Unlock the Best Skincare Products for Aging Skin + Tips to Reverse Collagen Loss Naturally | Dr. Tony Youn

Episode: 6 Duration: 49MPublished: Skin Care

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Get ready to redefine your skincare and wellness game with today’s episode of The Dr. Brighten Show! Join me, Dr. Jolene Brighten, as I sit down with America’s holistic plastic surgeon, Dr. Tony Youn, to uncover the science-backed secrets of aging gracefully—without going under the knife. Dr. Youn, a social media sensation and best-selling author of Younger for Life, shares his revolutionary approach to skincare, nutrition, and regenerative health that’s changing the lives of millions. Whether you’re in your twenties looking to preserve your youthful glow or navigating menopause with grace, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.

What will you learn in this episode? Here’s what’s in store:

You’ll walk away from this conversation knowing:

  • Why your twenties set the stage for your skin’s future—and the one mistake most people make.
  • The shocking statistic: Women lose up to 30% of their skin’s collagen in the first five years after menopause.
  • How to harness “autojuvenation” to turn back the clock naturally.
  • The five key causes of skin aging and how your diet can combat each one.
  • Why sunscreen is a double-edged sword—and which ingredients could disrupt your hormones.
  • The role of antioxidants in fighting free radicals and protecting your DNA.
  • How retinol and peptides can revolutionize your skincare routine at any age.
  • The controversial link between sunscreen chemicals and hormonal health.
  • Why your eyelids are more sensitive than you think—and how to treat them gently.
  • The unexpected benefits of a double cleansing routine for dry skin.
  • Which anti-aging strategies are safe during pregnancy and which to avoid at all costs.
  • The surprising ways HRT and collagen supplements might slow the clock for postmenopausal women.

In this episode, Dr. Youn shares his journey from a traditional plastic surgery career to becoming a champion of holistic health. We dive into the science behind autojuvenation, a method that leverages your body’s natural abilities to rejuvenate and repair itself. Learn about the transformative power of nutrition, skincare routines tailored for menopause, and the latest in non-invasive treatments. We also address the polarizing sunscreen debate and share actionable tips to keep your skin glowing and healthy.

This episode is brought to you by:

Fygg Toothpaste: use code DRBRIGHTEN for 15% off

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Don’t forget to subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and leave a comment. Your support helps us keep these conversations going. Let’s dive in!

Transcript

Dr. Youn: [00:00:00] Autojuvenation is using your body's own regenerative abilities to turn back the clock naturally, because I fully believe that we have natural regenerative abilities, but we have to unlock it by giving our body the tools necessary to do that. And so it really revolves around five things. It's 

Dr. Brighten: anybody who reaches their forties knows everything you do in your twenties really impacts the outcomes later in life.

We're What would you recommend to the 20 something, 30 something in terms of their skincare routine? From best selling books 

Narrator: to viral social media fame, he's the doctor who's changing the face of plastic surgery. Dr. Anthony Yoon is the surgeon who's mastered the art of looking younger without going under the knife.

With over 13 million followers hanging on his every word, he's not just America's holistic plastic surgeon. He's the go to expert redefining what it means to age gracefully. 

Dr. Youn: The studies really are pretty clear and that is that really the first five years after menopause that women have this drastic [00:01:00] decline in the amount of collagen in their skin.

That's a lot. 

Dr. Brighten: I need to know, and I think the rest of the world does as well. You, board certified, plastic surgeon, what cosmetic surgeries are you like? Absolutely never avoid those. 

Dr. Youn: Um, yeah, so number one, uh. 

Dr. Brighten: Welcome back to the Dr. Brighten Show. I'm your host, Dr. Jolene Brighten. I'm board certified in naturopathic endocrinology, a nutrition scientist, a certified sex counselor, and a certified menopause specialist.

As always, I'm bringing you the latest, most up to date information to help you take charge of your health and take back your hormones. If you enjoy this kind of information, I invite you to visit my website, DrBrighten. com, where I have a ton of free resources for you, including a newsletter that brings you some of the best information, including updates on this podcast.

Now, as always, this information is brought to you cost free. And because of that, I have to say thank you to my [00:02:00] sponsors for making this possible. It's my aim to make sure that you can have all the tools and resources in your hands and that we end the gatekeeping. And in order to do that, I do have to get support for this podcast.

Thank you so much for being here. I know your time is so valuable and so important and it's not lost on me that you're sharing it with me right now. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a comment, or share this with a friend because it helps this podcast get out to everyone who needs it. All right, let's dive in.

Dr. Tony Yoon. Welcome to the Dr. Brayton show. I'm so excited to have you here. 

Dr. Youn: Nice to see you again, Jolene. It's been a little while. 

Dr. Brighten: I know. It's been a minute. I feel like pandemic after the pandemic, who have we seen in person anymore? The world got wild. 

Dr. Youn: I know. I think I ran into you when we were in Jamaica.

This was probably what 2021, I think 2022. And, um, yeah, it's, uh, now that you're like kind of jet setting all over the world, living here, living there, it's hard to connect with you sometimes. [00:03:00] 

Dr. Brighten: I know for sure, but I just tell people like, let me know your travel plans because odds are I'll probably be around that city at some point.

Oh, so I'm really excited. We're going to talk about, we're going to talk about some of the TikTok trends that we see, we're going to talk about skincare, especially as we enter into menopause today, but in the place I really want to start is asking you. Why do you do what you do? Because you're a plastic surgeon and you could certainly make a lot more money if people don't care for themselves and don't you take care of their skin in the way that you have dedicated a significant amount of your life and your time helping people understand.

So. What's your why? 

Dr. Youn: Yeah, I had a patient. So yeah, I mean, I did traditional training. I went through four years of medical school. I did three years of general surgery residency, two years of plastic surgery residency. I did a fellowship, which is like an apprenticeship in Beverly Hills for a year. And so I've gone through all the traditional training and I had a [00:04:00] patient after I'd been in practice many years who had a terrible complication from a facelift.

