787_Alessandra Zonari
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[00:00:00] JJ Virgin: Hey, I am JJ Virgin, PhD Dropout. Sorry, mom. Turn four time New York Times bestselling author. As a certified nutrition specialist, fitness Hall of Famer and globally recognized leader in health. I’m driven to keep asking the tough questions and use my podcast to simplify the science of health. Into actionable strategies that help you thrive.

[00:00:27] JJ Virgin: I’d also love to hear your thoughts on the show. And here’s the fun part, when you send me your review, I’ll reply to you using My on Demand Virtual Me. That’s right. My team and I created a virtual JJ packed with my book Speeches and Wisdom so I can personally connect with you. Here’s how you do it.

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[00:01:20] JJ Virgin: One of the things you, you don’t know about me is that I am a self-proclaimed skincare junkie. I am. I have literally got boxes and boxes of skincare products now. A lot of cool stuff gets sent to me. Um, so I feel very fortunate about that. And some stuff I just buy, but kind of, I’m a little bit of a hoarder with all this stuff.

[00:01:44] JJ Virgin: But here’s the thing, if I actually reorder it and continue to use it, it means something. It means I notice a difference and I’m always looking for those things that I notice a difference. Um, from, and I’m also trying to whittle my skincare down to as close to, uh, five products as possible. And I think I’ve managed to do it, and I’ve managed to do it because of one skin.

[00:02:11] JJ Virgin: I am gonna be digging into a new way to think about skin aging today and a new way to reverse it. Yes, you heard it Here, to reverse skin aging. And I’m gonna be talking to Alessandra Zari. She is a PhD who is a leading expert in stem cell biology and skin regeneration, and she is on a personal mission to transform the way we age.

[00:02:34] JJ Virgin: She got into skin because she was struggling with her own skin issues, so she has taken her stem cell biology training and with three other female scientists, they have gone deep into how to reverse skin aging, and they found a super cool connection. Between cellular health and longevity all around cellular senescence.

[00:02:57] JJ Virgin: We’ve talked about that before on the show in terms of zombie cells and what they can do to your body. Now we’re gonna be talking about what happens in your skin and really looking at this as one of the hallmarks of skin aging that again, you can actually reverse. How cool is that? So we’re gonna go through what happens as your skin ages, what you can do to turn it around, what else matters beyond just what you put on your skin.

[00:03:22] JJ Virgin: And I’m gonna ask all the questions I’ve always wanted to ask about skin and hair. We’re gonna get into that as well, which I’m excited about. So stick with me. I’ll be right back with Dr. Alessandra Zari.

[00:03:44] JJ Virgin: Dr. Alessandro Zari, welcome to the show.

[00:03:47] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yes, thank youj for having me here. I’m very excited for our conversation.

[00:03:52] JJ Virgin: Well, I will tell you I’m obsessed. With your products, and I totally love the fact too since I got to meet you and I think a couple of your partners over at Eudemonia last year in Palm Beach, and I love the fact that it’s also women, female scientists doing all of this.

[00:04:12] JJ Virgin: Uh, I’d love to know what got you into skin.

[00:04:15] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So, um, me and my co-founders, we are four PhDs from Brazil. We met when we were doing our grad school and our background was always on. Tissue engineering building organs in the lab, me specifically building skin to understand more of the wound healing process and how to use stem cells to promote better wound healing.

[00:04:41] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So all of us, we were working with something related. To promoting regeneration of our body. And we shared this common like dream and idea of one day translating some of this science to improve people’s health. So after we finished and completed our PhDs, uh, we uh, started this company once Skin. We moved to San Francisco, California, and because we had the background in skin biology, we thought it was a, a good opportunity to understand better how products are acting at the biological level of the skin.

[00:05:21] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Uh, I had a lot of concerns with my skin. Was always hard to find the right product to use. Skin very sensitive, and it was a pain for the majority of the co consumers, and still it is where you don’t know if that marketing claim will do. What is saying that it will do? Which product should you trust? So the company.

[00:05:45] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Evolved a lot throughout the years. We started in 2016, it’s almost 10 years, and started, um, as a platform to understand how products are really addressing the root causes of skin aging. And that was a whole evolution from like testing products to identifying a new molecule and eventually becoming a brand.

[00:06:08] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: And, uh, culminating to bringing a product that is powered by our science to the consumers.

[00:06:17] JJ Virgin: I have been obsessed with skin, not in a good way, honestly, since I was a teenager. ’cause I started breaking out as a teen. And I remember thinking, well, as soon as I get in my twenties, that’ll stop. And it never stopped, you know, and then all of a sudden you’re in your forties and like you’re breaking out with wrinkles.

[00:06:35] JJ Virgin: You’re like, what is going on here? And I feel like a shift finally happened, so I stopped breaking out. But then you have the skin aging piece of it. So what is going on? ’cause clearly the things that I look at for my skin now in my sixties and starting in around my forties is very different than what I was doing in my teens and twenties.

[00:06:55] JJ Virgin: What happens? Like what is that shift that starts to happen in the forties to our skin?

[00:07:01] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah, so there are a lot of changes that start happening with aging, and one of them is that we start to accumulate some damage inside our skin. So some damaged cells that are cells that stop dividing and secreting inflammation.

[00:07:17] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: When we are young, our body is good, unlike eliminating those cells, but after 30 more, 40, 50, we start to accumulate more of those cells. Uh, scientifically, we call them senescent cells. Uh, but we can also, we, we, some people probably heard about zombie cells. So these are cells that were supposed to be dead, but they are, they don’t die and they stay there secreting that inflammation.

