ATHE_Transcript_Ep 469_Dr. Anthony Youn
JJ Virgin: [00:00:00] Hey, this is JJ Virgin. Welcome. And thanks so much for joining me. This is ask the health expert here. I put the power of health in your hands and give you access to the top. People in health and wellness. In each episode, I share safe ways to get healthy, lose weight, heal your gut detox and lots more. So if you wanna get healthy and get off the dieting for life Merry go round.
I'll give you strategies that will help you look and feel better fast.
Hey, today's show is all. How to look younger, 10 years younger without surgery. Ah-huh I have got the best. Person to talk to you about this it's America's holistic plastic surgeon. I am so lucky to know this [00:01:00] doc. He is a rockstar and what he's doing is like, so anti everything else that I've seen out there, cuz he's like sees surgery is the last resort and puts all of these other things in place so that you just de-age.
So, let me tell you a little bit about him. It's my buddy, Dr. Anthony, Youn. You've probably seen him cuz the guy's on TV all the time. Regular on Rachel Ray, Dr. Oz and the doctors. He had a PBS show. He's got the book, the age fix, which you definitely wanna have and tune into his podcast. The holistic plastic surgery.
And he's also giving away a super cool gift today. He'll tell you all about it, but just to give you a little heads up, it's at JJvirgin.com/drYoun. Alrighty. I'm super excited to share Dr. Tony Youn with you.[00:02:00]
All right, let's do it. Dr. Tony Youn. Welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here with me today.
Dr. Anthony Youn: It's my pleasure. Thank you. Oh,
JJ Virgin: everybody wants to know about this stuff, especially from a plastic surgeon, how to look younger without cutting.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Right? Exactly. I mean, there's so many things we can do surgically, but really the question is what can you do without going under the knife?
And what can you do without even seeing a plastic surgeon? A lot of
JJ Virgin: things. This is crazy like this is not good job security for you. But I. Fact that you are a holistic plastic surgery and you see, you see surgery as the last resort. And there's, you've, you've told me about so many things that you can do.
And I get asked about this all the time, so I'm super excited to have, have you on and like, how did, how did this all come to be Tony, that you kind of moved into this idea of holistic plastic surgery, which you're really like the pioneer
Dr. Anthony Youn: of, thank you. Yeah. So I started off. all the things I'm supposed to.
I did [00:03:00] four years of medical school. I did three years of general surgery residency, two years of plastic surgery residency. I spent a year out in Beverly Hills with a top name, plastic surgeon there, and like an internship basically. And I learned nothing about prevention of aging. It was all about the operations and things.
And as I have been doing all these TV shows over the last 10 years, Rachel Ray and Dr. Oz and doctors and all that. And writing the last couple books, it really has taught me that there is so much more to treating aging than we were ever taught. And these are things from that I've learned, even from people who are your colleagues, you know, about all the different foods that you can eat that can really make a profound impact on the aging of your skin.
And so it really got me on this direction. You know, I have seen as a plastic surgeon, I've been in private practice now, 13 years, I've seen. I have seen some of the worst complications that you can imagine the scariest situations. And I'll tell you, JJ, if I can avoid that happiness, somebody yet still get them looking the way they [00:04:00] want to.
Then I have done that person a disservice.
JJ Virgin: all right now, I'm assuming you, some of this worst thing you've seen are people who've had plastic surgery gone wrong and then come to you to try to get it fixed, right?
Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah. And, and that's most of it, but honestly, you know, I operate on a lot of people and no matter how good of a surgeon you are, how great of an operation you do, how much training you've had, people get complications.
And some of those can be scary. Now, knock on wood. You know, I don't have people die after a tummy tuck or anything like that, but that's always the biggest fear. And when people ask me, Dr. Youn, What's the worst thing that can happen to me. If I have surgery, we start with death. I mean, really that's death. And so , when you think about it, there's if, if I can get you looking the way you want to using nonsurgical procedures, noninvasive procedures, by getting eat the right foods there, then that's definitely the way to go.
And yeah. You know what, there are those things that just are only treated surgically by all means. Let's take care of that too, but man, if we can do it without it, then let's. Cool.
