ATHE_Transcript_Ep 619_Dr. Anthony Youn
JJ Virgin: [00:00:00] I'm JJ Virgin, PhD dropout, sorry mom, turned four time New York Times best selling author. Yes, I'm a certified nutrition specialist, fitness hall of famer, and I speak at health conferences and trainings around the globe, but I'm driven by my insatiable curiosity and love of science to keep asking questions, digging for answers, and sharing the information I uncover with as many people as I can, and that's why I created the Well Beyond 40 Podcast. To synthesize and simplify the science of health into actionable strategies to help you thrive.
In each episode, we'll talk about what's working in the world of wellness, from personalized nutrition and healing your metabolism, to healthy aging and prescriptive fitness. Join me on the journey to better health so you can love how you look and feel right now and have the energy to play full out.
You've seen him on TikTok, YouTube, [00:01:00] Instagram, and now you're going to be seeing him here or listening to him on the Well Beyond 40 podcast. I've got my buddy Dr. Tony Youn with me. He is known as America's holistic plastic surgeon. He is recognized as a leader in the field and literally is followed by millions.
If you've not watched him on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, he is a riot. And I've known Tony now for, gosh, I think eight years. He was part of a group I lead. And we discovered early on, we're like, you are really funny, Tony. So definitely want to listen to him, watch him on his social channels. The other side of Tony is he is really smart and an excellent plastic surgeon.
However, you're going to hear in this interview how he started to have just a conflict with plastic surgery and what he was seeing people need to do and maybe not need plastic surgery. So that is what we're going to be talking about today. We had him here once before to talk about his [00:02:00] book, the Age Fix, which were all of the minimally invasive things that you could do externally for your skin.
But now we're gonna be talking more whole picture here again, as a holistic plastic surgeon, we are gonna be digging into his new program called Autojuvenation and what you can do. To turn back the clock and not just look better, but also feel better. I also want to do a shout out for his podcast, the Holistic Plastic Surgery Show.
You've probably seen him all over TV. He's been on Today, GMA, Rachel Ray, PBS, all over the place. So again, his new book is Younger for Life. We're gonna be dispelling a bunch of skincare myths, things you should and shouldn't do, what you can eat to have better skin. What procedures you might want to look at, like all the most important things.
So I will be right back with Dr. Tony Youn, stay with me.
So I'm super excited to have you back, Dr. Tony Youn, and [00:03:00] especially with this whole idea now of autojuvenation, because here's what happened this summer. As you know, I went to South Korea this summer and thank you for the tip on the fried chicken.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Not the most skin healthy food, but you know, you're there, you've got to try it.
JJ Virgin: Well, I was like, okay, Tony said I had to do the doctor ordered me to eat fried chicken. I'm doing it. But here's what I noticed about South Korea. First of all, everyone was in shape. That was the first thing I noticed. I'm like, everyone's in shape. I would go to the gyms and the average age in the gym was like 70 and they were all wearing PE outfits.
I was like, this is crazy. But the skin, like everyone's skin was so amazing. This has not happened to me yet on a trip where I literally filled an entire suitcase up with Korean ginseng and skincare. Cause I was like, I'll have what they're having.
Dr. Anthony Youn: So I guess the inside outside approach to looking young.
JJ Virgin: The fried chicken was really the only thing that you could have said, Oh my gosh. And even that it [00:04:00] was fried in olive oil and gluten free. But I literally, like the food was amazing. I felt great. We moved a ton, all that skincare. So I keep seeing you post about, you know, how to age like an Asian. I was like, I'm in, sign me up for this.
So I'm really excited to unpack this. And I think where I'd love to start, because you were on before talking about the age fix and things that you could do that were like minimally invasive was much more looking at the external and since then you've now are America's holistic plastic surgeon, which.
My team was like, wait a minute, how are you a holistic plastic surgeon? That's like being a jumbo shrimp. So maybe we start with just explaining your philosophy because it is so different than what's
Dr. Anthony Youn: out there. Yeah. Thanks JJ. Yeah. So many years, I thought that I had reached the pinnacle of success in my practice.
I was operating on people from all across the country. They were coming to see me. I had an over a year waiting list. And then I had a patient who had a horrible complication after a facelift [00:05:00] operation. And honestly, it sent me into a tailspin because I felt so, so bad for this patient. Now, it wasn't anything that I could have done differently.
It wasn't anything that she did, but it really got me into thinking, am I doing the right thing as a plastic surgeon, as a traditional plastic surgeon? Now, in surgery, we have a term that we kind of live by, and the idea is the only way to heal is with cold steel, or to cut is to cure. And so I always looked, as a plastic surgeon, as my practice, as if it was successful, it was how many operations was I performing, specifically how many facelifts was I performing because that's considered kind of the cream of the crop operation.