[00:07:46] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: And on the skin, that inflammation. What we do, we start breaking down more collagen and thinning the skin barrier. So with aging, you accumulate more. Of those old damaged cells and that accelerate the process of declining the function of the skin. And what we see is that perception of, of the skin becoming thinner, more fragile, the fine lines appearing, the wrinkles.

[00:08:12] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: You also have this regulation on the melanocytes, so we start having some aging spots as well. And one of the. Root causes is the accumulation of those damaged cells that our body is not eliminating, uh, on the skin.

[00:08:29] JJ Virgin: Yeah. I heard you talking about this and I’ve been taking in some lytics to help with that internally, but I was like, oh, that is happening on your skin as well.

[00:08:39] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah. Wow. So that was also, uh, when we started to test the products, uh, back in 2016 and 17. And we were looking like to the aging markers, these markers of cell senescence in the skin. We were seeing a lot of companies, startups starting. To approach this longevity science to treat our body internally or specific diseases, but no one was looking to the skin.

[00:09:08] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: And the skin is an organ like all O of our body and this accumulation of cell s essence, it’s also happening on the skin. So when we realized that, we saw that there was missing. A specific product or ingredient that would reduce those senescent cells in their skin because their skin is, is another organ.

[00:09:30] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah. Similar to everything. So what happens to our body like also happens to their skin. And, and there was like a, a clear opportunity there to investigate more and to start doing research on how we can reduce those senescent cells on the skin.

[00:09:46] JJ Virgin: So were you guys the ones that discovered that this Like, was that your discovery, finding out that skin had these senescent cells?

[00:09:53] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: We did not discover that the skin has senescent cells. This was already described, but I would say that we were one of the first that start to address that problem, looking at skin aging. So, uh, at that time you would not see, there was no single brand in the market. Talking about cello senescence in the skin and there was not much research even on ingredients or molecules of ways of reducing cello senescence in the skin.

[00:10:20] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So we were one of the first to start this research and it’s. So exciting to see that nine years later, uh, we were able to validate our research, but we also see now more and more people, uh, going through that route of researching cell senescence in their skin and seeing and confirming that it really plays a role in their skin aging, but also plays a role.

[00:10:44] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Uh, as the skin is an important organ, it contributes to our overall health as well. So maintaining a skin that’s more resilient throughout our lifetime, it helps reduce inflammation in our overall body as well.

[00:11:00] JJ Virgin: Yeah. So we’re gonna talk some about the product as well, but it seems like then whatever you’re doing with your skincare, this would just be something you’d wanna make sure you’re doing as well.

[00:11:10] JJ Virgin: Just like in my supplement stack. When I learned about lytics, I’m like, oh, I must do this. What’s interesting is when you take it orally, when you take some lytics to kill off these zombie cells, that doesn’t have any impact on your skin, like you need to do topicals for your skin or what. So when you take topical,

[00:11:29] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: uh, when you take orally, that analytic will be going, uh, sometimes even more directed to places where you have more accumulation of senescent cells and will be distributed to your whole body.

[00:11:41] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So it may have some influence on senescent cells on the skin, but probably because, uh, it’s so systemic it’ll not affect. Exclusively or as efficient as a Topco application, today’s skin. So it can be very complimentary to do both approaches. And the Topco one is just, it’s being more insured that you’re being target exactly where you want to see the benefit.

[00:12:09] JJ Virgin: Yeah, it makes sense now. You mentioned collagen when you were talking about what these, what the senescence does, but I would assume there’s probably more at play here because of when collagen’s going down with aging. Is it just because these zombie cells or are there more things happening to take your collagen down?

[00:12:27] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah, there are more things happening, uh, cell senescent cells being one of the players in this process. But especially when, uh, as women we go through the menopause process and the decrease. On hormone levels, estrogen specifically, we are also like, uh. Like accumulating more of this decrease in collagen production.

[00:12:51] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So throughout the aging and the changes with menopause, we are also decreasing the amount of collagen that we are producing. And you are also with, um, you’re also inducing more senescence formation. So the senescence cells plus having less hormones, they are all stacking to accelerate this process of collagen degradation.

[00:13:15] JJ Virgin: Could you really, like, I I, I’m thinking about this now and, and if someone was not addressing senescence, could they really get their skin as they’re aging? Like it seems like they’re missing one of the key things you’d wanna hit with aging skin.

[00:13:31] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah. So if, if you are like lacking this senescence component, you may be.

[00:13:38] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Targeting and doing things to your skin that will improve the appearance momently or for a while, but the underlying cause of like the tissue and the function of the tissue is still being, uh. Aging and is still being declining. So the, the decline on the function that later on, uh, if you’re not taking care, you will see not only the lack of the collagen going down, but the skin becoming thinner and more fragile and dry itching, and the skin is this.

[00:14:12] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: It’s this barrier to our body. It protects our body, the internal body, by regulating our temperature, keeping the water inside, uh, the water content of our body and when, and also it’s our first immune response to things that are coming from the external world. So. When you’re having like the function of the skin, the skin barrier declining, you’re more susceptible to inflammation on your skin and to this itness.

[00:14:41] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: And because of the size of the skin again, uh, later on, this less resilient skin is contributing to the overall inflammation of your body. And we know that after 60 years old, the more inflammation that you have inside the body. More likely you can develop a chronic age-related chronic disease. So what do we want is to lower those inflammation from all fronts.

[00:15:08] JJ Virgin: So if you are combating senescence, you’re doing it internally and you’re doing it topically. Would things like the sagging, the dry skin? Uh, those things start to reverse, or do you need other, like with the dry skin and, and, and some of those slow healing? Is that more of a sign of senescence?

[00:15:30] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: This is also a sign of senescence, the dryness, because the dryness means that your skin barrier is not intact, so you’re losing water on your skin and help.

