Younger For Life: Discover The Power Of Autojuvenation

Introduction to Autojuvenation 0:00

Welcome to the Conquering Chronic Inflammation Summit. I'm your host, Dr. David Jockers. And today we are talking about how to stay younger for life. With the process of Autojuvenation, we're going to talk all about skin aging, skin inflammation. We're going to talk about a good, simple skincare routine that can help you, look younger even as you age. And we're also going to talk about, again, how to go through this process of Autojuvenation and look and feel younger. And my guest is Dr. Anthony Youn.

He's known as America's holistic plastic surgeon. And he is a leader in his field. He's the author of the bestselling books “The Age Fix," "In Stitches," and “Playing God.” and his public television special, The Age Fix has been viewed by millions, and he hosts the popular podcast The Holistic Plastic Surgery Show. He's the most followed plastic surgeon on social media, with over 5 million subscribers on his YouTube channel and 8 million followers on TikTok. And his new book, “Younger for Life” is a national bestseller and a complete, holistic guide to turning back the clock using the process of Autojuvenation.

So you guys are in for a treat here if you want to look and feel younger, this is the interview for you. So without further ado, let's go to it. Well, great to connect with you, Dr. Anthony Youn. and, just excited about this interview. You've got a great new book out called “Younger for Life” and Your America's, Holistic Plastic Surgeon. And a lot of my audience has questions when it comes to how to stay younger for life. So excited about this. Let's start with this idea that you presented in your book called Autojuvenation.

And what that is. Yeah, this is definitely right up your alley, because I know your, passion is helping teach people to use their body's own innate healing abilities to heal itself. And the interesting thing is, you know, as I trained as a traditional plastic surgeon, as and as I went through my career, I came to a realization that there was so much that I was never taught in traditional medical school, in my traditional training. and after really focusing on this for many years, I realized that there's this concept that I call Autojuvenation.

It's very similar to what you put out there, and it's this belief that we all have innate regenerative abilities to turn back the clock, naturally, but in order for our bodies to do so, we have to give it the right tools and the right environment for it to for it to do that. And really in the book I outline, there's five main things, five main factors that we focus on for this autojunative mechanism to occur. And it's what you eat when you eat

Causes of Skin Aging 2:51

nutritional supplements, skincare and noninvasive treatments. And I firmly believe that if you focus on those five things, those five natural things that the vast majority of us could turn back the clock naturally feel and look amazing and hopefully, hopefully prevent the knee from going under the knife. Yeah. That's great. Now a lot of people obviously plastic surgery is high demand right now. More and more people are getting plastic surgery. And you see that on a regular basis. Being a surgeon.

But there are a lot of things people can be doing to actually slow down the aging process, to look younger, to feel better. obviously is what we talk about, you know, that's what I talk about all day long. And I'm really glad to know that you're on our side. Hey, trying to really help people, look and feel younger without necessarily needing surgery. And that surgery can be, you know, an optional thing they may choose to do, but that they don't absolutely need it. And so let's talk about what are the main causes of skin aging.

So yeah, I focus on five main causes of aging of the skin. And very interestingly, the food that you eat, really impacts pretty much all five of those. So the first cause of aging of the skin is nutrient depletion. there is a belief in alternative medicine that our food is not as nutritious as it used to be. And there actually was a study that proved this. This isn't a study that I quote in my book, younger for life, where they looked at, the fruits and vegetables sold here in the United States from the years 1950 to 1999, and found a significant reduction in six key nutrients, three of which really I focus on because they're huge for the skin, and those three are vitamin C, iron and protein.

So the study, which ended in 1999, showed that our food definitely is not as nutritious as it used to be. And this study ended 25 years ago. So if that was the case in 99, where are we today? It's a little bit scary. So that's the first cause of aging. And the skin is going to be nutrient depletion. Second cause is collagen degradation. Our skin is composed about 70 to 80% of collagen, and we lose about 1% of the thickness of collagen every year, starting in about our mid 20s, there was a study that found that women in the first five years after menopause lose literally 30% of the thickness of college in just those five years.

