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Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC, has served thousands of patients as a Nurse Practitioner over the last 22 years. Her work in the health industry marries both traditional and functional medicine. Laura’s wellness programs help her high-performing clients boost energy, renew mental focus, feel great in their bodies, and be productive again.... Read More
Brian Vaszily has been a prominent leader, researcher, and advocate in natural health and wellness for over 20 years. He’s the founder of the popular health destination, TheArtofAntiAging.com, whose mission is to empower those in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond with the most effective evidence-based natural solutions to... Read More
- How toxins in general are such a key cause of early aging and disease.
- The biggest challenges those in their middle-years and beyond really face.
- The common toxins to watch out for on labels plus ingredients we should be feeding our skin and body to look and feel our best
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Welcome back to the Restore Your Mitochondria conversation. I’m your host, Laura Frontiero. 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 Vaszily. Hi, Brian. Welcome to the summit.
Brian Vaszily
Hi. So happy to be here.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
I am so happy you’re here too. I brought you on the summit because I want 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 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.
Brian Vaszily
Oh, well, I love what you do, so I’m happy to be here and hi, everybody.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Yes. So, Brian, I wanna 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 theartofantiaging.com, with over 500,000 members, and that is impressive. Your mission is to empower those in their thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, and beyond, with the most effective evidence-based natural solutions to look and feel their best, and avoid, overcome disease and live long doing it. And you’re also the founder of puritywoods.com, one of the world’s only providers of premier quality and fully USDA certified organic and anti-aging skin care products. So welcome. And we’re gonna get into this today.
Brian Vaszily
Let’s dive right in. I’m so excited and ready.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
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 Arts of Antiaging 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?
Brian Vaszily
Appreciate the question. And I can give you like a four hour answer to that, but I’m going to give you the short version. I’m 52 and you could pretty much cut my life in half. The first half of my life was, most folks would agree was quite rough. I grew up inner city Chicago, lost friends to gangs. It was a rather rough neighborhood, even rougher today, but there were multiple challenges. But the biggest of all was that, just to be frank about it, 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, a long time ago with this. And instead, what I can do is share with people. But, he had a one heck of a life, 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 who was hit by a car and killed. He lost a wife when they were in an argument. He watched her get out of the car and get hit and killed by a car, on and on. And back in those days, people didn’t, on the level we do, thank God, today, deal with trauma by going to therapists and counselors. It was considered only for crazy people. So he took it out on the bottle and took it out on us instead. So that presented a lot of challenge to me. I became a very young father, myself, and young husband to my wife at the time. my credit meant we stuck through college full-time, worked full-time. Both of us were incredibly busy people, but very poor. We 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.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Oh gosh!
Brian Vaszily
Went through a lot, went through a lot. I had anxiety and depression. Long story short, and there’s a lot of details that I’m leaving out-
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Well, Brian, 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 experienced something like this.” Yeah.
Brian Vaszily
Exactly. I mean, and if you don’t address this trauma, nothing else that anyone hears, can say or do, is going to make much difference. You’ve 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, on that journey with you matters, a friend, a spouse, whoever it may be, and sometimes, 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. 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, 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 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, I was at a crossroads. And I’m like, “There’s so many directions I could take things in now,” and it was 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 forties, in the case of my sister, then fifties, my mother, sixties, then seventies, my wife, her forties. And that myth is that, getting older equals becoming doomed. Basically, you’re over the hill, as the joke goes, when you hit 40. You’re doomed to become undesirable, incapable, doom, 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 overriding big message out there, it’s pervasive in the media and everywhere.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Oh yeah. ‘Cause just look at Hollywood, Brian, I mean, stars, female stars, don’t have much of a chance after 40. Very few-
Brian Vaszily
It’s ridiculous.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Yeah.
