Keys to Looking & Feeling Best & Living Long

Introduction and Guest Background 0:00

Welcome back to the Restore Your Mitochondria conversation. I'm your host, Laura Ontario. I'm bringing you experts to help you boost your energy and fix your health so you can build the life you love. Today, my special guest is the esteemed Brian Vesely. Hi, Brian. Welcome to the summit. Hi. So happy to be here. I am so happy you're here too. I brought you on the summit because I wanted to have a really, really helpful conversation to our audience about anti-aging and what that really means and what aging is.

You're also an expert in, you know, toxins and how they get into the body. And I'm gonna introduce you to our audience here in a moment. But this could perhaps be one of the most profound interviews on this summit, because it's all about this mindset piece around anti-aging, which we were just talking about. So thank you for being here to support this summit. Oh, well, I love what you do. So I'm happy to be here. And hi everybody. So Brian, I want to introduce you to people who don't know you. I don't know how people don't know you, but you've been a leader, a researcher and an advocate in natural health and wellness for over 20 years.

You're the founder of the Art of Anti-Aging dot com with over 500,000 members, and that is impressive. Your mission is to empower those in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond with the most effective, evidence based natural solutions to look and feel their best and avoid and overcome disease and live along doing it. And you're also the founder of Purity woods.com, one of the world's only providers of premier quality and fully USDA certified organic and anti-aging skincare products. So welcome. And we're going to get into this today.

Let's dive right in. I'm so excited and ready. Okay, so here we go. Now for over 20 years, you've been a leading natural health advocate and researcher. And you were key to building various organizations many of us have actually heard of. You've worked closely with a long list of today's most respected natural health oriented doctors and other experts. And now you've built the art of anti-aging into one of the most popular and trusted anti-aging and longevity organizations in the world. And you've built Purity Woods into the go to source for organic, anti-aging skincare.

And you could have taken many paths. And your story is interesting. So how did you end up becoming a leading voice for shifting the mindset and conversation about anti-aging and longevity? I appreciate the question. And I can give you like a four hour answer to that, but I'm going to I'm going to give you the short version. You know, I was I'm 52 and you can pretty much cut my life in half in the first half of my life was, would, you know, most folks would agree. It was quite rough. I grew up in inner city Chicago.

Lost friends to gangs. It was, you know, it was a rather, rough neighborhood. Even rougher today. You know, but the there were multiple challenges. But the biggest of all was that, just to be frank about it, you know, my dad was a good man until around my age of nine. He became severely alcoholic, very abusive to me, to my sister, to my mother. That persisted for a long time. Now, I can easily talk about this today. Because I've done all the work of forgiveness, you know, a long time ago with this.

And instead, what I can do is share with people, but, you know, he had a one heck of a life, you know, a lot of good in his life and a lot of really terrible challenges as well. I mean, in his previous marriage, he lost a son, was hit by a car, killed. He lost a wife. When they were in an argument, he watched her get out of the car,

Brian's Personal Story and Anti-Aging Mission 3:44

hit and killed by a car on and off and back in those days, they didn't. People didn't. On the level. We do think God today deal with, trauma. You know, by going to therapists and counselors. It was considerable for crazy people. So he took it out on the bottom and took it out and it instead. So that present a lot of challenge to me. I became, you know, a very young father myself, and, you know, young husband, you know, to my wife at the time, you know, my credit, we, we stuck him through, college full time, work full time.

Both of us were incredibly busy people, but very poor, and lived in a studio apartment in Chicago where I couldn't afford more than two twin mattresses on the floor. Mice visiting our faces that night. Oh, gosh. Went through a lot. Went through a lot. I had, you know, I had I had, anxiety and depression. Long story short, and there's a lot of details that are I'm leaving out. Oh, look, I think our audience can really identify with this. I'm sure there's people listening right now that are saying, wow, I had a childhood like that, too.

I, I, I experienced something like this. Yeah, exactly. I mean, and if you don't address this trauma, you know, nothing else that anyone here you know, can say or do is going to make much difference. You got to do the work on the trauma. On a side note, and it's important to try. This is where I'll go with this, to have people, even one truly supportive person and you know, on that, on that journey with you matters. A friend and, you know, spouse, whoever it may be. And sometimes they, you know, they come from the strangest places.

In my case, it wasn't really the strangest place. I just happened to have some powerful women in my life that literally, kept me alive. Frankly, you know, I was gifted to have a wonderful mother, a sister, certain teachers who really stood by me and they all happened to be female later on in life. My wife today. But, you know, going back then, again, they literally, kept me going and kept me alive, frankly. So now fast forward. Now there's a long story about how, you know, I found my way into health and wellness, and I won't share the details on that, but, five, six years ago now, as you know what, I was at a crossroads.

