me. Yeah, I'm excited to chat too. This will be fun. Great. You know, it's funny.

On a topic of health and skin and beauty, I feel like the first place I want to start with, because it's something that I've been asking myself, watching how the world is navigating menopause and perimenopause. And that is, why are we so resistant to aging? And why are we doing everything possible to stop that process and slow that process down? I think it's honestly, it's as simple as how it feels to look in the mirror and see something reflected, an image reflected of you that does not necessarily reflect what's on your inside, you know? So how many people who are in their fifties or sixties or seventies, and they feel so much younger than what they see in the mirror, they still feel like they're in their twenties or their thirties, yet the image that's projected back to them isn't the same.

Anthony Youn
And it's hard not to be just a little bit sad inside sometimes. And so then you contrast that with how you feel. Let's say if you go to a store and you buy a new outfit that you just feel really good in, and there's nothing wrong with feeling that way. There's nothing wrong with. With getting a new outfit and going out in public for the first time and going out to dinner and feeling that sense of self confidence.

And so we all want to feel that no matter whether we take certain steps to go that direction or not, we all kind of enjoy that feeling. And so I think that's part of the issue. And, you know, I'm happy to chat with menopause and some of the changes that happened there, changes that, you know, you just don't have, you know, as much control, I think, as you would like to. Oftentimes women don't. Throughout that process, obviously, you've been great at giving them as much of those reins as possible, working on it, yeah.

But it's a challenge because, you know, you can't necessarily stop menopause from happening, although you can change how, how it happens to you. Yeah. So what's interesting and part of why I asked the question that I started with is that I've had, I found myself in my own internal conflict around my aging process. It's, like, on, on one end of the spectrum, do you know that one of the faces that I find so attractive are whenever you see in social media, that, like, indigenous woman who's been out in the sun and has so many wrinkles, and there's, like, so much wisdom and history, and I look at that, and I'm like, I want to sit and have a conversation with that woman. And then I go to the mirror and look at my own self.

Mindy Pelz
And I do have that feeling some days of, like, the person I'm seeing in the mirror isn't the person I see inside of me. And then I'm always thinking about the society as a whole. And I'm really concerned right now that we have a culture of people that are so resistant to aging because either they don't feel good about themselves or the patriarchal world. The way that it exists right now has it so that women are considered worthy if they're beautiful. And when they're not beautiful, they're no longer worthy.

And maybe we should really be addressing all of that. And so when it comes to skincare, especially some of the more toxic versions of skincare, I get really worried that we as a culture, are heading down the wrong path. I hear you, and I'm a plastic surgeon. Yes. 90% of the people we see in my office are women.

Anthony Youn
And society is not kind to women as they get older. That's true. Now, in an ideal world, we would say, you know what? Whether you grow older with the wrinkles or not, it shouldn't matter. There's beauty in everybody.

And that's one of the statements that I try to put out there on my social media, is that there is beauty in everybody. No matter what size you are, no matter, no matter what shape you are, no matter how your skin looks, there is beauty in you. But at the same time, we also live in a society where, you know, we are bombarded with these images, especially with social media of wrinkle free, smooth faces. And it's hard not to get caught up in that. And I think that, you know, the way I look at aging overall, and I try to encourage this to my patients and my followers, is that it really, it's a gift to get older, you know?

Yes, it is a privilege to get older. And because when you think about it, I mean, who wants the alternative? But at the same time, sometimes it's not so fun to see those changes and feel those changes in your body. And so the way I try to encourage people is think of it as a blessing because we don't want the alternative. You know, the alternative is you're in the ground, but at the same time, enjoy that process of getting older.

And if part of that enjoyment is fighting it every step of the way by enjoying a fun skincare routine, by eating great foods, by going to restaurants that, you know, are actually fueling your body with anti inflammatory healthy foods and enjoying those meals, then why not, you know, why not buy that outfit that you feel really good in? You know, we only live once. And so whatever it takes for yourself in general to feel great about yourself, then by all means do that. Where obviously we stop the line is when you're doing harmful things or doctors are promoting harmful things that aren't going to necessarily get you to that point. Yeah.

Mindy Pelz
Oh, that's so well said. So that leaves the question of how do we know if it's harmful or not? So, and I, and before we get into the natural stuff, I want to unpack some of the unnatural stuff. So I'll give you an example. And then this is like full transparency.

Only the people closest to me know this. I get comments a lot on socials of people asking me why I don't Botox. And I've even had some rude comments. Somebody sent me a message and said, I'm the same age as you. I do Botox and you look much older than me.

And I have a personal value system for my health, and that is that I spent most of my forties detoxing myself so that I could bring my hormones back into balance. I could get my mind on track. So the last thing I want to do is start to inject myself with a poison that's going to put me back into hormonal dysregulation. And that's my lens. And I always tell people, like, I'm not trying to project my ethos onto you.

This is just the what? I have spent too long trying to detox. And so there are certain things I avoid. So let's start with some of the things we're seeing, like the fillers and the Botox and some of those. How toxic are they?

How do we know if that's good or bad for us? First of all, nobody should ever be shamed for not doing a cosmetic procedure. I mean, it's just not right. It's mean, and it's unnecessary. You and I both know we have a lot of friends in the alternative medicine space who are all about clean living.

Anthony Youn
And we know that they're doing botos and we know that they're doing filler, and sometimes they're doing too much of it. Yes. Thank you. So let's just get to, let's start with Botox. It's the number one cosmetic treatment in the history, probably, of the world.

Every year, at least 7 million Americans undergo botox injections. So botox is a toxin. It's botulinum toxin, which is a protein that is one of the most powerful toxins in the world. And what it does is when you inject it into the area of muscles, basically skeletal muscles, that that create basically contractions, that it will actually prevent the nerve impulses to that muscle temporarily. It blocks the transmission of nerve impulses to certain muscles.

Now, it was initially used for medical purposes. Somebody, let's say, has an esophageal spasm. You inject botox into the esophagus, that esophageal muscle, and it relaxes it. And where we started seeing, actually, the cosmetic results, it was a husband wife team dermatologist and an ophthalmologist in Canada. And the ophthalmologist was injecting botox around the muscles of the eye to prevent spasming of those eye muscles.

And the dermatologist wife noticed that, geez, in those patients, that you're injecting it into the eyelid to prevent spasm of that eyelid, the wrinkles got better, and they started thinking, well, what if we inject the tiniest amount in certain muscles that create wrinkles of facial expression? And those most common muscles are the muscles of the glabella, which are the corrugator muscles, the muscles that create the vertical wrinkles of the frown lines between the eyebrows. There are the forehead horizontal muscles. Those are the frontalis muscles of the forehead. And then the orbicularis oculi, which are the muscles that cause you to crinkle your eyes or squint.

