SHAWN STEVENSON: Welcome to The Model Health Show. This is nutritionist and best-selling author Shawn Stevenson. Our outer appearance is a direct reflection of our internal health, and this could not hold more true than when we're going through the process of aging. Today, with all of our advancements, there are so many things that we can do to target the external appearance of our bodies. And that's awesome. We want to have those tools on the table. But as you're going to discover, beauty truly is created from the inside out. And somebody that you wouldn't expect to be talking about this is our special guest today. Now, I've got to tell you, I was definitely very apprehensive about having our guest today on this episode of The Model Health Show. But after talking with him and hearing his story, I knew that this would be an incredible and also incredibly valuable episode and education for so many of us.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And today, we're going to be talking about this new science, this new field of rejuvenation. And again, focusing on all of the incredible things that we can do to help us to age more healthfully, to support and protect our skin health, to maintain a level of vibrancy and beauty and expression, even as we're moving into our senior years. Now, there are several cultures that are well-documented around the world that have not just increased longevity in the form of a healthy lifespan or a long lifespan, but also their healthspan, where they're maintaining a high level of functionality as they move into more advanced age brackets. Now, one of the coolest things that he shared during this interview was a fantastic study that was done on identical twins. And you'll hear all about it. But basically, the researchers have uncovered that our outward appearance of youthfulness, actually is not the same as our outward appearance of youthfulness. And so, it is correlated with our lifespan. So, people that tend to look younger do, in fact, tend to, "grow old at a slower rate" and have a longer lifespan.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Now, we're not talking about causality here, but it's a really interesting correlation that we do indeed wear our expression of youthfulness on our skin and on the way that we appear to the outside world. Now, with that being said, there is no cookie-cutter way to go about this. We are all different and unique. But also, I was most surprised with our special guest talking about how we need to change our perspective about aging in our culture and celebrate it and see the beauty in it. Now, again, when you find out about his background and what he does for a living, you're going to be just as surprised as I was to hear him sharing the science and talking about subjects in the way that he's talking about it. But you're going to understand why when you hear his story and why he made the pivot in his career that he made. So this is going to be fascinating, filled with so many incredible insights. And I think you're absolutely going to love this.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Now, just to give you a quick preview, because we're going to be talking a lot about skin health, there are certain key nutrients that are clinically proven to protect and support healthy skin. And one nutrient that he mentioned several times, surprisingly, was vitamin C. A 2017 study published in the journal Nutrients states, "Normal skin contains high concentrations of vitamin C, which supports stimulating collagen synthesis and assists in antioxidant protection against UV-induced photo damage." Several other studies affirm that vitamin C helps to reduce skin irritations, sagging skin, and is even a key element in what we refer to as skin brightening or having this, "glow" when it comes to our skin. So vitamin C, we tend to think about it in terms of the immune system, but it is one of the most important nutrients for healthy skin. Now, with that being said, vitamin C is utilized by our bodies for so many different functions, and we can actually become deficient. And our skin is one of the last places that's going to get that additional nutrient nourishment, because vitamin C is responsible for functions regarding, again, yes, our immune system, top priority, the function of our adrenals and our stress response, our sympathetic nervous system, top priority. Our skin, not so much.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Our skin is the outermost reflection of our nervous system. And so we want to make sure that we're getting abundant amounts of high quality vitamin C. Now, unfortunately, people hear about the power of vitamin C, and they run out and get these synthetic vitamin C supplements. And over 90% of the vitamin C supplements that are on the market are coming from, and again, most people are not aware of this, genetically modified corn syrup and cornstarch. That's where the majority of these synthetic vitamin C supplements are coming from. And they are simply not affirmed in the data to have the same benefits as real food, whole food-based concentrates of vitamin C. In fact, taking these synthetic vitamin C supplements can actually be hazardous to our health. A 2013 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine found that participants taking synthetic vitamin C supplements had twice the risk of developing kidney stones. Another study from researchers at USC found that taking synthetic vitamin C thickened the walls of participants' arteries 2.5 times faster than those who were not taking this synthetic version of this nutrient.

SHAWN STEVENSON: This nutrient is incredibly important for reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease, for reducing the risk of abnormal kidney function when it's coming from real food, whole food sources of vitamin C. So yes, we want to make sure that our diet is rich in vitamin C-containing foods. And also, if you're going to utilize a vitamin C supplement, which I definitely recommend, especially when it comes to improving our skin health, we want to make sure that it's from real food, whole food concentrates. And for years, the only vitamin C supplement that I utilize is a combination of Camu Camu berry, Amla berry, and Acerola cherry, the three most vitamin C-dense super fruits in the world. And this is all together in the Essential C Complex from PaleoValley. There's no binders, no fillers, no synthetic ingredients. It is just the most bioavailable form of vitamin C that you're going to find. Head over to paleovalley.com/model. That's P-A-L-E-O-V-A-L-L-E-Y.com/ model. And they're going to give you 15% off their Essential C Complex. All right. They've got some other incredible whole food-based supplements and foods as well that you could check out. And we always have their different snacks here in the studio.

SHAWN STEVENSON: I absolutely love their Essential C Complex. Again, I've been utilizing this for years. If we want to improve our skin health, if we want to support our immune system in a real sustainable science-backed way, this Essential C Complex is head and shoulders above anything else. Go to paleovalley.com/model for 15% off. Now let's get to the Apple podcast review of the week.

TUNES REVIEW: Another five-star review titled “Simply the Best” by Haley S823. I've been listening to Shawn for almost five years and his content never ceases to be engaging, funny, and fascinating. Shawn is genuine and incredibly knowledgeable. I've learned a great deal since I started listening in 2019. Thank you for everything, Shawn. And Sending love from St. Louis.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Let's go STL, my hometown. Actually, with my special guest before we got started today, him being based in Detroit, he was talking about his struggles and dare I say, trauma with his Detroit sports team. And shout out to everybody listening in the D! But he was sharing his frustrations over the years, but also his being a fan of the Detroit Tigers, for example, baseball team. And me being from St. Louis, Missouri, which they call baseball heaven. I didn't make it up.

SHAWN STEVENSON: All right. But that's what it's called. And the St. Louis Cardinals facing off against them in the World Series just about 10 years ago. But St. Louis prevailing in that instance and kind of being a heartbreak for him. But we bonded over that. Sometimes you bond over different perspectives. One side is pain. One side is joy. You know, but we bonded over that and talking about our love for our sports teams. And this is an incredible conversation. And somebody, again, I was shocked to hear his story and his perspective. And that's why I wanted to highlight him and bring him on for you today and to hear his wisdom. And also, again, for us to have these powerful tools to learn about autojuvenation and supporting our health and our well-being for many years to come. And also understanding that our outward expression of health, something that we literally wear on our skin, is something for us to pay attention to. So without further ado, let's get to our special guest and topic of the day.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Known as America's Holistic Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Anthony Youn is a board-certified plastic surgeon and the author of several bestselling books. With a focus on holistic treatments and also pointing out some of the flaws of the plastic surgery industry, he's actually the most followed plastic surgeon in the world on social media with over 4.5 million subscribers with his YouTube channel, TikTok, and the list goes on and on. And he's here to talk about his complete holistic guide to turning back the clock using the power of autojuvenation. Let's dive into this conversation with Dr. Anthony Youn. Tony, so good to see you. Thank you so much for stopping by. You're here at the Model Health Show studio.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yes, it's going to be a lot of fun. Thank you so much, Shawn. I appreciate it.