And I'm like, you know, I there's so many directions I can take things. And now, you know, and it's it's a beautiful place, honestly, to be in. But I watched as this pervasive myth that exists in our country and world today was impacting these powerful women who had literally saved my life, positively changed my life because they were hitting their 40s in the, in the case of my sister and then 50s, my mother, 60s, then 70s, my wife, her 40s. And that myth is that getting older is becoming doomed.

Basically, you're over the hill, as the joke goes, when you hit 40, you're doomed to become undesirable, incapable, doomed, suffering and disease. It's all coming for you. And I watched as even these powerful women especially, were impacted by this message. Now, this this overriding big message out there, you know, it's pervasive in the media and everywhere. It's just so Hollywood, Brian. I mean, stars, female stars don't have much of a chance after 40. Yeah, it's ridiculous. But here's the thing.

So I'm like, wow, that does not jibe at all with the reality that, you know, I have been fortunate enough to get from all of my research, all of my, you know, fortunate access to so many, you know, top tier doctors and researchers who have an integrative and natural health bent. The reality is that these ought to be the best years of life. You know, regards in all regards. Your emotional health, your physical health, your mental health, all regards ought to be. But here's this overriding message that this is the downhill time and they clash.

And so I'm like, you know, in honor of these women, you know, who helped me and saved me. And because this message especially impacts women, our society, it impacts men, too, but not on the scale it impacts women. Like, I know exactly what I need to do. I want to bring forward all of this research, all of this guidance to help people thrive in their 40s, 50, 60, 70s beyond. And that's kind of how the whole the art of anti-aging was born. And it's not anti-aging as in War Against Aging. Of course, it's ridiculous.

It's anti this myth of aging that it becomes, you know, the time of doom, which is total nonsense. So the art of anti-aging, that's that's the origin story. I'm so glad to hear this because, I mean, I've never had this talk with you before, but I'm approaching 50 this year, and I look ahead and feel like the best is in front of me. Like everything I've done up until now is setting me up for the most amazing next 20 years of my life. This is where everything is going to explode. So we get to teach people how to feel like that and how to experience that.

That's the goal. And by the way, you hear from you, you don't even look well, you know, you actually do want to say this. You look what 50 should look like if we're doing at least some of the things. Yeah. That's right. And that's another thing it's not about when we talk about, you know, people think of anti-aging to think of appearances and then longevity, obviously how long you live. They're they're so intertwined. Honestly, it's like might not make sense to some people, but they're really the same thing.

However, when you step back from that, there's an unhealthy mindset where if you're under 50, I want to look like I'm 20 again. No, you don't. You. But then and then there's also this, message out there in another camp, I guess we'll say it's like embrace, you know, all the wrinkles and stuff. And I'm like, okay, that's fine. That's a positive mindset. However, however, people on this deep level feel like they shouldn't have so many wrinkles and things, and most of the time they're right. The problem is our lifestyle habits are making our bodies older than than they ought to be.

And that includes our skin, which is an organ, right? It's just another organ on our body. It's the billboard organ. As I sometimes call it. So you look amazing and you look like you're supposed to look at 50. Yeah, yeah. No. Thank you. I'll be the post. I do, you know, I do. I don't know I'm not going to comment. You know I got this tan from being out in my garden, but you don't look 53, right. So, you know, I brought you on this mitochondria summit because cellular health is so important for aging.

Well. And, when mitochondria decline and there's lots of experts talking about the science behind it and talking about the electron transport chain and ATP. And that's not what this talk is about. This talk is really about something else. So from your experience and from interviewing top docs and experts in our space, what do you see as the biggest challenges those in their middle years and beyond really face what's really happening here? Yeah. You know what's interesting, by the way? This does impact even down the cellular level.

Let me, let me. But but I would if you get if you had 20s with me and said, you know, what is health to you, I would say it's it's as simple as this. It's about what you allow inside of your being and what you strive to keep out. That's what health is. That's a mic drop. Yeah. And and that goes for what you will physically allow inside your body, which a lot of folks have talked about and which obviously you know, anything you pull into, you physically. Now everyone thinks mouth of course food we've you know, thank God come a long way in the last ten, 15 years on that conversation.