[00:15:43] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: When you eliminate senescent cells and you’re able to increase the skin barrier function, you are helping to reduce dryness on the skin. Um, so targeting cell senescence, it, it really targets one of the root cause of a lot of what you are seeing. Um, and what we like, I mean, there are other ingredients that can help and be combined with this.

[00:16:06] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Eno Eno therapeutic ingredient to just boost more, even the hydration on day skin. Having a good layer of lipids and moisturizer helps you to maintain that marsh on day skin as well. So there are other ingredients that can be associated with the, uh, the one that’s targeting senescence in order to have a more smooth, radiant skin, and most importantly, a stronger and more resilient skin.

[00:16:35] JJ Virgin: But it seems like this is an entirely different way to approach this.

[00:16:39] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yes.

[00:16:40] JJ Virgin: It’s amazing. So I know you’ve done research. Yeah. Can you, can you un fry the egg? So you’ve got someone who’s 60 speaking for speaking for a friend here. Mm-hmm. Is it just gonna slow down the aging process moving forward? Or can I actually turn back the clock?

[00:16:59] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So from our research when we, we tested on skins in our lab. So we are able here in our lab to cultivate skin samples that are leftover of plastic surgery outside the body. And that give us a tool to see how the skin would respond to different molecules. So we are able to measure what we call the biological age of the skin.

[00:17:23] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Meaning that’s how that skin is functioning. So even if you’re 60 years old, chronologically, your skin could be 58 or 64. So that’s a biological age that depends on how it’s functioning, right? And what we see is that when we treat with our molecule and reduce cell senescence, the biological age is actually reversed.

[00:17:46] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: But it is not a process because also when you, this is done in the lab in a very controlled environment. When you apply this topically on your skin, the most benefit I, it’s on the prevention side of like starts to have this stronger skin you can repair and we see that there is an improvement on repair, but that repair.

[00:18:09] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: It does not go down. I would not say that you are able to repair all the way to a 18-year-old skin when you are already, uh, 60 plus. So there is still a limitation there. How far can you go? How far you can go and, and the science is evolving. I think like later on we’ll be able to go more further. But there is a, there is a lot of, still some biological limitations.

[00:18:35] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: To really slow down and reverse completely. To reverse completely, but slowing down from today to later, it’s already like a huge benefit. Sometimes we don’t think that much, but if you put yourself and think five years ago and now the goal is that your skin now, it’s better than was five years old, especi five years ago.

[00:18:58] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Especially if you were having like big concerns with your skin.

[00:19:04] JJ Virgin: So you can get back a little bit of time. Yeah. You’re not gonna get back. Like, and so what are the types of things that someone using this would see? What types of benefits and in what type of results and in what timeframe?

[00:19:19] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah. So, uh, for our products, we run clinical studies that goes to 12 weeks and we start seeing.

[00:19:28] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: On the first days of use, you already start feeling like a little bit of this can be more hydrated. Um, and after, after six weeks what we measured this, I would say first what we measured on clinical studies. So when we measure on clinical studies after six weeks. We already see an improvement above 10% on the skin barrier function, meaning that the skin is really becoming stronger.

[00:19:55] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: We start to see improvements on the smoothness of the skin and on the radiance of the skin. And after 12 weeks, we see also an improvement on fine lines and wrinkles and the overall appearance of the skin. So, um, in a period of three months, you are even, you’re able. To see improvements in mainly all the aspects of your skin.

[00:20:19] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: And this will all depend on the person, on other things that they’re doing their lives. Some people see faster results, some people take a little bit longer to see more pronounced results. But, um, the results, what’s interesting is that it. Adding and with time it gets, uh, your, your senior skin getting better and better.

[00:20:42] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: It’s not a huge dramatic change overnight, but it’s a consistent change of like slowing down that pace of aging.

[00:20:50] JJ Virgin: Mm-hmm. And speaking, because I have so many different things at home, which I think most women, if you go to their their house, you’re like, what is all this stuff? Um, are there other products that could compliment this?

[00:21:05] JJ Virgin: I’m thinking of things that I have at home, like, uh, vitamin C and Retin A and Glycolics. What are some of the things that you might want to use with it? Or even things like a, do you guys have a scrub? I think you might have a,

[00:21:19] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: uh, we have a cleanser, but not a a, a gentle cleanser. Yeah.

[00:21:22] JJ Virgin: Yes. I’m traveling with your gentle cleanser.

[00:21:24] JJ Virgin: Yeah. So what are some of the things that you would want to. Do you, first of all, do you need to use anything else with this? And if so, what would be the things that would be an additive or exponential effect by adding them together?

[00:21:37] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah, so we, when we build our formulas, we try to maximize what that formula does.

[00:21:45] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So our most moisturizer aside of delivering the peptide also delivers some antioxidants and there are other ingredients, uh, that helps retaining more dehydration of the skin. So they, for a simple routine, I would say, if you can. The one can, can offer you a very simple, minimalist routine. We don’t have, for instance, uh, retinoids Retin A on our products and, uh, glycolics that exfoliate a little bit more.

[00:22:14] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: They skin. So for Retin retinoids, um, they can have a benefit on like smoothing their skin and really improving the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. And that can be, uh, very complimentary with our products, uh, because. It just accelerate more, seeing that visual benefit of the skin becoming more smooth.

[00:22:40] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: But the retinoids, they are not targeting Cellose senescence, so that’s why it’s very good to combine them. There are a lot of people that are sensitive to retinoids and can use, cannot tolerate them. In that case, if you can also have good benefits without using retinoids. Some glycolic acids and some more things that can exfoliate your skin.