And after this patient had this terrible complication, it really got me into thinking, am I doing the right thing for my patients? And I realized after many months of soul searching and even considering leaving medicine at one point, that the goal that I was always taught and that goal was to bring people to the operating room was completely wrong.
That my goal should be the opposite. It should be how do I keep people out of the [00:06:00] operating room yet still help them to feel and look their best that they don't even feel the need to go see a plastic surgeon like myself. And that's what started me on this process of autojuvenation, which is creating this way where you can utilize your body's own regenerative abilities to rejuvenate itself.
And that takes injections and plastic surgery completely out of the equation. Helping people to get that beautiful, glowing, youthful skin that they always wanted, but without going under the knife to get it.
JJ Virgin: So you're working yourself out of a job.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Well, I don't want, yes. Now there are certain things where you just have to do surgery on.
If you want to make those changes, you know, I get people who've had four children, they've got skin hanging from their tummy and there's no cream that's going to make that skin go away. So there are those situations where the only option is surgery, but there is so much more that we can do now with technology, with what we know in holistic health.
To definitely turn back the clock, both inside and out.
JJ Virgin: I love it. And you know, what's cool about this is you'd want to do this anyway, even if you were going to get a [00:07:00] procedure and then maybe you'd have to have less of a procedure or you can delay the procedure. So it makes sense. Let's unpack what this is then.
What's the premise or what are the pillars behind autojuvenation?
Dr. Anthony Youn: So basically it's looking at anti aging with five different steps. The first step is what you eat. The second step is when you eat. The third step are nutritional supplements, the fourth step is skin care, ideally clean skin care, and then the fifth step, which is optional, are non invasive treatments.
So like anything, you know, you mentioned earlier foundation, you know, when I look at anti aging, I look at it being like building your house. An actual surgery, like a facelift, is like the spire at the top of the house. The foundation of that house is food. It's what you eat. And that's something that you've been so great with sharing, you know, how to get on a healthy anti aging type of a diet.
And that's a lot of what the autojuvenation process is, but specifically targeting certain things like increasing the collagen in your skin, [00:08:00] like fighting off free radicals, reducing chronic inflammation. Those are some key principles of turning back the clock using food.
JJ Virgin: I know your book. And it's, I've got it right here, the galley, Younger for Life.
And by the way, great photo of you.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Oh, thank you. It's not airbrushed either.
JJ Virgin: Wow. Really? It should say, not retouched. You know, last time I saw you, I think you had very long hair.
Dr. Anthony Youn: It's actually still a little bit long. Oh, okay. It's still a little long. Yeah. I'm starting to use this hair oil to help to grow hair, get it a little thicker.
JJ Virgin: So maybe that's why. All right. I thought it was the new kind of TikTok rockstar Tony look. There you go. So let's talk about then, like, what are some key points there? Because of course, you know, you're speaking my language here. It used to drive me crazy to see people spend so much money on all the topicals and like they're, you know, eating all the sugar and I'm like,
Dr. Anthony Youn: yes, what are you doing?
Yeah. So three things I would focus on if you're talking about what to eat. Number one, I mentioned collagen. So collagen makes up 70 [00:09:00] to 80 percent of the thickness of our skin. Yet we lose about 1 percent of the thickness of collagen every year, starting about in our mid twenties. Women, once they go through menopause, start losing about 2 percent of the thickness of collagen every year.
And that's why you may have women who are in their 70s and their 80s and they've got, some of them have tissue paper thin skin, so thin that they can get scratched and the skin actually will tear. So the first thing you want to consider if you're looking at turning back the clock with aging using food is you want to support that collagen.
And what is collagen? Collagen is a large protein. So you want to start by eating a protein rich diet. I know you've talked a lot about that, you know, especially there's this trend now, especially with women as they get older, to definitely increase the amount of protein that they eat because that's going to help to support not only preventing sarcopenia or a reduction in their muscle mass.
But from a plastic surgery standpoint, improving the collagen of their skin.
JJ Virgin: And what about taking actual collagen?
Dr. Anthony Youn: So that is controversial. If you were to ask traditional [00:10:00] physicians, they'll say, Oh, it doesn't work. You know, I have so many people that comment on my posts on social media. They go, Oh, I asked my family doctor about collagen and they said, don't bother taking it.
It just gets absorbed in your stomach and it doesn't work. What does the science say? The science actually disproves that theory that it doesn't work. Science actually shows that collagen supplements do work. There was a 2021 meta analysis of over 1100 people. They took hydrolyzed collagen supplements for 90 days and found a statistically significant improvement in dehydration of their skin.
in finding lines and wrinkles and in the tone of their skin. So it does help to improve the collagen and the loss of collagen in your skin. There even are randomized clinical control trials, prospective ones. These are like the gold standard when you look at scientific studies and they put people on these hydrolyzed collagen supplements for let's say two months and then they would biopsy their skin afterwards, look at it under a microscope and find an increase in the density of collagen fibers.