But it also goes through your skin. It also includes theory alongs. Anything you bring in is either going to help your body, including down to the cellular level, or it's going to harm you. There's some neutral, so it's really a spectrum, but it also goes for what you allow inside of your being, your body through your senses. Let's just say through your mind and heart, really. And what I mean by that is what I talked about with this message, for example, of aging. I would challenge everyone to really take the time, go out in nature, go for, you know, walk anywhere where you feel detached from all your to do's and deeply consider if you're 40, 50, 60, 70.

Be on what you believe aging means. A lot of times when people really do this, they will be surprised that that messaging that getting older equals being doomed is implanted in them. Right? And if that is in place, more, I would say, than anything else that you've discovered throughout this entire wonderful summit. You want to work on that, you want to question that and maybe journal it out, write it out, think it out, conversed it out with different people. Hey, that's not necessarily true. That's just something that's been pounded.

I mean, like you said from media, from lack of representation of older, you know, especially women in media and, and movies and Hollywood. And it's comes from so many directions.

Mindset, Trauma, and the Myth of Aging 13:06

It's an ongoing joke, you know? Haha. He's old, she's old. That means they're senile. This nonsense, you know, you laugh at it. And sitcom, but it sends this message to us and we have a lot of cleansing to do. That is the biggest toxin of all is what is it can be what's in our mind. And it's also the biggest, promoter of health if it's a positive thing in our mind. So mindset is outstanding on that front. You're right. You're next 20 years and actually your next 40 years are going to be outstanding because you believe it's going to be outstanding. Absolutely.

I mean, I call this self-limiting beliefs, right? So we we've got these beliefs that I didn't do enough. I'm not enough. I'm old, I'm out of my prime. And then you get into the guilt, shame, anger, frustration that's going to age you faster then then you're toxic skincare. Honestly, that is you just put that in the toxic bucket that we hold all these toxins. Emotional. Toxins, stress, toxins and thoughts are toxic. So it's about getting up into that higher resonating thoughts of being grateful and joyful and loving and, and trusting that word.

Trust, right. Trust that that you're on the right path and that you've done everything to the best of your ability. And there's more ahead of you. Yeah. That's okay. Yes, absolutely. You know, I mean, I know people really like, the idea of, you know, something, you know, something physical that fixes everything, you know, thing. Oh, yeah. I think most people are past the, you know, the pill stage that are listening this. At least we know, you know, no pharmaceutical is going to do it for you. What they want to supplement, Brian.

They want they want a natural pill. Yeah. They still a lot of people still want a pill. Yeah. And supplements have their place. I certainly take several. But their supplements think about the word. You know they're on the side. Their insurance in some cases. In other cases they're pure supplemental. The point is even food itself. You want to eat, right? You want to exercise. You want to do all of these things of course. But that's that's really half of it. The other half. And probably I'd argue again, as we are kind of suggesting here, the more important half is the emotional work.

It's not just the messages, but they are very strong that getting older equals being doomed. It's all of the negativity which is pounded on us today, pounded on us today from so many directions. You know, if, if, if you step back from what you're potentially I don't know if everyone's consuming but what you may be consuming from your TV, from certain, you know, websites, news sources that you read, if you if you listen to that message and you and you're like the the news, the news is not the news.

The news is the bad news that some editors in a room somewhere said, this is going to get eyeballs and at the bottom line, help our investors and our and our shareholders. The news is not news. It's the bad news. The real news is that, you know, for every one bad thing that happened, there's about 10,000 wonderful things that happened out there today. Right now going on. Someone's helping someone. Someone's walking an old lady across the street, whatever it may be. That's not exciting. You won't hear about it.

So if you turn on this media and think that's the way the world is today, that's also poison for your brain. Just like all this negative messaging, my suggestion is you can't completely cut it out, but you have to be calm, ever more conscious of what you are feeding your being through your brain. Even more so than all these other ways into your body. It's so important. Yes, consciousness now, now I want to talk a little bit about skincare toxins because I just mentioned that. And this is a really important.

And over the years you, you've done, you know, research on toxins of various sorts. And you're noted for saying that typical cosmetics and personal care products are the worst offenders when it comes to toxins people are putting in their bodies. So can you explain why? Because I don't think people realize as they're leaving their house in the morning after, you know, showering and doing all their skin hygiene and personal hygiene routine? And I don't think people realize that they're filling their toxic bucket every day.

Yeah. And that's part of the reason why it is the worst physical toxins. So, you know, I covered the mind toxins and the importance of being very protective of this sacred space called your body. And you being never more conscious in terms of physical toxins. So again, you know, I know I'm I'm really kind of dumbing it down. But there's three ways in your physical body really. I mean, it's breath, mouth through what we consume food wise and skin. But a lot of people don't think about that when it comes to skin.