Brian Vaszily
It’s ridiculous. But here’s the thing. So I’m like, “Wow, that does not jive at all with the reality that I have been fortunate enough to get from all of my research, all of my fortunate access to so many 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, in all 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 what? In honor of these women, who helped me and saved me and because this message especially impacts women in our society. It impacts men too, but not on the scale it impacts women. I’m 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 forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, beyond.” And that’s kind of how the whole, The Art of Anti-Aging was born. And it’s not anti-aging as in, we’re against aging. Of course, it’s ridiculous. It’s anti, this myth of aging, that it becomes the time of doom, which is total nonsense. So the Art of Anti-Aging, that’s the origin stories.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
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.
Brian Vaszily
Oh, that’s the goal. And by the way, you don’t even look, what, well… You know what? You actually do. I wanna say this. You look what 50 should look like if we’re doing at least some of the things.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Yeah. That’s right.
Brian Vaszily
And that’s another thing, it’s not about… When we talk about… When people think of anti-aging, they think of appearances and then longevity, obviously, how long you live. They’re so intertwined, honestly. It might not make sense to some people, but they’re really the same thing. However, step back from that. There’s an unhealthy mindset where, if you are 50, “I wanna look like I’m 20 again.” No you don’t. And then there’s also this message out there in another camp, I guess we’ll say, where it’s like, “Embrace all the wrinkles and stuff.” And I’m like, “Okay, that’s fine. It’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 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.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Yeah. Thank you. I’ll be the poster child.
Brian Vaszily
Hopefully I do too. I don’t know. I’m not gonna comment. I got a little tan from being out in my garden, but.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
You don’t look 53, Brian. So, 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 electronic 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?
Brian Vaszily
Yeah. What’s interesting, by the way, this does impact you, even down the cellular level. If you had 20 seconds with me and said, “What is health to you?” I would say, “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. Period.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
That’s a mic drop.
Brian Vaszily
Yeah. And that goes for what you will physically allow inside your body, which a lot of folks have talked about and which obviously, anything you pull into you, physically, now everyone thinks, mouths, of course, food. We’ve, thank God, come a long way in the last 10, 15 years on that conversation. But it also includes through your skin. It also includes through your lungs. 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 a walk, anywhere where you feel detached from all your to-dos. And deeply consider, if you’re 40, 50, 60, 70, beyond, 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 wanna work on that. You want to question that and maybe journal it out, write it out, think it out, converse it out with different people. “Hey, that’s not necessarily true. That’s just something that’s been pounded at me,” like you said, from media, from lack of representation of older, especially women, in media and movies and Hollywood and all. It comes from so many directions. It’s an ongoing joke, “Ha, ha, he’s old, she’s old.” That means they’re senile. This nonsense, you laugh at it in sitcoms, but it sends this message to us. And we have a lot of cleansing to do. That is the biggest toxin of all, 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 your mindset is outstanding on that front. You’re right, your next 20 years, and actually your next 40 years, are gonna be outstanding because you believe it’s going to be outstanding.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Absolutely. I call this self-limiting beliefs, right? So 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 gonna age you faster than your toxic skincare. Honestly, 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 trusting. That word, trust, right? Trust 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.
Brian Vaszily
Yeah. Absolutely. I know people really like the idea of something physical that fixes everything, food.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Oh yeah. A pill.
Brian Vaszily
I think most people are past the pill stage that are listening to this, at least. We know no pharmaceutical’s gonna do it for you.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
But they want a supplement, Brian. They want a natural pill. A lot of people still want a pill.
Brian Vaszily
Yeah. And supplements have their place. I certainly take several, but they’re supplements. Think about the word, 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 wanna do all these things, of course, but 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. 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 websites, news sources that you read. If you listen to that message and you’re like, “The news is not the news.” The news is the bad news that some editors in a room somewhere said, “This is gonna get eyeballs.
And at the bottom line help our investors and our shareholders.” The news is not news. It’s the bad news. The real news is that, 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. But that’s not exciting so 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 of this negative messaging. My suggestion is, you can’t completely cut it out, but you have to become 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.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Yes. Consciousness. Now, I wanna talk a little bit about skincare toxins, because I just mentioned that and this is really important. And over the years, you’ve done 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 showering and doing all their skin hygiene and personal hygiene routine? I don’t think people realize that they’re filling their toxic bucket every day.