So they [00:11:00] do work. There are so many studies out there, JJ, that show collagen does work. My belief is that those people out there saying collagen doesn't work, they either have never looked at the studies or probably more likely they're traditional physicians who are against any type of supplementation at any time because they're just not open to the idea of it.
JJ Virgin: We used to have a saying about this. If you're not up on it, you're down on it. So, if you didn't know, I don't know why people don't just say, you know, I don't know. It's
Dr. Anthony Youn: the same type of doctors that, you know, I mean, I'm, I'm in a regular hospital. I did all my traditional training, but if I were to go into the lunchroom during, you know, lunch and sit down with the other surgeons and doctors at the doctor's lounge and say, you know, I was talking to a chiropractor the other day about nutrition, it would be met with guffaws and people saying, Oh, what do you know?
And these are people, they'll be saying this as they're eating their fried chicken and their French fries and drinking their Diet Coke. There's just a lack of knowledge, unfortunately, amongst some traditional, a lot of traditional physicians about what they don't know. It's like a naivety or an ignorance that they think they know everything, but they don't even know what they don't know.[00:12:00]
So
JJ Virgin: beyond the collagen. So it makes sense to take collagen. I'm definitely taking it every day. I was talking to Mark Sisson. He's like my oldest friend in the wellness industry. And he's like, Oh yeah, I'm taking it every single day, both for skin and for connective tissue for joint health.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah. I think it's important too, to realize, you know, there's two keys with collagen.
You want to make sure you get hydrolyzed collagen peptides. Because it's true, collagen is a large protein and that protein must get broken down. You can't just absorb collagen through your GI tract. But that's why these companies, and my company included, have hydrolyzed collagen peptides because what you do is you take that large protein and you break it down into single amino acids or peptides that are absorbable through your gut.
And then the second thing you want to keep in mind is that there are five different types of collagen. Type 1 is the collagen in your hair, skin, and nails. Type 2 is in the joints and type 3 is in your muscle. Type 4 is not as important, it's in your kidneys and type 5 is in your placenta. But if let's say you're looking at taking collagen for your skin, you don't want to take [00:13:00] type 2 and 3 collagen, that's not going to help you so much.
You want type 1. But, if you've got joint aches and joint pains, you want to make sure that you don't take a beauty collagen that just has collagen type 1, you want to make sure it has 2 and 3 as well. Nice.
JJ Virgin: Now, we're going to go back over because I want to talk about your Jump Start program and some of the results.
But, I want to move into skin care for a little bit here because you mentioned collagen, so the next question for me is what about Topical collagen.
Dr. Anthony Youn: So as I mentioned earlier, collagen is a large protein. Our skin is a barrier and not a lot gets through our skin. It's meant to be that way. So you're not getting viruses and bacteria getting absorbed through your skin.
Collagen is so big that if you put it on the surface of your skin, it's just going to stay on the surface of your skin. So paying extra money for collagen creams is a waste of your money. Use that money and get a collagen supplement instead. Much better to take it on the inside than try to put it through on the outside because it doesn't work on the outside.
JJ Virgin: You know, this is such a big thing because I always get frustrated with the supplement [00:14:00] world and the claims I see and I'll look at this product and I'll go, this is ridiculous. You know, it's like taking a Dixie cup of water to put on a forest fire of the nutrients that they put in here. It's even worse it seems like in the skincare realm.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah, because I mean, there's so many claims that they don't have to prove and yeah, it's, it's not good.
JJ Virgin: Well, and I guess you can like, I mean, at least in the supplement world claims, you really have to be careful with what you say. So in the skincare world, and I'm really kind of looking at this going, save our skin and save us some money.
Like, how do we separate fact from fiction? And there's so many questions here. So I'll just start with, What are some of the hype y things out there that are like collagen that just we should not
Dr. Anthony Youn: bother with? So there's so many products they'll say that are better than Botox, you know? Oh, if you use copper peptides, that's gonna be better than Botox or this is the ideal cream for your skin.
So really what I would recommend is focus on a very simple skincare regimen that anybody can do that 100 percent works. And so we created one, it's called the [00:15:00] 2 Minutes 5 Years Younger Skincare Routine, where it literally takes two minutes a day And we tested on people where after 2 months we found an average of looking 5 years younger after just doing this.
So, you don't have to do a 12 step Korean skincare routine, although if you want to, by all means, do that. Really staying with the basics are what I recommend. So, what, what is that? In the morning, you want to cleanse your skin. Then second step, you want to apply an antioxidant serum, ideally a vitamin C serum, and most skincare companies have a good vitamin C serum.