And it got me into really thinking, what am I doing? with being a physician, you know, and as surgeons were taught surgery and we're taught that you want to operate, that's your goal. And I realized that that goal was wrong, that my goal should be the opposite. It should be, how do I keep my patients out of the operating room, you know, hopefully help them feel and look better.

Amazing, so that hopefully they don't need to go to the OR. Uh, and so, after I kind of came to this, um, decision, really, it was kind of a fork in the road for my practice, I really spent a lot of time learning from functional medicine doctors, from alternative medicines specialists, uh, from other physicians, from dermatologists, from estheticians, to really try to learn a lot that I had never been taught.

Uh, and so that kind of became the idea of holistic plastic surgery and this idea of autojuvenation using your body's own regenerative abilities to turn back the [00:05:00] clock naturally. Uh, and then I put that out in my latest book, uh, Younger for Life. So, you know, so for me, that's my why is it's like, how do I help people so that they can look and feel their best and feel great about themselves without hopefully going under the knife.

Understanding that sometimes plastic surgery is the only option depending on what your issue is. Totally. 

Dr. Brighten: Totally. And. I'm going to say that autojuvenate, you often say autojuvenate before you operate. What does that really mean? 

Dr. Youn: So the idea is that using actual surgery as a last resort. So autojuvenation is using your body's own regenerative abilities.

To turn ba the clock naturally, because I fully believe that we have natural regenerative abilities, but we have to unlock it by giving our body the tools necessary to do that. And so it really revolves around five things. It's what you eat when you eat nutritional supplements. Skin care and non invasive treatments.

And by focusing on those five things, I firmly believe that the vast majority of people can get beautiful, [00:06:00] radiant skin, can look five, ten years younger, and hopefully, prevent the need from having to go into the knife and get the risks of that type of a thing. 

Dr. Brighten: So I want to go to this point about food because it is not every day that you hear a medical doctor singing the praises of food as an intervention for your health altogether, but certainly not for your skin.

So can you talk us through some of the best foods and maybe the foods that aren't great choices for our skin? 

Dr. Youn: Yeah, when I look at aging of the skin, I look at what really causes it. And so, those also, I look at five specific things. So, it's nutrient depletion, collagen degradation, oxidation or free radicals, chronic inflammation, and buildup of cellular waste.

And really, almost all of the different reasons why your skin ages is encompassed in one of these five things. And so, what does food have to do with these five things? Well, pretty much every single one of these. Food is a component. So, for example, number two, [00:07:00] uh, is degradation of collagen. You know, we know that as we hit kind of our mid twenties and older, uh, we tend to lose about 1 percent of the thickness of collagen every year in our skin.

Women after menopause, in the first 5 years after menopause, lose upwards of 3%. 30 percent of the thickness of collagen, uh, and so this is something that is a big deal and a huge part of aging. So what is collagen? Collagen is a large protein, and so making sure that you eat sufficient amounts of healthy protein is super important if you're looking at aging.

Fighting off that aging process, you know? So what are you looking at? Healthy sources of protein. Well, uh, fish, wild caught fish, grass fed beef, um, pastured pork and chicken, uh, eggs, ideally, uh, pasture, uh, eggs. That, that's a great source of protein. So there's a lot of great sources of protein, uh, that are super important if you're gonna wanna help to promote that or slow down really that collagen degradation.

Uh, and then just as an example, real quick for one of these other ones, let's [00:08:00] just say. oxidation and free radicals. You know, this is one of the big agers of our skin, uh, and free radicals are basically, um, these byproducts of metabolism that just, that attack the DNA of our cells. What then prevents that from happening?

Antioxidants, you know, they will neutralize free radicals. What foods are rich in antioxidants? Colorful fruits and vegetables. Uh, and so really all five of these. Causes of aging of the skin. Food is a huge, huge thing, uh, that can impact it. 

Dr. Brighten: Collagen is such an important topic to be discussing and not only from a dietary perspective, but as we know, once women enter into menopause, their estrogen declines and they see a significant drop in their collagen.

Can you talk a little bit about that? 

Dr. Youn: Yeah, the studies really are pretty clear and that it's that really the first five years after menopause that women have this drastic decline in the amount of collagen in our skin. Now, collagen basically is the protein that causes our skin to feel tight [00:09:00] and firm and really youthful and it consists about 70 to 80 percent of our skin is made up of collagen.

Uh, and so when you lose upwards of 30 percent of the thickness of that in the first five years after menopause, and then 2 percent every year afterwards. That's a lot, you know, and that's why we see people who, uh, are in, let's say, women who are in their, who are in their 80s, and the skin is so tissue paper thin that even a scratch can tear their skin.

For example, I saw a patient of mine, Uh, just the other day in consultation, she was, I think 61 and her skin had already thin quite a bit and she was showing me like, look how creepy it is. Uh mm-hmm what can I do about it? And the problem really is, is that there are a lot of things that you can do, but none of them are gonna create this kind of overnight.

change in appearance, you know, you talk to a dermatologist and they'll say, oh use retinoids and sunscreen, uh, You talk to a nutritionist and they'll say hey take a collagen supplement, you know, and and uh, eat a lot of protein to help support the collagen and really I think it's just a Multitude of things that [00:10:00] you can do to try to help support it.

But in the end, unfortunately You know, it is something that our body is going to go in that direction. HRT, there are some studies that show that if you're on hormone replacement therapy, that can also, uh, uh, fight off that collagen degradation. And now a lot of people are talking about collagen creams, uh, and whether that may even help with that whole process as well.

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. When it comes to estrogen therapy, it's something for people to understand. We can use topical estrogen therapy as by way of patches. But we also have creams that we can compound and use those on the skin as well. And while the estrogen component is really important, I think there's a lot to be said about how we change our skin care routine in the perimenopause phase.

Now, if anybody's listening right now, they're like, what's wrong with aging? We all do it. There is nothing wrong with aging. But as you brought up, It's the integrity of our skin. It's not just the way it looks, but how it becomes prone to injury. This is a whole barrier that's protecting us from the [00:11:00] outside world.