And those can create crow's feet. And if you inject botox into those muscles, that prevents those transmission of nerve impulses for about three to four months, which will basically soften those wrinkles because those muscles aren't creating them anymore. Right. It lasts three or four months, and then it wears off. And then those muscles typically come back again, so big question is, how harmful is botox now?

It's interesting. I had a good friend of mine who's in the alternative medicine space, and she called me one day and she said, look, I had some botos injections, and not that long afterwards, I started having all these weird neurologic symptoms. She said, I've done some research on it. I can't find anything on it. And this actually was a doctor of natural medicine, and she said, can you ask some of your dermatology colleagues if they've seen it?

So I started calling colleagues of mine. People have been doing this for 2030 years. Like myself, none of us have had a single, a definite case where somebody has had true neurologic issues from Botox. And I'll tell you, Mindy, in my office, we've probably treated, realistically, 20 or 30,000 botos treatments in the last 20 years, and I've not had a single patient ever have a true severe complication from it. The most that we've ever had that we know of is a little bit of a droopy eyelid, when the bottas unfortunately migrates to the eyelid muscle.

And that happens for about three to four months. That being said, you can go down the rabbit hole. And there are Facebook groups of people who do believe they have systemic reactions and neurologic reactions to Botox. It's something that hasn't been, unlike breast implant illness, it doesn't appear to be widespread. I think that anybody can react in any way to any substance that we can't necessarily explain, and that could be a situation there.

So in general, I do believe that Botox overall is safe for, for most people, obviously, there's always going to be potential outliers. But unlike breast implants, I think those outliers are quite few and far between. Yeah, yeah. I mean, because they're both plus versions of plastic surgery, I could really see the logic behind one is an injection, and one lives inside your body, and anything that's inside your body has, and if it goes awry, has the potential to continue to toxify the body. So, you know, in my clinic for about 15 years, half of my clinic was detoxing people.

Mindy Pelz
So we would detox everything from people, women that had breastplate implant illness to just, you know, food allergies. So my brain does slant more, like, just avoid the toxins, otherwise you may have to detox it later. There was actually an interesting study in rats where they did inject botox into the facial muscle of rats, and then they sampled their cerebrospinal fluid and did find botox in the CSF, but we don't know that. We have not seen at all any type of known true manifestation from that type of finding. Like I said, it doesn't mean that people can't.

Anthony Youn
That won't happen. It's just that in our scientific literature, there just hasn't been these types of cases other than what you hear anecdotally, like I said, online and stuff like that. So, yeah, that's what we have. Yeah. What's interesting about the toxic part of this conversation, and maybe pertains to the naturopathic doctor that you chatted with, is that if you think about it, we all have a toxic load.

Mindy Pelz
We have like, a toxic bucket. And so if your toxic bucket is low or your genetics are able to handle a lot of toxins, you may not notice anything. But if your toxic bucket is high or your genetics make it so that you tend to react to toxins very quickly, then I can see where something like the systemic part of this poison. Sorry, it is. I mean, that's what it is.

Going into your body could have an adverse effect. So do we know, is the half life three to four months? Like, what's the half life? For it to clear your system, the. Half life is gonna be shorter than that because typically by three to four months, it's gone.

Ah, yeah. So it's like a month. So, yeah, so it's gonna be shorter. And then there are longer lasting botulinum toxins. There are shorter lasting ones depending on how they're cross linked and.

Anthony Youn
And, you know, what proteins are attached to and that type of a thing. But, yeah, I think it's. It's an interesting thing because, I mean, it has been used, unlike some other treatments that has been used for decades, and we don't have any, unlike, let's say, breast implant illness. There isn't this kind of upswelling of, like, geez, there's, you know, thousands of people who have had these types of reactions, and. And.

And we can group them together because they have similar types of things. My friend, actually, who had these issues ended up having ALS. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I don't think the LS had anything to do with her.

One treatment of Botox like, this is a whole other deal. Yeah. In that situation, I mean, I don't know her history, but it could have been the final toxic toxin that just flared it all up. So. And I agree with you, I think when, especially when you're looking at skincare products and personal hygiene and, you know, and house cleaning products and all that.

That's what a lot of traditional medicine does not take into account, is exactly what you said, is that there are studies that show, you know, if you are taking this, if you have this skincare product and it has a formaldehyde releaser in it, and maybe those studies show that if that's all you're exposed to, that you're very unlikely to get cancer from it. But they're not taking into account all of the other exposures that you are exposed to every single day, from automobile exhaust to, you know, the other cleaning products that are used when you go to work to the, you know, ultra processed foods that you're eating and all that other stuff that can definitely contribute to this. Yeah. So then my second challenge that I see with Botox, and again, like, I really, as I talk about this publicly, I'm always like, everybody do them. Like, this is just my own personal value system, is that we're seeing 20 and 30 year olds do it.

Mindy Pelz
I'm over here trying to help the 20 and 30 year olds get their menstrual cycle back, because when fast, like a girl went out into the world, I was inundated with the 20 and 30 year olds that have no cycle. And I believe part of that is a toxic piece. But one of the challenges that I'm concerned about, if we have a generation of people using this type of therapy to freeze their face, is we lose the ability to read human emotion. We lose the ability to be able to connect. I was recently on a podcast where the woman definitely had a large amount of something going on, and I could not tell.

When she asked me a question, I couldn't tell if she was respond, if she liked my answer. And I was there to serve her audience. And I found it really difficult to figure out if we were having a good conversation or not. So is there a way to navigate that? Because that's another huge concern.

I want to see people's hearts, and if I can see people's hearts and emotions on their face, if I can't see it there, how else am I going to know how to really connect with somebody? Yeah. And, you know, it's very interesting because the facial expressions that you make can have a profound impact on your mood and how you feel. And there actually are people. And the testing have, I'm sure some of this was supported by Allergan, who makes Botox, but there are studies that show that if you get injections of Botox, it does actually reduce the amount of depression, technically, in these patients in general, and the belief is that it's because you are not frowning as much is that you did the depends on what muscles that you inject.

Anthony Youn
So, just for your example, one of the things in my family that runs in my family is a permanent frown. My grandpa had, like, one of the worst permanent frowns ever. And my dad has a permafround and I'm 51. And as I'm getting older, I always notice, like, I'm getting this permafround. Yeah.

So I had the tiniest amount of Botox injected. Under each corner of the mouth, there's a muscle called the depressor anguli oris. And now it's weird, but I literally cannot make that permafround for about three or four months. And my hope is that I don't end up with my dad and my grandpa's permafround. But there are studies that do show that it can potentially help with depression.

However, at the same time, if you're over botoxing, then it makes complete sense. Exactly. What you're saying is that it may potentially dull your overall moods and not allow you to be able to project what you're feeling if you're way overdoing it. Yeah. Now currently dose matters.

