A Holistic Approach to Aging with Dr. Anthony Youn

Transcript of A Holistic Approach to Aging

Dr. Cates: Hi there. I’m doctor Trevor Cates. Welcome to The Spa Dr. Podcast. On today’s podcast, we’re talking about a holistic approach to aging, but before I tell you about the guest, I want to first thank those of you who have been leaving reviews of The Spa Dr. podcast with over 200 episodes of The Spa Dr. podcast. Now I want to make sure that every single episode continues to get better and better and giving you what you want, the information that you’re looking for, for vibrant health and glowing skin. So I want to recognize this one review recently received and she says, this podcast gives me confidence. I just listened to the episode with three female expert and it’s so comforting to hear other women struggling with acne and then turning it around for themselves. I also bought her book and it’s very eye awakening to help me understand how to clean my gut and lead a healthier and smarter life. Thank you, dr Trevor Cates for spreading your wisdom and joy. And that’s from Mina. Thank you Mina for your review and thank you for all of you who leave reviews. You can leave reviews on iTunes or wherever you watch or listen to The Spa Dr. podcast.

Dr. Cates: Now, back to today’s guest. Today, my guest is known as America’s holistic plastic surgeon. I know that might sound kind of strange and he explains how and why he is that title. My guest is Dr. Anthony Youn. He is a nationally recognized board certified plastic surgeon, recognized as a leader in his field. He is the author of the bestselling books The Age Fix: A leading plastic surgeon reveals how to really look 10 years younger and In Stitches, a memoir. His public television show, the age fix with Dr. Anthony Ewan has been viewed by millions. Dr Youn also hosts the popular podcast, The Holistic Plastic Surgery Show. His new book Playing God: the evolution of a modern surgeon details his humorous, heartwarming and often heroine journey to becoming a leading plastic surgeon. In this interview, Dr. Youn comes back on The Spa Dr. podcast to share the newest less invasive options to look younger. We cover everything from food and skin care routines, including devices you can effectively use at home to in office procedures that slow visible results of aging. Now, I received so many comments from my followers about these procedures asking questions. So it’s great to have Dr. Youn’s perspective on what really is both safe and effective. He also shares what it means to be a modern surgeon and how this led him write his latest book. Dr Youn even shares a story from his book that reveals the real truth behind plastic surgery. So please enjoy this interview. Tony is so great to have you back on those spots, your podcast. Welcome.

Dr. Youn: Thank you so much for having me. It’s always fun to chat with you.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, so you are known as America’s holistic plastic surgeon. Now a lot of people are going to say there’s no way that holistic and plastic surgery go together. So how do you get away with calling yourself that?

Dr. Youn: So you know it, it really started off, you know, I, I did all the normal training, so I did four years of medical school. I did three years of general surgery residency where I worked in the ICU and um, and uh, in trauma surgery and all of that that I did two years of plastic surgery residency. And then I did a year of fellowship out in Beverly Hills. I started my own practice in Michigan and I was basically trained very traditionally and I did really well. I got on TV, that just got me all these patients and I got a really good reputation and I thought that I really hit the pinnacle of success. And this was several years ago where people were flying in from all over the country to see me. And I had this patient, Trevor, that I’ll just tell you that that really changed the trajectory of, of how I looked at plastic surgery.

Dr. Youn: This is a woman who was in her late fifties, early sixties. And she said, you know, Dr. Youn, I hang out with my girlfriends and every, all my friends have had work done but me and I feel that now when we go out, all the guys look at them, they all talk with them. And I feel invisible. I don’t feel that, that I just don’t feel a part of the group anymore and it makes me sad. So she said, you know, I, the one thing I was thinking about was having a facelift because I think that might, you know, kind of treat some of the things that are bothering me and may help give me more self confidence to, to project out there. And so I said, look, you know, that’s not going to solve everything, you know, a facelift. You know, but took a look at her and, and I do a lot of surgeon, I said, but you know, it makes sense looking at you physically and Hey, let’s do it.

Dr. Youn: So I do the operation. It’s about a three and a half hour surgery. The surgery goes perfectly without a hitch. Uh, we bring into the recovery room and I start heading back home from the hospital and while I’m driving back home, I get paged from her nurse nine one one, and they say, Dr. Youn, You’ve got to come back immediately. She’s bleeding now. I’ve done a lot of facelifts in my day and I know that when they start bleeding from the face that it’s a big deal. So I turned my car around and I floor it and I’m zipping back to the hospital, weaving through the traffic as much as I can, hoping that a cop will actually try to stop me because then maybe the cop is gonna push all the traffic out and get me to the hospital faster.