That's a big part of the problem, as you're suggesting in the first place. If on the physical side of the equation, people take nothing else away from this conversation, I want them to remember that when they're pushing their grocery cart down, cosmetic and personal care product aisles, they're pushing it down food aisles. That is food. When you place an anti-aging cream, a moisturizer, a deodorant, whatever it may be, to your body, it doesn't just sit there on the surface when you don't do whatever it's, you know, suggesting it will do.

If it did, it penetrates into your body. The vast majority of chemicals in the ingredient in these products penetrate. That's what they're designed to do. Some go to the dermal level, some go all the way to your blood where they're shot around your body. Now, the average woman in the United States uses 12 personal care products per day cosmetics, personal care some or some less. That's why it's the average rate of which contain 168 different chemicals, 168 different chemicals. Here's an alarming statistic alone that should cause everyone to kind of perk up in the European Union.

And actually about 40 different countries, 1300 chemicals have been banned from personal care products and cosmetics in the United States of America. I 11 that's not real. I Lebanon I've heard this before, and every time I am so astounded. Yeah, it's ridiculous, rude. And I think I want people to know that there's been no substantial legislation passed regarding what is allowed into cosmetics and personal care products since 1938, at which time the FDA told these companies, basically, you're on your own self regulate.

Have at it. We trust you guys and there's been no, you know, a substantial legislation since, well, what's happened, it's become a ridiculous, as you can tell, Wild West where there are some very powerful players, chemical companies being one of them, and they're a massive lobby, you know, in Washington, D.C., to be frank about it, which is why 1300 chemicals in many other countries banned 11 here, 11 here, no, that alone says a lot. And the fact that you're feeding your body, this is food and you're feeding your body through your skin.

Your skin is your largest organ. Your skin is the front line and arguably the most important line of defense, of your immune system. Basically, it does the lion's share work of keeping your stuff out of you that you don't want inside pathogens, other toxins that are in the air on surfaces, etc., etc. people don't tend to remember that their skin is an organ. So I always challenge people. I'm like, okay, so you you walk into a store online and you're like, oh, that's what that product says it's going to do, really cleanse my skin and make it smell real sweet.

Sounds awesome. Or that product says it's going to get rid of my wrinkles, or that one's going to make me not smell bad by putting it under my arm. I'll try it. And they don't really understand the food equation. Keep in mind your skin is an organ. So I would say this. Would you do the same? Would you just randomly, if you could grab a product that says it's going to work wonders and apply it on your other organs, your brain, your liver, your heart, your lungs? Oh, I don't I don't need to know much about it says it's going to work.

I'm going to put it on my liver. No, you're not. Would you eat it? Would you eat it by mouth? No you wouldn't. The it's just a mindset. I'm not going to say we evolved, but to some extent we've all been boys brainwashed is a is a big word, but I have to use it here. We just don't think of our skin that way. We think of it kind of as something to experiment on, but it's not. It's another mouth into our body in a sense. So let's talk about some of the toxins again. Yes. 1300 band. You really have thousands more that that are on the docket to be examined.

It's a lot of work to be banned in these other countries. All in 11 here. So one question I get all the time is what are the worse? I know people love the top ten lists and all that kind of stuff, but the problem is that there are thousands and thousands of chemicals used in and all of these different products. I'll pause here if you have any specific questions. Oh, yeah. This is I do want to get into some of the ingredients that, that are bad. I know listeners, viewers are going to want to know right now, but what are they what should I be looking for?

What comes to mind for me is the whole BPA free craze. So everyone's looking for BPA free, but what they're not realizing is there's other chemicals that are being put that are put in plastic and in the lining of cans that are just as bad as BPA. And the the industry is so smart, they know that people don't want BPA. So we'll say it's BPA free. We'll sneak this in there and they'll think that it's fine, but it's not. It's not. So I mean, I just want to I just want to say that as we get into this conversation, because like you said, you're going to talk about maybe the top few, but there are so many chemicals.

I mean, you just can't safely use plastic. Period, period. I'm going to give, you know, some sweeping in terms of cosmetics and personal care. There are so many that you, you know, again, 1300 banned elsewhere. And there's even more that would want to be on the lookout for. So at the end of the day, trying to read, you know, labels for what you should avoid becomes, you know, an exercise in futility. The good news is there is an, a surging I'll say approach to take when choosing these products. But first let me let me pinpoint a few just so people know, because there are quite common.