[00:23:03] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Can also be a good addition to remove more of the, uh, upper, that layer of the skin. Uh, I wouldn’t overdo on those type of products, but they can be beneficial and you. You can improve more the, the visible results if you are combining a good like exfoliation once per week, retinoids two, three times a week per week, and, uh, our daily use of our product.

[00:23:31] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: One other thing that, um, can be complimented from our line that we don’t have yet when they skin, it’s, especially on winter times or if someone has really dry skin. Our moisturizer is very lightweight. It is supposed like to help you build up that own internal moisture, but if your skin is still dry, you may, especially at night, add, uh, a more heavy moisturizer to lock the moisture while your skin is still on healing processes.

[00:24:02] JJ Virgin: Even that is a streamlined skincare routine. Yeah. But, but the big thing takeaway here to me is that there’s a place for something like a Glycolic or a Retin A alongside this.

[00:24:17] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yes.

[00:24:18] JJ Virgin: Okay. Now the other piece of this is all the nutrition and lifestyle stuff. ’cause I’m sure. If someone’s smoking and staying out late and drinking and eating a bunch of sugar, there’s only so much one skin can do.

[00:24:33] JJ Virgin: Exactly. But if you wanted to have this, the, the best skin ever, you were using one skin and then you were gonna do all the diet and lifestyle, what would that look like?

[00:24:44] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So, uh. I think the number one thing would be make sure you improve your sleep quality and your type of sleep. Uh, your time of sleeping and the quality of the sleep.

[00:24:55] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Because during the time that we are sleeping is when our body is really cleaning up damage that is accumulating and making sure it’s like performing well and optimizing the function of the cells. So. Being better on sleeping is one, exercising it is one as well. It is also number one as well.

[00:25:17] JJ Virgin: And, okay.

[00:25:18] JJ Virgin: Question on sleep. Question on sleep. Yes. Before we go over to exercise, ’cause of course I’m thrilled. You said exercise I got sent this pillow that I’m obsessed with did a because, and the whole takeaway of this pillow was, the way it positioned you was, you weren’t gonna get like face creases. Um, does that matter?

[00:25:37] JJ Virgin: Is that, is that. Does that impact your, the, your health, your skin, or is that just not waking up with the skin crease?

[00:25:44] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: I think, I mean that’s more like because you spend hours there and if your skin is kind of like tightening wheel, wheel forms. We’ll get some marks from the sleeping. Um, I don’t know any study that that is really impairing the skin function, but you just, like, you help to, to wake up to a more smooth skin.

[00:26:06] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Uh, if you are like sometimes like using either a pillowcase or something that’s more smooth,

[00:26:12] JJ Virgin: so, you know, ’cause you’ve heard it too, the silk pillow cases. Yes. So none of that stuff really is gonna impact your skin.

[00:26:19] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: They, they will not reverse your skin biology, but they sometimes they can help like improving, uh, how your skin, the smoothness during the sleep, that, that time and things like that.

[00:26:33] JJ Virgin: Okay. Now let’s move to exercise. So sleep.

[00:26:35] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah, sleep is important. So sleep, uh, sleep is extremely important. Exercising every day is extremely important for your overall health. Not only your skin is the number one thing that you can do for your longevity that actually have data showing that improves your longevity and your diet, nutrition well, any type of

[00:26:58] JJ Virgin: exercise

[00:26:59] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: that you’re keen on.

[00:27:01] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So, um. Exercising daily and making sure, uh, at least three times a week you have some weight lift as well. Especially when we are like getting older. The muscle decline can really impact how you’re moving later on. So making sure you’re keeping that, uh, muscle lean, it’s important. Uh, then it start from like a, um.

[00:27:28] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Even walking 30 minutes already better than anything. And then you can improve to improve your cardiovascular condition. Uh, but the best exercise is something that you like to do and you enjoy doing. So number one, do something and then you can be optimizing to make sure you have a strong body throughout the aging process.

[00:27:51] JJ Virgin: Okay, so. Sleep, exercise. Now

[00:27:54] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: let’s get sleep, exercise, and then the nutrition. And nothing super crazy in terms of nutrition, aside of like reducing processed food and reducing sugar. Uh uh. Big intake of alcohols, all those bad things, like they really can impact your skin as well. Uh, processed sugar or like high amounts of, uh, fructose can really spike the, um, glycemia in your, your blood.

[00:28:24] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Your blood. And that can, um, that can really affect on your skin, your collagen on your skin, because excess of sugar can bind to collagen and then can reduce the function of the collagen on your skin. And that’s very pro-inflammatory as well. Not only today’s skin to your whole body, but there is a, a correlation with direct with the skin.

[00:28:49] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So avoiding processed sugar, excess sugar, um. Intakes of alcohol, smoking. They’re all like the, what we call the basics, but like sometimes like people just, it’s hard to do the basic, but I will go, I would start from there.

[00:29:09] JJ Virgin: I always wanna make sure that when you put these things together, it’s like an exponential.

[00:29:14] JJ Virgin: Effect, right? Like you do, you don’t want to say, I’m gonna do all this skincare. And then I’m, and I, I used to look at this. I see people spending so much money on makeup and skincare, and then they’re eating a bunch of sugar. And I’m like, come on. So. And one other question and when,

[00:29:32] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: yeah. The good thing is like when you take care of your health, you improve your skin to the level that then you need less makeup because your skin is already like, showing up so much healthier.

[00:29:43] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Uh, so I, for me, that’s a, it’s very, I’m a very practical person, so I love to have like a short routine and I don’t need, like, I feel good on my own skin.

[00:29:54] JJ Virgin: Well, on that note, you have, I love tinted sunscreens.