Brian Vaszily
Yeah. And that’s part of the reason why it is the worst physical toxin. So I covered the mind toxins and the importance of being very protective of this sacred space called your body and your being, and ever more conscious, in terms of physical toxins. So again, I know I’m really kind of dumbing it down, but there’s three ways into your physical body really. 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, onto your body, it doesn’t just sit there on the surface.
It won’t do whatever it’s suggesting it will do if it did. It penetrates into your body. The vast majority of chemicals 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 more, some less. That’s why it’s the average, right? Of which, contain 168 different chemicals. 168 different chemicals. Here’s an alarming statistic alone, that should be cause everyone to kind of perk up. In the European union and actually about 40 different countries, 1,300 chemicals have been banned from personal care products and cosmetics. In the United States of America, 11 ingredients.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
That’s unreal.
Brian Vaszily
11 only.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
I’ve heard this before and every time, I am so astounded.
Brian Vaszily
Yeah. It’s ridiculous really. 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 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 in Washington, DC, to be Frank about it, which is why 1300 chemicals in many other countries banned, 11 here. 11 here. Now 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 line’s share of work of keeping stuff outta you that you don’t want inside: pathogens, other toxins that are in the air, on surfaces, et cetera, et cetera. People don’t tend to remember that their skin is an organ. So I always challenge people. I’m like, “Okay, so 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 gonna get rid of my wrinkles.’ Or, ‘That one’s gonna 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 gonna work wonders and apply it on your other organs, your brain, your liver, your heart, your lungs? “Oh, I don’t need to know much about it. It says it’s gonna work. I’m gonna put it on my liver.” No you’re not. Would you eat it? Would you eat it by mouth? No, you wouldn’t. It’s just a mindset. I’m not gonna say we’ve all, but to some extent we’ve all been… Boy, the brainwashed 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, you have 1300 banned. You really have thousands more that are on the docket to be examined. It’s a lot of work to be banned in these other countries, but only 11 here. So one question I get all the time is, “What are the worst?” I know people love the top 10 lists and all that kind of stuff. But the problem is that there are thousands and thousands of chemicals used in all of these different products. I’ll pause here if you have any specific questions.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Oh, no. I do wanna get into some of the ingredients that are bad. I know listeners, viewers are gonna wanna 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 put in plastic and in the lining of cans that are just as bad as BPA.
Brian Vaszily
Oh, yeah.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
And 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 just wanna say that as we get into this conversation, because like you said, you’re gonna talk about maybe the top few, but there are so many chemicals. I mean, you just can’t safely use plastic, period. Period.
Brian Vaszily
I’m gonna give some sweeping, in terms of cosmetics and personal care. There are so many that you would, again, 1300 band elsewhere, and there’s even more that you would want to be on the lookout for. So at the end of the day, trying to read labels for what you should avoid becomes an exercise in futility. The good news is there a surging, I’ll say, approach to take when choosing these products. But first, let me pinpoint a few, just so people know, because they’re quite common. 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 widespread in various cosmetics, personal care products and cleaning products, et cetera, for that matter. Well, everyone remembers formaldehyde from high school and you use it to preserve things forever, basically, in jars. It’s astounding that it’s allowed in products, ’cause it’s not even a suspected carcinogen, it’s a known carcinogen. So that’s- Go ahead.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
So Brian, I was just gonna say, when I was in college in anatomy class, the cadavers that we worked on were submerged in formaldehyde and we’d roll them up in all the formaldehyde. 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 formaldehyde. I just wanted to say, I’ve got a personal experience with formaldehyde on a big level and it is toxic.
Brian Vaszily
Yes it is. And again, that’s just one of many. I mean, there’s one that folks might have heard of relatively recently getting some spotlight. It’s phthalates and that’s spelled P H T H A L A T E. So it’s got the P H at the start. Strange spelling, but phthalates. They’re basically, like plasticizers in products and neurotoxic, potential carcinogenic. I mean, the list goes on with these things. One that many people are gratefully hearing about is parabens and they go by different names, methyl paraben, and so on. Look for that on labels. But, again, I can go on and on. I mean, triclosan. Triclosan was banned in 2016 because it was found to be, in a word, 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. I’m like, “Why didn’t they extend the ban if they know this is bad to all products?” But no, they just targeted, basically, these antibacterial hand soaps to keep it out of that. But they allow it in other products that we’re feeding, even our face, our most sensitive skin area around the eyes. It’s crazy. But, before I get to what to really look for in 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.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Mm hm.