It really does. And I think the amount that you do, like, if, like right now currently have a little bit right here between my brows, and I have a little bit. A tiny bit right here and here. And that's it. But there are people who will do their entire forehead, they'll do the crow's feet, and then they do scattered around the neck and stuff like that around the lips.

And it's a lot. And in the end, and it's too much, especially talking about people in their twenties and their thirties, when they don't really benefit from it anyway. They don't need it. Yeah. And there is this idea called prejuvination where I think it's.

Honestly, it's greed, it's doctors who want to make money, and it's like, hey, you're 21. Come on in. Let's do some botox. Hey. Hey.

It's fun. We do it on social media, and it's just not the right thing. Yeah. And, okay, so then thank you for going down that path with me, because we haven't had a really good discussion about Botox. And I, again, think everybody should make a smart choice for themselves.

Mindy Pelz
But what I get concerned about is something you said in the beginning of this conversation, which is if it's safe to do. And when I talk to people who have gone down the plastic surgery path, like a, they don't even know botox is a poison. They're like, oh, what do you mean, it's a poison? So I just feel like we should be able to make educated decisions real quick, real quickly. Cause I do wanna go into all of the natural stuff.

And your new book, what about fillers? I don't really understand fillers very much, but is it still very popular? Yeah. So fillers are number two in popularity. And the way to.

Anthony Youn
The way to think about filler, very different than botox filler. The original filler was collagen. And you and I both know collagen makes up a huge portion of our skin. 70% of our skin is collagen. So it made sense when they started developing fillers to start with collagen, because the way you want to think about filler, it's like liquid skin you injected into areas to plump up the skin to fill in lines.

Now we can do it to plump up the cheeks. The problem with the original collagen, and, and you and I both remember the movie beaches and back. Barbara Hershey back then was made fun of because they said that she had collagen injected into her lips back then. Yeah. Collagen only lasts about two to three months.

And so because of that, it fell by the wayside. And now the fillers are mainly made out of hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring moisturizer of our skin, and you can cross link it and. And adapt it to make it so that it's really thin for, let's say, thin parts of the face, like some people inject under the eyes. Or you can actually cross link it and make it fairly thick if you want to, let's say, inject into the cheeks to make the cheekbones look bigger, or let's say somebody has a smaller chin.

You want to inject it to project their chin more, that type of a thing. Now, fillers typically last, especially ha. Hyaluronic acid fillers last much longer than Botox. You're looking at six months, up to one to two years. Unlike botox, it's not a toxin.

It basically, like I said, it's like liquid skin. You inject it, and it fills that area out. Unlike botox, though, filler can have very devastating results if it's done inappropriately. And the fear that we get is called intravascular injection, where you accidentally inject filler into an artery, it clogs that artery. And now the body part that is supplied blood by that artery can become ischemic, meaning it doesn't have enough blood flow.

And if a body part doesn't have enough blood flow, it can eventually necrose or actually die. And there have been people who've had filler injected into the lips and have lost portions of their lip filler injected into the nasolabial folds, which are the smile lines from the nose to the corner of the mouth, and have lost parts of their nose afterwards. And people have even had injected into the nose to reshape it, and they've gone blind from it. Oh, my God. So you've got to be more than my book.

Yes. With Filler. Filler, you know, botas, other than what we've talked about, with the potential systemic issues, which I think are quite rare, filler, if somebody screws you up, they can really, really screw you up. Yeah. Yeah.

Mindy Pelz
You know who I think of with fillers, and surely she's not your patient, but is Courteney Cox. She went, you know, she really, like, took the filler thing to an extreme, and the media got ahold of it, and, I mean, I don't know if that was true or not. There's so many. Yeah. And she did.

Anthony Youn
She admitted that. She said, look, I had a little bit of filler, and I thought, hey, this looks really good. And then I kept going back for more and more and more. And then the next thing I knew, I looked in the mirror and, like, what did I do to myself? And that's a problem with Filler, is if you're going to consider it, you got to be very careful who you choose to do it.

And less is more, you know, really, less is more. I don't think, you know, with Filler, I don't think that I've never heard of a, you know, like, a. More of a systemic type of an issue with it, because it is just hyaluronic acid. You know, it is a naturally occurring substance, and it does. Your body does break it down where it can have issues, like I said, is that intravascular injection, as well as you can get lumpiness from it, and then you can get it infected.

You know, if it's. It's essentially a foreign body, that if. If it's done non sterilely, that foreign body gets infected, then that can create a major, major problem. Yeah. So.

Mindy Pelz
Okay, great. Thank you for letting me go down that path. I trust you. I trust your opinion, and, you know, it's nice to hear. So now let's dive into, you know, your new book, younger for life, and talk about, you have five strategies, natural strategies.

So can you go through those natural strategies? And as you go through them, can you talk a little bit about how they pertain to the menopausal woman? Because for sure I saw changes to my skin as I went through the perimenopausal process. Yeah, so a couple of things. You know, I think, let's start with talking about what is truly aging our skin.

Anthony Youn
And I look at five different factors that will that cause our skin to age. And a big part of that happens also with menopause. So five things that age our skin. Number one is nutrient depletion. And this is something that I cover in the book.

There is a belief amongst alternative medicine circles that our food is not as nutritious as it used to be. And the interesting thing about that is you may talk to traditional doctors about that and they may say, well, where's the science of it? There actually was a study that looked at are fruits and vegetables between the years 1950 and 1999. And they looked at the nutritional content in this produce and found over those 49 years, a gradual reduction in six key nutrients. And three of them really stood out to me, protein, iron and vitamin C.

And this study concluded in 1999. And we can only imagine where we are now, you know, 25 years later. So it is true. This study actually did prove that our food is not as nutritious as it used to be. And so what should you do?

You know, things that you've talked about on your podcast before, you know, it's wanting to, ideally, if you can afford it, go, you know, go with organic foods. Because there are studies that do show that organic foods do have a better nutritional value than conventional. Also, obviously looking for real foods and getting rid of the ultra processed foods, that's number one thing is nutrient depletion. Number two, can I ask a question on that? What if you have gut dysbiosis?

Mindy Pelz
So like, what if you're. It's something I constantly think about with, which is you could take the most amazing supplement, but if your gut microbiome is off, is that nutrient going to be able to be absorbed? I think that's something that definitely is a concern and that's something too. That's part of the aging of the skin, is your gut and gut health and inflammation. So that's one of the main cause of age in the skin is chronic inflammation.

Anthony Youn
And one of the things that I encourage people to do in the book is to eat those foods that can reduce inflammation. Yeah. And so what are some foods like that? You're talking about foods that are rich in omega three fatty acids, like cold water, fish, monounsaturated fatty acid rich foods like nuts and seeds. And you're also talking about foods that will help to soothe the microbiome.