Why Personal Care Products Are a Major Toxin Source 23:58

One of them is formaldehyde. It's a known carcinogen. And it is found with many different scientific names. That's another problem. There's so many different ways of saying it, but it's found, you know, widespread in various cosmetics, personal care products and cleaning products, etc., for that matter. Well, everyone remembers formaldehyde from from high school, and you use it to preserve things forever, basically in jars. It's astounding that it's allowed in products because it's not even a suspected carcinogen.

It's a known carcinogen. So that's, you know, go ahead for I was going to say, when I was in college, an anatomy class, the cadavers that we worked on were submerged in formaldehyde, and we roll them up and all the formaldehyde is these cadavers were 20 years old. That's how good formaldehyde is at preserving. And I can remember being so sick every single anatomy class, because the fumes of being over that. It wasn't that there was a human body there that was sick. I could eat my lunch over the cadaver that wasn't a big deal.

It was the smell and bringing in that room. I just wanted to say, I've got a personal experience with formaldehyde on a big level, and it is toxic. Yes it is. And, you know, again, that's just one of many. I mean, there's, one that folks might have heard of relatively recently getting some spotless phthalates. And that's spelled, I just so you allergy. So it's got the pH at the start, you know, strange spelling, but that, you know, they're basically like plasticizers and products and, and, and, and neurotoxic, you know, potential carcinogenic.

I mean, the list goes on with these things, you know, one that many people are grateful to hearing about is parabens. And they go by different names methyl, parodic, paraben and so on. Look for that on labels. But again, I can go on and on. I mean, trickle sand. Trickle sand was banned in 2016 from. Yeah. Because it was found to be an it were toxic. But guess what? It was only banned for hand soaps. It's still allowed in products that we put on our face. It's weird almost when you think about that.

Like why didn't they extend the ban if they know this is bad to all products, but now they just targeted basically these these antibacterial hand soaps to keep it out of that. But they allowed another products that were eating even our face, our most sensitive skin. Yeah. Around the eyes. It's crazy. But here's here's before I get to what to really look for on a product, there's one thing that you can look for when I turn a label around, I'm looking for one thing first on the ingredient label. The word is fragrance.

And sometimes that if they're very basic about it they call it scent. If they're being fancy and French about it they'll call it perfume. But what fragrance can mean is any of thousands of different chemicals. And they don't have to tell you what they are. They can throw anything under that label. Yes, it's purported to be what gives it that artificial smell that a lot of people equate with, you know, work effectiveness. You know, getting into something that we've kind of been, bamboozled into believing it smells like fake flowers.

It must be God, you know? But that's what it's purported to stand for, is all the fancy chemicals that they threw together. But they can put and do put any thing under that label. And it could be it could be ten, but it could be hundreds of different chemicals. They don't have to tell you what the chemicals are. Why? Long story short, because it's a trade secret. Because it's protected legally. Because that's their special proprietary blend that gives it that wonderful fake flowers smell and be a bit sarcastic with wonderful.

So when I see that on the label, I'm like, I'm running the other way. I don't need to see anything else. I'm running the other way. I'm not putting that on my body because I don't even, you know, you're not even telling me what I'm feeding my body by putting that on my skin. Brian, I want to say something right now. This also applies with food, with natural flavoring for our audience to know. It's the same scam. So natural flavoring and fragrance, so natural flavoring and food, fragrance and body products.

It's the same situation. It's a bunch of fake stuff. So keep going. Yeah right. But the good news, in in relative recent years is instead of trying to know all the bad stuff you should avoid, although it's pays to know some of the top, you know, obviously. Anyways, we've been discussing here, but interestingly, on my notion and it's true that what we put on our body is food. You know, these products the USDA past USDA certified organic overall to cosmetics and personal care products. Now, now is not just yesterday, but it's, you know, relatively recently.

And I advocate to people to look for and understand, these independently certified labels like USDA certified organic here in France and elsewhere in the world. There's, equusearch one of them. That's the best that we've got right now. And it's pretty darn good compared to nothing, because, you mentioned Purity Wood. You know, our company, USDA certified organic. It is not easy to do with effective healthy aging anti-aging products, but it's doable because we did it. And people rave about that, you know, thank goodness our wonderful products there.

But they're USDA certified organic. And I will tell you what that means. That means that we have to go through really, really strict steps to prove that there's nothing toxic included and that even all of the plant ingredients that are in there were farmed organically. So it's so when people look for USDA certified organic, you don't have, you know, you can be rest assured, nothing's perfect, but it is far, far greater of a badge on something than anything else you can imagine. And I will say that there's some states have similar strict certifications.