Brian Vaszily
Fragrance. And sometimes, if they’re very basic about it, they call it scent. If they’re being fancy and French about it, they’ll call it parfum. 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 effectiveness, getting something that we’ve kind of been bamboozled into believing, “Hey, it smells like fake flowers. It must be .” You know?
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Yeah.
Brian Vaszily
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, anything under that label. And it could be 10, 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 flower smell. I’m being a bit sarcastic with wonderful. So when I see that on a 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. ‘Cause you’re not even telling me what I’m feeding my body by putting that on my skin.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Brian. I wanna 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 in food. Fragrance in body products. It’s the same situation. It’s a bunch of fake stuff. So keep going.
Brian Vaszily
Yeah. Right. But, the good news 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, obviously, any of the ways we’ve been discussing here. But interestingly, on my notion, and it’s true that what we’ve put on our body is food, with all these products, the USDA passed USDA certified organic over onto cosmetics and personal care products now. Now is not just yesterday, but it’s 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. Ecocert’s one of them. That’s the best that we’ve got right now and it’s pretty darn good compared to nothing. Meaning, because you mentioned Purity Wood, 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, 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 when people look for USDA certified organic, you could 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 some states have similar strict certifications. I will advocate to you, please support these certifications in the companies. And there’s deodorant companies doing this out there now, 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 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 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 with the sneeze.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
I did sneeze, but I muted myself. You called me out.
Brian Vaszily
But I saw you. I was also gonna say, and I’ll pause here, beware of greenwashing.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
What does that mean?
Brian Vaszily
Ha, good question. I kind of set you up with a softball on that one, right?
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Yeah. We gotta tell people what that means.
Brian Vaszily
You’re hitting it. You kind of alluded to that earlier in a larger sense. So greenwashing. All of these companies who make these products know darn well the message is starting to get out on how toxic personal care products are, 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, wildcrafted, what else? Paraben-free. Well, guess what?
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Artisanal.
Brian Vaszily
Artisanal. That’s a really vague one, it sounds cool, right? And that’s the whole point. So when you see a company just proclaiming organic with not USDA certified organic, which is a label that’s put on because you’ve been granted and you went through 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.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Wait, wait, wait. So you are saying the whole product doesn’t have to be organic to use an organic label?
Brian Vaszily
Now keep in mind, cosmetics and personal care products are, I’ve been told, the most unregulated industry out there. Now 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? Point is. Yes, you can say organic, because you’ve got an organic ingredient in there. You could certainly say wildcrafted, ’cause you have a couple. But you can have wildcrafted, along with 50 lab-created synthetic ingredients and you can scream wildcrafted. It’s not even like on food in that sense. And plenty of companies do this. Look for those certifications. You cannot put USDA certified organic, if you aren’t. If you do, and they find you, you’ll get in trouble, as a company. So you can’t do that. But you can use that word, organic, because yeah, hey, what I mean is, “My aloe vera juice is organic. Yeah, sure. I’ve 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 turn the label around and look for all the long, methyl paraben and other words like that, at least, to know for sure. Or do it yourself, by the way, which is a growing movement as well, for some skincare. There’s a lot of DIY stuff too.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Yeah. Oh, in the few minutes we have left, I wanna talk about what we should be putting on our skin to feel and look our best. But I just wanna 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 bodies. So I just wanna say that really quick. I mean, we could spend a whole 30 minute lecture just talking about that piece, but I wanna make sure people know what to put on their body. So what ingredients are you recommending?