So there's more to consider than just how we look. And there's nothing wrong with being concerned with how you look. What would you advise women who are in perimenopause now? Staring pen on their staring down menopause to change about their skincare routine so that they can Really help support the health of their skin 

Dr. Youn: Um, this is great because I actually have created on my own podcast That was an episode just based on the menopause skincare routine and we've got actually a menopause Of you and beauty because yeah, you do need to change you have to change what you do on your skin So for example, um, there's certain things that happen to your skin that you want to focus on So we mentioned collagen degradation.

That's just one of the things that's a big thing but What can you do to help fight that? Well, I mentioned earlier retinoids. So, retinol is an over the counter retinoid. It's a derivative of vitamin A, and these are scientifically proven to thicken the collagen of our skin. You want to also add a peptide based cream.

Peptides are short chains of [00:12:00] proteins that act as cellular messengers to basically cause your skin to create more collagen. A lot of antigen creams out there contain peptides. There's a lot of different ones, but you ideally want to then focus on combining a peptide based cream with a retinoid, and by doing that, you're gonna have two different active ingredients or actives, essentially, that will help to support that collagen component.

But what else happens to your skin as you go through perimenopause? Well, oftentimes, uh, women find that their skin gets drier, uh, especially once you go through the, through menopause and you're postmenopausal, then you may notice your skin is drier. And so, focusing on More powerful moisturizers can be very helpful because your skin is dry.

By, by moisturizing it, that's going to make things more comfortable. It's not going to fight off the aging process necessarily, but it is going to make it more comfortable and make your skin more radiant in general. And then the other thing that we see oftentimes in women going through perimenopause and menopause is is an [00:13:00] increase in age spots, so unwanted pigmentation.

And so the other thing you may want to add is a brightening cream. Uh, brightening creams can be very helpful to reduce that unwanted pigment that can develop. Um, and then the final thing to consider, well, a couple things. The first thing too is, um, Um, as your skin gets drier, you may also notice it's a little more sensitive.

So doing a little bit less as far as the aggressive exfoliation, um, and exfoliating a little bit less often can be helpful to your skin. And then the final thing to consider is like a double cleanse. Um, cleansing with a cleansing oil can often be really helpful in skin that's getting dry as well. Uh, so a lot of women will double cleanse where they use an oil based cleanser first to get rid of the makeup and the dirt and all of that.

And then a gentle cleanser afterwards. Um, so, there's a lot of things that you can do. This is what I call technically the menopause skincare routine. Like I said, my, my brand, YounBeauty, we've got an actual bundle of it. Uh, because we have so many people that have asked for it. Uh, but you don't have to buy [00:14:00] mine.

Those are simple things you can do. Retinol, um, a uh, uh, peptide based cream, and then adding in a brightening cream. You know, one that gets rid of pigment, uh, a good night, nighttime cream, a moisturizer, and then being lighter on the exfoliation and the aggressive skin treatments. You know, there's some women who are through menopause, their skin's thinner.

It's drier, it's more sensitive. You're not the ones that you wanna necessarily. undergo, let's say an aggressive chemical peel or a laser treatment as well, because your skin's going to be more sensitive to it. So you do have to be a bit gentler as it gets, uh, older and thinner as you get older. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm hmm.

I'm a fan of the double cleanse. I actually discovered that when I was trying to correct my thyroid and having hypothyroidism, my skin was really dry and double cleansing was fantastic. I noticed you didn't say anything about an eye cream. 

Dr. Youn: Well, I cream in the, yeah, so that's going to be, you know, I creams are interesting because If you want to save money, that's one place you can save it is an eye [00:15:00] cream, because essentially you can use what you use on the rest of your face.

However, just keep in mind that the skin of the eyelids is the thinnest skin of the body. Uh, and so if you're using, let's say, an, an aggressive, uh, topical, like let's say a retinol, uh, instead of applying it every day, uh, if you're applying it, let's say, to the cheeks and the forehead, maybe apply it every three days to your eyelids, you know, and see how you do.

Um, you don't necessarily need to get a skin treatment. separate eyelid cream per se for moisturizing, just in general, your facial moisturizer should work. Although there are certain eyelid creams that, let's say, contain caffeine, um, that may contain, um, uh, let's say licorice root extract that can help with dark circles, uh, those are things that can be put into eye creams, but that's also a place, once again, that you may be able to save your money and use what you're using on the face.

on your eyelids essentially. 

Dr. Brighten: And the caffeine is that for helping tighten the skin? Is it helping? Yeah, that's just going to be more 

Dr. Youn: temporary. Um, you know, the thing with the eyelids, the lower eyelids especially, is [00:16:00] it's, there's multifactorial of what people are unhappy with, you know, so you can get thinning of the skin there.

And so that can create, um, the cause of skin to look almost transparent. So you can see actually the vessels underneath. In that situation, how do you treat that? Well, you want to get let's say on a retinol eye cream that can help thicken the collagen there. Peptide eye cream would be helpful too. Other people let's say if you're dark complected, you may have depositions of pigment there.

Well, then a brightening cream containing Kojic acid or licorice root extract can be really good for that. And then for other people like myself where I've got some puffiness there, that's where an eye cream containing caffeine may help to kind of tighten that skin temporarily so it doesn't look quite so puffy.

So for lower eyelids, really the solution is targeted to the cause and it can get kind of complicated. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. I was going to ask you what to look for in a brightening cream. So I'm so glad that you said that if somebody right now, though, is like in their twenties or thirties, they might be thinking like this is a long way off.

I don't have to worry about any of this. [00:17:00] But as you know, as I know, as anybody who reaches their forties knows everything you do in your twenties really impacts the outcomes later in life. What would you recommend to the 20 something 30 something in terms of their skin care routine? 

Dr. Youn: So 20s should be a little bit different than the 30s.

When you're in your 20s, you really, it's going to be basically maintaining the beautiful skin that you have, you know, it's funny because when I was in my teens, I always wanted to get older. But once you hit 21, after that, it's kind of like, there aren't a whole lot of benefits to getting older. You know, once you hit 18, you're an adult, you can vote, you hit 21.