JJ Virgin: So I'm assuming most of us just would [00:05:00] like to avoid death for as long as possible and look younger for as long as possible.
So what, you know, where would we start then?
Dr. Anthony Youn: Okay. So I always start with food, you know, and this is something, obviously you're at an expert at, but a couple of things that people don't realize is in a lot of ways, those same foods that you recommend for your clients, for your followers that will help them to lose weight, to improve their health, to heal their gut.
Those are also the same types of foods that will actually help you to age more slowly, you know, and we talk about the gut endothelium and, and you've talked about that. And, and a lot of our colleagues have, but the endothelium, we also have, you know, that's a similar type of tissue that we have on our skin.
And so those same types of things like. Bone broth like foods that are rich in antioxidants. Those are the same types of foods that can also slow down that aging process because those same things that affect our general health also affect the health of our skin. So
JJ Virgin: let's talk too. Let's we just have to hit this one, the most [00:06:00] aging foods out there that we just should not eat, not just because of the weight issues, but because they're gonna make you look old overnight.
Dr. Anthony Youn: So this first one is, is very close to your heart and it's sugar. Okay, good. I was hoping you'd say that. exactly. And so, you know, if any of your, your followers I know are very dedicated to you cuz you give such great information and they you've talked all about sugar, so they. Sugar is horrible for your health.
It's horrible for gaining weight, but that same inflammation that can cause disease in our body can also cause our skin to age more quickly. And it's that whole process of glycation. It's how those sugar molecules will bind to the collagen cause a collagen in our skin to form these kind of unusual and crooked patterns and things, and it causes you to actually age more quickly.
So it's a process of glycation that can do it. It's also chronic inflammation from sugar spikes and causing insulin spikes. So it. [00:07:00] Interestingly enough, you know, those same things that you have been encouraging your followers to, you know, avoid that sugar and you're gonna lose that weight. You're gonna be healthier.
You're also gonna look in the mirror and that's in your skin is gonna look so much better. There you
JJ Virgin: go. I love, I love these side effects that come from this, you know all right now, let's look at, I know you wrote the book, the age fix, which everybody should have. And in there you talk about a very specific skincare regimen.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah to stay. What, so, so we all go into Nordstrom and Sacs and you'll go to Sephora and there's so many products out there and every single one of them promises to be the fountain of youth better than Botox. And you know, how does somebody actually cut through all of that and determine what truly works?
Because there's so many things that you can try. And we all have our medicine cabinets filled with half empty bottles and of lotions and potions that we use for half of it. And it didn't really do anything. So we put it [00:08:00] underneath our, our sink and we never see it again. So very simple. Okay. You don't have to go buying all this stuff.
You don't have to try to go through all these labels carefully and figure out what it is. There are very simple things you need to do in the morning, cleanse your skin, okay. With an appropriate cleanser, you want to apply an antioxidant to your skin. So vitamin C is the most common, so you don't have to go and, and buy something super expensive.
There are a lot of over the counter formulations. There are ones that you can buy at the at the mall that are all natural. Get a vitamin C serum. To protect your skin against antioxidants. Okay. So it's the same idea of eating those antioxidants in the fruits and the vegetables, put it on your skin as.
And then ideally you wanna apply an anti a sunscreen. Okay. So in the morning, all you do cleanse, apply an antioxidant and apply a sunscreen. That's it. At night, you gotta cleanse your skin. Okay. So if you are the type of person that you want, you wanna take the least amount of steps necessary. You have to cleanse your skin at night because during the day [00:09:00] our skin gets bombarded with pollution.
Dirt with the sebum, the oil that your body creates. You've gotta wash that off at the end of the day. After you do that, you wanna apply an anti-aging cream. And usually what I recommend, if you can tolerate it is a retinol or a retinae okay. So the most scientifically proven anti-aging cream is a retinol or retina.
Dermatologists have studied these for literally decades and they will turn back the clock. If you wanna apply a moisturizer cream over that, if you like, like a night cream, feel free, but you don't have to necessarily. And then two to three times a week, if you have normal skin, Once a week, if you have sensitive skin, you wanna exfoliate your skin at that time.