And so fermented foods. And really, as you know, the standard american diet is basically sterile. You know, it is devoid of fermented food. It's dead food. It's dead food.

Yeah. That's devoid of any probiotics. And so definitely eating fermented foods, that's it. Those are some really key things to reduce chronic inflammation, including reducing sugar as well. You know, sugar really is the main source of food based aging of our bodies.

And so reducing that can help reduce that chronic inflammation. What about alcohol? Does alcohol add to that too? Yeah, so alcohol obviously is a toxin, and that too can increase chronic inflammation. I'm not sure.

You know, the another cause of aging of the skin of those five is gonna also be free radicals and oxidation, obviously, depending on the alcohol. You know, there is an argument that having up to one glass of red wine can be beneficial for some due to the antioxidant content too, but that also is controversial. You know, there is more and more people believing that just the toxic effects of alcohol supersede the potential benefits of those antioxidants. Yeah, yeah, agreed. It's a hard, that's a hard one.

Mindy Pelz
Yeah, maybe it adds it, but then it depletes it, you know? Yeah, I get you. So, um, and so then the other causes of aging of the skin, oxidation and free radicals, big cause of that is gonna be, uh, ultra processed foods. And so going back once again to eating the real foods over the ultra processed. And then the other two cause evasion of the skin, two big ones.

Anthony Youn
And we'll definitely focus on this. Number one is reduction of collagen. So I mentioned earlier, collagen makes up 70% to 80% of our skin. That is a part of our skin. That makes our skin feel firm and tight and youthful.

And what happens as we get older, starting about in our mid twenties, mindy, we lose about 1% of the thickness of collagen every year. But there was a say that found that women after menopause, in the five years after menopause, they lose 30% of the thickness of collagen. I thought you were going to say we get it back. I wish. 30% of collagen in the first five years and then 2% every year after that.

And that's why you do see some women who are in their seventies, eighties, and their skin can be tissue paper thin. And so really focusing on how can you rebuild collagen? You know, you've talked about a lot of those types of things on the podcast as well. Fifth thing is going to be buildup of cellular waste, and that's where essentially our cells build up with cellular waste and autophagy, intermittent fasting, that's how you get rid of it. Got it.

Which I know is that's your favorite. Yeah, no, but I do. Since I have you here as a skin expert, I do want to go into what fasting and tat Fuji does for the skin, because I saw in my own clinic, like, people would, patients would walk in the door and I could tell by the glow of their skin if they were on a fast or not. So we'll go through that. But back to collagen.

Mindy Pelz
If I take collagen, does that do anything? Yeah, so that's a great question. And if you were to talk, as so many people, I talk about collagen on social media and I get so many people say, you know what, my family doctor told me that it's not worth the money. How many times have I heard that in comments? It's insane.

Anthony Youn
Like, I don't know what these family doctors are reading now. If you were to say ten years ago that the science shows that collagen supplements are not necessarily proven to work, or maybe the science is not clear then ten years ago, maybe that would be a reasonable conclusion to make, but it's very different now. Now, there are many, many studies that have looked at the effects of taking a hydrolyzed collagen peptide supplement and its effects on the skin. And the studies are very clear that it supports the health and the collagen content of your skin. So, for example, there have been meta analyses.

There was one published in 2021 of 1100 patients, another one published just last year, 2023 of over 1700 patients who took hydrolyzed collagen peptide supplements. And after about two to three months found an increase, number one, in the hydration of the skin, number two, in the thickness of skin. And number three, there have even been studies that have actually put people on these supplements. They have actually drawn their blood afterwards, and they have biopsied their skin and found pro collagen, which is a collagen precursor in the blood, as well as an increase in the collagen content in the skin when you biopsy the skin. So the studies really are very clear.

Now, if you don't know that, then it's just because you haven't read the studies. And if people are saying nowadays that, well, it's not clear, we don't know, it's because you haven't actually looked at the studies. The studies are very clear. Amazing. I know at some point we'll go through supplementation, but, and you'll hopefully give us some advice on what would be the best collagen supplement.

Mindy Pelz
Because I know people listening are going to be thinking that, yeah, it actually. Is really important because there is a difference. The argument that people make that collagen supplements don't work is that collagen is a large protein. And how do you know that large protein is going to actually be, uh, digested and it's gonna be absorbed by your body. And that's why you want to look for a hydrolyzed collagen supplement.

Anthony Youn
Because hydrolyzing collagen, you take that large protein and you break it down into individual amino acids and peptides, which are smaller groups of amino acids. It's done that way on purpose so that your body can actually absorb it. And once again, that's when they get those, those blood tests and find that there's an increase in collagen, actually in the blood after you ingest these supplements. Amazing. Amazing.

Mindy Pelz
Okay, let's just put a hypothetical situation out. I'm a 48 year old woman. I'm quickly heading into my postmenopausal years. I'm noticing wrinkles showing up. I'm not sure I want to go down the Botox and filler pathway.

What do I. Is there a protocol or a strategy to slow that process down? Yes. So a number of things. The first thing you do want to speak with your doctor about whether hormone replacement therapy is right for you.

Anthony Youn
There are studies that do show that women on HRT actually have a. A recurrence or how would I describe it? An increase, I guess, would probably the easiest way to describe it, an increase the amount of collagen in their skin once they start HRT. So it will actually replenish your skin with collagen? Yeah.

So that's a number one thing. Number two, what about testosterone, if, before we move off the hormone replacement? Because again, just so my audience knows, I've been playing around with a bunch of different bioidenticals and I can tell the days that I do my estrogen cream and the days I do my testosterone cream, I absolutely see a difference in my skin. Interesting. Yeah.

I haven't seen any studies that have looked specifically at testosterone. The ones that I've seen has been estradiol. That's been the big thing is estrogen. So we do believe that the drop in estrogen and menopause is one of the big contributors to why our skin thins so much. Yeah.

Mindy Pelz
Okay. So, yeah, I can't comment. Cause I haven't seen any studies on. It, but, yeah, I mean, I'm doing an n of one over here, but I just noticed, because I've been paying close attention to my skin, that those two are the ones. I mean, progesterone helps me sleep, which is amazing, but those two, I see a change in skin.

Anthony Youn
Yeah. And so obviously you want to look at a whole body approach because if, you know, one of the big ages of skin is stress, uh, and lack of sleep, and obviously you go through perimenopause and you, and, you know, you have increased amounts of stress and anxiety, sleep patterns get disrupted. So really, those the stuff that you have recommended, you know, you know, lifestyle modifications. I have this in my book, younger for life, but these are basic stuff that you've covered before, um, lifestyle modifications to help increase sleep and stress and all that. Reduce stress.