You can drink alcohol here in the States. And then. Past that it really, you know, I'd never really, I think celebrated the birthday so much because it's like, Oh, I'm another year older. Uh, but when you're in your twenties, really, that's when you have the best skin and that's when you should really, um, appreciate how good you look because you're never going to look better than you do in your twenties in general, you know, because that's you [00:18:00] can, you know, have a.

Huge meal that's maybe not so healthy. You can have drinks and then the next day you feel fine. You can't do that when you're my age or Julian's age. You can skip 

Dr. Brighten: sleep. Yes, things change. The call out, right? 

Dr. Youn: Yeah, so it's maintaining. So what I recommend, you know, you want to cleanse your skin at least twice a day.

Nighttime cleansing is super important because you got to get rid of the day's worth of dirt, grime, and pollution. In the morning after you cleanse, you do want to use a vitamin C or an antioxidant serum. I mentioned earlier that oxidation free radicals. One of the main causes of aging of the skin. So using a vitamin C serum in the morning to help protect your skin against free radicals is super important.

Vitamin C is great because not only does it do that, but it also helps to stimulate collagen production and it's a mild skin lightener as well. So it can do a lot of different things. After that, I do recommend wearing sunscreen if you're going to be out in the sun because you do want to protect your skin from the UV rays.

That being said, [00:19:00] you and I know, you know, sun is great, especially in the morning and in the evening. It's great for your circadian rhythm. It's great for your mood. You need it for vitamin D. But, you know, in general, limit the amount of exposure you have because sun will also prematurely age your skin. So I do recommend an SPF 30.

Uh, we can talk about sunscreen if you want. I know there's controversies there, and that's a whole other subject. So 

Dr. Brighten: many controversies, right? 

Dr. Youn: Um, but really, when you're younger, that's what you need to do. So is Cleanse, vitamin C serum, protect your skin from the sun because that will age it. At night, cleanse your skin, like I mentioned, super important.

And then I do recommend when you're 20 is to do some type of an anti aging cream. You can do a retinoid, especially if you've got some, um, if you've got some inflammation, if you've got some acne, then a retinol is very, very good. If, however, you don't want to go that aggressive, then try a cream with Bacutial.

Bacutial is a, um, it's been, it's a, It comes, it's a plant based kind of a competitor to retinol really. Um, it comes from [00:20:00] the bobchi plant. It's been used for centuries in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine and there was one small study that showed that its anti aging effects were very similar. to that of retinol, uh, but it does not create skin irritation, uh, and so doing some type of anti aging cream, I think is great at night.

Dr. Brighten: Is that safe in pregnancy? 

Dr. Youn: Um, you know, it hasn't been tested, so I don't recommend, if somebody is pregnant, really limit what you do to cleansing, sunscreen, and moisturizer, and really that's it. You know, I think when, when you've got a baby, you just don't want to do anything that could even potentially have the tiniest chance of impacting the baby in a, in a bad way.

Dr. Brighten: Yeah, I wanted to ask because retinols contraindicated because you don't have the data to support their safety and we don't gamble. We do not gamble. Well, and 

Dr. Youn: we know that it can cross into, you know, through the placenta, it can get into the baby if it does go systemic. So there are studies that show that that can happen, but there aren't any studies that I know of to show that it would necessarily be [00:21:00] harmful.

We don't know. And so best just to avoid it. The other thing you need to avoid is hydroquinone. That's a prescription strength skin lightener. that you definitely want to avoid if you're pregnant as well, skincare wise. Those are the two big things is any type of a retinoid, uh, and, um, and the hydroquinone.

And the final thing, 100%, and they'll test you for this is if you're on Accutane, God forbid, you got to be on birth control. You got to really, cause you, that really can impact the baby. 

Dr. Brighten: Absolutely. Let's go there with the sunscreen controversy. I don't even know, honestly, I can't trace the source of where this started.

In fact, uh, you know, I see a lot of people saying it's one of those Tik Tok trends. I'm not sure if you have any insights or want to give people the gist of what are people saying about sunscreen? 

Dr. Youn: So, you know, I think that there are extremes and we live right now in a world of extremes. God forbid, we know that.

Um, so on one side, um, you have people who will say that the sun is healthy for you. Um, I don't, don't use any sunscreen and [00:22:00] sunscreens are carcinogenic and they are, you know, don't use them at all. And your sun, your skin should get sun. Uh, and it's the seed oils that are the problem, not the actual sun.

And then on the other side, you've got dermatologists, uh, typically who will say, look, you know, you wear sunscreen every single day, even if it's cloudy, even if you're going to be sitting in a basement all day. You got to put your sunscreen on. And all sunscreens are fine. You know, stop, you know, don't poopoo.

These things are all fine. Uh, I, I think I'm like you and that I'm in the middle and I can see kind of the extremes on both sides and where they may come off where they're wrong, essentially. So, Number one, you know, sun, yes, I believe that it is good for you in limited amounts because we do know that if you're Caucasian, typically 15 minutes of direct sunlight on your body is sufficient to create enough vitamin D, uh, for you not to be deficient.

Um, but if you've got darker skin, it takes more sunlight to do that than somebody with lighter skin. And I'm definitely a fan of, you know, sun. supplementing with vitamin D as well. Um, it's, we do know, I mean, it's a direct correlation, the amount [00:23:00] of sun you get and skin cancer. Um, you know, one of my favorite singers died, uh, just over a year ago from Merkel cell cancer of the skin, Jimmy Buffett.

Uh, we know that there are people who get melanoma. I have patients of mine who come and see me with basal cell carcinoma on their face. It looks like a little dot, you know, a little tiny wound that won't heal. They go get it taken off and now they've got half their nostril gone. You do not want skin cancer on your face, okay?

And it doesn't matter what I think you believe about it. You just do not want to get it. If you want to wear physical protection, that's fine, like hats and all that. But you, you don't want to just burn your skin. On the flip side, there are sunscreens out there that are, that I wouldn't necessarily recommend that you use, especially on your children.