and so loss of collagen, thinning of collagen is something that we really see in the skin. Third, cause of, of aging of the skin is chronic inflammation, something that you have covered in great detail on your podcast. chronic inflammation is very different than acute inflammation. Acute inflammation can actually be a good thing. It's kind of like when we look at skin treatments, it's almost like core misses. You put your body under a little bit of stress, and it can actually your skin under a little bit of stress, and it can actually rebound and heal from that in a more youthful, tighter fashion for the cause of, of aging of the skin, is going to be free radicals or oxidation.

and one of the main sources of free radicals is our diet, our ultra processed foods. They're filled with free radicals. These can damage the DNA of our cells. And oxidation is basically oxidative stress. Is that condition that a lot of people are currently living in, where their bodies are just have way too many of these free radicals. And then the fifth cause of aging of the skin is a buildup of cellular waste. Waste products that are created by our cells. Just the fact that we're alive, our bodies create waste products, and that waste products can build up in our cells.

Unless we undergo the process of autophagy. which I know you're a big fan of with intermittent fasting as well. Yeah, absolutely. And that's a great rundown. And, you know, I always say when you're looking at your skin, it's really a reflection of what's going on inside your body. And so obviously cleaning some individuals are a little bit more prone to having symptoms. Inflammatory based symptoms show up on their skin than other people are. But if you are noticing that it's a sign that there's there's dysfunction, that, you know, there's one of these areas or more, right?

Oftentimes they go hand in hand, like oxidative stress is a precursor to inflammation. So a lot of times these these five main causes that you're talking about go hand in hand and kind of feed into each other. Right. But we've got to start to address those things. Right. And it's really a warning sign. In fact, actually, I tell people, you know, if you're having skin issues, although it's embarrassing, it's it's actually a good thing because you can see that there's dysfunction as opposed to the individual that's developing chronic inflammation in their endothelial lining.

They don't they feel fine, right? Meanwhile they're developing heart disease or developing big plaques. And then all of a sudden they have a heart attack or stroke. So at least with your skin you can see it in your and and you also have kind of a for most people, they have a level of urgency of wanting to address it. Yeah. You know, and what I try to do in my practices is I use people's vanities to help them to take steps for their own health. You know, I get patients who come in all the time and they, you know, they would say, oh, I want a facelift or I want this type of surgery.

And, you know, this is how it started. And I said, you know what? You're not gonna get a facelift unless you get off the cigarets. And so people are like, geez, I've never gone off the cigarets back, you know, do that risk worrying about my heart or my lungs or anything, but, man, I'll get off it to get my facelift. You know, it's the same thing when you look at these, you know, natural options to change your diet, to begin intermittent fasting, to use clean, healthy skincare. You know, people may not make changes because you tell them that, hey, if you don't make these changes, you're gonna, you know, gain unwanted weight.

You know, you're going to feel horrible.

Simple Skincare Routine 8:14

You're going to get, more arthritic type changes. But when you say, hey, you're going to look prematurely older, you're going to get gray hair, you're going to have thinning hair, you're going to have spots, you're going to have wrinkles. The oh, wait a minute, I don't like that. And sometimes I'll make those changes for it. So, you know, whatever is your, incentive, whatever works for you to help take those steps for a healthier life. By all means, use that. And for me, it can be vanity. And that's okay.

Yeah, absolutely. Totally agree with that. And so let's talk about like a good simple skincare routine that that you would recommend for somebody. Yeah. So so many people they go to Ulta. They go to Sephora. They go to the local department store. And it's super confusing what to do on your skin. and there's even people who are recommending ten, 12 step skincare routines. the first thing you want to consider, you know, you can do a very basic skincare routine. And for people who are, let's say, are watching or they're listening to this right now and they're saying, geez, I don't like my skincare routine.

My skin doesn't look good. It's inflamed. The first thing I recommend people do is get back to the basics. The answer? You know, if you've got issues with your skin, if you've got breakouts, if you've got inflammation, if you've got unwanted redness, the first step is not to figure out what cream to add, because oftentimes the number of creams that you're using on your skin can actually be the problem and why your skin is reacting that way. And so why should we recommend is get back to the basics of a basic healthy skincare routine.

And this is something that we actually tested on people. And we found that after two months, people starting out with quote unquote average skin looked an average about five years younger. After just two months of doing this very simple routine. So every morning you cleanse your skin with a cleanser appropriate for your skin type. So if you've got, let's say, oily skin, then a more foaming cleanser is better for that. If you've got dry skin or sensitive skin, then look for a more hydrating or a milky cleanser that I recommend.