If you want to biohack that a little bit, add vitamin E serum as well, because there was a study that showed that if you combine vitamin C and vitamin E Those antioxidant effects are synergistic with each other. And then I do recommend applying a sunscreen after that, especially if you're going to be out.
That's all you have to do in the morning. Cleanse! Vitamin C serum, sunscreen. In the evening, you super, super, super have to cleanse your skin. Okay, so, so important because you got to get rid of the day's worth of buildup and grime and, and dirt and pollution and definitely want to get your [00:16:00] makeup off. And then you want to apply, ideally, an anti aging cream.
The one that I usually recommend to start with is a retinoid. Retinoids come in prescription strength, which would be Retin A, which most people don't have access to, so don't usually worry about that. Or over the counter strength, which is retinol, that a lot of skincare companies have. So you apply your retinol at night, and really that's all you have to do.
If you want to apply a moisturizer on top of that, that's optional, that's fine. Moisturizers are not truly anti aging, they're just more for comfort. But really that's it. Now, if you have real sensitive skin and you don't want to use retinol, then I recommend Bacuchiol. Bacuchiol is a plant based alternative to retinol.
It's been used in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine for centuries and a study compared retinol to Bacuchiol and head to head and found very similar effects. And the final step Maybe twice a week you want to exfoliate your skin using a gentle scrub or using an alpha hydroxy acid type of a peel. And that's it.
Two minutes every day. Two months later you can look [00:17:00] upwards of five years younger if you've got kind of average skin to start out with. If you did this, JJ, you wouldn't look five years younger afterwards because your skin is too nice. But other people who may not have taken great care of their skin.
Five years younger. There you go. All right.
What
JJ Virgin: if we were willing to invest 10 minutes? Is there something we can look 10 years younger? Like, are there other things we could add onto that? I will give you an example during the pandemic when everything was closed and I couldn't go get facials. I started looking at all the products I had at home and just started doing my own stuff.
The result was peeling, red, angry, rashy skin. I know more is not necessarily better here, but if you wanted to augment that or there are more things that you could do, like. Masks or peels or any other stuff or is some of that stuff just irritating?
Dr. Anthony Youn: Let's say you're doing a retinol at night and you say, Hey, I want to do more than that to reverse aging my skin.
Then I would add the Bacuchiol to that. Other than that, you can add peptides and growth factors or two other [00:18:00] great anti aging ingredients that can be found in products. So if you want to add anything, I would start with retinol, then go to Bacuchiol and then growth factors and peptides. Growth factors can be expensive.
So if you're on a budget, go with the peptides. The other thing that I would recommend that's not technically skincare but is in that same vicinity would be red light therapy. So if you've got a bit of extra time, I would get a red light device. Red light devices, basically, you come in many forms. You get a handheld device, which I don't recommend because then you've got to treat a quadrant of your face at a time.
It just is annoying. There are tabletop devices that I think work great. There are creepy looking Hannibal Lecter masks that you can walk around and scare your spouse while you wear it. But all of these work great and the belief behind red light therapy is that the energy of the red light can be transferred to the mitochondria of your cells to increase the production of ATP.
So essentially, The mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cells. As we get older, they don't work as efficiently. Infuse that with red light, they get more energy, they work better, they work younger, and now you're turning back the [00:19:00] clock.
JJ Virgin: And how often should you be doing this red light? And we'll put a couple things, I'm going to put in the show notes, there's a great red light.
I have the big juve, like. Big thing at the house, but we also have this one that I can travel with that you can just lie back and kind of put a tent over your face from, I think it's from Therasage. How often do you recommend and for how long?
Dr. Anthony Youn: So everybody does it a little bit differently. I would look at the instructions for the device that you're using, but usually a couple of times a week.
This is not something that you have to do necessarily every day. And the interesting thing with this, you know, JJ is funny because in our crowd, we talk about red light and everybody knows about it, but if you talk to a plastic surgeon or a dermatologist. They may look at you with a blank stare not knowing like anything about red light therapy.
It's a weird thing where it just, I don't know why, but fact is that there are a lot of studies that actually do prove that red light therapy helps with the skin. There are split face studies that they've done having one half the face treated with red light and the other half not. Showing an improvement in wrinkles and skin hydration.
There have been a study where [00:20:00] over a thousand people had red light therapy and found 90 percent of them had an improvement in the tone and the texture of their skin. So, It definitely works. It's a super easy way to get essentially a medical grade treatment, but in the comfort of your own home without spending a ton of money.