Uh, there are two specific ingredients, oxybenzone and octinoxate, that are believed to be potential hormone disruptors, and there are studies that have found that it is in the urine, oxybenzone is in the urine of the vast majority of people in the United States. Um, so this is [00:24:00] something that goes systemic, it goes into your bloodstream, uh, and there's some belief that it can mimic.

estrogen and other types of hormones. Uh, so I don't recommend sunscreens that are based off of oxybenzone and octinoxate. Uh, and so those I'd recommend staying away from. That being said, there are other sunscreen components out there. You know, there's zinc oxide, which is great for, Uh, blocking both the A, um, uh, uh, the UVA and UVB rays.

Uh, and there's also other ingredients that are chemical sunscreens that won't necessarily give you kind of that whitish hue that the zinc oxide does. Uh, there's mictoral XL, there's avobenzone. Uh, those are shown to be overall very safe. The problem here in the United States is that our sun protection, it's, it's like literally the 1990s was the last time that they approved an actual sunscreen ingredient in the U.

S. It's been crazy. Yet, if you go to Korea or you go to Europe, there are all these other great ingredients, you know. The problem with [00:25:00] sunscreen here is that you put it on your face and you can feel it all day. Whereas, Mm hmm. In, in Korea, you wear some of their sunscreens and it's just like putting a moisturizer on your skin, like you don't even think about it later on, but it's there protecting you.

But unfortunately, the FDA has not approved these, so you can't sell them in the U. S. So, so that's kind of the way I believe, you know, what I recommend in general is if you're going to be out, if you're going to get sun exposed for longer than 15 minutes or so, Then it's good to wear some sun protection because we do know that it's, you know, that that can create skin cancer.

You do know that it can create premature aging. Um, but if you're going to be inside all day, you know, if it's a super cloudy day and you're not out that much. You know, I hear you. I don't wear sunscreen every day myself. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. And do you know, to your point, we see a lot of influencers who are heading to Korea, who are heading to Europe.

I certainly stock up when I'm in Europe and I grab all the sunscreen. I live in Puerto Rico. Like the sun is always on me. It is relentless and I want the best quality. And so I feel like that's the other end [00:26:00] of the pendulum is that people have seen like, Well, there's all this craze of like getting these sunscreens and it's, it's really about people wanting the quality, the best technology.

And as we know, with sunscreen, if you're going to be out for a period of time, I think everybody's mom told him this, you have to reapply. And people are not incentivized to do that when you've got that white hue, that cast on your face, you got the smell of the sunscreen. 

Dr. Youn: Yeah, it's just not comfortable.

But I think there's also a group that, you know, and we have friends of ours that will say this, you know, where it's like, oh, it's just because you're, you're, you're on a seed oil diet. That's why you burn, you know, if you're on seed, that's why it's not because the sun is because the seed oils. And it's like, I get it and I think that yes, having a, um, unhealthy lifestyle and diet can potentially make that worse, you know, um, but that's not the only reason why, you know, I, we do know that there's a direct correlation between the amount of sunburns you've had and your risk of skin cancer.

Dr. Brighten: Absolutely. And you know, to that, I've had people say that to me, whether like it's [00:27:00] all the seed oil that you're eating and you need more antioxidants. I'm like, would you think about maybe asking about my diet first? How much astaxanthin I am already taking, like all of these things. And I'm like, 

Dr. Youn: And there are studies that show if you eat large amounts of antioxidants that can be sun protective, but it's, it's not the same, you know, it's the same thing.

If you apply a vitamin C serum to your skin, there are studies that show that it can help protect your skin, but you're talking like an SPF of like one, you know, it's, it's not that it's, it's not the same as sunscreen, you know, and hey, you know what, if you want to put clothing on and that's great, you know, and there's even clothing now that have a UPF.

Uh, factor where that will tell you how much it protects your skin as well. So I'm all for that. You know, I'm all for reducing the amount of chemicals you put on your body. Um, but I also think that we have to be realistic and understand that yes, you know, you do want to reduce him. I mean, all you have to do is look at the skin of your butt and compare that to the skin of your chest or your face.

You know, your butt doesn't get much sun unless you're a nudist. Like some of our friends, no, I'm [00:28:00] kidding.

You can see it's very different, you know? And so really keeping that in mind. 

Dr. Brighten: Oh, I, I love that. And, um, I don't, we don't need to see the photos y'all, but yeah, definitely. The photos to 

Dr. Youn: Jolene, uh, on her Instagram, not to me, please. 

Dr. Brighten: I'll be getting all the butt photos being like. Tony, but to your point, I do, I do love the shirt options.

That's actually, you know, what I recommend for kids and what I put my own kids in who are going to be out in the sun, because even with reapplying sunscreen, having that extra layer of protection, I'm somebody that, you know, I spend a good deal of the year out in the water, snorkeling. When you're out in the water for two, three hours snorkeling, you're not reapplying sunscreen.

And so I think leveraging. These, these clothing materials being mindful of when the sun is at its peak, staying out of it, staying in the shade, just as you said, sun has its own medicine properties and helping you generate [00:29:00] vitamin D. But it's something that just because it's a good thing doesn't mean going to the extreme makes it better.

Dr. Youn: Yeah, I mean, it's basically you can overdose on water, you know, water is lifeblood of our bodies. Yet if you drink too much, you can die from it. Um, and so I agree. I think the sun is the same thing. I think in small doses, it's therapeutic. It's great. Um, but unfortunately when you, you know, get too much, it can be potentially harmful.

Dr. Brighten: So I want to ask you about filler because you're seeing it all over social media right now. People questioning, does filler truly dissolve people saying it migrates all over your face that you're going to become like a big puffy blowfish. What is the truth with filler? What do we know right now? 

Dr. Youn: Um, so there was an MRI study that did find that in a patient who had something like 16 syringes of filler over the years, it increased in size up to, like, 20 something.