An antioxidant like vitamin C and, serum like a vitamin C serum bonus if you add vitamin E to it. There are studies that show that vitamin C and E, when they're added together, can have a synergistic antioxidant effect. and then I do recommend, if you're going to be out to consider putting on a sunscreen, at least SPF 30. And I know there's a lot of discussion on sunscreen. We could talk about that if you want. And what I feel is a very prudent, reasonable way to, to approach sunscreen. but I do recommend, if you're going to be out that at least SPF 30, that's what the American Academy of Dermatology recommends.

That's all you have to do in the morning. And if that's all you do, that is fine. In the evening. Super important. If you only cleanse your skin once a day, you got to do it in the evening. You got to get rid of the day's worth of dirt, grime, pollution. you got to get rid of your makeup. You got to let your skin basically breathe at night. After that, I do recommend an anti-aging cream. the one that we usually recommend is retinol. That's a good starting point. Retinol is derivative of vitamin A.

It's probably the most scientifically proven of all the anti-aging creams out there. It can help to thicken the the collagen of the skin. It can help to lighten spots. It can smooth fine lines, it can exfoliate the skin. And in some people, especially if you use more of the prescription strength tretinoin. If you have a history of skin cancer on your face, it can reverse early skin cancers as well. So a lot that it can do. So that's all you do at night. You cleanse your skin, you apply a, retinol and then if you want to throw a moisturizer on top of that, you can.

But you don't have to if you've got oily skin. And let's say you're living in New Orleans in the summer, you don't have to add a moisturizer if you don't want, if you've got drier skin. And let's say you're living in New York City and it's February, then, you know, moisturizer may be good. And then what I do recommend is once a week, if you've got sensitive skin, twice a week, if you've got quote unquote normal skin to exfoliate, you can do that with a gentle scrub like a physical scrub. Or you can do that with like an alpha hydroxy acid peel.

and that's it takes about two minutes a day. If you do that simple skincare routine, you're going to be ahead of 98% of the population. Yeah. There's a couple of things in there that I, I certainly agree with. And there's a couple of things that I'd push back on. For one, I've noticed since I started exfoliating, which was several years ago. you know, my wife actually turned me on to that, you know, as a single man, I was like, I never thought about exfoliating, right? Yeah, yeah. Then, you know, my mid 30s, she was like, you know, you should really try this.

And I started doing it actually felt like, oh, like, I'll exfoliate typically after I shave my face, which is usually three times a week or so, and I actually just feel cleaner. I feel better right? I mean, it helps remove waste and microbial waste and things like that. And I just feel better. Like I feel like I feel cleaner, I feel more fresh and energized. And so I think exfoliating, I think, is a really great idea, like you were talking about, and, you know, there's different types of exfoliators.

I use more of kind of a physical, like, like a, almost like a, like a sand one. Right. And I also put a lot of antioxidant creams on my, on my skin. Now, there's a lot of obviously moisturizers and creams out there. And I know you talk about it in your book. You didn't really touch on it here, but I know you would agree. There's a lot of a lot of chemicals, a lot of toxins, parabens, phthalates. I mean, many people, particularly women, are putting on just masks of amounts of pro-inflammatory chemicals that are throwing off their hormones on their body because they, you know, want to put on the cleanser, the moisturizer or things like that.

and I think that's a really important caveat. Yeah. You know, there is a term called clean beauty, which I try to point people towards, you know, clean beauty. Unfortunately, is kind of in skincare, the equivalent of organic like it, it can be bastardized and used inappropriately. but in general, clean beauty is the idea that you're going to use clean ingredients that are not potential hormone disruptors. They may not be potentially carcinogenic. there are a couple of places that you can go to research the price that you use.

Environmental working Group has a website called Skin Deep. And so if you're wondering, like what, these chemicals may potentially do with your hormones, with your body, take a look at that. There's also an app called Think Dirty. make sure it's the think dirty app, because I'm sure there are other apps that have similar names you don't want to download on your on your phone, but the Think Dirty app, basically it even has a UPC camera where you can go to, let's say, your local drugstore, you, you put the UPC in and then it will, bring up the product and how clean technically it is.