Dr. Youn: I get to the hospital, I run up the stairs, I run into her room and I don’t see my patient there. I see somebody who resembles Jabba the hut. Her neck is filled up with so much blood that I am now concerned that she’s literally going to suffocate. It’s that big of a deal. So I put on gloves. I literally take all of her stitches out and I put my hand underneath the skin and I’m pulling out clumps of blood. I rushed her to the operating room, stop the bleeding, close everything up. And, luckily after surgery, believe it or not, she looked great and there was no sign that anything had happened to her. But it really, that instant where if it was just a few more minutes longer, my patient could have actually died. Got me to really thinking like, there has to be a better way for me to do this. And yeah, you know, I do perform a lot of surgery but there must be something else that I can do that I wasn’t trained in necessarily. And I really started getting into the nutrition of it, the skin care, a lot of stuff that you recommend to all your followers. Um, and I started looking more and more at these non-invasive and minimally invasive options. And so when I look at holistic plastic surgery now as this thing, this idea that I have where you look at a person as a whole person perspective from all those things now that I was talking about with food, with environmental exposures with clean skin care, which you are such an awesome advocate of nationally and even these non invasive and minimally invasive options using surgery only as a last resort.

Dr. Cates: yeah, I mean it’s, I’m so glad that you have embraced this in most, I would say most surgeons probably especially plastic surgeons, don’t really do that. Right. When you say

Dr. Youn: I, in my all my training that I’ve had, you know, what is it four years medical school at five, six, 10 years of postgraduate training, I have had almost no training in nutrition, no training and environmental toxin exposures. Even very, very little in skincare. Okay. Yet because I’m an MD, because I’m a plastic surgeon, patients assume that, that I know this or that other doctors would know this. It really took years of me learning from other practitioners and reading books and testing things out on myself and other people. To really figure a lot of this stuff out.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. And I, you know, thank you for sharing that story. I’m sure that was really scary. And, I think that so often we get this a lot, especially women. I think there’s this feeling, Oh, it’s, you know, a face lift. So many people are getting it. They don’t really think about the risks or the, the recovery or the, all the things that could potentially go wrong and that you could go with something that’s perfectly normal and healthy to, you know, a different life. Right.

Dr. Youn: Yeah. And the problem is, is that the old fashioned surgeons who are still practicing a lot of them today, they are really the have this mentality of to cut is to cure. You know, that’s, that’s the saying in surgery to cut is to cure or another one is the only way to heal is with cold steel. Uh, and so when we go through our training, uh, and this is a part of my book, my new book playing God, um, you know, we’re taught that really the ideal is to operate on people. You know, and I’m sure that, you know, you know, people and everybody whose lists they know somebody who’s had surgery, not necessarily even plastic surgery, but some type of surgery that maybe they shouldn’t have had done. And there are a lot of statistics nowadays showing that more and more procedures are being done. Uh, and a lot of that is due to the healthcare system and the training. You know, we value procedures over doing things like what you’re doing, where you’re encouraging people that take your health in your hands, eat the right foods, use the right clean skin care products. No, no, you’ll get paid much better if you do an invasive procedure instead.

Dr. Cates: Right? So it is, um, nature pathic medicine. We, the, a big part of the philosophy is to use the least invasive medicine possible to start there. And that there’s, there’s a place for medication and surgery, but to start with healthy lifestyle, that that is the core of, you know, like w like we’re talking about clean, clean living, the foods we eat, when it comes to skin skincare products. And, um, you know, a lot of that is things that we should all start with. And if we skip that, we’ve missed so much opportunity. And then there’s everything in between. And then we go from diet and lifestyle, then we can go to supplements. And, and, and that’s not necessarily the first thing you want to do either, but you want to just start with the healthy lifestyle and then go to supplements. And then when we talk about skin and beauty and anti-aging, and there are also some less invasive procedures before you go under the knife. And hopefully don’t even need to go there. And I know that that’s how you kind of make a living, but you’re the one that’s already saying this.

Dr. Youn: Well, I’ll tell you, Trevor. We’ve got, I have nine employees in my practice, so there’s me, I’m the only surgeon. I’ve got two nurses, one PA physician’s assistant. I’ve got two estheticians and I have a handful of support staff. For every one person who has surgery. In my practice, we probably have at least 30 to 40, probably more who don’t. And they’re doing other things. They’re doing skin care, they’re trying laser treatments, they’re getting chemical peels. Maybe they’re getting some injections. Because the good thing about being a, I guess, plastic surgery patient today is that there are so many options that you have to treat issues that people are dealing with short of surgery. And even when I did my training back 15 years ago, you know, at that time it was surgery. We just started using Botox. And the only injectable filler really was collagen. And, and then lasers at that time were pretty much all they did was really burn the skin. Uh, and so it really, we have come a long, long ways and last 15 years and it’s very exciting because, you know, no question, the first thing you gotta do is just what you said is you gotta start with those basics, with your environment, with what you put on your plate, with what you put on your skin. But there are some really cool stuff that we’re doing nowadays too that have very minimal and some of them absolutely no risk.