All that's super important. But when you're looking at, let's say, diet, then you're going to want to look at, okay, what's going to increase the collagen content in my skin? Well, once again, collagen is a big protein, and so you do want to increase the amount of protein that you eat, uh, because you need those protein precursors to promote collagen synthesis. Uh, same thing is vitamin C. Vitamin C is definitely a precursor.

It's very important for creation of collagen. That's why we learned way back in high school biology that sailors would go off sailing out into the ocean and they run out of fresh fruits and vegetables, they develop scurvy due to lack of vitamin C, and they start getting skin irritation, wounding of the skin and lesions and all of that. So vitamin C, super, super important. So really increase the amount of healthy proteins that you eat. That's number one.

Number two, you definitely want to get on some vitamin C. Cause that's going to support the collagen of the skin and then bone broth. Interestingly enough, you know, there are studies that do show that collagen supplements, like I mentioned, work. The question is, is does bone broth improve the skin? You and I, we have friends of ours that love bone broth, and they'll say, look, I feel it in my skin.

They're actually, and we know that bone broth is essentially pure collagen. But unfortunately, there aren't any studies that show that bone broth can help improve the collagen of their skin, but there aren't any studies that show that it doesn't. So you just have to assume that it probably does because it's pure collagen. Yeah. And so definitely, I'm a fan of bone broth.

Mindy Pelz
Okay. So I just did something. I've. I've. I love bone broth.

I've been, you know, using it on and off for years, and recently, I've fallen in love with it more for a variety of reasons. I like to play with different types of fasts. And so it was like a month ago, I just, I was having some joint pain, feeling really stiff, and I thought, let me just fast for three days, and all I'm going to do is bone broth, and I'm going to see if the collagen in the bone broth will help between that and bringing the inflammation down from the fasting, if it will help the joints. And I decided to add a little collagen powder to the bone broth. So I was like, let me double up on it.

Absolutely. After three days, I had so much better mobility in the joints. The pain had gotten away. But the interesting piece that I noticed was my skin. Not only did it look more hydrated, but the color of it even changed.

Like, it was even like a brighter sort of, you know, natural color of my skin. And I really, really became a fan after that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think part of that is the autophagy process, too, with the fasting.

Anthony Youn
You know, we have seen in my book, we have a 21 day jumpstart where literally just three weeks. And, you know, how much change are you going to see in your skin in three weeks? It's impressive. What you can see with people. And what we did, basically, is we cleaned up their diet in the first week.

And then weeks two and three, we put them essentially on an anti inflammatory type of a diet. We got rid of ultra processed foods, we got rid of foods with added sugars. We got rid of gluten and dairy. So cleaned everything up. And then weeks two and three, we just added, just for those people who haven't fasted before, two days a week of a eight, six, eight hour 16 fast, where they just fast for those 16 hours, make it super easy for them.

And the thing that we added that was, I thought, really interesting as I tried it, is in the days that they refeed after fasting, at noon, they go essentially on a ketogenic type of a diet, because we do know that even though eating high fat foods may break your fast, they actually can help support autophagy. So we put them on what we call an autophagy supporting diet, which is going to be high fat foods, moderate amount of protein and very low carb. And literally for three weeks. We also put them on some very basic supplements, and we had them on a very simple skincare routine, literally taking two minutes a day. And what we would find after three weeks was astounding.

You know, we started off with a small group that we tested for my book. And then when the book came out, we had a group of 10,000 people who did this 21 day jumpstart. And number one thing they always said is their energy levels were through the roof. And then number two, they said their skin was vibrant and glowing. And then number three, they said, we.

Why? They lost weight, unwanted weight. So it's like crazy. And I do think a lot of that is the fasting, just so we're. Clear, that will end depression as much as just if they had botox themselves.

There you go. Yeah, because you. I mean, I firmly believe, and this is a process I call autojuvination, that our bodies contain immense regenerative abilities to turn back the clock naturally. But the key is we have to give it the right tools and the right environment for it to do so. And that's why, you know, I came out with a book, is because I do believe that the vast majority of people can take these very simple steps that have nothing to do with injections or surgery and look and feel amazing and hopefully never feel the need to have to go see a doctor, right, for this type of thing.

Mindy Pelz
So now, thank you for doing that. And I really will encourage everybody, those of you listening, to go and get your book, because we need more voices like yours to be heard, because women are. This is the. That's the way I explain it. We've gone from a cultural hush around menopause to cultural chaos, and nobody knows who to believe or where to go.

And I'm always like, I feel like my job is really to help people think it through so they find out what's right for them. And when I hear a book like yours, younger for life, and how you approach it, I'm like, yes, this is the skin book, the anti aging book that I truly have been looking to endorse and to get out there, because we need this approach, as opposed to the, either you're screwed, good luck, or you got to go down this other route. Well, and what's going on now in plastic surgery is that because menopause, everybody's talking about menopause now because of you and so many other physicians who are bringing it out there and saying, look, women have been gaslit. They have been ignored, and they just have not been given the medical care that they've needed and the attention that they need for these symptoms for, I mean, millennia, that there are plastic surgeons now who are making up their own menopause makeover. And these are operations meant to help women in menopause.

Anthony Youn
It's like, I mean, it's terrible. It's horrible. Absolutely. It's just, it's a marketing gimmick. And it's like, oh, my gosh, come on.

Like, this is the opposite of why women are out there talking about menopause, is because we don't need guys going out there saying, hey, hey, I have this great menopause makeover. Thank you. Come on and let me show you how these implants and this tummy tucker are going to be the best for you now that you're through menopause. Oh, thank you. Thank you for saying that.

Mindy Pelz
I want to go back to the protein conversation and the example you gave of the sample group for your book and what you noticed when you put them in the ketoautophagy diet. One of the things that I've been really trying to square in my brain is on one side of the equation. We have this conversation about more protein. More protein. You need 1 gram of protein for every pound of ideal body weight in order to build muscle.

And when I look at that, I'm like, okay, I agree with that. But then on the other side of the equation, we have, guess what? If you stimulate autophagy, which by the nature of stimulating autophagy, you can't keep, your protein amount can't be higher than 20 grams. And now you're going to look younger and you're going to clear out, just like you said, you're going to rejuvenate your system. How do I square those two things?

And then the third part of that is, where does a plant based diet fit into that? And that combination of topics has everybody confused. And I think it has. It's because I don't think that there is an easy answer for everybody, you know? So for people who are plant based, I honestly, I set them aside in a different category because, you know, I have friends of mine who are plant based.

Anthony Youn
I'm good friends with doctor Joel Kahn, you know, he's a plant based vegan cardiologist. And I feel like with plant based, it's a lifestyle choice that's made based off your ethics. And I think there's some people who can really do great with a plant based diet. You got to be very intelligent, and you really got to look at your microbes and, and make sure you're getting everything that you need in your diet. And there's some people, I think, that just can't do well with it.