So two to three times a week with normal once a week with sensitive, that's all you have to do. That's the basics. If you do that for the rest of your life, you're ahead of 98% of people. Okay. If you're consistent with that. Wow.
JJ Virgin: All right. You just simplified my life a lot. And I am absolutely one of [00:10:00] those people that has just it's, it's actually overtaken three bathrooms in the, in the house.
Is that, is that wrong? I
Dr. Anthony Youn: you know what? If you wanna do other stuff, JJ and people have fun with their skincare products by all means do that. But if you're the type of person that you don't wanna spend much money and you just wanna take two minutes in the morning, two minutes at night, you technically, that's all you have to do to keep your skin healthy and to look youthful.
But haven't
JJ Virgin: you also noticed that you know, I remember once I was, I went to an aesthetician and my skin was broken out and she's like, what are you doing? I was telling all the things I was doing. She goes, maybe you. Stop all that, you know, that's yeah. So I'm just wondering, you know, it's really tempting to go into these places and you just get seduced and are there things that we should absolutely be running away from that?
Aren't a good idea.
Dr. Anthony Youn: yeah. I mean really with products, you gotta, there are a lot of products out there that are sold that have a lot of additives and ingredients that ideally you don't need. And [00:11:00] so I'm definitely a big fan of going all natural, going organic with the products. And unfortunately some of the ones that are less expensive are formulated by these big, and it's, it's similar to, to big agriculture, you know, where you're getting these processed foods that have all these chemicals and additives and preservers that you don't need to put in your body.
There are products out there that are the same. And so just like that, like I said, is I would try to go with all natural, if you can, because you don't need those extra, extra chemicals on your body. And, and if you are like yourself, JJ, where you say, geez, I'm doing all these things yet. Why am I breaking out?
Why am I, why is my skin not responding? How it used to a lot of times, it's just time for a change, you know? And, and to use something different is a good idea. And to give your, your skin time to.
JJ Virgin: now what about beyond skincare and beyond what you're eating? Are there some other things that you could do be before you hit the Botox injections, laser, which, you know, I love all of them.
I admit. What else could you do prior to
Dr. Anthony Youn: that? So there's a lot of really cool things out there right now that [00:12:00] people can do, even at home. So there are lasers that you can do at home. There's one called the face FX and there's other ones out there as well that you can actually do an at-home laser.
Typically they cost a couple of hundred dollars, but if you're the type of person you live out in middle America, you don't have access to a med spa or dermatologist or plastic surgeon. You can go online and buy products like. Like the face effects that you can use on your skin. It uses red light or infrared light to help to rejuvenate the skin.
One of the most exciting things that we have now, we recently got a device, you know, I used to, I said on the Rachel Ray show years ago that the holy grail of plastic surgery is to get rid of stubborn, fat without diet exercise. Or surgery and we didn't have it when I said this about 10, 12 years ago and we have it now.
And the newest one that we have, we just got in our office a few months ago was called sculpture. And this is a laser that melts away fat. And literally it takes 25 minutes. You can. Sit on your phone for those 25 minutes. And it uses lasers to heat the [00:13:00] fat up to a certain temperature that causes those fat cells to literally be damaged.
And then your body will clear them by natural mechanisms, which basically means you poop it out and within about 12 weeks or so, it does take time for your body to get rid of this. You lose after one treatment, up to 24% of the thickness of that fat and it's completely noninvasive. So you
JJ Virgin: can target specific areas.
Dr. Anthony Youn: yep. You can do up to four areas at a time 25 minutes. We do recommend two treatments for optimal effect. It's completely noninvasive just uses a laser and uh, we've been really happy with what we've been seeing with this. Now it's not the same as lipo, you know, so, or it's not the same as weight loss.
So if, if you're overweight, And you wanna do sculpture to lose weight. It doesn't work that way. Read one of JJ's books, lose weight that way. So this
JJ Virgin: would be more for the problem spots, those funky saddle bags or say love handles that you just, no matter how lean you get, you seem to have those areas.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Exactly. It's those areas of fat that we inherit [00:14:00] from our parents, you know, so if you're in great shape, if you're eating right, if you're exercising regularly and gosh, darn it. You just got, have those saddle bags that your mom gave you, or you just have that fat on the lower abdomen that your dad gave you, you know, that's what it's perfect for.