CCS. Each syringe of fillers about a CC. Now, when we do studies of fillers, we see basically how long it lasts before the [00:30:00] body breaks it down. And the majority of fillers are hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring substance moisturizer, really of our skin. And it's believed that most of the fillers last anywhere from about six months up to two years, depending on how they're created and cross linked together.

So there's some fillers that are kind of thinner fillers that may last a year or six months or so. And then there are others that are thicker that, let's say you put, let's say in the cheeks, that can last up to two years. Now, depending on the filler, some of them can absorb water. They're kind of hydrophilic.

They can absorb moisture. I mean, that's what they do in the skin. And so the belief is that certain fillers can absorb more moisture than others. So, for example, uh, Juvederm Ultra Plus, Very common filler. We do that in my office all the time. That does have quite a bit of a tendency to absorb water into it.

On the flip side, Restylane is one that's also a hyaluronic acid filler and doesn't tend to absorb as much water. [00:31:00] And so really, I think in the end, what we are finding out is that in some patients, not all, but in some patients, filler can last a long time, much longer, and So, for example, I've seen patients who've had filler injected under their eyes, like five years before coming to see me, and they've got a little lump there that's still there.

I inject some hyaluronidase, which is an enzyme that can dissolve away filler, and it dissolves away, and that lump is gone. Uh, so we knew then that it truly lasted forever. Five years or longer. So really, what I recommend you take out of this really is less is more with fillers. Um, there is this tendency to create this pillow face.

I think Courtney Cox actually did a service to everybody because she told her story about how she got a little bit of filler and then went back on a little bit more and then really kind of got on this steep, steep slope where she kept getting more and more and more and really never realized when she had gone all Over the top and done too much until it was too late.

[00:32:00] Um, and that's that can happen. I get patients who come in to see me, Jolene, who are like, I want more filler. And you look at him like you have enough filler, like you're already like overly filled. Um, but, but there's part of it could be body dysmorphia. Part of it could be just kind of this belief that more is always better.

And it just isn't. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm hmm. What can people do if they've been overfilled? If they realize that they've they've passed the point of too much filler. 

Dr. Youn: Yeah, I think it was just if it's not a lot of filler, then a simple thing to do would be to give it time and then massage the areas that you feel you've got too much because it will in general dissolve and everybody's body is different, you know, because there are some patients where we fill their lips.

And six months later, it is gone. 100%. It is gone. Yet, we can use that same filler in another patient, in the cheeks, and three years later, it's still there. You just never know. Um, now the good thing is, if it is a hyaluronic acid filler, like Restylane and Juvederm, we do have that enzyme, hyaluronidase, that can actually melt it away.

[00:33:00] Um, and we can inject it into any area and essentially melt that filler. The problem with injecting it is that medication tends to spread very quickly. And so if you've got like a little area that you want to melt, but you don't want to melt the filler around that, You can't really control it, and it may end up dissolving away more than you want it to.

Uh, and therein lies the challenge with dissolving away filler. Like you, it's hard to dissolve a portion of your filler away, uh, because you can't control just, just where that spreads to. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm hmm. And how does it affect your natural, normal skin? 

Dr. Youn: Um, you know, there shouldn't you can get some scarring from it, you know, I have seen some patients who I believe they had long lasting results from filler due to scarring now.

I'm thinking maybe it isn't scarring. Maybe it's because I've seen some patients where they have filler injected into their nasal labial folds, basically the smile lines, and they've had it done a bunch of times, you know, once a year for 45 years. Sometimes it just doesn't [00:34:00] seem to go away, and I always assume that that was scar tissue, uh, but in reality it probably is just retained filler, um, and so it's not necessarily going to impact your tissues other than it just being a space occupying, um, I don't know, lesion is probably not the word for it, but it's space occupying.

Dr. Brighten: was like, is he gonna say lesion? 

Dr. Youn: But a space occupying agent in that area, it's not going to necessarily damage your skin or anything like that. And once again, if it's hyaluronic acid, you can melt it away. But there are other fillers out there that I don't recommend. There's one made of calcium hydroxyl apatite.

And if that sounds like bone to you, it's kind of like bone paste. Yeah, people will inject that into the face and there's no antidote to it. I don't recommend that one. There's other ones that are permanent fillers, uh, like silicone, uh, and others that people will inject because they're like, Oh, well, why not get a permanent result?

Well, that can create permanent problems in the future. You can get granulation tissue. You get infections later on and stuff like that. So if you're going to consider [00:35:00] filler very simply, make sure it's a hyaluronic acid filler. and less is more. Okay, just if you're not sure if you should do more filler, hold off, give it a few months, and then, you know, look at it again a few months later, and see whether that's, you know, more is truly better for you.

Dr. Brighten: Yeah, I've also had friends where they've gone to clinics, they've gone, you know, to some of these kind of medispa places, and the person will say to them, like, well, this is how much I think you need, but, you know, there's this much left in the syringe, so we should just give you the rest of it. And they've the several friends who've told me this story are like, I wish that I would have just been like, I don't care if it's a half a syringe.

I don't care. And I'm like, it's always easier to add late than it is to take away in these instances. Would you agree? 

Dr. Youn: Yeah, I really wanted to do this. You know, filler is expensive. You could be throwing away a couple hundred dollars, um, but you know, do you want to get more filler? Now there's some, sometimes that happens to me and we'll have a little left and there are certain areas, let's [00:36:00] say if they're doing their nasal labial folds and they've got 0.

2 cc's left and we just don't want to put it there, we'll put it just a touch in the cheeks. And so there are little things that you can do. Sometimes people have a little, a chin that's just a touch retrusive. You put a touch over the bone of the chin and that's going to be fine. Um, but yeah, you don't want to do.

In general, more than you need, but it does depend on volume 

Dr. Brighten: when it comes to Botox, I get asked all the time. What's the evidence in terms of how it impacts our hormones? I've never seen any evidence about it having a negative impact on our hormones, but there seems to be this this idea that because It is a toxin that it must be dangerous.

Yeah, it's been around for a long time. So what are your thoughts about people who feel like Botox is potentially dangerous? 