I will advocate you. Please support these these certifications in the companies, whether there's deodorant companies doing this out there and there's makeup companies. It's not easy. But support those companies because they are doing hard work to bring you truly toxin free products, which by the way, of course, help, you know, animals and our environment and all that as well. So try to support those companies. If you don't like Purity Woods products, that's okay. Find another anti-aging, you know, cream company that is USDA certified organic and support them.

But for your sake, everyone listening, look for cosmetics and personal care products that have that or their equivalent. Do your homework on these certifications. Bless you. And, with the sneeze and things. But I muted myself, so I was. But I called me out. But I saw you and I was also going to say and I pause here, beware of greenwashing. What does that mean? Good question. I kind of set you up with a softball on that one, right? Yeah. We got to tell people that you're hitting it. You kind of alluded to that earlier in a larger sense.

So greenwashing all of these companies, you know, make these products know darn well the message is starting to get out on how toxic personal care products are or how toxic makeup can be, how toxic cosmetics can be. They know that. So they're bamboozling, fooling people by screaming out on their labels, in their marketing things like natural, organic, wild, crafted, what else? Paraben free? Well, guess what? Artisanal. Artisanal lots are really very one. You know, it sounds cool, right? And that's the whole point.

So when you see a company just proclaiming organic what not USDA certified organic, which is a label that's put on because you're you've been granted and you want to do the hard work. But if they just say organic, that can literally mean one organic ingredient is in that product, along with 50 synthetic ones. Wait wait wait. So you're saying the whole product doesn't have to be organic to use an organic label? Now, keep in mind, cosmetics and personal care products are, I've been told, the most unregulated industry out there.

Now, I can't I can't stop. I'm saying I've been told because I know it's extremely unregulated. How can I compare it to some industries? I don't know mean point is, yes, you can say organic because you've got an organic ingredient in there. You could certainly say wild crafted because you have a couple, but you can have wild crafted along with 50, you know, lab created synthetic ingredients and extreme wild craft and it's not even like on, on food in that sense. And plenty of companies, you know, do this.

Look for those certifications. You cannot put USDA certified organic if you aren't. If you do and they find you, you will get in trouble, you know, as a company. So you can't do that. But you can use that word organic because, yeah, hey, what I mean is, you know, my aloe vera juice is organic. Yes, sure. I got 50 toxic ingredients in there, but that's how they're fooling people. That's greenwashing. Don't almost pay attention to what they are saying about their own product. Look for those certifications.

Or if you're, you know, or turn the label around and look for all that long, you know, methyl paraben, in other words, like that. At least to know for sure or do it yourself, by the way, you know, which is a growing movement as well. For some skincare, there's a lot of DIY stuff too. Yeah, in the few minutes we have left, I want to talk about what we should be putting on our skin to feel and look our best. But I just want to touch really quick that all of these terrible toxins that we're putting on our skin, we've talked about it absorbing into the skin.

Obviously it's going into the organs, it's causing mitochondria decline, it's causing premature aging. And the symptoms that people might experience are fatigue, dizziness, brain fog, digestive issues, bloat, abdominal pain, sinus issues, irritability, shortness of breath. You may not link your symptoms to the toxins that you're putting on your body. So I just want to say that really quick. I mean, we could spend a whole 30 minute lecture just talking about that piece, but I want to make sure people know what to put on their body.

So what ingredients are you recommending? Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up with the symptoms. I've heard from more people, you know, than I ever imagined that some people do the equivalent of a fast, on on personal care products and cosmetics. You know, I, I suppose not wearing deodorant for two weeks. You might want to do it at home alone or something, but whatever, you know where. And they are amazed by not using anything for a while, how these symptoms subside. So if you are. This is a little side note.

I want you experiencing any of those symptoms, the dizziness, the fatigue, you know, etc.. So weird skin rashes or bumps that you don't even know where they're caused by. Consider trying that just to see how connected they may be. Again, you're feeding your body 168 chemicals on average per day if you're a woman, by putting our stuff perfect. Side note now the beautiful thing, the beautiful thing about, skin is again, it's it's obviously another organ too intricately. It's more holistic, right? It's tied.

It's us. It's part of us. I mean, it's an organ. The beautiful thing, though, with skin is it's always the amongst the first to respond in a really positive, awesome way. When you start doing better steps more, more quickly than most organs, because your skin is a billboard and it says, hey, I love what you're doing.