So I'm all for clean beauty products. and so but at the same time, you know, you know, the argument in traditional medicine is that, oh, if you apply this product and it does have, let's say this formaldehyde releasing substance in it, in the, in the percentages, then it's not going to affect you. And that's always the argument. But the problem that they're not addressing is the complete toxic load that you get from all of the other sources of potentially harmful ingredients in your food and your cleaning products and your hair products and all the other stuff that you're exposed to.

There's no way to really combine all of that and test it on people. and so I agree with you. I think the main thing is you want to reduce your toxic load, by trying to stick with clean beauty. The problem is there isn't any design nation that is a proven like, designation for products that, like, if you look for the seal, you know, you're fine. You do have to do a little bit of your own homework, unfortunately. But clean beauty is a simple way to start. Yeah. For sure. I mean, I'm a huge advocate.

Like with nutrition, we talk about maximizing nutrients and minimizing toxins. Right. You want food with maximal nutrients, minimal toxins. So same with your skincare. You want to look for skincare products that have a lot of these. You know, in a sense it's not that you would eat it, but it's your it should be something because it's going to get into your bloodstream transdermal through the skin. So it should be something that you technically could eat, right. Like you know, and so you'll you'll see a lot of plant based ingredients in there.

Things that you could normally consume herbs, things like green tea extract. You might have a fair trial. You might have, you know, all different types of things. you know, maple leaf extract I know is a is one for the skin. So there's all these different things that have antioxidants that, you know, theoretically we could eat or make teas out of that. We're making moisturizers and creams, and those can be really positive for our health and for for our skin health, particularly. I agree. You know, you definitely want to look at the labels.

And like I said, those two, those two websites, the website and the app I think are great ways for people who are like people who don't really know, like, geez, what are all these chemicals? And yes, ideally when you look at the ingredients, ideally you should see a lot of natural products and you should see a lot of different oils. there's a lot of, very healthy oils that can be put into those, a lot of extracts from different botanicals that can be very healthy. If it's just a ton of ton of scientific sounding names.

Yeah. Then you definitely want to look those up. Because yes, there's a possibility that some of those could be, preservatives that may not be necessary. And then there's a whole thing, a fragrance.

Clean Beauty and Sunscreen Debate 17:08

You know, fragrance is very simple because they'll just put fragrance and you don't know what is in that fragrance. fragrance can definitely be very irritating to the skin for sure. For sure. And then that the area of the skincare that I, I would certainly not agree with would be sunscreen. Now, I was also not a fan of being burnt being sunburns right? I don't think that's healthy for anybody, to get sun burnt. However, I believe that healthy sun exposure is actually one of the best things you could be doing for your overall health and for your skin.

Now, obviously there's some oxidative stress that's produced, when we're exposed to UV light. But if our body, you know, when I think about it, it's like if our body if we don't, if there's not already a fire going on in our body because we are, you know, eating bad food, living a bad lifestyle or eating a healthy diet, living a healthy lifestyle. Like a lot of the principles you teach in your book, then that sun is a hallmark stressor that can actually make our skin cells stronger, more stress resilient, healthier in general.

Plus, we're getting the vitamin D, you know, we're being exposed to infrared to read light, right, depending on the time of day. And so we're getting mitochondrial optimization there. Improved mitochondrial energy production. So I'm a huge advocate of getting regular healthy sun exposure without the sun screen. so why do you why do you what's what's your thoughts on that? I think that I think there's a reasonable middle ground that reasonable people like you and I, who can see both sides can come to.

So, you know, I'm a plastic surgeon. I have patients who come in to see me and they have skin cancer on their face. And I tell you, David, you do not want skin cancer on your face. I patients who come to see me, they have, a lesion on their nose. It's it's not just not healing. That first sign of, let's say a skin cancer is a wound that just doesn't heal. You know, it keeps crusting over. It keeps crusting over. and oftentimes that's a sign of a basal cell carcinoma. Now, basal carcinomas are not melanomas.