SHAWN STEVENSON: It's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. So we had a conversation before doing this episode because I have been in this field for over 20 years. And I've been encouraging people to transform their health through science-backed lifestyle changes. And so having a plastic surgeon on the show, I was skeptical, to say the least... And we jumped on a call and you shared your perspective. You shared your approach to things. You shared why you're doing what you're doing. And also, it was inspiring. It was an inspiring call.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Oh, thank you.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And you're also hilarious, by the way. But if you could, can you start off by sharing what helped you to make a shift because you have dubbed yourself and you are widely known as a holistic plastic surgeon. So what inspired that change? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So I went through traditional training. I have an MD from Michigan State University. I went through three years of general surgery residency, two years of plastic surgery residency. And then I spent a year out here in Beverly Hills, where I worked with a top plastic surgeon in kind of like an apprenticeship fellowship. And so I was always taught as surgeons, we're taught to cut is to cure or the only way to heal is with cold steel. And these are sayings that are thrown around in residencies for surgery. So I was always taught that the goal of being a plastic surgeon or a surgeon just in general was to bring people to the operating room. And when you bring people to the operating room, we gauge our success as surgeons on how many operations were performed and the complexity of the operation. So if you're a general surgeon, the operation that you strive to be able to do someday is the Whipple. The Whipple is a 10-hour massive cancer operation. And if you're so lucky that you can perform it, it really is a blessing for you, essentially. In plastic surgery, that procedure is probably the facelift. You know, people may trust almost anybody to do their liposuction, but you know, if they're going to pay you to do their facelift, that you've got to be really good.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So Shawn, for many years, I gauged the success of my practice based off how many facelifts I was doing. And I thought I'd reached the pinnacle of success many years ago, where I had people flying in from all across the country to have work done, facelifts done by myself. I had an over one year waiting list. And then I had a patient who completely changed the trajectory of my career. I had a patient who underwent a facelift and had an absolutely terrible complication afterwards. One that wasn't my fault, wasn't her fault. But things just happen. She was a 60 some year old woman who came to my office. I did this facelift surgery on her. We had her looked at and cleared by her cardiologist and her internist. I performed the operation on a Thursday, see her the next morning on Friday at the hospital where I did the surgery at. And then I sent her home. I went through the weekend. And I come back to the office Monday morning, and I have a call, a message from her daughter. And that message was, "Why did my mom die?"

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: I was absolutely floored. And it turns out over that weekend, she suddenly died. And so I was obviously completely distraught after this. I tried to figure out what happened. It took many months before we found the results of the autopsy and things. I sent all the money that she paid for surgery back to her family so they could help pay for her arrangements. And I looked through everything that I could figure out. Is there anything that I did wrong? Was there a medication allergy? Was there something like two medications that interacted? And there was nothing, absolutely nothing. I even had her cleared by her cardiologist. It turns out she had a massive heart attack, even though she was cleared by her cardiologist just a couple weeks before that. So that sent me into a complete spiral downward as I really questioned, "Am I doing the right thing for my patients?" You know, this Hippocratic oath of do no harm. Am I doing harm? And I considered leaving plastic surgery altogether. And finally, after kind of digging myself out of this dark hole of guilt, I finally realized what I needed to do.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: And what I needed to do was change the paradigm and change that goal. And the goal should not be bringing people to the operating room. My goal should be, how do I keep people out of the operating room and get them to feel and look their best and feel like they don't need to go under the knife. And that's how I came to this, my new book, Younger For Life, and this whole concept of autojuvenation, using your body's own regenerative energy to rejuvenate itself.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, wow. The story itself was like... When you shared it, it was kind of shocking. Of course, like if something like that happens, I know that it as you shared, like you were questioning and just like looking at this thing and that thing and trying to sometimes want to go back and see if I could do something differently. But it led you to opening up an entirely new perspective and helping so many more people now. And as you shared in the book, and by the way, again, this book is hilarious.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Oh, thank you.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So many little great jokes in the book. And people aren't following you on social media they should definitely be following you as well.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Thank you.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And you shared in the book that you made this shift from being a more traditional, "cut first plastic surgeon to a holistic plastic surgeon," and shifting the focus to helping keep people out of the operating room. And you just shared this term autojuvenation is really your big approach. Can you talk a little bit more about that? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah, so it's this idea that our body has innate regenerative abilities, and it can rejuvenate itself, but we need to give it the tools and the environment in order to do that. You know, our body wants to heal itself, our body has these amazing regenerative abilities, but the way we treat our body in today's day and age is hindering that from happening. And so the concept of autojuvenation really focuses on five main things. It's what you eat, when you eat, nutritional supplements, skincare, and non-invasive treatments. And I firmly believe that by focusing on those five things, using that concept of autojuvenation, anywhere from 80-90% of people can look and feel amazing and not feel they need to go under the knife or even get injections and things like that.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Now, one of the cool lines from your book, and I'm going to read this directly, you shared, "Why get a facelift when you could get a life lift?" And so focusing on that, you still are, of course, practicing plastic surgeon, but encouraging people to, again, why just a facelift when you can get a life lift and help every cell in your body work better.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Exactly. And the way I look at it, overall, is that when you look at procedures like facelifts, like Botox, like fillers, the way I look at it, it's like you're building a house. And those procedures are the spiral at the top of the house. When you're building a house, you don't start by trying to figure that part of it out. You start by creating the foundation and the foundation is what you eat. What you eat is the absolute most important thing that will determine the health and the quality of your skin. And so what you eat can increase the speed at which your skin ages, and it can slow that process down. And to an extent, maybe even reverse it a little bit. But the way I look at it in the end, though, is it is like you're building a house and that that foundation is going to be the food. And then you add once again, the when you eat part of it, which would be potentially adding intermittent fasting to it. The supplements, because we know that our food is not as nutritious as it used to be. And then you also have to add the other stuff on the outside, like the skin care that is a huge part of turning back the clock and getting beautiful skin as well.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So it's kind of funny because I joke that if you were to ask a holistic physician or holistic practitioner, "How do I get beautiful, healthy skin?" They'll tell you to heal your gut, heal your gut and you'll get beautiful skin. If you ask a dermatologist, they'll say use sunscreen and use a retinoid. And if you ask a plastic surgeon, they'll say use Botox and get a facelift. And really, the truth is, is the best approach, I strongly believe is a true integrative approach. It's taking those recommendations from more holistic and alternative medicine and combine that with the more traditional dermatologic recommendations. And that's what I have created. And that's what I'm so proud of, because I think I know there are books written by holistic practitioners all about the gut and what to eat for better skin. There's dermatologists have written great books about products to apply. But I've never actually written one that combines kind of best of both worlds. And that's what I wanted to create.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. For me, it's always looking at what is it? Right, so what I mean by that is, if you're talking about the health of your skin, what is your skin made of? And it is literally made from the food that you eat, the nutrients that you're providing your body, and so treating it topically, yes, that is one approach, and also your skin eats and consumes these things, but are we providing our bodies with the raw materials to really make healthy tissues? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Exactly.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And one of those things with skin health, and you talk about this several times in the book, is collagen.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yes.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Talk a little bit about that.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So 70-80% of our skin is composed of collagen. Collagen is that part of your skin that cause your skin to feel tight, to feel thick and to feel strong. And when we're younger, our skin has a lot of collagen and it's nice and tight and smooth. And the way I describe it, it's kind of like the logs of the log cabin, and when you're younger, that log cabin is new, the logs are strong, they're shiny, they're smooth. But as we get older, starting about in our mid to late 20s, we start losing about 1% of the thickness of our collagen every year. Women after menopause, that increases upwards of 2% a year.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: And that's why you see some women who are in their 60s and 70s and 80s who have tissue paper thin skin, so thin that sometimes they get a scratch and it tears their skin. You don't see this as much in men because they don't go through that menopause process. And so really focusing on the collagen is a huge part of slowing down that aging process when you're looking at the skin and the external visible effects of overall aging, and where does that start with? Well, collagen is a large protein, and so in order for us to retain that collagen, slow that collagen degradation down, you wanna definitely have enough protein in your diet.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Making that distinction with menopause and the loss of collagen, that speaks to how much hormones impact the health of our skin as well.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yes.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And our skin is really an extension of our nervous system, and so, so many outward things like even stress, is another thing as well, can have a big impact on how you age.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah. I mean, you only need to look at the US presidents when they go into office and when they exit office four to eight years later to know that stress is a huge factor in overall aging. You have to assume that going through being the most powerful person in the country, potentially in the world, they're gonna have the absolute best medical care, but at the same time, they age so quickly in those four to eight years, and that's basically due to the stress.