Dr. Cates: Okay. So let’s start with the least invasive things first with recommendations. What do you think are some of the most important things when it comes to food?

Dr. Youn: Well, food has a lot of stuff that you and I have recommended to our followers. And the first thing I recommend is decrease the amount of sugar you eat. So you and I both know that sugar equals wrinkles. And you’ve been a great proponent of really encouraging your followers to reduce the amount of sugar, you know, and it’s insidious, you know, we know that the sugar isn’t necessarily just in desserts, but it’s in bread, it’s in pasta, it’s in rice. And trying to reduce that. The second thing that I recommend for my followers is to limit the amount of processed food you eat or eliminate them if you can. I mean our society is based off of trying to eat quickly and not having to take the time to cook. And so we get all these packaged foods that are just filled with chemicals. And then the third thing that I recommend is to clean up the type of food that you eat. And so if you eat me to try to clean that up and eat organic meat, pastured type foods, I’m trying to reduce the amount of factory farm meats that you eat. I also discourage people from eating dairy, which I know you do as well. And then the other thing that I think people should try, everybody should try is going off gluten. See how you feel, see how your skin looks and feels. Not everybody I think needs to go off gluten. Some people do just fine with it, but I encourage everybody to at least try it because I think there’s so many of us who feel crummy. We look crummy and gluten is a big part of it and we just don’t know that it is.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we’re definitely in agreement on those things. Any other lifestyle recommendations that you, that you recommend for people? There’s

Dr. Youn: some things that you can do at home that I think are really, um, that are nice because they don’t cost a lot of money. You don’t have to, you know, you can live anywhere in the country and you can do it because you can buy this stuff on the internet. So the first thing is red light therapy. There are a lot of handheld red light device that you can buy. You can get them as cheap as a few hundred dollars, and this is something that you can do at home. You basically just apply the red light, the infrared light to your skin. And that’s a great way to help rejuvenate your skin with almost no risk to it. A second thing is dermaplaning. Dermaplaning is a treatment that we do in our office where we basically use a very specialized scalpel blade and we basically will scrape the surface of the skin to get rid of that upper layer of that kind of thin hairs that we grow in that area. And plus it helps to exfoliate the skin, makes your skin feel nice and smooth. Well, you can do that at home, not with a scalpel or with a knife, don’t talk, don’t do it that way, but there are devices that are commercially available that are at home. Dermaplaning, one I think is called Sonic smooth and I have no relation to this company at all, but that’s a great add home dermaplaning device. And then third thing would recommend is to just generally exfoliate your skin. You know, you can use at home scrubs, you can make them yourself using sugar and uh, combining sugar with a little bit of let’s say fruit juice and you can apply that to your skin. Rub the surface of your skin and that’s a great way, uh, to exfoliate your skin. And by adding that fruit juice, you get some alpha hydroxyacids, a very mild at home chemical peel.

Dr. Cates: Great. So those are all three things. People ask me about those all the time, so I’m glad you talk about those. So with the red light therapy, are there any risks or concerns or maybe that people should, red flags people should watch out for? There’s some devices better than others. Yeah.

Dr. Youn: Um, there are definitely some devices I think that are better than others. Um, I don’t know of any that would be dangerous. Obviously if you’re applying it to your skin and you’re feeling discomfort, if you’re feeling that it feels hot, those devices can get a little warm and warmth is fine, but if it starts feeling hot, then you may want to take it off your skin. But in general, I know there’s a device from June that a lot of people, like, I’m trying to think, there’s Sunlighten has an at home one as well. And I think all of them are really good. I mean, they’re not the same as getting a facial laser treatment at a dermatologist or plastic surgeon’s office, but it is a nice way to do it at home and not to worry about driving somewhere and paying a lot more money to have somebody else do it to you.

Dr. Cates: Right. And so, and that is, so you do believe that it is enough for home use that you see people get results from it.

Dr. Youn: Yeah. But at the same time, I think it’s, expectations have to be key. You know, it’s not something that you’re gonna look in the mirror afterward and say, Oh my gosh, all my wrinkles are gone. It really is a long term maintenance type of a thing.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And, um, so what are the kinds of things that people might want to consider the red light therapy for?