JJ Virgin: Yeah, they actually are. Like when you look at going and getting a facial every month versus investing in some of this stuff, it's way more cost effective.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah, definitely. I mean, this, I think, bang for your buck with antigen treatments, number one, I would put red light
JJ Virgin: therapy. Wow. And when you cited those studies, over what period of time were they seeing that type of result?
Dr. Anthony Youn: Usually they were about two to three months at the most. Yeah, so this isn't something that happens overnight, but you also don't have to wait six months to see a result. There are some treatments, you know, I do red light therapy for my hair, for my scalp, because I noticed some thinning hair. My wife actually noticed it when we were on vacation one day.
And so that's How did that conversation go? She told me years ago, we had to fill out these things, and what do you find most attractive in your partner? And she put his hair. And then we were [00:21:00] on vacation a couple years ago, and she was like, you're getting thin on top! And I'm like,
JJ Virgin: oh my gosh, that's my superpower, it's gone!
Dr. Anthony Youn: Red light therapy for the head, which is a great thing for your hair too, does take about four to six months to start seeing results from that. But for the face and for skin, That usually happens much quicker.
JJ Virgin: That's very exciting. And so I'm going to put a link to that. I'm also going to put you, you didn't mention this, but you have, like, I'm so excited about your skincare line and I've been testing you cause I got like version one and now you've sent version two over.
And so we are going to link to that as well, because I know you've done the work for me. I think all women, we are so easily suckered into stuff. And I'm just going to stick with what you have and do that thing. Then when you see me next, I won't be like red blotchy and peeling.
Dr. Anthony Youn: For years, I had a secret that I never told my patients. So, you know, I started off my practice, as you know, as a traditional plastic surgeon, and I sold medical grade skincare products, the ones that most plastic surgeons [00:22:00] sell. And for many, many years, I had a secret. I never told any of my patients. All these products that we were selling to them that they were getting nice results from, I could not use myself.
I'd put that on my skin and it would break out in hives and rashes from the fragrances and the additives and preservatives and all that. And it wasn't until I started meeting you and our colleagues in the holistic space where I started using their products. I go, wow, this actually feels good on my skin.
My skin feels healthy after using it and I'm not reacting. But the problem that I found was that there were medical grade products that could really reverse aging visibly. And then there are these natural products that felt great on my skin. But when I looked at the ingredients, there was nothing that was doing anything.
Yeah. They're just fancy moisturizers. And so with my Youn Beauty line, I try to combine the best of both. So combine things like retinol, like vitamin C, like kojic acid, and combine that with natural organic ingredients, cruelty free, and that became the Youn Beauty skincare line.
JJ Virgin: I've been waiting for it!
Dr. Anthony Youn: Again, like, we all It's taken so long, but we wanted to perfect things. Nice.
JJ Virgin: Okay, I just have to ask you the [00:23:00] one thing from being in South Korea. What about the snail
Dr. Anthony Youn: slime? Yeah, so this is huge on social media. It's big out in Asia. And literally what they do This is snail slime serum, and what they literally do is they take a dark room, they have all these snails that actually will, like, slither along, and some poor person goes behind them and scoops up the snail slime behind them and puts it into serums.
Now snail slime, actually, as gross as this may sound, is a great moisturizer for the skin, it has very healthy fats in it, it's filled with antioxidants, and is this online sensation, I guess. I just I don't know, it kind of grosses me out. I love having skincare made with different oils and stuff like that, but snail slime still, ugh, not my thing.
I
JJ Virgin: actually, when I was in Korea, I had to get some, of course. Oh, you did? Had to have the fried chicken, I had to get the snail slime. And I've been using it, but I have to get like, every time I'm like, Oh, there's, there is the X factor because you're like, [00:24:00] Oh, it's like completely benign, but you just know what it is.
You're like, I
Dr. Anthony Youn: just find it hilarious how they get the actual slime. It's supposedly people just follow these smells and then they'd scoop it up.
JJ Virgin: I can't believe they haven't figured out something better than that. That's wild. Is there anything else besides the things like doing red light? Are there things that we're doing at home that could be creating problems that we're not aware of?
Dr. Anthony Youn: I think one of the things that we've talked about with the products, you know, I get a lot of people that tell me, they go, look, what can I add to my skincare routine? Because I've got all these breakouts that are happening, or I've got eczema, or I've got rosacea. And the answer a lot of times is the opposite.
As I tell them, get back to the basics. And the vast majority of people were saying, you know, I'm using all these products, why is it not working on my skin? It's because you're using too many. And or it's because the products you're using have so many different ingredients that are unnecessary that if you just get back to the basics, that two minutes, five years younger skincare routine I mentioned to [00:25:00] you earlier, I've seen a lot of people where their irritation and their breakouts, all this stuff gets a lot better because they're not flooding their body with essentially bad stuff, you know.