They're very unlikely to metastasize and kill you or anything. But what they do is they just keep growing bigger and bigger and bigger and destroying whatever tissue is in their path. and so I do get patients who come to see me and usually it's, you know, people our age usually are pretty good with, with, you know, not getting burnt and stuff like that, but in their 20s and their teens when, when we were back that age, we did, and so a lot of the damage I'm seeing now is damage that was done from before, because they've been taking good care of their skin and they come in, there's this lesion here, and then they go to a dermatologist and they come back to see me.

And half their nostril has gone more. Part of their eyelid is gone and it's pulling down. There's a lot of really disfiguring, horrible things that can happen. You do not want skin cancer of your face. However, I also understand that there's so much benefit that you can get from the sun. So I'm not a dermatologist who wakes up in the morning slathers on sunscreen, and I'm sitting in a basement all day wearing sunscreen. I think that there's a reasonable middle ground that you can get where, you know, in the early portions of the day and the later portions of the day.

You go out there, you get your sun, you get your circadian rhythms going the right way. And when you are out and you're going to get a good amount of sun, especially in your children and especially people have lighter skin, you do want to protect it because I hear you with there, it's benefits there. But they're also established that can occur and that damage. You don't necessarily want to throw the dice and and find out later, 20 years later that, oh, you know what? Maybe I wasn't eating as healthy of a day as I thought.

Maybe my antioxidants, you know, even though they can provide some level of of protection, they're not providing enough. And I've got this gumbo growing on my nose or my face. So I think that there's a reasonable middle ground there. I think it's it's a combination of everything. You know, I have I don't agree with dermatologists who don't say anything about the diet, but they say, oh, sunscreen, sunscreens, sunscreen. But I also don't agree with some of our, alternative health friends who basically just say, you know, you don't need sunscreen.

All you need to do is get rid of your seed oils and your your skin will protect itself. Like, I don't want to take that risk when you see the types of damage that I have seen in my practice, I think that there's a middle ground there, you know. And I can relate with that. In sunscreen, there's better ones and there's not as good ones too out there. So I think that's that's the key. Yeah. We can come back to that too. And I'm actually a perfect kind of case study for your auto adjuvant ation process, because I actually did have a basal cell carcinoma on my nose.

I grew up in Florida and I was a body boarder surfer and got sunburnt way more than somebody should during the course of their life. In my younger years, just like you were talking about. And of course, back then I wasn't eating healthy or doing any of those things, and it eventually caught up to me. Actually, I was, I was, a year into practice, into my practice, and I was living actually, I actually when I started my practice, it was, 2009 economy, I crashed, I couldn't get a business loan. I started on credit cards, and I was single.

I was living in my my clinic, you know, showering across the street. And I was working, like 80 hours a year. And so I was living a very imbalanced life. Right. And I think about all the things I was doing. I was showering in the gym, shower with chlorinated fluorinated water coming down and. No, what? No what shower filter was sleeping in the back of my my office where there was a power panel. So I was exposed to, you know, heavy amounts of electromagnetic frequencies and a chemical x ray processor in the bathroom I was using.

So I was being exposed to that. So there's a lot of risk factors that I was eating late at night because I would work all, you know, all day. And so there's a lot of risk factors that predispose me. But I ended up with that. And I actually healed it naturally. So I never got any sort of treatment. And I did a, a five day fast, you know, I was just doing intermittent fasting, took sugar out of my diet a lot of things like that. Obviously cleaned up my environment, bought a home, shower, filter, all those kinds of things, just really reduced my my toxin exposure and my stress slowed all of those things and my body was able to heal itself.

So it's kind of the perfect example there about our divination. Now, I was 29 years old right at the time. So, so, you know, I was young enough where my body was very resilient there to heal. but even with that said, I don't believe it was I don't believe that sun exposure was necessarily the main driver. I also have a family history. My grandfather died of a metastatic melanoma. and so I have so I have a family history there. I think that that played a role. And I think it's just something that way my body, one of the mechanisms that starts to break down in my body when I and my, my stress and toxin load gets too high.

Right now, I'm with you like, I don't think we should get sunburned. We or my, my family were just at the beach. you know, we were using sunscreen, right? Because we want to spend a lot of time at the beach, right? We don't wanna get sunburn and whatnot. but usually I'll wait till, you know, we're. We're out out there for 30 minutes, 20, 30 minutes before we put on the kids so we can get some good, healthy sun exposure. So I'm with you, I don't I it I definitely think that diet plays a role since I having a healthy diet.