Dr. Youn: um, there’s a lot of different things. If you’ve got a lot of inflammation of your skin that can help with even fine lines and wrinkles, it may help with that as well. Just overall increasing the radiance of your skin. I think it’s really good. Um, not red light, but blue light can help. And some of these devices you have different attachments for blue light can help with acne, although I would just discourage you from doing it before you go to bed because there are some reports that excess blue light can actually interfere with your sleep. But in general, you know, using red light, it’s not once again going to treat a significant disorder. If you’ve got rosacea, red light therapy isn’t necessarily gonna make it go. If you’ve got eczema is not necessarily gonna make it get significantly better. But I think it’s worth a try because overall it does appear to help. And there are some studies that do seem to support it making the skin look younger and reducing inflammation.

Dr. Cates: Okay. So now if I’m somebody who wants to come in for a procedure to get a little bit, you know, to get more results or what are some of the kinds of things that you find the the best results with?

Dr. Youn: Yeah, there’s a lot of options nowadays. I think the easiest thing to find that I think is a good bang for your buck, and I may have mentioned it on your show before, is IPL intense pulse light. So the issue that you find when you go to plus surgeons dermatologist’s offices is when you’re looking at a laser or a technological type of a device, you’re going to pay a lot more for that than something simpler, like a chemical peel or micro-needling. So the way I would look at it is if you’re on a budget and you’re just, you’re looking for overall skin rejuvenation. Okay. You don’t necessarily have a lot of age spots that you really want to get rid of or something. Then something like microneedling is a really nice treatment. A microneedling is basically the next level of the dermal rollers that people have that have the tiny little pins in them and you roll your skin. You can do that at home, but we can do it in the office and a more aggressive fashion. The good thing about that, it’s not as expensive because the actual device, the automated device costs a doctor like me, maybe three or $4,000 to buy it. Well, the laser treatment laser can cost me $100,000 to buy it and you know that if I’m paying a hundred grand to buy this laser, some of that cost is going to be passed off onto you. A chemical peel can cost me $3 you know, to actually buy the chemical peel solution versus once again, you’re talking about thousands and thousands for a laser treatment.

Dr. Youn: So if you’re going in, like I said, if you’re on a budget and you say, look, I don’t have any specific real issues I want to get rid of, I just want to look younger. Then there’s some good chemical peels that are a real nice for your skin. We do want in our office called the gestures peel and the peal for about two, maybe three days. There’s a number of other pills out there that Dodgers are doing that are um, branded pills as well. Microneedling like a set I think is a great treatment cause you can get that relatively inexpensive that also will help to rejuvenate the skin. And some people put PRP, platelet rich plasma over the surface of the skin with microneedling. If you’re going to go technology IPL is great. If you’ve got the dark spots, that’s definitely the thing that I would use.

Dr. Cates: Okay. So, and then what about photosensitivity sensitivity after some of these procedures?

Dr. Youn: Yeah, with any of these where you’re going to be exploiting the skin pretty aggressively, like a deeper chemical peel. I think micro-needling as well. Definitely you want to protect your skin afterwards, use a good sunblock. Ideally something with zinc oxide, titanium dioxide for the first couple of weeks after the treatment. If it’s real minor. If you’re undergoing, let’s say a lunchtime peel, it’s probably not as important to worry about. With IPL, you’re treating the dark spots. And so yeah, you do want to apply sunscreen afterwards or some black because if you don’t, those dark spots are going to come back. So that’s even more important with that.

Dr. Cates: Right. And even doing some of the treatments at home, right, that also could create more sensitivity, especially if you’re doing some of these, you know, enzymatic types of exponents actually assets and things like that that can make you more people more sensitive to the sun and sun damage. So just, you know, protecting the skin. Now, the red light therapy, does that increase photosensitivity too?

Dr. Youn: Not that I know of. I think it’s, it’s pretty mild. And so my experience with it and talking with people is that it doesn’t seem to be as big of a deal. But I mean, you know, you and I both know that we do, you do want to protect your skin from the sun, understanding that there is a therapeutic element and we get vitamin D from, from the sun. Our bodies synthesize it, you know, utilizing that sunlight. So I think it’s really, um, moderation, you know, for me, I mean there is something to be said for, you know, I know here in Michigan there’s so many cloudy days you get assigned a there, somebody said just for letting that sun hit your skin. And it is therapeutic but, but definitely you want to avoid getting too much sun.

Dr. Cates: Right, right. So, so there, it looks like, do you guys have lots of options and you do these procedures, you do the IPL and you do all of these in your office. So those are the, you would say the most popular ones.