How to Choose Clean Skincare Ingredients 35:48

And then you look relatively quickly, your skin looks healthier. You know, some of the wrinkles disappear, the fine lines and all that good kind of stuff by beating it, good food by feeding it the right ingredients. Now, real quick, I'll run through because I can geek out on this all day. But, there's basically I'll really narrow it down. There's basically three components. If you want your healthiest looking skin, that's to address moisture, hydration. Everyone knows that it's true. Drink your water, and hydrate your skin through great ingredients that help hydrate and lock in hydration.

I'll give a few quick tips on that. The other two are elastin, collagen. Those are those are two primary proteins in, you know, in your body in your skin, the elastin and collagen equation. I liken it to the old spring mattress. In a mattress you have stuffing and you have, springs constant. It's kind of like the stuffing. And if that starts to go, you know, it starts to concave. You get wrinkles, fine lines, all that good stuff, which is not good stuff. If the springs start to go out, that's the elastin.

Everything goes and that's really do the best analogy. That's the best analogy. I'm never describe like right. And so that's thank you. And that's why you want to address all three of those with ingredients you choose. So for the elastin which is not gotten the spotlight it deserves, collagen has gotten a lot in recent years is great. But elastin there are harmful ingredients. But by far the best that I know of is maple leaf extract. Back in 2018, out of University of Rhode Island, they did a study showing that red maple leaf extract contains over 100 compounds, including 17 unique that were not found elsewhere yet, at least in nature, that actually helped to block a last stage.

The last stage is an enzyme that breaks down the elastin in your skin, and so it actually blocks that. So it's outstanding. Red maple leaf, other maple leaf extracts are outstanding for helping the collagen in your skin to boost it and to prevent the wrinkles and the loose looking skin, etc., etc.. Wonderful for that. And the college and site again, more people are aware of that. I will still note though, you really want to focus on super high antioxidant, especially high, vitamin C ingredients.

I know people who sometimes go to citrus fruits like oranges when they think vitamin C, but there are some ingredients out there that just blow that away. The, I'm not, by the way, something it's a another word for it is Indian gooseberry. It's, it's been cherished in our native medicine forever, for all kinds of benefits. But in the context of skin, sky high in vitamin C, sky high in other antioxidants helps with the plumpness to college. And you know that, because consuming collagen is a rage right now and it's got some benefits.

But you also really want to focus on feeding your body what's going to help your, your own body, you know, produce that collagen and vitamin C is outstanding for that, whether or both really want to do by mouth feature vitamin C, you know, your vitamin C, fruits and veggies and by feeding it to your skin, it's great for that camel canoe for. Nobody's heard of that, but I want to say it. Camel crew. But it's awesome. Berry from South Africa that's ridiculously high again in vitamin C and other nutrients that are great for your skin.

Another one mango seed extract. Again, I can go on with those. And then for the hydration, that's what we get a little more boring because of the old standbys are great. Cocoa butter is outstanding. Sunflower seed oil, whole. But I mean, you know, some that people are more familiar with aloe vera, aloe vera is a miracle plant in so many ways, including for your skin. But you know, these ingredients feed your skin moisture, and some also lock it in. So you want to look for those three, you know, categories of ingredients that help the elastin, help the collagen and of course, moisture and locking in that moisture.

And those are a few examples. Oh, it's so good. Okay. I have one burning question. Yeah. What about hyaluronic acid? What's your opinion on that? Not bad at all. I mean yeah I mean, you know, it's it's not bad. It, it's, it's again on all of these, cleanliness matters so much. Be careful. Make sure it's a clean source of hyaluronic acid. You know, here I will tell you this though, and maybe I'm going to make a bad day for you. Maybe I'm not, because the superstar ingredient out there in typical products, I'm going to say today's retinol.

You got to be super careful with retinol. Because first of all, retinol is either going to be derived from animals or it's going to be derived. And I think more is derived from synthetics. It's it's a form of vitamin A, but most of it out there in cosmetics is synthetic. It, is well known to create redness and irritation and make your skin far more susceptible to damage from UV rays. All right, one level deeper on that. This is a bit controversial because it's, you know, just, certain doctors and researchers coming out with this, but it's basically what it does is create cheap cells in your body, just like cells.

Keep cells like weak cells. That's why it does. It does what it says it's going to do on a short term. It's kind of like fast food. Yeah, it works in the short term, but you're setting yourself up for early aging and damage long term by, you know, by using most of the retinols out there, especially because there's no oversight of the quality of retinols out there. So be super careful with retinol. The beautiful thing is there is a plant called bachi barb. CHC, which has a compound in it called buckyball.