It's just, it's not possible. And you and I both know so many people who've gone plant based, and they feel great initially, and then as time goes on, they start gaining weight, they start, you know, finding that really, I think what happens initially is they clean up their diet, they go plant based, they get rid of, you know, the industrial farmed meats and a lot of the ultra processed foods. And they get excited that they're plant based or eating healthy, and then they fall back into old habits, but they're still going plant based. But plant based at that point becomes like Twinkies and ultra processed foods that just don't have meat in it. And then they start feeling crummy.

Mindy Pelz
I do like somebody this weekend I met who used a plant based diet to heal herself from cancer, which is interesting. She calls it dirty dirty vegan. It's a dirty vegan diet. And I was like, oh, yeah, because I, so I was. Throughout my whole twenties, I was vegan and I hit 30 and I was overweight.

I was not. I was, my energy was horrible. And I literally woke up one day and I was like, I have to eat meat. And the minute I started to bring meat back into the equation, I really started to see a change. Now, fast forward to this moment.

I've been really prioritizing meat because I agree with you, I agree with some of the other experts out there that are really talking about this. But I also feel like, for the menopausal woman, we have this. We've got to be focused on plants as well because we have a set of bacteria that break estrogen down. And if we're not feeding that bacteria, then we don't even have the estrogen to make our skin look good. So you got, like, both sides of the conversation.

Anthony Youn
So, I mean, you're an expert with this, but I think really it comes down to is, I think there's a big trend away from, um, kind of the extreme fast. Yeah. You know, I. Interestingly enough, you know, when you look at, let's say, doctor David Sinclair's work. Um, and if you look at what he's written, a lot of it is like, reducing protein to help with overall longevity.

And. And one of the things you can do. But the problem is, is that, you know, there was a study that showed that if you're over the age of 50 and you break your hip in the first, like, five years afterwards, there's like a 20% to 40% mortality rate if that happens. And so having strength, you know, muscle strength training, building up your muscle, making sure you're strong and limber, and, you know, it's so, so important. So how do you reconcile that?

I think that there is a happy medium there for most people, and they have to figure out kind of where that is. You need to get stronger as you get older because, yeah, you have to make sure that you've got enough muscles so that you can be strong and you don't break your hip and you don't die from that. But at the same time, you know, I think, for me, I'm not a fan of the carnivore diet, because I do believe that you may be robbing Peter today to pay Paul in the future with issues, let's say, with heart disease and even potential cancer and stuff. If you are not eating sufficient amounts of plants and using meat as more of that kind of side dish, that's definitely necessary, but not necessarily. You don't want to overload on it.

Mindy Pelz
Yeah. So let's go back to this idea of autophagy, because that's a topic I know extremely well, and I always think of it in terms of systemic effects. But I want to understand a little more clearly why it affects the skin and why does it affect the color of the skin? Because back to what I saw in my clinic all the time, I literally, the patient didn't have to tell me they were fasting. I could see it on their skin.

And the way I would explain it is there's a glow, there's a color change. It's like, it literally looked like the skin had brightened up. Yeah. I think that part of it is due to the reduction of inflammation and chronic inflammation specifically. And when you're reducing chronic inflammation with the autophagy, I do think that you can see potentially an increase in the vascularity of your skin.

Anthony Youn
So you're seeing better blood supply and basically the more radiance to the skin. And we see that really, with a lot of the treatments that we do. But what I saw when we put people on these types of diets, you know, anything from, let's say, a five day fasting type mimicking diet, which we trusted that out with my employees and with some of our patients, to what I'm recommending, which is something a little simpler where you do the intermittent fasting, a lot of like what you say. I do think that that autophagy process completely shows on the skin. What are the specific scientific mechanisms?

It's difficult to say, and I don't know that anybody's completely deduced that. But I do think that what you're seeing is an increase in vascularity to the skin blood supply, essentially, and reduction of that chronic inflammation. And when people are inflamed, you can see sometimes they get, like, a ruddy texture and appearance to their skin. You can see also at the same time, it's red and blotchy, and you can also see a lot of flatness of the skin. People who are smokers, you can really spot them right away because of that kind of chronic inflammation and also the oxidative processes that are going on with that.

So I think it's multifactorial. Yeah. And I always think of it like a roomba. Like, it goes around your body and it just cleans up what it needs to clean up. So now I have a visual of a roomba on my face when I fast.

Mindy Pelz
So thank you for that. What do you think about saunas? That was also another thing that I recently started to see, some changes in my skin. I was up, I'm doing a collaboration project with six senses resorts. I was in their location, the Swiss Alps, and they had all these different saunas.

So I spent three days doing ten minutes in the sauna, two minutes in a cold plunge, and the biggest thing I noticed was changes in my skin. Yeah. Yeah. So I think there's a number of things going on there. I mean, the first thing is you're getting, obviously, rid of toxins.

Anthony Youn
So it's the, uh, redux, reducing your toxic load. Also, you are increasing circulation to the skin because of the fact that it's warm. And your body itself will go into a mode, basically, to cool itself off. Where the blood. Where the blood goes outside of the body, it's not trying to keep it inside.

And then the other thing that you're probably noticing, potentially, is a similar effect as, like, what you get with red light therapy, you know? And so the actual, I'm assuming you're doing infrared saunas. So. No, they actually had four different saunas. Yeah, they had four different.

Mindy Pelz
So they had. You could go into a finished one you can go into infrared, you could go into steam. And then they had a cold plunge, and they recommended a protocol of in and out of each one. So it was all of them. Yeah.

Anthony Youn
And it's probably a lot of this is the idea of the whole, whole hormonesis idea that you've covered before on the podcast. And it's, it's that great thing where you stretch your body a little bit and it responds to it by actually helping to be younger afterwards. And interestingly enough, you know, we do a lot of laser treatments, and you can actually see the hormetic effect with the treatments we do in the office. So, for example, when we do micro needling, which is where you take tiny little needles and you poke the skin, we are creating an acute trauma to the skin. By traumatizing the skin in a very, in a very controlled fashion and not going overboard with it, you can damage the collagen.

And when the collagen heals together, it heals in a tighter fashion. So collagen, basically is that protein. It's the way to describe. It's kind of like the logs of a log cabin. And as you get older, those laws can become frayed.

They start to fall apart. Well, when you get treatments, whether it is micro needling, which uses actual physical trauma, whether it's a laser that uses light energy or a chemical peel that uses an acid, you are damaging the collagen. Now, if you damage it too much, then you can get scarring from it. But if you damage it to a certain level, so it's not too much, then you, it's literally kind of like hormesis for the skin, where your, your skin heals, and it heals in a tighter fashion, and the skin is essentially more youthful afterwards. And I do think that when you're doing things like cold punches, you're doing saunas and you're even exercising, which is another way to get that hormesis going, then you are, you know, there are studies that show with exercise that you do look younger.