It's the same thing when you look at diet. Sometimes getting back to the basics, where the basics and something we recommend in the book is real food, food that actually looks. Like the plant or the vegetable or the animal that it came from versus in this package, that's purple and blue. It is so, you know, hyper palatable.
That's not even real food
JJ Virgin: anymore. Well, sometimes the same with supplements. I remember when I used to see a lot of people one to one, I'd always have them bring in whatever supplements they were bringing. And they'd literally come in with a garbage bag full of like, you know, a shopping bag full of supplements.
I'm like, what on earth, what is this for? Like, what is it for? Let's, let's kind of start back over again. No wonder your stomach hurts.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah. And we see that in plastic surgery. It's like you do something, you know, oh, look, fillers are kind of nice in a small, if you do a tiny amount here and here in the cheeks, it can help to reverse some of the aging of the, of the skin.
And like, oh, you can do a little, let's just do a ton. [00:26:00] Now let's get these huge puffed out faces. Like so many things in life, a little can go a really long way, especially when you're looking at cosmetic treatments. And, and even, yeah, like you mentioned, I think with supplements as well, in my book, I recommend five specific supplements I recommend everybody take.
And I don't know that you need to take all these other things. You know, I'm not a fan of, you know, hey, let's take NAD or let's try to get some of these other types of controversial, questionable longevity supplements. You know, I know there are bio hackers that love doing that stuff. And if you want to go ahead.
But the vast majority of people, I think you keep them on very simple, straightforward supplements and you can do great with it. I
JJ Virgin: always think that you start with the foundation first and then you see if you need beyond that. You start with the foundation of food. Then, you know, you start with that foundational skincare.
What are your five, of course you say five supplements, which are your five?
Dr. Anthony Youn: So number one is collagen. So hydrolyzed collagen peptides. Number two, I do recommend taking a good multivitamin every day, because we do know that our produce is not as [00:27:00] nutritious as it used to be. And even if you have a good, healthy diet, you may not be getting all the vitamins and minerals that you ideally need.
Third one would be a omega 3 fatty acid supplement, fish oil, if you're plant based and one based off of algae. The next one is a good probiotic. I usually recommend at least 3 billion colony forming units a day. What a lot of people don't realize is that we also have a microbiome on the skin as well.
Now obviously taking a probiotic by mouth isn't going to help that, but there is a gut skin connection. And skin, our mutual friend Dr. Trevor Cates says that our skin is our magic mirror. It tells us what's going on inside our body and I firmly believe that as well. So probiotic, at least 3 billion colony forming unit today can actually help with your skin and even with acne.
And then the last one is an antioxidant supplement. I do recommend one with a variety of antioxidants. Risveratrol is a great one to add into that because I do think that once again, Nutrition, we're, soil is depleted. We're not getting quite the nutrients that we need. Adding those antioxidants can only help.
So you
JJ Virgin: [00:28:00] talked red light, any other like non invasive things that people could do at home or go have done that you're seeing big rewards from?
Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah, so if you were to add something that's a good bang for your buck, that's fairly basic, I would look at microneedling. So really what you're doing with microneedling, you know, it started off with dermal rolling where you have these rollers.
They look kind of like paint rollers but they're real small with tiny little pins on them. And really the idea is that you are creating a controlled trauma to your skin. If you create a certain amount of trauma to your skin, you create acute inflammation and the actual collagen of the skin as it heals from that trauma will heal in a tighter fashion.
And really, that's what all the laser treatments and chemical peels and microneedling, that's how it tightens up the skin. It's this controlled trauma. Lasers do it by light energy, chemical peels do it by an acid, microneedling does it by little pokes of the skin, essentially. Now why I'm a big fan of microneedling, let's say, as opposed to a laser treatment for a bang for your buck, is that it can cost me [00:29:00] 150, 000 to 200, 000 to buy a fancy anti aging laser.
It can cost me 80, 000 to 100, 000 to buy an IPL device, which I think also is good bang for your buck. But it can cost me only 4, 000 to buy a microneedling handpiece. And you can get similar results from that, now you'll know that the cost of that device is going to be passed off onto you. And so if that device only costs 4, 000, it's going to be less expensive, which microneedling is, you can get it sometimes for less than 100, and you can get a nice anti aging benefit from that.
If you want to take that to the next level, there's a treatment called Morpheus 8. where it's radiofrequency microneedling. So that needle, it goes into your skin by about a millimeter or two, and then the majority of that needle is insulated, but the end of it, the tip, is not, and it emits radiofrequency energy or heat.
So in addition to getting the mild trauma, the acute trauma from the needle, you get the heating of the deep skin. That can cause the collagen to tighten up even more. And right now I think that's the gold standard for non invasive skin [00:30:00] tightening. And
JJ Virgin: what about those little painful roller things at home?