JJ Virgin: Huh? And that now does it actually. It kills. It kills the fat inside the cell or kills the cell itself.
Dr. Anthony Youn: It actually kills the cell itself. And so it's it, it goes down about a centimeter to a centimeter and a half. And what the laser does, is it the frequency that it's had? It actually bypasses the skin.
So the skin is cool actually, and it, it feels real cool, but the fat below it is heated up to a temperature of about 42 degrees Celsius, which is the temperature needed to actually kill those fat cells off. Super
JJ Virgin: interesting. There's a couple interesting things about it. Number one, it would detoxify you too, cuz you're you carry a lot of toxins in your fat, so you'd be pooping those out too.
Mm-hmm and you know, lipo, I had to do an [00:15:00] ounce of lipo on either side of my, I guess it would be like right above my hip area. and honest to God, it was the most painful thing I've ever done. I was like, this was an ounce. How do people do this? It seemed so brutal and invasive. I was bruised. It was awful.
And I have the teeniest little, like, I can see it. And that's the biggest challenge I see. If you, and I like that you emphasize, you know, you don't do this as a weight loss technique because if you do this as a weight loss technique and gain weight back, You're gonna gain your fat cells are gonna get bigger in other areas.
And it may look worse. You may, all of a sudden, as a guy get man boobs or as a woman get fat arms, you know?
Dr. Anthony Youn: Well, and the problem with lipo is it's performed in a, in an uneven fashion. Basically you take this long metal rod and you just, and it's hooked up to a suction and you just Ram it inside a patient over and over and over again, hundreds of times just sucking little amounts of fat at a time.
And so it can it's not like you're removing a sheet of fat. You're moving tiny amounts here and there. And so you develop scar tissue. And [00:16:00] what I've seen in patients, who've had lipo and they lose weight. Is that, that protective buffer area, fat that you have over the lipoed area starts to thin. And now you actually start seeing unevenness and scar tissue that you may not have seen before.
So yes, if you can get rid of fat without lip. No question, that's the way to go. You just that's the best way. But if you know, like I said, if you've got those stubborn areas, then the sculpture is gonna treat that more evenly. So a less risk of that type of uneven scar tissue and that kind of Tara Reid abdomen type of thing that we never wanna see that.
JJ Virgin: So just to remind everybody, first thing you do is, is get lean through diet. Sugar impact diet, Virgin diet exercise. And if you got those funky little places left, this is what you do
Dr. Anthony Youn: exactly. Because as you, and I know it doesn't matter how many curls you do. You're not gonna get rid of the fat in your arm by doing curls.
You know, just because you do sit ups doesn't mean that you get rid of the fat of your tummy. You know, the, the fat [00:17:00] goes away where your body Decides it's gonna go away. Not where you're exercising. Yeah. Wouldn't that be
JJ Virgin: great if you could do that. It's yeah. Wouldn't that be awesome? You
Dr. Anthony Youn: just, there, I think I have a double chin.
I'm just gonna do chin exercises and that's gonna go away. Yeah. The body doesn't let us do that. Unfortunately.
JJ Virgin: Sadly enough. Now, you know, everyone, everyone's always fascinated when they show the pictures of like the plastic surgery gone wrong and you brought up Tara Reid. So I have to go here. Like what, when those things happen.
Like what's what happens, cuz my take on so many of these women, I see who've done plastic surgery, especially earlier, is that they look older,
Dr. Anthony Youn: not younger. Yeah. I think it depends on what you're dealing with. I do think that there is a population it's kinda the real house wives of Beverly Hills type of group where.
Actually looking operated on and plastic is, is considered like a like a, a fancy handbag. Wow. You know, it's like, oh look, I, yeah, I have so much money. I can create this other appearance, you know? [00:18:00] And, and it's a way to show off. I think your. Your wealth. It's, it's very odd to me. I don't get it in here in the Midwest.