[00:29:59] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah.

[00:30:00] JJ Virgin: To me, a tinted sunscreen is the fastest makeup hack there is because you’ve got both things covered.

[00:30:07] JJ Virgin: Um, tell us about your tinted sunscreen and sunscreen in general, because there’s, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of bad sunscreens out there, so,

[00:30:17] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: yeah. So sunscreen, uv, radiation, UV coming from the sun. It’s the number one cause of accelerating the aging process of the skin because excess of UV accumulates more damage inside the cells and you end up accumulating more of those senescent cells.

[00:30:38] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So, uh, protecting your skin from. UV radiation, especially strong UV radiation, it’s very important to maintain your skin healthy. And then that’s when the sunscreen come as a way of you protecting your skin from the UV radiation. There are two types of sunscreen, like people are talking, a lot of chemical sunscreen, uh, mineral sunscreen at one skin.

[00:31:06] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: We chose to. To develop mineral sunscreens because they are more safe in terms of the data that you have. The chemicals, uh, there are some studies that can show that they can disrupt, uh, your endrin system. Uh, but those studies also, you need to. Take care of how you’re looking to these studies because a lot of times this is associated with a large amount of those chemicals being applied to you to see the negative effect.

[00:31:37] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: But even though, uh, for a safety is something very important, so we chose to develop some screens that are mineral. Uh, that we know that they can be used on sensitive skin as well, and they will not have any side effect. So, um, we, we have this line of, now we just launched two more things to our, uh, sunscreen for this.

[00:32:02] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Oh. Did case. Yes, we added two extra things. It was just launched, uh, last month. And our sunscreens, they’re combination of the zinc oxide for your UV protection, but a lot of antioxidants, we have vitamin C on our serum, the most stable form of vitamin C, so we even see that. Uh, by using our sunscreen, if you want, you can avoid using a vitamin C serum because it already has like enough antioxidants in that formula and also contains our peptide.

[00:32:34] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: And we ended with a formula that’s very gentle, uh, hydrating at the same time, and protecting from the UV radiation.

[00:32:44] JJ Virgin: It’s actually, it’s a fantastic product. I didn’t realize it had all that, so now I can only use that and that simplifies things. But a lot of times you’ll use these and they’re, they’re thick.

[00:32:55] JJ Virgin: Yeah. And they look weird. This actually, I’ve been using it as a primer if I’m doing things where I have to put on anything more than that. But most of the time I just use it as the thing. Yeah. Leave it at that.

[00:33:06] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: That’s a very good prime. Like before makeup as well, or, or, um, a little bit of the tin. A lot of times I also just use that and I feel like, oh, my skin has a little bit of a glow and feels healthy.

[00:33:19] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah. And we’re getting everything that we need.

[00:33:21] JJ Virgin: Yeah, it’s, it’s got the best texture of any of the ones I’ve ever looked at, so. Wow. That’s great. Good job on that one. Now, one other piece that I’m gonna take a little, uh, sidetrack over to hair, ’cause I was very excited when I got this hair, um, because my hair stylist was trying to convince me I needed to get extensions.

[00:33:41] JJ Virgin: I’m like, I’m not doing that. Um, and I think for a lot of women, a couple things happen and, you know. Maybe their thyroid function starts to go down and they start to lose a little bit of hair or the texture of their hair starts to shift. So how does your hair product work? I’m assuming it’s kind of built on the same philosophy of senescence that this must happen in your scalp as well.

[00:34:04] JJ Virgin: So let’s, let’s talk about hair and what happens. ’cause a lot of weird stuff happens to hair with aging. Wow.

[00:34:10] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yes, because, yeah, and you, you got the hint already, like the aging process happening on our body, on our skin is also happening on our scope. So we do accumulate cell senescence in our scope as well.

[00:34:25] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: And with aging like the senescent cells in the scope, it’s secreting inflammation and then it’s taking. It’s taking the hair follicle out of that Enogen phase. That’s the phase where the hair is growing. So it’s removing from that phase faster. And then what happens? The hair become thinner and then it does not grow that long as well as we were supposed to see when we, we were able to grow our hair longer when we are younger.

[00:34:52] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Um, so what happened, uh, when we were doing all the research on skin and developing the products for the skin? We came across some of this data and was naturally the thinking, right? That senescent cells are accumulating with aging on the hair follicle as well. And there is a lot of data showing that, that, um, aged scalp has more senescent cells and even sometimes in areas where you have hair.

[00:35:20] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: You have more accumulation of cell senescence there. So we spent two years doing research, okay, can our peptide also target and reduce the burden of the senescence cells in her follicles? And we tested this first in the lab and we were able to see the decrease of that inflammation. And then we developed this topical serum to apply on the serum, um, to apply on the scalp.

[00:35:44] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: And we ran a clinical study for six months and we were able to see credible. Results after six months that it improve on the thickness and on the density of the hair when using this serum. So, uh, and the serum, again, the way we think when we are processing, when we are developing all our formulas is a very scientific and rigorous process.

[00:36:07] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Takes long. We take like almost two years to finish a formula from start to get to the market. Because we think a lot of the ingredients that are coming together as well. And for this periscope, we also add some prebiotics that helps with the scalp microbiome, so that also helps du reducing, um, some rifs on the day scope and improving thecal health.

[00:36:32] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: And this consequently improves the quality of your hair. Um, and we also have other that can improve also, the cir, blood circulation, everything to, to promote some hair growth. That, of course, um, needs to be when someone is experiencing the shouting or um, hair loss. You need to follow up and understand what’s.

[00:36:55] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Uh, what’s leading, what’s the main cause of that? And try to solve that as well. ’cause the Topco application will just be one extra step for that stack that will boost and help you have better results.