Useless? Can they do
Dr. Anthony Youn: anything? So, so if you want to do it at home, I don't recommend the rollers. They're actually dermal stampers. Where you actually will stamp the skin. I have one that I do for my hair too, because the idea is that if you stamp the skin, you get tiny little pokes there, you create little channels and what you apply onto the surface of your skin can then seep into those channels to affect your skin better.
And so a lot of people are doing, let's say, microneedling. You create these tiny holes in the skin and then you apply PRP, platelet rich plasma. So you draw your blood, you spin out the platelets from it. The platelets are filled with growth factors. You put them on your skin, after you do a microneedling session, it seeps into those tiny little holes and really will anti age your skin from the inside out.
And so that's another thing to do. But if you want to do it at home, I don't recommend the roller so much because that can cause more tearing of the skin. Use a dermal stamper that will give you a definite, you know, little hole in each place that's very uniform [00:31:00] and it's much safer. And you want to definitely clean that stamper off with alcohol before using it every time.
Yeah, that makes
JJ Virgin: sense. I think I'll go to a professional.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Even better just to do that because micro needling, that's the best thing as it's not that expensive compared to, let's say, laser treatments. I think IPL is a great option too if you're looking at bang for your buck. If you've got age spots, you know, sun spots, liver spots, all the same, all different names for the same thing.
Those types of spots come out from excessive UV exposure even when we're younger. The only way to get rid of that is to literally get rid of those spots. Actively, an IPL is a great option for that. Usually not that expensive. Non invasive for those of you who are really into kind of natural things. It's just light energy.
There's nothing more natural than just light. No chemicals, nothing like that. It will turn those dark spots darker and will actually slough off within about a week or so. So bang for your buck. I would say number one would be red light therapy. Number two would be microneedling. And number three, I would probably put IPL.
Cool. That
JJ Virgin: is great information. I'll tell you a little funny thing. I started doing IPL 20 [00:32:00] years ago, back when the machine felt like a big rubber band snap. Yeah. And then you had to wait like 30 seconds. It was the most horrendous experience. Now I go in, I'm like, ah, this is nothing. It's
Dr. Anthony Youn: great. It's no big deal.
Some people will use nummymessing, but usually like I get an IPL and I don't need nummymess or anything. It's pretty tolerable.
JJ Virgin: No. It's just a. Fast, inexpensive thing. So let's talk about your program and what it is. I know you've detailed it in your book, Younger for Life, but what kind of results came
Dr. Anthony Youn: out of this?
So we actually tested it. We did a three week jumpstart, which is the easiest thing. So three weeks were essentially the first week. And this is something that, you know, you and I talked about before doing it. Yeah. And I appreciate so much your guidance and input in this. So. Basically, it's a three week jumpstart that we included in the book where people saw amazing results after just three weeks.
Now, it's not like you're having a facelift, okay? You're not like, oh my gosh, my jowls are gone. But results so that people who are, let's say, their spouses or their friends, who don't even know some of them that they're doing [00:33:00] this, would give them these unsolicited comments about how great their skin looked.
I even had people who did this 21 day jumpstart and actually had Strangers come up to them on the street and go, just want to ask you, what do you do with your skin? Because it looks so good. Yes, it's crazy. So very simple. So the, so really, once again, focusing on what to eat, when you eat. Supplements and skincare products.
Just those four things. So the first week we put them on essentially an anti inflammatory collagen supporting diet. We got rid of the added sugars, we got rid of ultra processed foods, got rid of gluten and dairy, and we put them on just a healthy, whole foods, anti inflammatory collagen supporting diet.
Not limiting calories or anything like that, not counting calories at all. And then we started them on certain supplements, those ones that I recommended to you, the five very basic supplements. And we started them on skincare. Essentially a two minutes, five years younger skincare routine. Weeks two and three, we started them on intermittent fasting.
Just two days a week. So literally a [00:34:00] total of four times a day after intermittent fast. I recommend a 16 8 fast, so they would fast for 16 hours and then eat at an 8 hour window after that. The key to that that we did differently than anybody else in the past is that when they would fast, okay, 16 hours, so they would stop eating at 8 p.
m. and then they would fast until the next day at noon. When they started eating at noon the next day, we put them on an autophagy supporting diet. So I mentioned that when you eat is a big part of anti aging and autophagy is the process that occurs when you stop eating that is literally intracellular regeneration or recycling of your intracellular waste.
So when you stop eating for a period of time, your cells will actually rejuvenate themselves from the inside out by recycling their intracellular waste for energy and that helps clean your cells out and get your body functioning more youthfully again. Now, the idea that only happens when you stop eating for a period of time, but there are certain [00:35:00] foods that can actually supercharge and promote autophagy.