I don't get sunburned as quick. You know a lot of things like that. But but but there is a healthy middle ground there. I think there is. And there actually are studies that, show that if you do have antioxidants like vitamin C, that you do have protective effect, from that potential, free radicals that are created from excess sun, as well as a chronic inflammation that can occur if you're getting excess sun exposure as well from those UV rays. and I think it's important to realize, you know, I think that just like you said, having a prudent, realistic, reasonable approach to sun protection and really protecting your skin, I think makes the most sense.

And I think that that's where we definitely have common ground. I think, too, we have to realize that the sunscreens that we have available in the United States are not ideal. you know, there are ingredients in some of them, and the most common ones are octinoxate and oxybenzone that are believed to be hormone disruptors. and then when there are studies find that the vast majority of the population, the United States has oxybenzone in their urine, it's definitely concerning. so for that reason, I think, you know, when you are looking at sun exposure and you're going to go out on the beach, you're going to be in the sun for a while, then I strongly encourage you to go for either a physical blocker like a zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, or there are some chemical blockers out there, that are believed to be safe, like apple benzoin and oral Excel.

those don't appear to have any hormone disrupting, features. And what I encourage people to do is pretty simple is, you know, the negative of the physical blockers is that it can alter how your skin looks, you know, so something like yourself, your lighter skin guy not going to be a big deal. Somebody with darker skin than me, they may put that on and they have this whitish hue to their skin. It doesn't it doesn't look right. and so for them I encourage you go with the, able bend zone, make Zorro light cell.

These are considered to be safe chemical blockers where your body can, it can protect your skin from, you know, burns. It can protect your skin from, premature aging. but it's not necessarily going to alter your hormones or anything like that. And it's also going to look fine on your skin. However, the majority of people, if you don't have dark skin, then go for those physical blockers. Definitely with your children, no matter what color they are, go for those physical blockers because we don't want them exposed to unnecessary chemicals.

And the worst thing that you see, I'm sure you saw this at the beach. You see people with these chemical sunscreen spraying their kids, and they're breathing in a cloud of fumes. That obviously is is a big no go. If you do have a spray can like that sprayed in your hand and then apply it to your children. Yeah, for sure. We use sunscreens with as much organic ingredients as possible. My wife vetted them out, you know, and we're only again, like, for me and my family, and we're Caucasian, you know, we we only use sunscreens when we know we're going to be getting a lot of sun exposure, right?

Particularly when we're closer to the equator, when there's a chance that we could burn. Other than that, I really feel like we're living a healthy lifestyle. We're going to get, a net positive from good sunshine, but do everything you can to avoid being burned. That's that's for sure. That's where we can definitely agree. and so let's talk about let's talk about the gut skin axis. Right. Because in functional medicine we're seeing a lot of issues with skin problems, whether it's acne, eggs, a lot of these types of skin conditions, even, you know, you got age spots, things like that.

We're thinking, you know, blood sugar and and some sort of gut, dysbiosis.

Gut-Skin Axis and Fasting 27:28

Right. We're we're typically looking at those areas. And how does that relate into these from your perspective? We're seeing right now in the literature. And, you know, out in the dermatologic literature, what we're seeing is still early on the studies, but the studies right now that aren't, showing definite connections are more between the inflammatory skin disorders and the gut microbiome, the health of the gut. And so what are inflammatory skin disorders? acne. Eczema, rosacea. Those are the ones that we really are seeing definite connections in the literature where now even conventional traditional physicians are looking at that and saying, oh, well, you know, this gut microbiome, that's something we need to pay attention to.

And of course, natural medicine doctors are being like, yeah, we talked about this like 15 years ago. but but conventional medicine is starting to come to that. So we do know that there's a definite connection between inflammatory skin disorders and the gut. I do believe that there that as we continue to do more and more research, we're going to see a lot more connections, than just inflammatory skin disorders, you know, premature aging. you know, other types of things like, like you mentioned earlier, you know, unwanted pigmentation, those types of things.