SHAWN STEVENSON: You shared in the book, and I'm just gonna read this directly, you said for many people, they have this experience of one day looking in the mirror and asking, "How did I go from being a spice girl to being a golden girl?" Sometimes it just hits you, like "What happened? Where did the time go?" And you shared how a big part of the way that we age, like aging isn't something that you can just suddenly stop or make it disappear, it is a phenomenon in our universe, or in this part of the universe at least, and we do have colleagues who would denote aging as a disease and looking at it from that perspective as something that can be treated and potentially cured. I personally never really completely resonated with that because I think it's negating the value of aging, and you talk about that in the book as well, but more so looking at how do we age healthfully and also extending our life span and our health span, and you share that much of aging is about the damage caused by environment and lifestyle.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Exactly.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So we just talked a little bit about the food input, we talked a little bit about the stress input, what else should we be paying attention to as far as our environment? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah, so the way I look at overall aging of the skin is I focus on five main factors that really contribute to it. The first is going to be nutrient depletion, so once again, our food and that being a huge part of this, the foundation of that house is not as nutritious as it used to be. There was a study that looked from between 1950 and 1999, and found a significant reduction in the nutritional content quality of our food in six different nutrients. Specifically, three that stood out to me were vitamin C, iron and protein. So nutrient depletion is a huge cause of aging of the skin. Second thing I mentioned just a minute ago was collagen degradation. That also a big component of it, diet can have a big impact on that. Third thing is inflammation, specifically chronic inflammation. Now, there's a difference between acute inflammation and chronic inflammation. Acute inflammation can actually be very beneficial for us. When you get a cut on your skin and your body creates acute inflammation on that cut to help heal it, that's actually a good thing. Cosmetic treatments, laser treatments, chemical peels, micro-needling, those are all creating acute inflammation and kind of like the whole concept of hormesis, the body reacts to acute inflammation or acute trauma by actually becoming stronger after it heals that. But chronic inflammation is a whole other story, and that is a big atria of our skin.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: The fourth cause of aging in the skin that we focus on is gonna be oxidation or free radicals, and then the fifth cause of that is gonna be a build-up of cellular waste, and so by focusing on these different things, diet being a huge part of it, but once again, what you eat, when you eat, supplements, skincare, products and treatments, we can really target all five of those to efficiently reverse that and allow our body to once again regenerate itself.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So this just immediately made me think about just a basic skin scrub and just it is something that creates inflammation temporarily, but your skin ends up looking so much healthier and brighter and all these things.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So basically all of the skin rejuvenating treatments that are actually trying to tighten your skin are all based off of traumatizing your skin to a certain amount, and by doing that, essentially, it's like you take those logs that had started to fall apart and as those logs... The collagen heals itself, it heals us self in a tighter fashion, and so with lasers, it does it using light energy or heat, with chemical peels, it does it using an acid, with microneedling, it does it using a physical pole or a needle poke into the skin, and all of these will then cause a controlled trauma and your skin will rebound by actually looking and feeling more youthful. The problem is, you have to be careful because if that trauma is too aggressive, then you get scarring and that you definitely do not want. And so it's the same thing when you're looking at hormesis, if you are doing a cold plunge, then you can do that for a period of time, but if you're in it for too long, you could get really ill from that, your body temperature can go to a level that can be very harmful for you. And so we look at, in some ways, at these cosmetic treatments the same way.