So there are foods that can promote the autophagy process while you're actually eating them. And those are healthy fats like omega 3 fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids and polyphenol rich foods. Which polyphenols are typically present in bright or dark colored produce like blackberries and strawberries and raspberries and certain dark vegetables like green leafy vegetables and like black beans.
And so for when they started refeeding, let's say at noon on the day that they had fasted, and we kept them on that diet for the rest of the day. So the idea is that they could get literally 24 hours of autophagy going. And I do think this is a huge part of watching the changes in their skin. So
JJ Virgin: I can't believe, I love the fact that someone comes up on the street and says that, that's amazing.
And I look at this and I think. This is a foundational thing, especially if you were considering doing any kind of plastic surgery. This is [00:36:00] like foundational that you'd want to do first step anyway. So either which way you might decide you don't need to do it at all. It's a win. So this is fantastic.
Dr. Anthony Youn: I really feel that the vast majority of people who are thinking, Oh, maybe I should get some Botox or I should get some filler.
You do this type of stuff, you start with these basic autojuvenation principles and there's a good chance you're going to say, you know what, maybe I don't need the Botox anymore, maybe I don't need that facelift because man, my skin looks so great, I'm glowing, I'm getting so many compliments from people.
That's what we
JJ Virgin: want. Love it. Now, you also have some bonuses. So your book, Younger for Life, depending on when you're listening to this, it's either coming out in a week or two or it's out. Either which way, I know that you've got some special bonuses and I'm going to put everything now. I don't want people to have to try to figure out how to spell autojuvenation.
So what I'm going to do, and I think we already used your name before, is I'll do everything at jjvirgin.com/auto. I'm going to put information on red light [00:37:00] and information on your skincare products, which are phenomenal. And you know, here's the thing. This is like everything you've said is actually affordable.
Like I look at the stuff that I've done over the years and the money I've spent and what you've just broken down is actually a very affordable approach to turning back the clock. But tell us about some of the other bonuses people get when they buy the book that we'll
Dr. Anthony Youn: put over here. Yeah, so we have a companion recipe book, we have a quick start guide, so if you pre order before the book comes out, or even if you're waiting for it to come, it's basically a quick start guide to skincare and what you want to do to change your skin up, to get you started immediately.
And we give you a 30 gift certificate to our online store. If you buy one copy and that way, if you want to try some of these skincare products and our new beauty products are made with natural organic ingredients, they're cruelty free, fragrance free. If you buy three books, if you get one for yourself and give two away, we give you a hundred dollar gift certificate for the online store so you can buy a lot more products for yourself if you want to start that way as well.
JJ Virgin: So I love deals so much. And so what you [00:38:00] just said was when you spend. The book is less than 30. So you already made money right there. Like this is the, this is the math that my husband's always going, what? Like you buy three books, you're way ahead. So this is a great
Dr. Anthony Youn: one. Exactly. So yeah, it will more than pay for the price of the book and skincare products.
If you want to try some natural organic products that obviously JJ loves and that we're really, really proud of.
JJ Virgin: Yeah. You've killed it with this product line. When you first. When you gave me the first ones and then you like, were like, we're reformulated you left me hanging for like a year and a half.
Dr. Anthony Youn: But it's worth it. We've changed some things up and it's definitely well worth waiting. I think your listeners will definitely find that these products work. They feel great on your skin and they don't irritate your skin like so many of the products out there today. Yeah,
JJ Virgin: they were what I needed during the pandemic, but it's okay.
You're forgiven. You
Dr. Anthony Youn: are, you don't need anything. You look great no matter what you're talking about. Anti aging. Like you look younger every time I see you. [00:39:00] I'm working
JJ Virgin: on it. You know, I want to be a role model for. Women 50 plus to know that this is like when everything starts getting really good. So you
Dr. Anthony Youn: already are.
And I think that what you're recommending, you combine that with the products, everything. I mean, people are going to see these massive changes. And we talked long ago about this idea of de aging and that's the goal is, you know, as you get older, you want to actually look and feel younger, and this is a way to do it, definitely.
JJ Virgin: Yeah. And at every age. I look at it and go, you know, just 10 years, 10 years younger at each age and be able to do all the things I want to do. So again, I'm going to put everything at jjvirgin.com/auto and good luck with this book. I'm so excited about it and everyone grab this one. You're definitely going to want to get it and all the fun stuff in the skincare line.
And thank you again, Tony. Thanks, JJ. Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips, and techniques you can incorporate into everyday life to ensure you look and feel great. And more importantly, that you're built to last. [00:40:00] And check me out on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and my website, jjvirgin.com. And make sure to follow my podcast so you don't miss a single episode at subscribetojj. com. See you next time.
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