I think we're going to see more and more of a connection. And so once again, chronic inflammation is one of the big causes of aging of our skin. And I do believe a lot of that comes down to the gut. and so one of the things I put in the book is, looking at what's going to reduce inflammation. chronic inflammation. And one of the things is going to be eating fermented foods so that you can help get those healthy probiotics in the gut. I do recommend taking a daily probiotic, at least 3 billion colony forming units a day, and also eating, anti-inflammatory foods.

So omega three fatty acid rich foods like, wild cut, cold water fish, omega three fatty acid, I'm sorry, monounsaturated fatty acid as well. You know, nuts and seeds. I think that's great as well for your skin as well as olives, olive oil, avocados, all of that. to reduce and flat inflammation. So right now, you know, we know that there's a connection between the gut and the skin, that there is a gut skin axis in the conventional literature. What I understand, what I've been able to find is inflammatory skin disorders.

But I think that there's going to be much more coming out over the next 5 to 10 years. Yeah, I agree absolutely. Usually when you're able to clean up the gut, clean up the diet with a lot of the principles you talk about in your book, blood sugar stabilization. Yeah. And I want to transition into that and intermittent fasting of course, when we start to do that, we start to notice that the skin just functions and looks a lot better. Yeah, this is really interesting because, years ago, and I'm not sure if you've ever seen that you, you comment on the fasting mimicking diet.

I tried that years ago, and I actually had my, employers do that. Yeah. I bought him all all the, FML and it's, you know, a five day limited calorie fast that is believed to kind of mimic your body to trick your body, to think that you're fasting. And one of the things that we notice with pretty much everybody who did it is once they got to about day four or day five, their skin just cleared up and, looked like radiant. and I noticed that myself. And so that was one of the first things that I noticed when I was really looking at fasting, and its effects on the skin.

So I started researching that more and more, and we started finding that, geez, you know, there is a biological, basis and a cellular basis for, you know, doing a fast like this, actually causing your skin to look better. And it's a process called autophagy. And as you've talked about on your podcast many times before, it's intracellular recycling to help renew the cells, to get them functionally functioning better. But you have to once again take time off from eating to allow your cells to basically run out of fuel so that they can use the discard added organelles and proteins inside of them as fuel itself.

So it's essentially an inside, inside out cleaning mechanism. So how that impacts the skin is basically you are cleaning out those mechanisms. You're getting the skin working, those skin cells working and those mitochondria working more efficiently. And we are seeing significant changes. Now, one thing we did in the book that I thought would be interesting, is we you know, what I wanted to do in the book is, is, is write a book where anybody who because I have a lot of people who follow me, who aren't necessarily all that into alternative medicine, it's new to them, you know, and just to get them started on these types of things.

So we started them. Basically, it's a 21 day jumpstart where three weeks where the first week we basically cleaned up their diet, we got rid of gluten, we got rid of dairy. we got rid of ultra processed foods, foods with added sugars. and then we started them on that very simple skincare routine that I mentioned earlier, and a basic array of nutritional supplements. and then in weeks two and three, we added a little bit of intermittent fasting. just 16 hour limited. Yeah, 16 hour fast twice a week.

But what we did is on their repeating day, so they stop eating at 8 p.m., they fast overnight until noon the next day, and then when they recede, starting at noon for the rest of that day, we put them on what I call the top G promoting diet, which essentially are foods that are rich in fats, healthy fats, as well as foods that are rich in polyphenols. These are two groups of foods that we do that even though they're going to break your fast, can actually help continue to stimulate and promote autophagy.

And then what we found is after these just simple three weeks, you know, people said juice, it was super easy to do this, people. So they found their skin clearing up. we had people where they would get comments from their friends. You'd be out to dinner and their friends wouldn't have any idea that they had done this. Like, wow, your skin looks radiant. What have you been doing? people found their energy was soaring. They lost unwanted weight. but the skin changes or something that I was hoping I would see, and we actually did, which was really exciting.

Yeah, that's really awesome. And and, you know, with the fasting, mimicking diet, the idea there is we're not going to is you're eating food, but you're eating food. And such a macronutrient ratio and a quantity wise as far as calories, that you're not triggering the nutrient sensing pathways that inhibit autophagy. So in particular, you have something called mTOR, mammalian target or rapamycin. You have IGF one. And those when they're triggered, it blocks your body's basically self-healing ability. Right.

which which it turns on growth. Right. Which which is important at times. Right. We want to build muscle tissue. You know, especially as people age, we don't want too much autophagy. Otherwise we're going to have sarcopenia. We're gonna lose all our muscle tissue. So you kind of need a balance there. Exactly. But most people in our society, the way that we live, we're constantly turning on mTOR. And so there we don't get that self-healing self regenerative capacity, that Autojuvenation, like you're talking about.