Dr. Youn: Yeah. And there’s a, um, you know, there’s, it’s an interesting time right now because there are a lot of new devices that are coming out that are really kind of adding things that we never thought of before. So for example, there’s a new one, it’s really popular in plastic surgery now. We’re actually just trying it out called the M sculpt. And this is a device that uses electromagnetic energy to stimulate muscles to contract 20,000 times in a half hour. So it is completely noninvasive. You basically, you can look at your phone or read a book while you get this treatment and it literally will stimulate your abdominal muscles to contract. And the stipulate all this time for this half hour, four treatments over two weeks. And people find that the thickness of the muscle increases about 15%. The thickness of the fat decreases by 19%. And in women who have a diastasis as separation of their abdominal muscles after having children, their studies show that after those four treatments, that reduces about 11%. So it’s a really interesting new paradigm in cosmetic medicine nowadays because it does appear to work. It appears to be complete. It’s completely noninvasive. And now people are using it for their bottoms. They’re using it for their abs, they’re using it for their biceps, their deltoids, all different areas. And especially nowadays with the butt, the surgical options to make the butt bigger are dangerous. Uh, the, the big one, BBL fat injection to the butt that has the highest mortality rate in all of plastic surgery. And in my opinion, it should be banned from, from most cosmetic doctors doing it because it’s so dangerous. So this is an exciting new treatment. The M sculpt is a way to try to help those people who really want to get a bigger shapelier butt, and the exercises aren’t quite doing it to maybe get them there without putting them under the knife and really risking some crazy stuff.

Dr. Cates: So now how is it, is this, I’m just going to say it like if somebody goes and exercises regularly, can they just get these benefits, right?

Dr. Youn: They, that’s the ideal. So I mean, ideally what you want to do is use this as, as part of it’s like supercharging your workout type of thing. Okay. So this is not for somebody who is oddest shape, who has a lot, you know, who needs to ideally lose weight to get them where they want to be on. This really is for somebody who says, Hey look, I take great care of myself and you know what? I’m going to give myself a little treat and I’m going to, you know, and that’s, I think the way I would look at it. It, it isn’t, it’s not something that’s for somebody who is looking to lose weight and be healthier. It really is. For somebody who’s at a good healthy weight and they say, let’s let me try this because Hey, it might, it might be kind of a nice, cool little thing where two months after the treatment you look down, you’re like, wow, I’ve got kind of a washboard stomach.

Dr. Cates: Well, and I think about it, you know, you, if you can concentrate the muscle contractions in an area, you’re going to be able to accelerate that and a great way, especially with what you’re talking about, that separation of the abdominal muscle, that women experience during pregnancy and that can continue to be a problem. I mean, I had that with my three kids and it was a real problem. I ended up with, you know, getting hernias and all kinds of stuff because of that separation and not being aware that that was actually occurring. And I just went and tried to go back to my regular workout routine and then realized it’s not the same.

Dr. Youn: There are things, you know, I should say that women should try. Our good friend Emily Khyber and she has actual exercises that she recommends. She’s a physical therapist out in New York for women to help with that diastasis. The way I look at a treatment like this is really, it’s like, like I said, you know, it’s a situation where if you want to give yourself that added treat, Hey, you know, it’s, it’s easy. It’s quick. And especially in women who do have a diastasis who feel like, whatever I’m doing is just not helping. Hey, let’s, let’s give you a bit of a boost. And maybe the hope is that it will help encourage you to keep going and you go, wow, you know, this looks just by doing this. I feel like so much better about how I look. I’m going to, you know, increase my exercise. I’m going to eat better. I’m going to improve my health and, and use this a springboard.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, that’s a great way to, to think about it. So with these different procedures, I know that they’re the, the, the, you’re, we’re looking at the short term benefits. What about the longterm effects of these other, any concerns about that? Are there actually upsides? What would you say about that?

Dr. Youn: I think with anything, that’s what you really have to look at. So for this one, for the em sculpt, my concern is, okay, it’s not cheap. You know, these treatments are quite expensive and I’m not going to look at this seriously until they have at least six to 12 month data because you and I both know that we do a good workout and we may feel a little bit bigger after that. But within a day or two that seems to go away. And if the results only lasts, let’s say a couple of months, then I’m not going to recommend this to my patients. And it wasn’t til they had one year studies out where the actual actually found that those results lasted at least a year, even if they weren’t retreated. I thought, well that, you know, that’s a really, that’s something that I would be looking at now. I know, I’m sure you’re also thinking about longterm, you know, there are longterm potential sequella that we need to be aware of with any type of a treatment. And that’s something that I, that we are always looking at. And I always encourage patients, you know, I’m not the first person to jump on certain bandwagons. Um, and there are treatments out there that I really discourage people from. I’ve got something called my holistic beauty blacklist and these are treatments that a lot of them are FDA approved. A lot of them doctors are doing every day and a lot of doctors think that they’re safe and I just disagree with them. And for one example is injectable fillers are super popular right now. They’re the number two most popular cosmetic treatment in the world after Botox. And we do a lot of them, but we don’t, we only do a certain kind. There are certain permanent fillers, longterm fillers that may look good today. But I’ve seen patients where three, four years later they start getting these hard nodules on their face. And the only way to remove some of those is surgically, but they’re FDA approved board certified dermatologists and plastic surgeons are injecting them every day. And some of it, most of the patients probably do are all right, but you don’t want to be one that doesn’t.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. What about some of these, the acid peels, are there any longterm concerns about those?