[00:37:09] JJ Virgin: Yeah. I’m assuming like if you had PCOS or you have thyroid issues Yeah. Like you gotta get that solved and look at that as well.

[00:37:18] JJ Virgin: But you know, someone who has a thyroid issue and it goes on for a while and doesn’t figure it out, and then they figure it out. Now they gotta get their hair back. So, yeah. And that’s where the, what happens? Yeah. Does something happen during menopause? ’cause it sure seems like a lot of women’s hair starts to thin then independent of thyroid issues.

[00:37:38] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah, it’s all the hormonal regulation, uh, that start, uh, decreasing as well that can contribute to the hair growth. So we all, we’ll go through this natural aging phase of like the hair start to becoming thinner because also accumulating senescent cells there and when interesting status that is that, uh, a lot of time when someone notice that they are having her loss, they already lost 50% of the volume.

[00:38:06] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Of their hair. Wow. Yes, we kind of like, we take too long to start thinking about taking care of our hair, uh, hair growth. We start early, taking care of our skin, preventing the damage, but we don’t prevent that much. The hair loss. And that’s one thing that we. At one skin, we believe that can be key as well.

[00:38:30] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: If you are starting earlier on your hair care, you will probably, uh, experience less hair shedding and less of this thinning as well.

[00:38:40] JJ Virgin: Well, is that because I would think with, uh, the skin formula, the earlier you could start it, the better. Like, what age should someone start using these products?

[00:38:51] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So, um, we usually there is.

[00:38:55] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: When you, you start, like when we look to data that we start seeing a shift on the skin. If you analyze a big data set of skins from different ages, 30 years, there’s a shift there. So more or less, around 30 years is where like everything happens

[00:39:11] JJ Virgin: at 30.

[00:39:13] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: 30. Just is like this cliff. Yeah, it’s the cliff. So 30 is the main mark, but it will all depend on how you were like your lifestyle.

[00:39:21] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: To get to 30 some people, 27, they’re already seeing some of these changes. Some people go all the way to 35 and they don’t notice yet that these changes, but it, it’s there and it’s in between 30 that, uh, you will start noticing some decline. So the earlier you start, it’s always easier to prevent dental, to repair.

[00:39:42] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Uh, although we can repair as well, but we are always more slowing down to the future. So prevention, it, it’s a key, but it’s also. Anytime that you start is a good time to start.

[00:39:54] JJ Virgin: Man, I If I had had this at 30. Yeah, but so that’s the skin part. With the hair part. Would you only use this hair product if you started to notice a little bit of thinning, or should everybody be using this as a preemptive strike?

[00:40:09] JJ Virgin: Because it’s kind of a known factor of aging, is that your hair’s gonna thin.

[00:40:14] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Your hair is gonna thin, I think like after 30 you should be using to already to prevent, because as I said, it is sometimes it’s hard to perceive the hair thinning and loss. And it takes when you, you are noticing it’s already like, okay, a lot of damage already happened.

[00:40:33] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So, uh, even if you’re not noticing. It’s thinning. So after 30 years old, like it’s happening either like slower or more rapidly, it’s happening somehow. So start being proactive. I, I think it’s a, it’s a best approach

[00:40:51] JJ Virgin: now with the hair product. The way I’m using it now is, is every day kind of scrubbing it into my scalp.

[00:40:59] JJ Virgin: Is that once you’re in maintenance, do you still do that every day or do you shift it to less often?

[00:41:06] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah, the best is to have it every day, once a day, and then just, just do a little bit to like go around.

[00:41:14] JJ Virgin: Yeah. I don’t use the thingy. The the, there was some tool that came with it. I couldn’t figure out how to open it, so therefore I didn’t use it.

[00:41:23] JJ Virgin: But I have great nails, so I’ve just been in there scratching away in my scalp with it. Yeah. Okay. So that works. But that’s interesting. Now I’m assuming it can’t do anything. Gray hair is a different situation.

[00:41:35] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So gray hair. Uh, there is also some association with cell senescence. Um, and in our, our clinical study.

[00:41:43] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: We saw some improvement on the gray hair, but not to the extent that’s like a proof that this product that can reverse gray hair. It’s just like when you have a healthier like environment on your scalp, on your skin, the cells function better and depending on the, if you’re starting the greatness process.

[00:42:04] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: You if your cells are feeling happier, that can be like a little bit reversed and can, can help on that. Um, but so it can help, but it’s not specifically, it’s not on a concentration or something that’s targeting to reverse gray hair.

[00:42:21] JJ Virgin: Okay. We’ll figure that out next. Okay.

[00:42:24] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yes.

[00:42:24] JJ Virgin: Okay. Got your marching orders.

[00:42:29] JJ Virgin: Yeah. Ask every woman everywhere. Like, figure that out. All my friends are going blonde. ’cause they’ve got gray hair now and they don’t wanna have dark hair with roots. It’s like, it’s a, it’s a real thing. It’s, I know, I know. Doesn’t look like you have any of that at this point. You’ll probably, I, I

[00:42:47] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: still, and I’m like, I still, I don’t have the gray hair, but I know.

[00:42:50] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: It’s, it will come pretty soon. So I’m using one skin and see if I was delayed the, the, I can get like more time without starting to have the gray because yeah, some people embrace the gray hair very, uh, early on I kind of like the colored hair, so I hope I can now with one skin delay a little bit more.

[00:43:11] JJ Virgin: Yeah. Let’s see. Well, if you, if you figure out that whole thing, we, uh, we would be very grateful. I’ll, that you figure out enough. This is, uh, this is quite. E exciting. I mean, really the only, the only bummer is I didn’t know about sooner because you guys hadn’t figured it out, but I’m glad you did figure it out and we are gonna give everybody a 15% off all these different things.