So by getting that longer fast, like you were talking about, you know, doing that two days week and then kind of pairing that with a diet plan that, doesn't trigger those nutrient sensing pathways. You're getting a higher level of autophagy during that, that, that that stays there. And so you're going to see better results there. Just like what with what the fasting mimicking diet does it just not as long. but you're going to have better you're gonna have good compliance with that. Yeah. It's fascinating, though, that even just with something like the fasting mimicking diet, where you talk about literally just like, you know, five days a week, whatever, that people would see changes in their skin that quickly.

That was what was so exciting, when we first ate it, and then once again, for us in the book, we had the 21 Day Jumpstart. And for that, just to see those changes and, you know, these aren't changes. It's not like, oh, my jowls went away, or oh, the bags under my eyes are gone or the skin hanging from upper. I was again, like, we have to be realistic. but it is a lot of, you know, people noticing their skin looks more radiant. Yeah, it looks brighter. It looks more, you've got, a better basket clarity.

it's just it's that's kind of what we saw. And and that's just the beginning of it. and so, you know, your body contains this just immense regenerative abilities. and unfortunately, the, the lifestyle that we lead, in today's world just does not allow that process to happen all that. Well, so it's making these small changes that can really make huge changes to how you look and feel. Yeah, 100%. And so when, so when people come in to see you and they want some sort of, they're interested in a plastic surgery, or are you saying, hey, first let's read this book, let's get you on the 21 Day Jumpstart and then come back and we'll talk.

Right.

When Surgery Is Still Needed 35:48

Well, how are we going about about kind of helping try to influence people on that? Yeah. That's that's always the goal is, is we go over kind of what their expectations are, what their lifestyle is. a lot of times I am referring people, you know, now, lately I've been seeing a lot of people who are in menopause who are having a lot of issues with their body changing and gaining weight and all this stuff, and they'll come in and say, hey, I want liposuction. I've gained 30 pounds after going through menopause.

It's like, oh, wait a minute here. You know, like, let's talk about what goes on with menopause and let's see if we can get you working with a gynecologist who's going to work with you that, you know, and potentially a functional medicine doc who can work with you to get yourself healthier and so that you're feeling that you've done everything you can before we consider going under the knife, you know, but there are there are certain conditions where, you know, in the end, there's not a whole lot you can do naturally that's going to get you what you want.

And usually that deals with excess skin, you know? So if you've lost 100 pounds you've got skin hanging from your tummy. Yeah. There's nothing you're going to eat or apply to. Your skin is going to make that skin go away. you know, if you're 65 years old and the skin is hanging from your neck, you know, yeah, you can rub whatever you want on it, it's not going to go away. Those are situations where, yeah, unfortunately, if you do want to change those types of things in a dramatic way, then surgery sometimes is the only real option.

Younger For Life. Definitely a great book guys. Got to check it out. And where can people find out more information about you? I know you're all over social media. You've got your podcast, it's The Holistic Plastic Surgery Show. And where's the best place for people to, find out more about you? Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So I do have my podcast. We just, change the name to The Doctor Youn Show Because we do cover. I have a lot of guests who are functional medicine doctors. I'm going to have you on here pretty soon as well.

and, so that's a great place to go. The other place to go, would be my books, website, Autojuvenation.com, the book Younger for Life. We do have a bunch of free gifts. if you do, purchase a book, to give you, immediately if you, if you get it. So Autojuvenation.com and then the, podcast as well. Thank you. So The Doctor Youn Podcast. So that's what you're looking for there. Exactly. Okay, great. Well, thanks for all the great work that you're doing, Tony, and getting this message out. And hopefully, this will help influence a lot of other plastic surgeons to, you know, recommend a lot of these diet nutrition strategies, lifestyle strategies, to their clients.

And let's get this message out to the world. Right. Thank you David. Appreciate it. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. Be blast and we'll see you guys on a future interview.