We don't see that very much. I think that's part of it. Obviously there's also, you know, a psychological component and there are people who have body dysmorphia and what they see in the mirror. Isn't what you, or I may see. And, and they're those people that just, they are plastic surgery enthusiasts, and they wanna look that way and they think it looks good.
It is just a matter of opinion, I
JJ Virgin: guess. Ooh, I don't know. I think they look like caricatures. You start to look like Jessica rabbit, you know, . Yeah.
Dr. Anthony Youn: And, and, you know, interestingly enough about gosh, it was about 14 years ago. I published one of the first papers on three dimensional aging with my with my mentor out in Beverly Hills, Dr.
Richard Ellenbogen. And it was a paper that showed that it's called a 3d facelift, the volumetric facelift, and how the face ages in three dimensions, not. Because previously to that, everybody just, all they did was these lifting procedures, facelift, eyelid lift, and it was all tightening, tightening, tightening.
And we said, look, it's three dimensions. And as we age, we have to add volume back into the face. [00:19:00] Well, they took what essentially was a very good idea and people have taken it like we usually do to the extreme. And so instead of just softly volumize in the face, which we can do with fillers and with fat now we're getting these pillow faces where people look just distorted, but it's the same thing with breast implants.
You know, it's like women have breast implants and to get a certain size and to regain what they lost, but then plastic surgeon to take that to the extreme where you've got these massive implants are not doing patients any favors at all.
JJ Virgin: So let's, let's shift gears a bit here and throw this straight at you.
Tony, what does one thing you do every day that you feel makes the biggest difference in your life?
Dr. Anthony Youn: I think the thing that I do every day that makes the biggest difference in my life is very different, honestly, in the past year, year and a half since I have. Getting to know you and a lot of your associates is I have been encouraging my patients to really think about health in a very different way.
So what I used to talk about with [00:20:00] patients is what I learned in medical school. You know, you follow the FDA guidelines of what to eat. You eat, you know, milk is good for you. Eating a certain amount of meat is good for you, you know, and what I have, what has really changed is learning from you as well as the people you have introduced me to people like Isabella.
Wence like Vincent Pedre. You know, like Dave Asprey and, and, and learning that there is so much more, I think, to health and maintaining health. Then what typical allopathic physicians are. And, and that has made a huge difference in what I eat and how I take care of myself and what I recommend to my patients.
JJ Virgin: Awesome. Now I know you have something, speaking of what you eat, I know you have something for everybody listening. A great gift. Tell us about it.
Dr. Anthony Youn: Yeah. So I wrote this short ebook, very simple, easy to read called what to eat, to look younger. So these are my recommendations. Very simple guidelines of what you can do.
To change your diet or just to make minor modifications, that can make a huge impact on how quickly [00:21:00] you age and how your skin looks. And so this is a simple ebook. You go to my website DrYoun.com. I know JJs gonna give you a link for that as well.
JJ Virgin: Yeah, I'll just, you know, what I'll do is JJvirgin.com/drYoun D R Y O U N. That'll make it easy to do is just grab it, grab it there. And it'll be in the show notes too. Cause we always do great show notes of these podcasts.
Dr. Anthony Youn: That would be perfect. Very simple, easy to read. You'll know exactly what to eat, to look younger.
JJ Virgin: Awesome. Cuz you know, I've always been amazed.
I'll see someone who's doing so much for their skin. And then they're like eating a you know, a frozen yogurt and I'm like, ah, you know, stop it.
Dr. Anthony Youn: And what we're learning now is the microbiome has, has a massive impact on our skin too. I mean, there's so much that we're learning. It's just, it's so fascinating.
Exciting nowaday. And, you know,
JJ Virgin: it just all goes back to those basic things. that really like a hundred years ago we were doing so exactly. It always starts with food. I love that you are leading the charge with this message and being courageous out there saying all this [00:22:00] stuff, cuz it's pretty different from what everybody, all your colleagues are saying.