Brian Vaszily
Yeah. And I’m glad you brought that up with the symptoms. I’ve heard from more people than I ever imagined. Some people do the equivalent of a fast on personal care products and cosmetics. I suppose not wearing deodorant for two weeks. You might wanna do it at home alone or something, but whatever, and they are amazed by not using anything for a while, how these symptoms subside. So if you are, this is my little side note I wanna use, experiencing any of those symptoms, the dizziness, the fatigue, et cetera, et cetera, 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 on all this stuff. Perfect side note. Now the beautiful thing, the beautiful thing about skin is again, it’s obviously another organ intricately. We’re 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 amongst the first to respond in a really positive, awesome way when you start doing better steps.
More quickly than most organs because your skin is a billboard and it says, “Hey, I love what you’re doing.” And then relatively quickly, your skin looks healthier, some of the wrinkles disappear, the fine lines and all that good kind of stuff, by feeding 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, and 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 and collagen. Those are two primary proteins 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. Collagen is kind of like the stuffing, and if that starts to go, it starts a concave. You get wrinkles, fine lines, all that good stuff, which is not good stuff. If the springs start to go, though, that’s the elastin, everything goes and that’s really deep.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
That’s the best analogy. That’s the best analogy. I’ve never heard skin described like that.
Brian Vaszily
Right. Thank you. And that’s why you want to address all three of those with ingredients you choose. So for the elastin, which has not gotten the spotlight it deserves, collagen’s gotten a lot in recently years, which is great. But elastin, there are handful ingredients, but by far, the best that I know of, is maple leaf extract. Back in 2018, out of the University of Rhode Island, they did a study showing that red maple leaf extract contains over a hundred compounds, including 17 unique that were not found elsewhere yet, at least in nature, that actually helped to block elastase. Elastase 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, et cetera, et cetera. Wonderful for that. On the collagen side, again, more people are aware of that. I will still note though, you really wanna focus on super-high antioxidants, especially high vitamin C ingredients. I know people whose minds go to citrus fruits like oranges, when they think vitamin C. But there are some ingredients out there that just blow that away. Amla. Amla, by the way, another word for it is Indian gooseberry.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Mm hm. It’s been cherished in Ayurvedic 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, the collagen.
Brian Vaszily
You noted.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Right.
Brian Vaszily
Because consuming collagen is a rage right now. And it’s got some benefits, but you also really wanna focus on feeding your body what’s going to help your own body produce that collagen. And vitamin C is outstanding for that, whether, or both really, you want to do by mouth. Eat your vitamin C, your vitamin C fruits and veggies, and by feeding it to your skin. Amlas are great for that. Camu camu fruit. Nobody’s heard of that. It’s fun to say it. Camu camu. 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 where we get a little more boring because the old standbys are great. Cocoa butter’s outstanding, sunflower seed oil, jojoba. I mean, some that people are more familiar with, aloe vera. Aloe vera is a miracle plant in so many ways, including for your skin. But these ingredients feed your skin moisture and some also help lock it in. So you wanna look for those three 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.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Oh, that’s so good. Okay. I have one burning question.
Brian Vaszily
Yep.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
What about hyaluronic acid? What’s your opinion on that?
Brian Vaszily
Not bad at all.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Oh, thank goodness!
Brian Vaszily
It’s naturally produced in the skin. Yeah. I mean, it’s not bad. Again, on all these, cleanliness matters so much. Be careful to make sure it’s a clean source of hyaluronic acid. I will tell you this though, and maybe I’m gonna make a bad day for you, maybe I’m not, because the superstar ingredient out there in typical products, I’m gonna say, today is retinol. You gotta be super careful with retinol because first of all, retinol is either gonna be derived from animals or it’s gonna be derived, and I think more is derived, from synthetics. 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 just certain doctors and researchers coming out with this, but basically what it does is create cheap cells in your body.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Cheap cells?