If you exercise, there are those types of benefits. I haven't seen any studies have looked at cold plunging. I actually haven't seen anything that has specifically looked at saunas. But it does make sense that it would be the same type of a mechanism. And what about the red light masks that have, that has become really popular?

I think these are great. And if, if anybody was thinking about, hey, I want to get a cosmetic treatment, that's more than just skincare, but I don't necessarily want to go see a doctor or go to a med spa, then, no question. Red light therapy is the number one easiest thing to do. And so the belief behind how it works is that the energy from the red light is taken up by the mitochondria of your cells, and that increases the actual ATP output of the mitochondria. So you essentially are energizing your cells.

Now, is there any science to show that red light therapy can actually improve your skin? The answer is yes. There have been studies that have actually looked at people who've had red light therapy, sometimes for as little as four weeks. Usually you want to do it a couple of times a week, maybe for anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the device, and have found an increase in the collagen and the elastin content in the skin after red light therapy. Uh, and so, once again, what happens after menopause?

You're, you lose 30%, unfortunately, the collagen thickness of your skin in those five years. One way to fight that is red light therapy. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting, because I've gone through the masks and looked at that.

Mindy Pelz
Okay. The next trend that I've seen, really popular right now is estradiol cream on your face. So, you know, part of me is like, if I'm losing it in my body, does that mean if I put it on my skin, it's gonna have the same effect? You know, I think the challenge with something like that is those creams are made for the mucosa of the vaginal lining. Yeah.

Anthony Youn
And so they're going to get absorbed much more readily through your mucosa, putting it on the skin. The skin itself serves as a barrier function. It's why collagen creams are a waste of money, because collagen's a large protein, and it's not going to get through the skin barrier. I don't know that using. I've never seen a study that have looked, that has looked at estrogen creams for the face, um, or in general, you know, for the skin.

But my guess is that you're going to get very little of that estrogen that's actually going to penetrate the stratum corneum, that outer layer of your skin. Uh, and those creams, if they're made for the vaginal walls, they're not going to be formulated to. For your skin in general, it may be a waste of your time and money. What, what I'm seeing is they're now formulating them for the skin. Are they okay, I haven't seen those yet.

Mindy Pelz
I don't know. Yeah. When so when, if you start to, if you change your mind on that, let me know. Ping me. Yeah, I mean, if, if you can get it through the stratum corneum, then it does seem to make sense that it could potentially make a difference because, you know, the estrogen creams in the vagina definitely work and it can help to thicken the vaginal walls and make it more lubricated and more comfortable for women.

Anthony Youn
But I haven't seen anything of it on the, on the skin yet. So what about stem cells? There's some really interesting stem cell therapy for the skin. Do those work? Yeah.

So right now, actually, it's more exosomes that are the really exciting stem cells. You can't technically use a whole lot here in the United States, unfortunately, unless you're in an IRB approved study. Um, but they are using especially plant based exosomes. Uh, so exosomes essentially are uh, kind of cellular messengers. They carry different types of messages to the cells.

It's being used a lot right now in wound care. So if you've got, let's say a non healing wound, then exosomes can be used to help to um, cause that wound to heal faster. It's being used a lot with laser treatments. Uh, so if you're healing from a treatment like lasers or chemical peels, and there are some companies who are using exosomes to help heal faster. Um, the way I describe exosomes in skincare, it's kind of like an advanced form of peptides.

So peptides I mentioned earlier, peptides are proteins. Peptides in skincare essentially are cellular messengers to messenger your cell, your skin cells, to create more collagen. So once again, one thing to look at, we haven't talked about skincare, uh, yet, but as part of a skincare regimen in women who are perimenopause and postmenopause, post menopausal is to look for a peptide based creams because they are specifically formulated to increase the collagen production of your skin. Now exosomes are, they can do that, but they can do a lot more. You know, depending on what is created with the exosomes, they can cause your skin, like I said, to heal faster.

They can create more collagen, they can reduce inflammation. It just depends on the exosomes that you're using and how they're formulated and what their actual purpose is. So they're very, very exciting. They're really in the infancy of the use of exosomes right now. With stem cells, it's more plant based stem cells, you know, then the plant based stem cells.

The problem is there's a lot of marketing behind it. And is there anything truly that's all that different? I would go more with the exosome companies at this point over stem cells because I think there's probably definitely more real science to that versus, hey, I've got this stem cell. Plant based stem cell in this cream is $20. You should use it.

Mindy Pelz
Yeah. Is it really doing much? Okay, go and let's finish up on skincare and like, a routine. And what your recommendations are there, because that is also the wild, wild west. So actually, I just had a podcast episode that I did on my podcast called the Menopause skincare routine.

Anthony Youn
Thank you. I will go listen to it. Your skincare routine has to change throughout your life. Okay. You can't do the same thing when you're at twenties versus when you're in your forties and in your fifties and beyond.

So what do you do for a simple menopause related skincare routine? Number one, you cleanse your skin in the morning. So we'll do morning and evening. Thank you. So in the morning, you cleanse your skin with a cleanser appropriate for your skin type.

If, let's say, you have oily skin, then you're going to want to go with a more foaming cleanser. Women after menopause and perimenopausal, usually the skin isn't oily, it's drier. I was going to say, I've never met an oily menopausal woman. So you're going to want to go with a more milky or a hydrating cleanser. So don't just go with anything.

Go with one that's more milky or hydrating. You want to follow that up, ideally with a vitamin C serum. Vitamin C is an antioxidant, so it can help fight free radicals and oxidation, one of the main cause of aging of the skin. But as I mentioned before, also it's important for production of collagen. So using a vitamin C serum is super important.

And then we usually recommend some type of a peptide cream. Like I mentioned, peptide. Once again, cellular signals to create more collagen. And then I do recommend, if you're going to be out in the sun, I do recommend using a sunscreen. There is a whole discussion that can be had regarding sunscreen.

Mindy Pelz
I was just, I was going to say, uh oh. Now I got another question. The big thing with sunscreen, you know, my feeling with it is, comes from a place kind of twofold number one, there are certain ingredients and sense sunscreen that you want to look out for. Oxybenzone and octanoxate are very common chemical sunscreen ingredients that are known to be potential hormone disruptors, and they're disrupted to the coral reefs. And so try to avoid those in your sunscreen.

Yeah. In general, I recommend physical blockers like titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. The problem with the physical blockers is that if you're a person of color, it can really change the color of your skin. Oh. And so if you don't want to have that kind of whitish hue to your skin and you want to protect your skin, then I encourage you to go with a chemical sunscreen that is safer.