Dr. Youn: I think the thing that I would be very, that I would be concerned about with some of those two things, pigmentation is a one thing. Okay. So there are, there are peels that are very aggressive where they take a couple of weeks to heal from and they can cause actually damage the melanin of your skin. So there are peels that still dust doing called the phenol peels or phenol is basically a poison. And if you peel too much of the face at one time, people can have fatal arrhythmias and can actually die because of a chemical peel, believe it or not, on top of that potential risk, there is a risk of it going so deep that it affects the melanin in your skin. And I’ve seen patients who’ve had these types of really deep peels where they have this ghost-like compliance shit afterwards because the melanin has been destroyed. You see that with certain laser treatments too. That’s something that you will see relatively soon. But the fear that I would have long term with certain types of treatments like certain pills and, and even dermabrasion sometimes where you’re sanding wrinkles down is the thinning of the skin that can occur. That’s a thing that I would look at long term because you and I both know that as we get older, the collagen of our skin gets thinner, you know, and we have, we see women who are in there and men too are in their seventies and eighties and how thin their skin is and their skin tears sometimes when they’re literally getting scratched. Well, you know, we don’t know, there aren’t necessarily studies that show that if you do some of these deeper peels are you literally then thinning that skin to the point where you know, that’s going to be more of a problem for them long term.

Dr. Cates: Right. And I’m so glad you’re bringing these up and obviously and, and your practice, you have educated the people, your team to know about the downsides, the possible risks and when maybe somebody is trying to come into frequently or they’re asking for too much because people will, I feel like a lot of times people are like, okay, well that worked great, so more is going to be better so I need to go in more frequently, go deeper this time, go longer this time. And I’ve heard some doctors just kind of give into that because they want to get paid, they want the person to keep the patient happy, keep them coming back in.
Dr. Youn: Yeah. And this is kind of that old school surgeon mentality once again, that doing more procedures is a better thing. There’s also this idea amongst a lot of doctors. I hear them say, well, if I don’t do it, then somebody down the street will, and so I’m a better doctor than that person, so I might as well do it. I turned down about one out of every five people that come to see me, Trevor, because I don’t think that they’re a good candidate. I get a lot of people that come in to see me and they say, I want my lips bigger. And I looked at him and it’s like, your lips are big enough. And what we’re seeing nowadays, which is really disturbing is, and I think a lot of this is due to social media, but we’re getting this influx of young women in their early twenties and even the early to of mid twenties beautiful women who are profoundly dissatisfied with how they look and they’re taking selfies of themselves from all different angles. And they’ll come into my office and say, doctor, you look at me, I look so bad. And you look at him like, Oh my God, you look perfect. Like you and I both know, I mean we’re in our forties and I would love to look like I was in my twenties. Again, I wished that I realized how good I looked back then because I know that, that, you know, that changes. But we get these women who are profoundly dissatisfied with their appearance and they’re obsessed with it and they think that going under the or under the knife is gonna solve their issues. And I think that, I really blame a lot of this on social media. I think that social media has made it, um, socially acceptable and has encouraged a lot of the body dysmorphia that, that people have underlying. And had they been in a different environment, maybe that by dysmorphia would not present the way that it is. But we’re seeing so many young women who are just getting their lips jacked up. They’re getting their cheeks huge, you know, and they’re going under the knife for no reason at all. I mean, it really is disturbing.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, it definitely is. And I think this goes back to one of the biggest things is lack of self confidence. And being aware that a lot of beauty comes from the inside out and that there’s nothing we can do externally. No procedure, no supplement, no. You know, like that inner inner radiance, that inner beauty is something that we can all wear. I mean, you know, everybody should be working on to a certain extent, but that’s really what I think if you have, if people can have more of that solid confidence and that inner radiance and knowing that that comes from the inside, then there’s going to be less of what can I do on the outside?