So thank you. You so much, so much. We got
Dr. Anthony Youn: goitta push the truth. That's what we gotta. There
JJ Virgin: you go. Well, I appreciate you being here today. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you. All right. After the break, I'm gonna be answering a listener's question. So stay with me.
Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And I recently did a Facebook live on skin and everything you could do to eat better for your skin. And I had a bunch of questions. And one of them came from Susie in Baltimore and she wanted, know what I did for my skin. And I never got a chance to answer it during the Facebook live.
And obviously, you know, how I eat. I eat based on the Virgin diet. I don't eat gluten dairy, soy corn. I can rotate eggs back into my diet. Yay. I don't really peanuts. And I eat low sugar impact. So that's what I do. And [00:23:00] honestly, that's where it all starts. As you heard from Dr. Tony, Youn. because it keeps your blood sugar stable and reduces inflammation and reduces glycation.
But the other thing that I do as I am, as I said on this podcast, a skincare junkie. So I'm gonna share with you a couple things that I use. And then the other secret weapons that I have that I've been using for years are a variety of lasers that I do a couple times a year. I do intense pulse light. I've done that for years.
I got rid of a lot of acne scarring and brown spots. And now I do a Fraxel laser. Usually a light one once a year and then a bigger one every other year. So I'm rotating in a bunch of lasers. Those have helped a lot. I'm a big fan of them, but I think the biggest thing you can do is start with food, get good sleep.
And then I do what Dr. Youn says, I just might overuse products a little bit. I'm a big fan of Anne Marie Gianni's new scrub. They have this incredible scrub that I've been using. So that's what I used to exfoliate. And I like my [00:24:00] buddy, Dr. Trevor Kate's spa, Dr. Cleanser. And then I have been using vitamin C for years.
So I was happy to hear him say the vitamin C serum. I tend to use vitamin C and vitamin a antioxidant serums. And I do use a retinol at night, but I rotate that cuz it gets my skin too dry and peely otherwise. And then I use my rejuvenating serum and rejuvenating eye serum that I literally, I had been looking for products forever.
And I wanted to find that one thing that I could recommend that I saw made a difference in a matter of days. So that's what I use at night. And that's it. I also do a puregenex mask for my girlfriend, Dr. Suzanne Bennett once a week. So I do a lot of stuff. I'm kind of a, a bit of a obsessed about it, but you know what?
I also do TV and it's high definition. So there, you have it. And again, I'm trying to avoid anything surgery wise for as long as possible if ever, because I just haven't haven't really liked what I've seen. It [00:25:00] just doesn't seem to ever look natural. So I'm figuring I'm just gonna work on de aging this way.
And also the other side of that mindset is, you know, they talk about 50 being the new 30 or whatever, and, you know, I I, well, I always wanna look a bit younger than my age. I also think that there's something about just being the best of who you are at the time in your life that you are, you know, I don't wanna be 20 or 30 again, or dress like one.
So that's the other piece of it too. Alrighty. Now. The next part of the show, the final part of the show is the gratitude portion of the show. The time I love the best as you know, and I am gonna read this one from a AR waves and it says life altering, fives stars. Amazing. Only thing that makes sense really worthwhile.
If you're serious, we wanna make significant life altering changes. Podcast offers the terrific advice. Thanks, [00:26:00] JJ. And thank you. And thank you for everyone who is tuning in sharing this information with your friends. You know, it's been my dream since my early twenties to figure out, you know, what I realized early on is that.
It's really not as complicated as everybody kind of tries to make it out to be. And that I know we all wanna be healthier and sometimes it feels so daunting that you do nothing it's analysis paralysis. And I thought, gosh, if I can just figure out a way to get this information out on a broad scale, easy, actionable steps.
Where there's no barrier, which is what the Internet's really done is it's you know, like it's been the great equalizer. So my goal is to help a billion people get healthier, both by bringing on amazing people onto my show so that they can get their message out far and wide. And to give you easy, actionable steps that you can start putting into place.
And that's my big stressor to you right now. Is that this is great information. If you put it into action. So grab something you heard today, little hinges, swing, the [00:27:00] big doors, get moving, and I'd love to hear from you and hear what it's done for you. Alrighty. Make it a great week. Bye bye.