Dr. Youn: Um, I think that there's like with anything, any substance at all that you put into your body, there's going to be a tiny percentage of people who just don't do well with it. Um, no matter what it is, you know, I think any substance in the [00:37:00] world, there's some people who just don't do well with it.

Uh, that being said, I do believe that that percentage is very low. Yeah. Um, you know, in my office that's the number one cosmetic treatment that we do. I've been in practice for 20 years. We've treated Realistically, probably at least 20, 000 people, if not more, and I have never had a patient come back and tell me that they've had, um, systemic or autoimmune issues from it, chronic migraines, um, you know, anything that's other than, let's say, a little droopy eyelid for a few months.

Like, that's the worst that we've seen in everybody. That being said, you know, there's a prominent podcaster who, she goes and talks about it, uh, Arielle Laurie, um, and she's got the Blonde Files, great podcast, and she has gone, been very public that she had some Botox, and she had, uh, brain fog, and it just didn't make her feel right.

She let that wear off, had it again, just to test it again, and gave her those same weird type of symptoms. Um, and at the time, she actually called me, and she's like, have you heard of this before? Um, And I have done some research to see, is there [00:38:00] any information in the scientific literature to show that Botox will give you any type of these autoimmune or systemic issues?

And there isn't anything out there. But if you go online, there are people who have Facebook groups where they believe that they've been injured by Botox. And, uh, and I think, you know, I tend to believe people, if you feel it, that, that, that happened to you, I believe it. But I, at the same time, I also feel when you look at the numbers, like this is the, difference between, let's say, Botox related potential injury versus breast implant illness, you know, those numbers are very, very different.

Uh, and numbers, I think, are so minuscule and tiny from what I've seen with Botox being more of a systemic issue versus, let's say, breast implants that, that it's not something that in general I think is a huge problem. And especially when I see all these people who have it done. I've interviewed dermatologists who've been in practice for 30 years and say, have you ever had a patient that had a horrible reaction to Botox Everybody tells me no.

Uh, [00:39:00] so yeah, so I think what I'm hearing 

Dr. Brighten: is 

Dr. Youn: so, 

Dr. Brighten: yeah, that's what I'm hearing. It could happen. There's a potential there because studies don't encompass every single variable that exists in the general population. Listening to your body is best. If you have a negative experience, talk to your provider right away and reconsider doing it again.

But just because someone has a great experience doesn't mean yours will be. And just because someone has a negative experience doesn't mean that you will have one as well. And as you're saying, there are lots of clinicians with lots of clinical experience have found that it overall is pretty safe in the way it's being used currently.

Dr. Youn: Yeah, I mean, I think if you're coming in and you say, Hey, you know what? I'm super gluten sensitive or I'm celiac and I've got autoimmune issues. I've got lupus. I've got Hashimoto's, you know, I can't tolerate dairy like there's all of these sensitivities. Should you get Botox? Well, maybe not a great idea.

You know, you may be able to it. just doesn't react well to it. Um, but you know, there are those [00:40:00] people who don't seem to have a lot of these sensitivities and they may do better. There was a rat study though that did find that if you inject Botox into the facial muscles of a rat and then you take their cerebral spinal fluid afterwards that you can actually find botulinum toxin in their cerebral spinal fluid.

So we do know that it does spread. It may potentially go into other parts of the body. But once again, we haven't seen that to create a true. negative impact on our health, at least that we've seen in a large scale way that we can measure it and quantify it. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. So stay tuned everyone for more research.

And at this point, you know, it's, it appears to be safe. for the majority of people. But again, listen to your body, trust yourself. And I love that. You're like, I believe people. I love that because I think we should, we should listen to people's stories. They live in their body. They certainly know their body.

I want to switch gears a bit because, um, you have an amazing, um, [00:41:00] Your videos are hilarious. You're like probably the best TikTok doc out there. Uh, I want to hear from you though, like most outrageous TikTok trends that you've seen when it comes to beauty, skincare, the whole works, um, that you would just tell people to steer clear of.

Dr. Youn: Um, so I think like recently, I mean, there's been trends for the last several years and some of them are just nutty. Um, but recently there's some interesting trends that are out there that are worth bringing up. So for example, there's the, uh, there's the. Salmon sperm DNA facial. Uh, this is something that what?

Yes, so this is something that kim kardashian had when she was admitted to having when she was on the kardashians It's gone viral on social media. So it is salmon dna poly nucleotides taken from their sperm And injected into the face Now. Oh, okay. Crazier than it is. Uh, I don't know how they get this salmon DNA, the polynucleotides.

I don't know what they do these poor salmon to [00:42:00] get their sperm, but apparently it comes from the sperm. And it's, uh, an, uh, an approved treatment out in South Korea called reduron. And the idea is that it's a bio Write that 

Dr. Brighten: down everyone. 

Dr. Youn: Yeah. Reduron. Uh, it's a bio stimulator. So essentially what it does is you inject it into the face.

Just in the deeper skin and now this is needle. So you got to poke the skin like every time It's an injection throughout the whole face And as a bio stimulator, the belief is that it can help increase the production of collagen Now we don't have anything similar to that here in the United States. It is not FD approved in the US yet We don't have anything that really works that way, unfortunately But that's the idea is that it can help stimulate the skin to get thicker and to create more collagen.

So that's kind of an interesting thing out there right now. And I do think that there is potential there. My hope with these biostimulators, you don't have to, it's not quite as traumatic as what they're doing now, where they're just taking an actual needle and just injecting it. [00:43:00] Essentially as soon as 

Dr. Brighten: you said injections.

That's what came to mind. 

Dr. Youn: Yeah, you know, there's something that we're doing. That's really cool. That has been a bit of a tick tock trend as well, which is hollow needle hollow micro needling where micro dealing essentially is a treatment similar to like dermal rolling where you have these little pins and you make tiny little pokes in the skin.