Dr. Youn: No, exactly. And I think that people look at these types of procedures as a way to make themselves happy. You know, they think that that’s what’s gonna make them happy and it’s not, you know, it is a one tool out of many, um, that you can potentially use if you want to help get you where you want to be and maybe to help lift your self confidence a little bit. But definitely it’s not a tool to make you happy. And so when, one of the things that I’m trying to do, you know, as a holistic, as a modern surgeon is to try to encourage my patients, just like you’re saying, is to look at everything from a much bigger perspective. Don’t focus on that one wrinkle that is driving you crazy. Look at just how amazing you look. Look at how healthy you are, you know, and there are things that you can do that are great. Like definitely you want to try doing some intermittent fasting and seeing how great your skin looks afterwards. By all means try it. You know, you want to try some great new skin care, clean skin care products, try it. You know, you want to try a noninvasive treatment that may help with your issues. By all means try it. It’s just when we get to these invasive things, you know, really, okay, now let’s put the brakes down and let’s see, is it really worth the risk, you know, to do something like that.

Dr. Cates: Right, right. So, so Tony, you mentioned earlier that you have a new book coming out, Playing God, what inspired you to write that book?

Dr. Youn: So the idea of Playing God: the evolution of modern surgeon, is that today’s doctors are very different than they used to be. And it’s this whole idea of holistic medicine becoming a holistic surgeon actually. And the story is basically my journey of going from being this clueless new doctor to becoming a holistic plastic surgeon. And I really wanted to share it with you because there are so many people, I share it with the audience and everybody reading it is because there are so many people that don’t really realize just what the difference between old school doctors are and the new school ones. For example, I had a patient who came to see me and there’s a lot more I think to medicine and the practicing of medicine and even surgery than people realize. I had a patient who came to see me. This was many years ago early in my practice and at the time my practice had hit rock bottom and I was actually considering leaving medicine altogether. I’d had some outcomes that I was really beating myself up myself up over. I was in a ton of debt from starting my practice. And it just was a real struggle. And this woman came in to see me. She was in her early sixties and she had had surgery from somebody else. She lost some weight and she walks in with a cane and she says, Dr. Youn, You’re my last hope. I’ve seen 15 other plastic surgeons and all of them have turned me down. So I said, well, what’s going on? And she said, look, I had, I lost some weight. I had this tummy tuck, a done by a different doctor, and everything fell apart. My tummy got infected.

Dr. Youn: I had some type of flesh eating bacteria. I was in the hospital for months. They were doing skin graphs and everything. And now many, many months later, I’m in chronic pain. My husband won’t look at me. I’ve got this scarred up tummy that I can’t stand to look at. And the worst part of it is I can’t play with my granddaughter because I’m in so much pain. So Trevor, I look at her medical history and it has everything you can think of in it, which is bad. I mean her charts like you know, an inch, two inches thick, a, she’s got diabetes, she’s had a history of heart attacks, she’s had stent placements, she’s on blood thinners, she’s on psychiatric medical medications, 20 different medications. And she was what we would basically call a a mess. You know, this is not a patient you want to bring to surgery because she is basically a setup for a complication. So she says, Dr. Youn, you know, I, I’ve seen all these other doctors. I, you know, my life is over, you know, I can’t do anything that I want to do. Can you please help me? And every part of me inside said, let this, you know, say no. Say no. Like this is not a pace you want to bring to surgery. You know, she could die on the operating table, she’d get blood clots. And so, but I had the sense that I was actually chosen to help her. That this is a person I really need to help even given all this stuff. So I said, look, I said, no promises, but I said, I will bring you into surgery. Let’s see what we can do, but I can’t promise you, you know, bad stuff could happen. All I can tell is I’m gonna do my best. And she started to cry and she said, you know, please just, you know, you’re the only one that’s given me any chance, please do this. So the night before her surgery, I was awake, you know, planning the surgery out in my head of how am I going to do this and stuff. And I prayed for her and I prayed that she was going to do okay because I knew that I couldn’t necessarily do this on my own.