Anthony Youn
One like avobenzone and Mexorol XL. Avobenzone and maxoral XL are chemical sunscreens. You can put them on your skin and it will blend into your skin. You're not going to get that kind of a thick feel to it as much, and it's not going to discolor your skin. And they have not been shown to be hormone disruptors.

So those do appear to be safe. Big thing you want to avoid are the sunscreen sprays that you see people doing that at the beach with their kids are spraying them down and now they're breathing those chemicals in their lungs. Definitely want to avoid that. Spray it into your hand and then apply it to your child. If you're, if you've got those, do.

Mindy Pelz
They, do they block vitamin D? That's my other concern. So they can, and I think the thing to do is get your vitamin D, get your son in the morning or in the evening, a half hour a day, you know, depending on what your vitamin D levels are. I'm definitely a fan of supplementation. I know you are.

Anthony Youn
As well as supplementing vitamin D, you know, I'm a plastic surgeon, and I tell you, Mindy, I can't tell you how many people have come into my office with a small skin cancer on their face, like a basal cell carcinoma or on their nose. They go to a dermatologist and then they come back to me with a huge chunk taken off their nose or part of their eyelid missing or part of their lip gone. It is horrifying. You do not want skin cancer on your face, period. I am fearful.

One of my favorite actors, Hugh Jackman, he has had so many skin cancers on his face. Such a good looking guy. I fear for the day where it's going to be in the wrong place. That's going to create a deformity. So I'm a fan of sunscreen.

At the same time, I understand there's so many therapeutic benefits of the sun. You need to get vitamin D. You know, it's like we talked about before. I do think that there's a happy medium there for people. You don't want to get burn after burn after burn.

Mindy Pelz
Yeah. Okay, then finish. Were you done with the morning technique? So that's morning. Yeah.

Anthony Youn
So, morning. Most important thing, hydrating milky cleanser, a vitamin C serum, and then you want to do the sunscreen. And ideally, you want to apply moisturizer, too, just because your skin's going to be drier. Moisturizers are not anti aging. Okay.

They will not reverse the aging of your skin. They are purely for comfort. But you may need that comfort as you get older because your skin is going to be drier and it may be a bit thinner. Okay. Yep.

What do you do in the evening? If you only cleanse your skin once a day, make sure you do it in the evening because you got to get rid of the days worth of grime and dirt and pollution and buildup and especially the makeup. A lot of people, as you get older, will actually do an oil cleanse as well. Do a double cleanse or just cleanse with oil. Oil itself is going to leave a lot of your essential healthy oils on your skin.

It's going to not disrupt your, the microbiome of your skin as much and especially as you're getting older. You may find that an oil based cleanser may be more comfortable for your skin, and it's great at removing makeup. So think about an oil based cleanser. Follow that up with if you can tolerate it, a retinol. Retinols are derivatives of vitamin a.

Retin A or tretinoin is prescription strength. That's likely going to be too strong for your skin as you get older. Retinol is a over the counter version. It's much weaker. Ideally, that can help to increase the collagen in your skin if you use it regularly.

Okay. So a retinol moisturizer is great. If, however, you're finding that that's a bit too drying for you, then look for a cream that contains bakuchiol. Bakuchol is an alternative retinol. There was a study that found that Bakuchol and retinol had very similar anti aging effects, but bakuchiol did not have the skin irritating effects that retinol did.

So ideally, Bakuchiol may, you may tolerate better as you get older, and then you do want to apply a good, powerful moisturizer. After that, a good night cream can really be helpful to kind of soak in that moisture and keep it in your skin overnight so that that active can work. Work well. And very simple tip to after you get out of the shower. After you shower, put your moisturizer on within two minutes of isolating the shower on your whole body because that's going to help to reduce the dryness that you're going to most likely feel as you get older as well.

Mindy Pelz
Amazing. Well, I could talk to you for hours. Like, I'm like, oh, and then I have this question. I think probably everybody listening is feeling the same way. Talk a little bit about where we can find your book and just you in general, I know you.

I watched you get real famous on TikTok a couple of years back, and that really worked. Or that was really an interesting moment. So anyways, talk about where people can find you. Yeah. Thank you.

Anthony Youn
So my book is younger for life. It's available wherever books are sold. We do have a bunch of free gifts@autojuvination.com. if you do get the book, and then I've got my podcast, the Doctor Yoon show, that I'd love to have you on, especially to help promote when your book comes out. And that's the Doctor Yoon show.

Thank you so much for having me on, Mindy, this was a lot of fun. I know. I was going to say we have a lot of similarities, especially when it comes to nutrition. And so I just think, you know, I've been trying to make things more simple for people. It was just like, how do we take this noisy world of nutrition and simplify it?

Mindy Pelz
And when I look at what you did with younger for life, like, you definitely have done that. So thank you for that. It's really helpful. Thank you very much for all of us. Yeah.

So my last question. This is one I ask everybody this year because I think it's a simple question, but I also think most people don't have a very clear answer. And that is, what does health mean to you? How do you know when you are healthy? Yeah, to me, I think there's so many facets of it.

Anthony Youn
But the big thing I try to focus on, especially lately, is gratitude. I've got a son who's actually graduating high school in a week and a half. Oh, God. And I'm just so grateful that he's doing well. And one of the things we try to do is give back.

We adopt senior dogs. That's my wife and I, that's kind, kind of our big passion and our mission. And, you know, one of the things, and I put this in the book, but one of the things that you notice is when you see your, you know, we adopt dogs that are usually 12, 13, 14 years old, and they're so happy. And you see how they, they get a little gray around the muzzle. They may not be quite as mobile as they used to be, but they're just so happy.

And they live in the moment. And that's how we should be getting older, just to appreciate and be great, great, have so much gratitude that we're on this world and that we're enjoying it, and then we've got loved ones around. To me, that's health. You know, it's feeling that gratitude and that love and trying to give it as much as we can to others around us. And there's nothing more beautiful than interacting with a grateful human.

Mindy Pelz
So I think that is really, really well said. You know, I've looked at older women in their eighties and nineties. My mom is one of them. I think she's one of the most beautiful 84 year olds I've ever seen. And she just is bursting with gratitude.

But, yeah, she's got a lot of. Wrinkles, but she's so, beauty is, but beauty is health. That's the thing. Beauty is health. And so you don't necessarily, you know, you can have a ton of wrinkles.

Anthony Youn
That's okay. Sagging skin and still be absolutely gorgeously beautiful. Yeah. Well, Doctor Yoon, thank you so much. This was great.

Mindy Pelz
And I know my audience is going to love all of this. So appreciate you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. I love bringing thoughtful discussions about all things health to you.

If you enjoyed it, we'd love to know about it. So please leave us a review, share it with your friends, and let me know what your biggest takeaway is.