[00:43:32] JJ Virgin: Walk us just through the line, and I know you have a very simple, you talked about this minimalist approach. I’ve never been a minimalist in anything, um, but I am going to attempt to be more minimalist. But walk us through the different products that you have and how you would use them.

[00:43:48] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So, yeah, so we try to, we are creating a line of products that they can do more with less products, and we, but we have a cleanser, a gentle cleanser that helps eliminating all the makeup, uh, pollution, a little bit of the dead cells that are sitting on top of your skin.

[00:44:06] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So cleanser number one. Then we have the face moisturizer that contains our peptide. It’s also, um, um, hydrating and contains hyaluronic acid and can hydrate your skin. We have a specific one for around the eyes for those that has already more concerns around the eyes. ’cause the skin around our eyes are, is thinner and accumulates more damage.

[00:44:32] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: When we, uh, there’s a study that measured the biological age of the skin on the eyelid and under eye. And compared with the tempos and the skin around the eye was 20 to 30 years older than the skin. Wow. Wow, that was like mind blowing for us as well. And that’s why it gets those fine lines. It is the first place, right?

[00:44:57] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: So you start, uh, yeah. Later on your thirties, the first like on your eyes starts the fine lines. It’s because it’s accumulating more cell senescence there as well. So we have a specific, um, eye cream for around the eyes that has a high, a higher concentration of the peptide as well. So you have the moisturizer for the face.

[00:45:18] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: The eye cream if you, if you are more concerned of the eye. Otherwise, you can also use the face around your eyes. How could

[00:45:25] JJ Virgin: someone not, not be more concerned after what you just said? Yeah, I know. I know.

[00:45:31] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: I was also like not super aware and learning. The more we learn, the more things like come out and, um.

[00:45:39] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: That’s, we, we, we first, when we start creating the line, we thought we wouldn’t have an eye cream. But then we specifically, and when we developed the eye cream, we partnered with a dermatologist and the whole, the formula development we tested on eyelid, uh, skin that came from blepharoplasty surgery. So we were able like to see more benefits with the eye cream on that skin compared to the face.

[00:46:05] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: It’s like a stronger benefit. And, and after moisturizing your skin in the morning, you apply sunscreen and you’re ready to go if you don’t wanna put makeup, or you can add makeup on top, uh, of your sunscreen. Um, and then at, and you have that body

[00:46:21] JJ Virgin: lotion. I love your body

[00:46:23] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: lotion. The body lotion is my favorite and I loving to see, uh, getting more momentum and now more awareness of people seeing that they.

[00:46:33] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: One they need to take care of. The skin of their body is not only the face, but also seeing like a lot of people using and having the benefits of like improving the texture and reducing crepeness, uh, and the thinning of the skin in the body. The body. What I love as well, we ran a very interesting clinical study with the body where, um, we recruited participants that were 60 plus.

[00:46:59] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Um, so that has already the skin in the body more. Thin and aside of analyzing throughout three months, the changes on the skin quality in their body. We also collected their blood and measured the systemic inflammation on their blood, and what we saw was that after 12 weeks. The skin was more resilient, like improve the skin barrier, um, and all.

[00:47:27] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: And you also see reduction on some inflammatory, uh, cytokines in the blood. Wow. So meaning that because our skin is this protective barrier and because you are reducing inflammation coming from the skin, you can really help your overall health and body. To the extent of systemic levels of like protecting your body.

[00:47:51] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: And that for me is a really, it is a game changer in terms of assessing your skin with this lens of. Improving my health. Um, and the, the, the benefits are there. We published this study and we are seeing more and more, um, people using, giving the feedback on how improves, uh, the, the quality of their skin in the body.

[00:48:13] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: I, I use the, the body lotion once a day, uh, after I get out of the shower, but it is one that I, I think it, I never skip, right.

[00:48:25] JJ Virgin: Yeah. Yeah. So I love it. It’s my, I do my chest and arms and hands. ’cause I think we forget our hands, although I think I’m gonna start putting that sunscreen on my hands.

[00:48:33] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah.

[00:48:34] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Sunscreen my hands. Yeah. It’s areas that we, we forget, but then, uh, at night what you would do is clean your skin and moisturize again. And you don’t need sunscreen anymore. That’s the, the most simple. If you want to add, um, a ate or, uh, something you can add, uh, before applying the one skin if it’s in the serum form.

[00:49:01] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Uh, or you can also add that night a richer cream to lock more moisture if you have very dry skin and you feel that your skin still need a little bit more of moisture

[00:49:12] JJ Virgin: and then once a day, the scrubby hair stuff. The hair serum And you scrub it in?

[00:49:17] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Yeah. You scrub it in, uh, once a day. Uh, I usually do at night as well.

[00:49:23] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Okay, easy. And one thing of the hair that, um, I love it, it’s because it does not, I don’t know how it’s been your experience, but it does not leave your, your hair greasy. It’s very lightweight. Uh, which makes easier to compliment, to add to your routine because you can, even if, even if you don’t wash the, your hair on the next day, you, you don’t feel that your hair is becoming greasy from the application of that serum.

[00:49:51] JJ Virgin: Yeah, I’ve actually had a couple different serums that I’ve tried in my hair and I’ve never been able to use them because I get a blowout twice a week and it completely takes it out. And I’m like, you know, so when I first got it, I let the box sit there for a bit. ’cause I’m like, this will wreck my blowout.