SHAWN STEVENSON: If you think about this, and this is tying back to the skin differences between men and women, some women can have 20 different skincare products while their husband is like washing his balls with the soap that he's watching his face with, the same thing, and it's just like his skin looks amazing after whatever, in his 60s or whatever. And we're negating some of these other lifestyle factors because it's not just the topical thing, and having great topical applications is important and this is what I wanna ask you about before we switch gears and talk a little bit more about the internal, but alcohol-based skincare products. Can you talk a little about that? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah, so back in the... Really up until recently, a lot of us thought that using astringents, alcohol-based toners and products like that were actually good for us. One thing that we are finding, we're kind of with the skin, where we were with the gut, maybe 20 years ago, where we discovered that there's this thing called a gut microbiome, and most traditional physicians kind of ignored that, whereas the forward-leaning holistic practitioners, we're talking about it, and now we know that the skin has the same thing. We have a skin microbiome, we have billions of bacteria that live on the surface of our skin, and those bacteria do exert some type of impact on the health of our skin. Now, we're very early in our knowledge of it, we don't know just how important they are. We know what the gut... The gut microbiome has massive impacts on your overall body's health. I don't know if the skin microbiome is quite that important, but we do know that when you disrupt that skin microbiome, the same thing can happen when you disrupt the gut microbiome. So using, let's say, a lot of alcohol where you're literally killing off, you're stripping away that healthy bacteria, you can have unhealthy bacteria that potentially can go in its place.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: And so it is really important, one the big things over the last few years that has been a trend with skincare has been preserving the skin barrier, and essentially meaning that you leave that probiotics, those beneficial microbiome, that bacteria in the surface of your skin, you leave it alone and let it kinda do its thing. And so trying less aggressive treatments overall and not stripping your skin of that microbiome is actually really important.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, there's two things that are similar with the microbes in the gut and the skin, these microbes are producing compounds. This is one of the things we don't understand yet, like, what are they producing? But we know that it tends to have some kind of a protective effect, and the other part is having the protective effect, which is protecting our skin from pathogens, things like, certain things can make it through your skin and make you sick or cause an infection.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so if we're stripping away our protection haphazardly, and you just mentioned it, yeah, because I remember not that long ago using alcohol-based stuff myself trying to have healthier skin when I was like in college, and thankfully that has changed, but even more so, thankfully for your work to educate us on, it's more than just the topical thing, we've got to look at this from the inside out, and I wanna ask you about this specifically, because you go into detail with all of the things you mentioned, but cellular waste jumped out in particular. So how do we support this kind of metabolic waste removal so that our skin isn't getting clogged up and backed up? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So to simplify it essentially, is that, well, being alive, we have cells that will create waste products, and these waste products are organelles, they're proteins, they may be discarded, used up kind of mitochondria, and these waste product can build up in our cells, especially like our skin cells. And when these cellular waste builds up, it causes our cells to essentially function less efficiently, as if you are older. And the way that our cells then clear out these intracellular waste is a process called autophagy. Autophagy means self-eating, you've brought it up on the podcast before, but essentially it's self-eating, it's a recycling of these intracellular waste, these intracellular proteins, they're essentially gunking up the mechanism, you recycle it for energy, and then what happens is that the cells function more efficiently afterwards as if they're more youthful.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: But the problem is, is for autophagy to work, for this intracellular recycling process to happen, your body has to run out of energy essentially, so that it looks to that intracellular waste for energy, 'cause if it's being fed energy constantly, it won't necessarily go into that process, that autophagy process, 'cause it doesn't need it. Well, in our standard American diet and our standard American lifestyle, we are not used to not eating, we are constantly snacking and eating all day in general. And so that does not allow that process of autophagy to occur. On top of that, we also know that as you get older, like so many things in life, autophagy slows down, naturally it slows down, and so it is definitely important for us as we get older to keep that in mind and to try to get that autophagy process going, and the way to do that, essentially simply put, is to stop eating for a while. Okay? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: And so the easiest way to do it is to intermittent fast, start off if you haven't done much of it before, do start off by doing a 12-hour fast, so maybe you stop eating at 8:00 PM and then you don't eat until 8:00 AM the next morning, if you can get yourself to it, try to do a 16-hour fast where you stop eating at 8:00 PM and then you don't eat again until the next day at about noon. Getting that 16-hour fast, gives your body time for it to then use that intracellular waste products in that process of autophagy and to seriously turn back the clock on the inside with our cells.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Now, one thing that we did in the book is that we've got a three-week jump start, where we took people and we had them on a certain diet, we cleaned up their diet, we had them on certain supplements, we had them take and use certain skincare products. In week one, we had them basically just clean up their diet and then do the supplements and the skincare, weeks two and three, we added two days each week of intermittent fasting, where they stopped eating at 8:00 PM and then they didn't eat until noon the next day, and then what we did, which I haven't seen done before, is that when they started re-feeding at noon the next day, for the rest of that day, they ate a diet that could promote autophagy. One thing we have learned is that there are certain foods that can promote the autophagy process, even though you're not fasting, and those foods are healthy fats, so Omega-3 fatty acid-rich food, so like cold water fish, like tuna, trout, salmon, and then foods that are filled with polyphenols, polyphenol-rich foods also great for autophagy. So now you're looking at bright and dark colored berries, green leafy vegetables, darker colored vegetables as well, and the idea is that you can hopefully continue that autophagy process for a total for a good 24 hours and not leave it at just that 16.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So good. So good. And the polyphenols and a lot of these things have multi-factorial benefits, like the polyphenols are great for your gut and all the things.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Oh, yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And this gut-skin connection, I think more science is gonna come out kind of fleshing that out. As you mentioned, you're talking to a gastroenterologist about your skin, like fixing the gut, and also Hippocrates famously, he didn't tell me personally, but...

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: We're old but we're not that old.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So whenever we say these quotes, I'm just like, "Aah," but it's a story that he said that all disease begins in the gut, and in particular, he was really renowned for treating skin issues, and certain things were involved in his practice, part of it was fasting, and he also used something he called serum, which is whey protein, funny enough, but it was like a topical treatment as well. It's like, it's all these fascinating things and you hear these things and our system is supposed to be inspired by the father of modern medicine, but then we forget to take care of the gut, and so the polyphenols is huge. And also, if you could, for everybody, just kind of across the board, what are some of the recommendations as far as the skincare routine, just some basic things that we could all do to have healthier, younger fresher-looking skin.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So one of the things that we did for the book is that we really simplified the skincare routine down because it is very confusing when you go to the store and like this product better than Botox, this one is the latest, best thing for your skin. What do you do? So we basically, I put together a very simple skincare routine that anybody can do, and we found that it takes literally two minutes a day, and we tested people on it, people who weren't necessarily taking good care of their skin before, but they also weren't horribly aged or anything, and we put them on it for two months, and then we actually took before and after photos, and we asked people online how much younger do they look, and it turns out that they looked an average of about five years younger. So we called it the two minutes, five years younger skincare routine, and it's very simple. Every morning you cleanse your skin with the cleanser appropriate for your skin type, so if you've got oily skin, I recommend a foaming cleanser, if you've got dryer or sensitive skin then a milky or hydrating cleanser is better.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Second step, you apply an anti-oxidant serum, I mentioned earlier, one of the main ages of our skin is oxidation and free radicals. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals, so it's so important to use a vitamin C or an anti-oxidant serum every morning to protect your skin. And then I recommend if you're gonna be out to wear sunscreen at least an SPF 30, and we can talk about sunscreens in the future if you want. That's what you have to do in the morning; cleanser, anti-oxidant serum, sunscreen, if you're gonna be out. In the evening, cleanse your skin, so important, if you only watch your face once a day, make sure it's in the evening 'cause you gotta get rid of that day's worth of dirt and dust and grime and pollution, and if you wear make-up, you wanna get rid of that as well. And then you wanna apply an anti-aging cream, the one that most dermatologists and plastic surgeons recommend, super easy to find is a retinol.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Retinol is a derivative of vitamin A. Prescription strength retinol is Retin-A, over-the-counter strength is Retinol. Some people try to go for the Retin-A, Retin-A has been very scientifically proven to improve wrinkles, to smooth the skin, to exfoliate the skin, to thicken the dermis of the skin, the deeper layers of the skin, and even reverse early pre-skin cancers. So it kinda does everything, but it's hard on your skin, and so the Retinol is the over-the-counter version that most people can tolerate. And that's all you have to do at night, cleanse your skin, apply retinol if you've got dry skin and you wanna add a moisturizer on top of that, feel free to do that.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: But a moisturizer does not reverse aging of the skin, it just is hydrating and makes it more comfortable. And then the final thing is once a week, if you have sensitive skin, two to three times a week, if you've got "normal skin," you wanna exfoliate your skin. You can do that with a gentle scrub or you can do that with, let's say, an alpha-hydroxy acid type of appeal. That's all you have to do. Simple Steps, you can buy these products at your local drug store. Ideally, I always encourage people to buy clean beauty, so it's something that doesn't have added fragrances and additives that aren't necessary for that, but if you stick to that type of a skincare regimen, you're gonna be way ahead of probably 90% of people out there.

SHAWN STEVENSON: I love that, and I love the little note about the exfoliation, to not overdo it. Give your skin a chance to heal, it's like a little exercise, the hormetic stressor allowing it to heal.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yes. If you are exfoliating your skin and you find that it's constantly irritated and red, you are overdoing it, do less of that.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Okay. You've mentioned a particular nutrient which might be surprising for skin health a couple of times now, vitamin C. We tend to think about it in this vanilla lens of like, good for your immune system, but it's this powerful anti-oxidant and it's one of those things that is required by your skin as well for general health and resilience.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah, I mean, honestly, it goes back to our middle school and high school science classes where we were taught the importance of vitamin C in collagen and scurvy, how there were these sailors that would go for these extended trips, and when they ran out of fresh fruits and vegetables, they ran out of vitamin C, and then they would get these sores in their mouth and on their skin because vitamin C is absolutely essential for collagen production. So on top of that, it also is a very powerful antioxidant. It's the easiest antioxidant to get, both by mouth as well as topically on the surface of your skin. But here's a little tip for the listeners. If you want to take that to the next level, if you add vitamin C and vitamin E together, there was a study that found that they are synergistic, and you get an even better antioxidant protection if you use vitamin C and E combined.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yes, there's actually a study that I cited in one of my books looking at vitamin C and E improving sleep quality...