And those are helpful because you create micro traumas to the skin. And when you traumatize the collagen of the skin, as it heals, it heals in a tighter fashion. Uh, and so that's how dermal rolling or microneedling works, is that you create this microtrauma, kind of like hormesis, you know, you damage the body a little bit, and it reacts to that by becoming more youthful, by tightening up that skin and the collagen.

Hollow microneedling, you do that, but those needles are hollow, and you can essentially use that to inject substances very superficially into the skin. So this is where something like Ruduron could be really good, because now you don't have to take a needle and make all these needle pokes in the skin.

You can do that with [00:44:00] microneedling, where it's not nearly as painful, not bloody like this regular, you know, like a regular needle you're injecting, and could really potentially work well. So, that's something that I'm really excited about. Right now, we are doing treatments like that. We call it the Gold Filtox Facial, where we combine Very dilute Botox with filler and with growth factors and using microneedling, we can inject that very superficially into the skin.

So that's a really cool treatment we're doing in the office. It's like a great way to get quote unquote glass skin. 

Dr. Brighten: Interesting. So who would be a candidate for that? Who would want to consider that? And what are the, what are the benefits that you get? What is glass skin basically? 

Dr. Youn: So what it is, is the Botox will cause the smooth muscles to stop contracting as much.

So it can reduce actual sweating of the face. Um, it can also help to create some mild kind of smoothing effect of the skin too. Uh, the filler basically acts to plump the skin, so it's kind of like that, um, it's like a very superficial plumping with the hyaluronic acid. Uh, and [00:45:00] because it's injected in such tiny amounts, you're not going to get lumps or anything from it.

Uh, and then the growth factor basically helps to anti age the skin from the inside out. It helps to help promote production of collagen. Um, so it's all of those things combined with the trauma of the needle creating that hormesis effect that you, the idea is you get smoother skin, you get more hydrated skin, you get a little less sweating of the face.

Um, it's just kind of this overall, it's a very nice treatment before people go on the red carpet, that type of thing. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm hmm. Is it very painful? 

Dr. Youn: No, no. Usually what we use is a topical, uh, numbing agent. So like a little bit of lidocaine on the skin, you let that sit for a good half hour, 45 minutes, and then you do the treatment and it's very comfortable.

Um, and there are a lot of offices 

Dr. Brighten: that 

Dr. Youn: do it, uh, no recovery, you get some redness for a few hours, usually maybe at the most. Uh, there are a lot of offices that do it and they kind of make their own kind of concoction. Ours is my own kind of proprietary combination. 

Dr. Brighten: Awesome. Well, that's incredible. Okay.

Great. I need to know, [00:46:00] and I think the rest of the world does as well. You, board certified, plastic surgeon, what cosmetic surgeries are you like? Absolutely never avoid those. 

Dr. Youn: Um, yeah, so number one, um, butt implants, uh, butt implants. Mmm, the BBL 

Dr. Brighten: Drizzy? 

Dr. Youn: I'm sorry. Yeah. 

Dr. Brighten: The BBL Drizzy. 

Dr. Youn: Yeah. I doubt that Drake had butt implants, uh, but so butt implants, the idea behind that is that people who are real thin, but they want a badonkadonk.

They want that BBL look, um, you know, BBL is fat injected into your butt. And so in order for that to be effective, you have to have fat on your body. So if you're real thin, you can't do a BBL because there's no fat to transplant, uh, or transfer. Um, and so your only option really are butt implants. But the problem with butt implants is.

Couple of things. Number one, that part of the body is not the cleanest part of the body. And so there's a risk of infection. And if you get an implant that gets infected, that's horrible, horrible situation. And then number two is [00:47:00] you're sitting on that area multiple times a day, and there's a risk of that implant moving out of place or getting displaced.

Uh, and so that's the thing that. definitely is a risk with it as well. So I'm not a fan of butt implants, BBL, which is liposuction fat from one part of the body and injecting into the butt. For many years, we thought this is a great alternative. The problem is, is that if the doctor is accidentally injects the fat into the buttock muscles, which a lot of doctors purpose for a while, you can die from it and you can die within minutes.

Uh, and so that really is technique dependent if you're going to, you know, how safe that is. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah, immediately now. But you hear, you heard it here immediately. No. 

Dr. Youn: Um, so that's definitely a big no-no. Uh, and then there are certain operations that I'm not a fan of. There are the thread lifts where you're, uh, doing these barred sutures under the surface of the skin to try to elevate parts of the face.

Those aren't necessarily dangerous, per se, but they only last about three to six months, and they're really [00:48:00] expensive, and a lot of doctors who are performing it won't tell you the truth. You know, they won't say, oh, you know what, you're paying me 6, 000 for these threads, and three months from now, or six months from now, those results are going to be gone.

They don't last. And so it's, and that's something that's more, I think of a being honest with patients and saying, look, this is an actual scoop with it. And unfortunately, blind doctors are blinded by greed and they do procedures that maybe aren't necessarily in the best interests of the patients. 

Dr. Brighten: Well, thank you for sharing that, for sharing your insights and for giving people options outside of all of these therapies that we just discussed so that they really can feel empowered in their own home and their day to day life.

People are definitely going to want to follow you after this one. I mean, you're hilarious and super intelligent, so why wouldn't they want to hang out with you? Where can people find you? How can they connect? 

Dr. Youn: So I'm all over social media, Dr. Yoon or TonyYoonMD. Um, I've got my new book, Uh, Younger for Life, that's a big seller.

Uh, you can find that wherever books [00:49:00] are sold. And I've got my podcast that Jolene has been on a couple of times called The Dr. Yoon Show, where we cover all sorts of anti aging types of treatments, uh, and then also holistic health as well. So, all those places are good places to find me. 

Dr. Brighten: Absolutely. I have to say, I am always just cheering for you.

I see your book show up so often in influencers videos and other like NYT bestsellers just showing like, here's my book on the shelf. And then there's my friend, Dr. Tony Yoon shining. So thank you again so much. This was such a wonderful conversation. All the links so that people can find you, connect to you, and grab your amazing book.

Thank you again. 

Dr. Youn: Thank you, Jolene.