And I'm going to go slow on that one because this is worth remembering for everyone b a k. You see h I o l. Recent studies have shown that this completely natural plant compound is just as effective at doing it. Retinol. Those without those harsh side effects. Nature's awesome. There's answers out there for everything from nature knows far better than mankind. You know what it's doing and how to do it. And you know that's the bottom line. As I've gone on for decades now, researching all these plants, especially whether it's for skin or health.

In other words, it's like, wow, we, we we know nothing compared to what nature knows about how to help us, you know? And that's the case with these ingredients for your skin to. This is so good. I'm just acknowledging myself right now because I have never used perennials. I have tried before, and I have a my body revolts to it. I just to intuitively my body says don't use that. I've never had a bad side effect. I don't get super red, but the few times that I've tried it, I just have not wanted to.

It's kind of an energetic thing that is so good to know. I'm saying that's my body just said no. Oh, you're listening to your body. I love that your body is right. Well, I kind of did like not knowing, right? But looking back every time I've tried it, I've even had prescription retinol, like in my 30s. I was like, I have to keep, you know, I need to stay young. This retinol craze. I need to get some prescription. And I did it, like for a week. And when I'm not doing this, so, so good. Had to advocate being super careful with that one. Yes.

So Brian Beasley, you deliver big time. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, for just giving so generously to this audience, for this has been the best talk that I've ever had on skincare products. And what to look for and especially what to have in your skincare. Everybody always talks about what not to have in your skincare, but you just told us what to put in there, and I'm certain that all of your skin products have these things. So tell us again what your skin line is, where we can find you.

And, this is so good. What? Purity woods, you know, and why that name real quick. Purity is relatively obvious because it's USDA certified organic. It's truly clean woods. Interestingly, because, you know, I, I knew about all the ingredients before I started this company. Really short version of the story is why I started it was I backed into that company because my wife and I both had, started to get the, crow's feet around our eyes. I knew what I was looking for in the product. I'm like, okay, now we're starting to get those things, and I know how to help that, you know, I know these ingredients I had heard about, you know, the maple leaves and other things.

And I know I want clean, you know, I want real clean. I want USDA certified clean. I want look, I couldn't find it. I'm like, what could not find, you know, anti-aging cream. And it was first time in my life where I decided I wanted to, you know, find one. And she's a cosmetologist. My wife and she, you know, we could not find this. I'm like, what the heck? All right, so long story short, that's why we started the company. We were the first customers, the age defying dream cream. That's the signature starting, you know, our first product, still our biggest to this day, works wonders.

It's got the maple leaf extracts and it's got some of the ingredients. I talked about it. It's also got a great ingredient, as does Zanten. Oh yeah. By the way I just want to yeah I say I can't stop when I get started I geek out. I love this stuff. Asked the Zanten. You want to take that in a clean form by mouth? Yeah. We're looking to live long and live well. It's a potent antioxidant. It does some unique things in your body by taking by, but it's also great for applying to your skin. Really short version.

It's got unique compounds that actually, help reverse the appearance of sun damaged skin. You're amazing. You you're in your 50s. I can't believe it still, but you probably remember that when we were young, we didn't have that message about don't overdo it. Don't you know, sunburn is oh my gosh, I think we did oil on. Yeah. Sunscreen, baby oil on to get more sun. So a lot of you know, people 40, 50, 60 have sun damaged skin as the Zanten is a great ingredient that's in the age defying dream cream as well.

But you can geek out all day on this. Do you know what saved me, Brian? I hate laying out in the sun. It's so boring. Yeah, even if I'm. And I don't like being super duper hot. And so even if I'm reading a book, I would last, like, 20 minutes and go, look, this is I'm not doing this. So I never jumped on that sunbathing wagon because I hated it. Yeah, that's why you need to be up and moving around and doing something. So I okay, when I'm in some sun, we all know it's good, right? For vitamin D going up and look at me.

I mean, I'm tan. But I wear clothing out there when I'm gardening. I am a gardener. I'm on my yard, you know, all the time doing stuff, but, Yeah. Be careful of too much sun is, And if you have, you know, skin that looks weathered. Really? Look for Astiz. Anthon. It's an age defying dream. Cream. You'll find it some other plants out there elsewhere, but it's outstanding. So amazing. Thank you so much, Brian was awesome. Do you enjoy the rest of your day? Take good care now. Bye.