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Oh, wow.

SHAWN STEVENSON: As well and in particular, reducing the symptoms of sleep apnea.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Oh, interesting.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Like, who knew? Very, very powerful. But again, when we look at these things in just one way and get tunnel vision with it, we miss out on real food, real nutrients are great for your whole body in many ways.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah, and they can make big changes. I think that people poo-poo it. I mean, I'm still a surgeon, and I know that there are certain things that you just have to have surgery for if you want to get there. You know, if you've lost 100 pounds and you've got skin hanging from your body, yeah, there's no food you're gonna eat that's gonna make it go away. There's no chemical peel that will do that. Unfortunately, the only option is surgery. But outside of kind of more extreme-type cases, most of these types of things we can really treat pretty effectively without going under the knife.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Got a quick break coming up. We'll be right back. Did you know that there's a spice in your spice cabinet that can very likely improve your insulin sensitivity and help you to burn more fat? This spice has been utilized for thousands of years, and now today we've got tons of peer-reviewed evidence showing how incredible it is for so many aspects of human health. I'm talking about the renowned spice, turmeric. Now, turmeric is actually in the ginger family, but it has its own claim to fame today. Researchers at the Department of Neurology at USC found that one of the active ingredients in turmeric, curcumin, is able to help eliminate amyloid plaque in the brain, slow down the aging of our brain cells, and also help to remove heavy metals and reduce inflammation in the brain. By the way, I'm talking about its impact on body fat. Turmeric has been found to both improve insulin sensitivity, reduce blood fats, and directly act upon our fat cells. And to take it up one more mental notch, research published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology points to turmeric's potential to reduce both anxiety and depression.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Turmeric functions like a Swiss army knife for human health and benefits. And today more than ever, people are going beyond the casual curry and doing one of the most remarkable teas that you're going to find and that is having a turmeric latte. My favorite turmeric latte, my favorite turmeric drink comes from Organifi Gold. And this is because it also has other bio-potentiators that make turmeric work even better in the human body. I'm talking about cinnamon. I'm talking about ginger, and also here's the thing that makes Organifi's Gold so remarkable it also has the medicinal mushroom reishi which according to research published in pharmacology biochemistry and behavior, they found that reishi was able to decrease our sleep latency meaning that we fall asleep faster, was found to improve our overall sleep time and also improve our deep sleep time and light sleep time. So our REM sleep and non-REM sleep are prettyΩ remarkable. So I highly encourage you to check out this incredible Organifi Gold blend go to organifi.com/model. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com/model. You get 20% off their incredible gold blend as well as their green juice blend, their red juice blend and actually store wide.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So definitely take advantage of this and make yourself your own turmeric latte. I love the turmeric blend the Organifi Gold with some almond milk or milk of your choice. Warm it up if you're feeling spicy and it's one of those things that really helps to add another layer to your health and well-being. Check them out, go to organifi.com/model for 20% off. Now back to the show.

SHAWN STEVENSON:  Well, since I just brought up sleep, is beauty sleep a real thing? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: It is, yeah. So sleep, one of the parts of the book that I'm really proud of is kind of the focus that we have on lifestyle alterations. We talked earlier about stress and how stress is such a big deal with premature aging, you definitely need your sleep because that's when your body really rejuvenates itself. But I think that there are also a lot of other practices that we can do that can slow down the process of aging that isn't quite as direct as applying let's say, a cream on your skin. I'm a big fan of yoga, I think as we get older that mobility is so important to staying young and active and keeping your sense of balance. I wrote an article that's kind of interesting because walking is great and it's a great activity as we get older but one of the things I put in the book is that walking is not the perfect exercise. My parents are in their 80s, my mom's not quite there but almost there my in-laws are in their 80s and for them what they do is they walk, that's their "exercise." But the problem let's say with walking is that you are only using those muscles to power you forward, you're not using any other muscles and you're not using the fast twitch muscle fibers that are so important to stabilize you if you trip.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: One of the things I was talking about was that there was a study that found that over the age of 50 it was something like a 3% mortality rate if you break your hip if you're over the age of 50. And that so that is something that you really really want to avoid as you get older and you want to stay once again, limber and active and the way to do that is to make sure that you are working those fast twitch muscle fibers and working on balance like I said, with yoga the fast twitch muscle fibers you do that with strength training and so really looking at kind of the overall aging picture is so so important, because as we get older not only do you want your skin to look nicer but by actually being more active and exercising, that also really will put an impact on the quality of your skin too. So those lifestyle factors are huge and we unfortunately ignore that too much in my field of plastic surgery and in dermatology as well.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, the framing in our culture of beauty has been so focused on fat and missing out on the importance of muscle. And there's this movement taking place right now we're in the middle of the middle of the middle of it that is muscle centric and muscle centric medicine and shout out to Dr. Gabriel.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Dr. Gabriel, yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: But really understanding our muscle is an endocrine organ and again, being able to produce hormones related we talked about our skin being related to our hormone health as well. We can manufacture so many incredible compounds that you can't buy yet and we can make these things when we're utilizing our muscles and doing strength training and so I love that pairing like yes, walking is great we've got all kinds of benefits here, lymphatic system all this stuff but we need to focus on building some muscle if you want to not just be... Live a longer life but to healthfully live life.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah, it's that difference between healthspan and lifespan. Our traditional medical system is great at extending your lifespan, people are living way past the years that we would normally think that they should because our medical system is propping them up essentially, but the idea is you want to extend your health span where you're actually active and healthy and feeling great, that's what we really want to extend and unfortunately our traditional medical system is not great with that because they're so focused on those interventions that keep people alive when they're maybe not making those lifestyle changes that can prevent the need for those interventions.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, you share in the book that and this is the reality is that our appearance, someone who does look youthful it is correlated with how long they're going to live. So can you talk about that Danish study that you cited in the book? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah, so there was a Danish study where they actually looked at identical twins. And this study found that the younger looking of the identical twins actually seemed to live longer than the ones that looked older. Now, we don't know if this is correlation or causation, but it is very interesting. And I tell you, one of the things for me that's important is I see people in my office who have unhealthy habits. And I tell them, look you've got to quit smoking or you've got to quit vaping because, and I can say it's horrible for your lungs, you can get emphysema, you can increase your risk of heart disease, and they blow that off. But if I tell them, number one, I'm not going to operate on you unless you get off of this, then they go, "Oh, well, then I'm going to quit." Or I tell them, "You know, if you do that, you're going to get more wrinkles." They go, "Oh!" So I think part of it, sometimes what I try to do, which I think can be very helpful and powerful, is appeal to a person's sense of vanity to help them change to healthier habits because sometimes it's not enough to say, you could die younger, you could get lung cancer, you could get heart disease, they don't care.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: But man, if you tell them that they're going to get deeper wrinkles or their skin's going to look shoddy, then sometimes that's what drives them. And so sometimes it's finding the right motivation to try to help our followers and our patients to try to get to where we want them to be so that they can be as healthy as possible. And in my situation, oftentimes it starts with vanity, and that's okay as long as I get them where we want to be and get them healthy and happy.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, absolutely. And I found that button works really well in my practice too. It's just because of all of these, you get all these great benefits, you're not going to die from a chronic disease prematurely and all these things, but it's just, that might not push the button for a lot of people. But when it comes to our body composition and things like that and leveraging that, this is also the true sign of a really great practitioner is paying attention to the person and finding that psychological leverage, because everybody's different too and just being able to lean into that. And I think that's a really good thing. And looking for... Even with kids, like, the result that they want, like, if I'm coming in, if I'm working with a family, back in the day, it would be maybe helping with they've got tons of cereals or whatever, just sitting up on top of the refrigerator. And the mom is wanting to normalize her blood sugar. Maybe she's on metformin right now. And she's been struggling for a while with wanting to lose 50 pounds. She's all in, but she's like, but my kids, right? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And it's just like, talking with them maybe it's one of the kids is 12. And he wants to play basketball. And I'm just like, you know what, you can outperform if you're doing adding this in, it could see their eyes light up just by paying attention to their own motivations.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah, and every kid, I've got two children, I know you have three, it's every kid has their own motivations. And as a parent, it's helpful and useful to find out what those motivations are. Because I think my son, he's the older one. And for years, I wondered, like, do you care about anything? Like, do you care about anything? And it was to the point where we would put him in timeout and all these things, and he didn't care. And finally, it got to a point where if he would be mean to his sister, would tell him, I'm gonna throw your favorite toy away. You know, if you're mean to her, you hit her, I'm gonna throw it away. And it was eventually, it was always like the broken one that we're gonna toss out anyway, but oh, no, he doesn't want that. So I feel like trying to find their motivation. Now his motivation is all internal, which I'm so happy for my daughter. I look at her, I look at her sideways, and she's like, gets upset. I don't need to motivate her, 'cause she just is such a people pleaser.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: But each kid is so different. And I think it's the same thing with our patients and our followers. It's like, everybody has different motivations, and it's trying to figure out what you can spark within them, to help them change their lives for the better. And like I said, for me, vanity is part of it. But you know, that's our society nowadays. And if I can help my followers and my patients to get where they want to be by utilizing that together, then hey, I'll power to it.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah the ancient tenet is to know thyself as well to utilize this with for ourselves. Yes. But that takes a level of self honesty just tuning in, like, what really does motivate me to do this behavior, long term to get the result that I want for some people, it's not enough that they're going to fill in the blank, lose 10 pounds, or normalize their blood sugar, whatever it is, you've got to know what is going to motivate you and tune into that, lean into it, grab on to it, and basically, we can placebo ourselves, we can placebo our own mind, or the external environment is going to do it for us.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So what is your motivation, Shawn? What's your main motivation, my friend? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: That's a good question. Motivation for what specifically? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: For staying healthy.