[00:50:05] JJ Virgin: It doesn’t. I did it this morning. And it does nothing. So I was like, this is the greatest stuff ever. It doesn’t do it. It doesn’t mess up anything that I’ve got going on. So, yeah. Good job on that one. ’cause all the rest of ’em have been, they had something in ’em that all of a sudden you went, well, just lost my blowout.

[00:50:20] JJ Virgin: You know? Yeah,

[00:50:22] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: exactly. That’s why like that is so important. You not, yeah. Lose your blow. This is what happens

[00:50:28] JJ Virgin: when women create skincare products and haircare products. This is the difference. They get it. Yeah.

[00:50:33] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: We get it. We know the pain points. We want something that will work on us. And, and we really at one skin, I mean, I’m so proud of the team.

[00:50:42] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: We, we take the time to develop, to get to products that we love and we think like can deliver. What we’re we want to deliver? Right? And, and can create a good experience and people will see results. Uh, so yeah, it’s, it’s a lot of teamwork. It takes time, but at the end, um, you, you have products. What we want is that our customers can trust our products.

[00:51:09] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: They can understand, they can see the data that’s coming from the, the research that was done to develop that product, and then they can experience the benefits of that product.

[00:51:19] JJ Virgin: Yeah. And it sounds like, I mean, I know with me it was pretty quick. You start to notice a difference. Yeah. Yeah. You feel it. You notice it.

[00:51:27] JJ Virgin: The texture’s great. It smells great. The whole thing. So everyone gets to try it. 15% off. Use the code JJ. 15. We’ll put the link in the show notes. I’m gonna put [email protected] slash skin longevity. So jj virgin.com/skin longevity, and I so appreciate your time letting me ask all the questions I’ve always wanted to be able to ask.

[00:51:51] JJ Virgin: So I appreciate it. I’m,

[00:51:53] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: I’m so glad I was able to answer to your questions. Uh, but if anyone listening to this, uh, podcast still have questions. We love to hear feedback, we love to hear from customers or any doubt. Uh, go to our website. There is like, uh, our customer support. There’s a message, uh, box that comes out and you can, uh, we love answering questions, showing the data, showing the research, bringing educational content if you’re still in doubt about something, so check our website.

[00:52:24] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: For, for more information. Cool. We’ll put

[00:52:26] JJ Virgin: all of that, your social, your websites, all the stuff in the show notes so everybody has access to all of it.

[00:52:31] Dr. Alessandra Zonari: Thank you. Thank you so much, aj.

[00:52:35] JJ Virgin: All right. Yes. Full disclosure. I have become obsessed with this product, both the topical fur face, but also the hair. They really do work.

[00:52:45] JJ Virgin: Like I totally see a difference with them, and I saw it pretty quickly with the skincare. So I’m whittling down my skincare routine. It is possible. Now, lemme give you a couple things that I think are important takeaways here from this talk. And it’s one of the ones I’ve always been adamant about. Don’t think you can go start using some topical skincare routine and eat a bunch of crap, stay out late, et cetera.

[00:53:09] JJ Virgin: And I think you know better if you’re listening to this, but sugar is such a aging thing. When I think of the. Biggest things that you can do that will age your skin. It’s like eat sugar, eat high glycemic, eat high sugar impact. So if you are not sure if you’re doing that, get the book, JJ Virgin Sugar Impact Diet.

[00:53:28] JJ Virgin: I’ll walk you through how to get off sugar. And then the other thing that’s really aging for your skin is eating things that are inflammatory to you. Now the Virgin Diet walks you through how to figure out which foods work for you and which foods don’t. And then also, one of the things that can be super helpful is making an oil change.

[00:53:45] JJ Virgin: And getting away from some of those more inflammatory, uh, and toxic. And it’s toxic ’cause of the way they’ve been produced. Seed oils. And then really focusing on eating clean protein, digesting it well, that helps your skin as well. That’s where protein digestive enzymes come in. And, um, getting in that collagen, my bone broth shake, my collagen powder help there.

[00:54:09] JJ Virgin: And also getting in a lot of polyphenols, a lot of those plant compounds for the antioxidants. So all those things help. And then. Get yourself some one skin and oh, sleep important. Exercise actually helps with, um, collagen production and getting rid of wrinkles, et cetera. And so does creatine. How exciting is that?

[00:54:31] JJ Virgin: So ine can help there as well. And then of course. One skin. One skin, one skin. And so JJ 15 is the code to save 15% off. Go to jj virgin.com/skin longevity to hook yourself up and let me know how you’re noticing it, because, um, we might be well beyond 40, but we’re gonna be looking well beyond 42. So there you go.

[00:54:55] JJ Virgin: You’re hooked up for that. I’ll see you in the next show.

[00:55:03] JJ Virgin: Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips, and techniques you can use to look and feel your best and be built to last. Also, I’d love to connect with you and hear your thoughts on the podcast. Here’s how. First, subscribe to the podcast and leave an honest review. Second, take a screenshot of your review and third text at 2 8 1 3 5 6 5 2 6 2 7.

[00:55:31] JJ Virgin: That’s 8 1 3 5 6 5 2 6 2 7. When you do, I’ll reply using my brand new virtual jj. It’s my on demand virtual self built from my books. Talks and years of experience so I can interact with you directly. You’ll make my day and I can’t wait to hear from you. Thanks for tuning in and I’ll catch you on the next episode.

[00:55:58] JJ Virgin: Hey, JJ here, and just a reminder that the Well Beyond 40 Podcast offers health, wellness, fitness, and nutritional information. That’s designed for educational and entertainment purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

[00:56:15] JJ Virgin: If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional. Make sure that you do not disregard, avoid, or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your healthcare professional because of something you may have heard on the show or read in our show notes, the use of any information provided on the show is solely at your own risk.

I.

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