Dr. Youn: So the next day I operate on her and while I’m operating, I, it goes as smoothly as any operation I’d ever done at that time in my practice. And I almost felt like there was that it wasn’t just my hands moving, but there was somebody else guiding me. And six weeks later, she comes to my office, and she’s walking without a cane and she has a carrot cake with her. And I said, well, what’s this for? And she said, Dr. Youn, I know my insurance rejected the claim for this surgery, which they did. They said it was cosmetic, which obviously it was not. And she said, I don’t have any money to pay you. I’m really sorry, but I made you a carrot cake and I hope that you enjoy it and as payment in full. And I said, well, of course, you know, that’s fine. And uh, and I said, well, how are you doing? And she said, I really need, I need to tell you something. And so it was that. And she said, well, yesterday was the first day in almost two years that I was able to play with my granddaughter. And then she said something to me, she said, you know, she goes, what made you do it? And I said, what do you mean what made me do it? She goes, 15 other doctors turned me down. But you took a chance on me that nobody would, and I said, well, honestly, I felt like I was chosen that this was just the right thing to do and that no matter what happened, I knew that this was the right thing to do. And she said something. This kind of led to the, the title of my book playing God. She said, you know, other surgeons, they act like they’re playing God, that, that they’re so above you and they talk down to you. And she said, not you. Why is that? And I said, honestly, I’m just a doctor and I don’t play God. I need God to help me. Uh, and so I guess that’s just the way that I look at it. And that’s where the title of my book came about. And it’s this idea that today’s modern surgeon, we’re different and it’s changing. And that’s what I hope to inspire people with the book.

Dr. Cates: I think it’s, I think it’s so true. I feel like the, the, there are these doctors that probably most of them are older than you, so maybe some of them are your age. And maybe older that, and not necessarily age isn’t necessarily the defining factor, but I feel like there’s a shift that’s happened. The older school doc, it feels like they are God like that what they say is what everybody needs to follow. And, and that there’s no other way. Um, and I, I think part of it is people really questioned that and asked a lot of questions, not believing that there’s only one way. And so this shift has happened where, I think people are kind of taking control back of their health.

Dr. Youn: It’s important because patients are feeling more and more empowered than ever before. And I think that is so important because especially in today’s day and age where healthcare is really run by pharmaceutical companies, by insurance companies and by massive hospitals, patients really do need to be their own advocate. And, and that’s so important that they are really taking their health into their own hands. And that’s why it’s important for people to hear stuff from, you know, naturopathic physicians like yourself because you’re helping people to, to really enter into a whole new age of healthcare, which I think is so important and so needed in our society.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. And I do want to say at the same time that, that physicians go through a lot of training and that they’re definitely like to do your doctor too. At the same time maybe get a team of healthcare providers to support you, especially if you have complex health issues. But, but yeah, there’s a lot of trading expertise cause there are also a lot of experts. I’m doing air quotes where people can’t see me that well, based upon their own personal experience or just based upon looking at some research, try and act like they can help cure people. And I also think that there’s risks with that.

Dr. Youn: I totally agree. I think we do have to realize that as much as, you know, we encourage people to advocate for themselves. You know, physicians are, you know, they’re trapped in a system and they undergo a ton of training. I went through that. I mean, it is a lot of training and a lot of education and so you really do, you should listen to your doctor, no question. But at the same time, you also want to trust your gut and do research on your own. And, and a doctor should be, you should team up with your doctor, not necessarily have the doctor Lord over you and you know, and never questioned what they say because you know, really you have to be your own health advocate.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. So let’s kind of like being the, you know, the CEO, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do it all yourself. You’ve got your, your, your team that can help you, but you’re kind of, you know, you’re directing the path of your health. All right. Tony will tell everybody where they can find your book and learn more about you.

Dr. Youn: Yeah, so my book is called Playing God: the evolution of a modern surgeon. It’s available all wherever books are sold on Amazon, Barnes and noble. And then we do give, on my website free gifts if you guys choose to purchase it. If you do we’ll send those to you for free. You go to dryoun.com I’ve also got some free gifts, free books, eBooks and stuff like that on my website as well. For anybody who’s interested in learning more about holistic plastic surgery. And real quick, I’ve got my own podcast that Trevor has been a guest on as well, The Holistic Plastic Surgery Show as well.

Dr. Cates: Awesome. And you’re all over social media too.

Dr. Youn: Yeah. It’s fun and you are as well, so it’s really fun to, to kind of coordinate and share each other’s stuff.

Dr. Cates: Right. Awesome. All right Tony, thanks for coming on and I’ll see you next time.

Dr. Youn: Thank you so much.

Dr. Cates: I hope you enjoyed this interview today with Dr. Anthony Youn. To learn more about Dr. Youn. You can go to thespadr.com, go to the podcast page with his interview and you’ll find all the information and links there. And while you’re there, I invite you to join The Spa Dr. community so you don’t miss any of our upcoming shows and information. And if you haven’t gotten your customized skin report, you can go to the skinquiz.com find out what messages your skin is trying to tell you about your health and what you can do about it. The free online quiz is at theskinquiz.com also invite you to join me on social media. The Spa Dr is all over social media on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest. Join us and join the conversation there and I’ll see you next time on The Spa Dr. Podcast.