SHAWN STEVENSON: It recently changed. I can't believe you're asking me this. Like, this literally changed this, this past week or two I've been like readjusting to this new motivation. For the past few years, probably the last at least five years, my motivation, the reason I'm training, the reason that I'm caring for myself was to be stronger for my family, to be able to do whatever is necessary to support, protect, take care of my family, and to be strong for the people that entrusted me in serving them at the highest level possible. So I was literally training with my audience in mind and with my family in mind, so that I can be greater for them and do whatever needs to be done, which has recently shifted in the last couple of weeks, where that is a powerful motivation. But it's still external. And now it's for me. It's for me to be the greatest expression of God or life or what the universe's potential expression is with this person that I am. So just being able to express. The most beauty, the most potential that I possibly can for me, for me.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And of course the spillover is going to help and continue on all the other things, but the motivation is shifted. I'm adjusting to it still. I haven't completely locked into that. But just seeing that if it's externally focused, so many things can happen out here that don't match up. And so having me being the North star, it's like, it's unlocking a whole different power, I feel.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Interesting. Yeah. Well, that's good.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Oh, man, put that in your pipe and smoke. Yeah. I wasn't expecting to talk about that, man. But I want to ask you something really interesting as well, which is the power of our thoughts and our perspective. And you give it this term in the book, you say old thinking. Let's talk about that a little bit.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah. I mean, I think part of this, one of the things is that as I've gotten older and I'm 51 now, I had this idea that I didn't want to be like the not cool dad. You know, I didn't want to be that dad where you go out with your kids and they're like, "I don't want to be seen with this guy." And the crazy thing now is that I've got this massive following on TikTok and I go out with my kids and I have teenagers that come to me and they're like, "Hey, can we take a picture of you." And stuff. So somehow I'm actually not the uncool dad, although I was not cool when I was younger in my kids' age. So it's kind of weird. But I think there really is something to the young and old thinking. As we get older, there's this belief that we have to think a certain way. We have to act a certain way. We have to dress a certain way. And unfortunately, following that thinking can in our mind cause us to age more quickly. And because of that, we can act that way too. You know, if we think we're old, maybe we're not going to stand up straight. If we think we're old, maybe we're not going to try to do these new activities. And there's so much to experiencing life in a more youthful way, trying new things.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: There's neuroplasticity. There's how you make new nerve connections in your brain that may potentially stave off dementia and Alzheimer's. And once again, it's how you live your life. And so one of the things that we do is my wife and I, we're always keeping up with what's going on currently in the world, like we don't want to... At one point, my wife made fun of me one day where she's like, what type of music do you listen to? I'm like, I just been listening mostly to the '80s. And she's like, "Oh my gosh, you've got to get that. You got to get into the current stuff." And so, because now I'm on TikTok and all this stuff, I keep track of all the new things. But part of that is also keeping me young. And I think that there is a way, there is a whole thing as far as acting younger, holding yourself in that way, dressing younger. And now I'm not going to dress as if I'm 18. I'm not shopping at Hollister or anything like that. But maybe not necessarily dressing like a 51-year-old too. And caring about your appearance because all of that really comes into play with the whole environment that you create around yourself. The funny thing though, Shawn, is I get people that will ask me all the time on social media, like, how old are you? And I'll say 88. And they go, Oh my gosh, you look so young for 88.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: You could pass for 40. And then sometimes they'll ask me how old I am. And I'll answer 25. And they go, "Dang, you are old looking. You should use your own products." And so it's fun. I think in the end, you're only as old as you feel and as old as you act in a lot of ways. And so in the book, I give certain very simple tips: stand up straight, be active, try to exercise and learn new things. You know, these are things that people do when they're in their teens and 20s, but as they get older, sometimes people get very set in their ways and they get in the same routine over and over again. That overall is not necessarily good overall for longevity.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. I love the quote that says we don't stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing. And it's like, it's a secret that should not be a secret because of our cultural programming, we tend to stop doing certain things when we get to a certain age. And play is so important. And you look at cultures that have the most centenarians and that kind of thing. People are dancing, getting together, storytelling and being active and all these things. It's just like, it's continued to be a part of life. Here in the United States, not so much and I distinctly remember certain things that my mom would say, or my grandparents. And this aversion to... Like you mentioned, you said this earlier and it was so important, which is those fast twitch muscle fibers. And your body literally is on a use it or lose it basis when it comes to those things. And it is one of the things that, this is... The largest body of data has affirmed this. You don't have to lose those fibers.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: No.

SHAWN STEVENSON: But you have to train them.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: If you're not continuing to train them on a consistent basis, you will definitely, especially as you get older, the degradation will set in quicker. And so, I've been a big proponent in several of the shows that have been focused on this the past year on sharing the science with people to do certain explosive fast twitch muscle movements.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Exactly.