Brian Vaszily
Cheap 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 kinda like fast food. Yeah, it works in the short term, but you’re setting yourself up for early aging and damage long term 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 babchi, B A B C H I. It has a compound in it called bakuchiol. And I’m gonna go slow on that one because this is worth remembering for everyone. B A K U C H I O L. Recent studies have shown that this completely natural plant compound is just as effective at doing what retinol does, without those harsh side effects. Nature’s awesome. There’s answers out there for everything from nature. It knows far better than mankind, what it’s doing and how to do it. And that’s the bottom line as I’ve gone on for decades now researching all these plants, especially whether it’s for skin or our health and others. It’s just like, “Wow. We know nothing compared to what nature knows about how to help us. And that’s the case with these ingredients for your skin too.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
This is so good. I’m just acknowledging myself right now because I have never used retinols. I have tried before and I have a… My body revolts to it.
Brian Vaszily
Your body knows.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Intuitively, my body says, “Don’t use that.” I’ve never had a bad side effect and 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 my body just said, “No.”
Brian Vaszily
Oh, you’re listening to your body. I love that.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Oh, good.
Brian Vaszily
Your body’s right.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Well, I kind of did, not knowing, right? But looking back, every time I’ve tried it, I’ve even had prescription retinol, in my thirties. It’s like, “I have to keep, I need to stay young. This retinol craze. I need to get some prescription.” And I did it like for a week and went, “I’m not doing this.” So, good.
Brian Vaszily
Yeah. I’d advocate being super careful with that one.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Yes. So Brian Vaszily, you deliver big time. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, for just giving so generously to this audience. 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 um, this is so good.
Brian Vaszily
Well, Purity Woods. And why that name real quick. Purity is relatively obvious because it’s USDA certified organic, it’s truly clean. Woods, interestingly, because I knew about all the ingredients before I started this company. Really short version of the story as why I started it was- I backed into that company because my wife and I both had started to get the crows feet around our eyes. I knew what I was looking for in a product. I’m like, “Okay, now we’re starting to get those things and I know how to help that, I know these ingredients. I had heard of the maple leaves and other things. And I know I want clean. I know I want real clean. I want USDA certified clean. I went and looked and I couldn’t find it. I’m like, I could not find a anti-aging cream. And it was the first time in my life where I decided I wanted to find one. And she’s a cosmetologist, my wife, and 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, our first product. Still our biggest to this day, works wonders. It’s got the maple leaf extracts in it. It’s got some of the ingredients I talked about and it’s also got a great ingredient, astaxanthin.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Oh, yeah.
Brian Vaszily
By the way… See, I can’t stop when I get started. I geek out, I love this stuff. Astaxanthin, you wanna take that in a clean form by mouth.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Yeah.
Brian Vaszily
If you are looking to live long and live well, it’s a potent antioxidant. It does some unique things in your body by taking it. 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 50, amazingly, you’re in your fifties. I can’t believe it’s still. But, you probably remember that when we were young, we didn’t have that message about, “Don’t overdo it. Don’t sunburn.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Oh my gosh, no. We didn’t have sunscreen.
Brian Vaszily
We were putting baby oil on. Yeah.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
We didn’t have sunscreen when I was a kid.
Brian Vaszily
Yeah, we put baby oil on to get more sun. So a lot of people, forties, fifties, sixties, have sun damaged skin. Astaxanthin’s a great ingredient that’s in the Age-Defying Dream Cream as well. But I can geek out all day on this stuff.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Do you know what saved me, Brian? I hate laying out in the sun. It’s so boring. I can’t 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, “Ugh, this is awful, I’m not doing this. So I never jumped on that sunbathing wagon ’cause I hated it.
Brian Vaszily
Yeah. That’s awful.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
I needed to be up and moving around and doing something.
Brian Vaszily
I mean, some sun, we all know is good, right, for vitamin D, but only up to a point. And like, look at me. I mean, I’m tanned. But I wear clothing out there when I’m gardening. I have an avid gardener. I’m out in my yard all the time doing stuff. But, yeah. Be careful of too much sun and if you have skin that looks weathered, really look for astaxanthin. It’s in Age-Defying Dream Cream. You’ll find it in some other products out there elsewhere, but it’s outstanding.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
So amazing. Thank you so much, Brian.
Brian Vaszily
It was awesome.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
You enjoy the rest of your day. You take good care now.
Brian Vaszily
Yeah, you too.
Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC
Mm hm. Bye.
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