SHAWN STEVENSON: I am the biggest fan right now of jump rope. I think it's just like one of the greatest inventions ever. And here's the thing, if you feel like I can't even jump over that sh*t, there are jump ropes that don't even connect now. They're kind of like weighted, you could use one in each hand, but just the act of jumping up and down and all of those different muscle fibers and ligaments and tendons get that attention, so if anybody can walk away today with three applications for the exercise, you shared walking. Yes, and you've seen this with your folks who are in their 80s, by the way, and they're walking, so it's something to that, but also strength training. And the other part is, if people can, whether it's a jump rope or dare I say, continue to do jumps, box jumps, maybe a tiny little platform, but just being able to jump, to hop up on to things, it's one of those skill sets that when we're a kid, you can't stop them from jumping, but as we get older, that's one of the things that we stop doing is jumping around.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: And one of the things we had put in the book is a friend of mine, Deborah Atkinson, she's a specialist for exercise for people over 50. And I was talking with her and we were talking about the whole fast-twitch muscle fibers, and I put this in the book, if you don't... If you have... You're on the older side, and let's say you aren't doing strength training and all that, and you want to know a place to start, the place to start would be to do basically some type of a push-up or chest press, and you can do that as a Nautilus type of equipment, to do leg presses and rows, if you do those three exercises and you're gonna work the vast majority of those muscle groups, so once again, it's a chest press, leg press and rows, that leg press could also be a squat. But if you do those three then that's a good place for most people to start. Very simple exercises, you can have people help you out with it, but those are three things that will work the vast majority of things out, and if you wanna add the jump rope and all those types of things, all that's just gonna help. It's all gravy.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, and just two to three times a week with those string training exercises, the whole body, do those three exercises, you're gonna be a really good place moving forward.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Exactly.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So it's 2024 right now. In the year 2000... Did you ever watched Conan O'Brien? He used to do this skit, anyways, we're living in the future right now, and there are some really cool innovations that are non-invasive or minimally invasive, like red light therapy. Can you talk a little bit about that? What is your perspective on that? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So interesting, red light therapy is something where if you talk to a plastic surgeon, they may look at you with a blank stare 'cause we don't talk about it in plastic surgery at all. Dermatologists know a decent amount of it and then alternative health experts are all about red light therapy. So the idea behind red light therapy essentially is the energy from that red light will be infused into your cells. So for the skin, it would be your skin cells, and essentially what it does, your mitochondria takes up that energy and it powers the mitochondria, which are the powerhouses of your cells, and it causes the mitochondria, we believe, to increase its production of ATP. So essentially, you are taking your cells and you're adding energy to them, making them more energetic and essentially more youthful. So red light therapy devices for the skin can occur in different types, there's hand-held devices that are kind of a pain 'cause you treat a quadrant of your face at a time, usually, there are table top devices which are nice and square, and you can treat the whole face at one time, which is really convenient. There are creepy looking Hannibal Lecter type masks that you can wear around and scare your significant other while you wear it, and then there are whole red light therapy beds that some people use as well.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: What does the science say about red light therapy? Basically, there are studies, split face studies where they split the face in half and they treat one side of the face with a sham light and the other side of face with red light and have found after about 90 days of treatment an improvement in wrinkles, hydration and skin elasticity. So it definitely works. We think it works once again, by kind of adding energy to the mitochondria of our cells, although it's not a 100% improvement to my understanding. A good thing with red light therapy, no downtime. If you wanna start with something that is a great place to start.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Awesome, awesome, okay. A lot of our health has to do with not doing certain things. All right, are there anything... Let's talk just from the lens of nutrition, things that we might want to avoid that can be contributing to degradation of our health, accelerated aging, things like that.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So I mentioned earlier that there are these five causes of the aging of the skin, nutrient depletion, collagen degradation, chronic inflammation, oxidation and build up of cellular waste. When you look at inflammation, the main cause of chronic inflammation of the skin is sugar, and so reducing the amount of sugar that you eat. Because sugar can actually bond to the collagen of your skin, and I mentioned earlier that our collagen and it's like the logs of a log cabin. As we get older, those logs become fray, they start to fall apart. What sugar will do is it will actually bond to the collagen fibers, the actual collagen, it will bond to it and cause that collagen to become permanently kinked. So it's not that tight log in a log cabin anymore, it's kinked that is prematurely aging to the skin and so that creates advanced glycation end products, that's the term for those collagen sugar hybrids, those connections. So sugar creates chronic inflammation, so reduce the amount of sugar. Super important. I know you've been great with educating people on that, and then the other thing that we look at with oxidation, we talked about how antioxidants fight oxidation and are so healthy for our skin, but what does it fight? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: It fights free radicals. And where do free radicals come from? Well, free radicals are created by our body, just being alive, our body's metabolism creates free radicals as a waste product, and these free radicals when they are numerous can actually damage the DNA of our cells, of our skin cells, let's say, and so antioxidants will neutralize free radicals but if you have too many free radicals that are attacking your body, we don't have enough antioxidants to support that or to neutralize them, that's when you get DNA damage and you get premature aging. So where do you get free radicals from? Well, you can get them from pollution in the air, you can get it from, let's say, cigarette smoking, from automobile exhaust, but you can also get it from ultra-processed foods, so ultra processed foods, especially if they are fried, like deep fried foods are filled with free radicals and to reduce the amount of ultra processed foods or even eliminating them is a great way to improve the health of your skin.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So you're saying McDonald's french fries? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: As good as they may taste going down are quite possibly the worst food for your skin, maybe not the worst, because probably the worst would be if they smother them in sugar, so yeah, I would say maybe a donut might be worse than the fries, but that's all the same idea, and there are those foods that not only have sugar, but they also are ultra processed, like dessert stuff that you buy, that's packaged in boxes that you buy at the grocery store, those could be potentially the worst.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, I went to a carnival recently, and they were literally deep frying everything. You want deep fried Snickers, deep fried Oreos.

Dr. Anthony Youn: Have you seen the deep fried butter? [laughter] There is deep fried butter out there that they sell.

SHAWN STEVENSON: How swayed. Wow. That's something else.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Deep fried sticks of butter. It's probably not grass-fed butter. I doubt it.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right. I wanna ask you about this because you said this term several times, it's super important, again, it's the majority of what we're seeing when we see our skin in the mirror with collagen. There are a lot of different collagen products on the market now, and there's some controversy around that, let's talk a little bit about that.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So yeah, it's funny 'cause I will post occasionally on social media about collagen supplements, and invariably I get a ton of comments of, I asked my family doctor about collagen and supplements, and he said that that doesn't work. There actually is a doctor that I respect online, he is a weight loss surgeon and he's got a big bushy beard and he talks with a lot of authority when he speaks, he's probably in his 60s and he seems very well read and all that, and he made a video a couple of years ago about collagen and supplements and saying basically collagen supplements don't work, if you really wanna take collagen supplements, save your money and buy Jello gelatin. It's the same thing. And I thought, "Oh, geez." But the funny thing, Shawn, is that just a few weeks ago, he made a new video and he's watching the old video about collagen, he swipes it away and he goes, "Some of us physicians, we make decisions and we have opinions based off of the available evidence at that time, and the available evidence is now telling me that collagen and supplements do work. I was wrong."

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: And I thought, oh my gosh, here is a doctor who was probably in his 60s who speaks with such authority and he's so sure of his opinion and he says it's wrong. So what does the science say about collagen supplements? We take collagen supplements, people take it for the health of their hair, their skin, their nails, their bones, that's type 1 collagen. The science basically, the studies look at it, are all pretty conclusive, people may say that they're not, but if you actually look at the studies, there are so many studies to support the use of collagen supplements. So for example, there was a meta-analysis in 2021, they looked at over 1100 people taking 90 days of a hydrolyzed collagen supplement and found after 90 days a statistically significant improvement in wrinkles, in hydration, in elasticity of the skin. That's over 1100 people. There have been perspective randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials that have been performed where people take, let's say, 90 days or two months of collagen, peptide supplements, hydrolyzed collagen and have found after they actually biopsy their skin that there is an increased amount of collagen in that skin biopsy. So there is a ton of research to support the use of collagen and it improves the skin, hence that doctor going back and saying, "Look, I was wrong."

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: I think in the end with collagen supplements, there are a lot of people out there who are just anti-supplement, period. And the way I describe it, it's people who don't know what they don't know, and I've been at that point when I was early on my career, and I was a very traditional plastic surgeon, I didn't know what I didn't know, and then I realized that there was a lot I didn't know and I needed to learn that. And so that's kind of how I look at it with collagen. I think the important thing is, if you're gonna try a collagen supplement with a couple of things. First thing, make sure it's hydrolyzed collagen peptides. Collagen is a huge protein and the argument is that how do you know, number one, that your body will actually... That your GI tract will absorb the collagen and protein, 'cause it's so huge, and how do you know it's gonna get to your skin? Well, we know it gets the skin by those studies I've mentioned to you, but we also know that good collagen companies that produce these supplements will break that large protein down into individual amino acids and peptides, and that process is called hydrolysis, it basically hydrolyzes the collagen, makes it much smaller.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: So that's what you wanna look for. And then the second thing is that there are five types of collagen out there. Type 1 is hair, skin, nails and bone. Type 2 is joints, Type 3 is muscle, Type 4 is in the kidneys and Type 5 is placenta, so four and five, we don't really pay much attention to. But let's say if you've got joint issues, you don't wanna take a beauty collagen that only contains collagen Type 1, 'cause that's not gonna help the cartilage. If you've got hair issues, you don't wanna take one that's just Type 2 'cause that doesn't have the right collagen. So you really wanna make sure that it has the right type of collagen for what you're looking for.

SHAWN STEVENSON: These are great tips. This is so good, so good. You've also got specific targets, targeted treatments that you talk about in the book, and whether this is sagging skin, age spots and fine lines and wrinkles, plumper lips and a lot more. And I love this approach, you literally have an A-Z guide here in this book. It's such a wonderful work, and also the fact that you embed so much humor and an ability to relate to the information is super special, and I'm just grateful for your approach to things and letting people know we've got all these tools on the table, we've got all these wonderful advancements in medicine, and at the end of the day, we also need to focus on making sure that you're doing things that stack conditions in your favor from the inside out. Is there anything else special about the book that you want people to know? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: I think the big thing that when you come out of it, the last chapter, it really is about gratitude, and I think that how we look at life is so important in how we age, and I give a story at the end of the book, one of the things my wife and I are really big into a senior dog rescue. And so it's taking those dogs that are anywhere from 12 to 14 or 15 years old and are looking for a home, and we have actually adopted five in the last seven or eight years, and four of them have passed, which has been really sad, but you know what they do, is they teach us so much about aging. I get so much more from them than I feel like I give them, even though we give them a home and we love them, but we had a little dog that I talk about in the book, his name was Sammy. And Sammy was, I think he was 12 years old, we thought when we adopted him. My wife picked him up, it was like a four-hour drive, and when she picked him up, he was in the basement of a rescue on a bed that reeked of pee. He was given up by his former owner after he was attacked by a bunch of pitbulls, he was put in the hospital for many months.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Recovered from that injury, was unable to be house broken after that because he was so used to just being in a cage and so nobody wanted him. So we adopted him, brought him into the house, and for the first three or four months he was really skittish, he tried to run away, he was peeing everywhere, and we finally figured out that if we put a diaper on him like he was fine, and so here's this little guy running around in a diaper, and then after about three to four months of having him, he basically let out a sigh and you could tell he knew he was home, and I don't know if it takes that long for those bad memories of the past to go away from their little minds, or whether he just realized that he was home with people who love him. And so throughout the two years that we had him before he died, he had a slip disc in his back, he lost the use of his back legs for a while and stuff.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: He had surgery for a huge bladder stone, but throughout all of those difficulties, he was always so happy, and so we would joke that whenever we would feed him, he had a huge smile on face and he was like saying, "Thank you, thank you for my food." That was kind of our joke, and what I learned from them, especially him, is that getting older is a blessing. Who wants the alternative? The alternative is you're in the ground, and so the things are hard sometimes. It's not fun to look in the mirror and see a face looking back at you that you don't recognize. It has wrinkles, it has puffiness, it has sagging skin that you don't recognize. That's no fun. But the alternative, like I said, is something we don't want. And so when I try to look at aging, it is truly a blessing to get older, but if you wanna fight it every step of the way by doing these things that we've talked about in this interview, by all means do that, have fun doing it. But always, always, always be aware that it is a blessing to get older, and so that's kind of what I ended it off with, and what I like to have, I think people leave this conversation with is do those things, it's no fun to see those wrinkles, but don't be sad about it, there are things you can do, and if you're not seeing wrinkles, it's just because you haven't lived long enough.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Wow, so good, so good. Can you let people know where to pick up a copy of your book? 

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah, so my book is Younger For Life. It's available wherever books are sold. I try to encourage people to go to their local bookstore. If you wanna buy online, it's on all the different places, Amazon, Barnes Noble, stuff like that, but if you go to bookshop.org, that's a website where you can actually choose your local bookstore and if you buy it from there, they will mail it to you and then your local bookstore will actually get to profit from that sale. And then if you go to autojuvenation.com, it's our book website, autojuvenation.com, we'll give you a ton of free gifts, including 10 free recipes, a $30 gift card for our online store younbeauty.com where we sell natural and organic supplements and skin care products and a bunch of other things, so autojuvenation.com.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And your Instagram handle.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: That's Tony Youn MD, you just look for Doctor Youn you'll find me on social media, and if you have kids who are teenagers, they probably know who I am already.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Before you even came in, I was sharing a video with my team. You did a little Christmas song.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Yeah. Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So good. So good.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Oh, thank you my friend.

SHAWN STEVENSON: It's my pleasure. Younger For Life, pick it up everywhere that books are sold. Dr. Tony Youn, everybody.

DR. ANTHONY YOUN: Thank you, Shawn, I appreciate it.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Thank you so much for tuning in to the show today. I hope you got a lot of value out of this. Definitely share this out with your friends and family, take a screenshot, share it on social media. Dr. Anthony Youn would, of course, love to see that. And I'm sure, he's probably gonna repost a couple of these shout-outs by the way, so definitely take a screenshot and tag him and of course, tag me as well. I'm @shawnmodel on Instagram. And listen, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We're just getting started, we've got an incredible year ahead, powerful master classes and guests that are going to blow your mind. So much more in store, so make sure to stay tuned. Take care, have an amazing day and I'll talk with you soon. And for more after the show, make sure to head over to the modelhealthshow.com, that's where you can find all of the show notes, you can find transcriptions, videos for each episode, and if you got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome, and I appreciate that so much, and take care, I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.