Dr. Anthony Youn: Why the World's Top Plastic Surgeon is Obsessed with Your Gut

21:30Darin Olien:that's uh that's concerning you know and you know it's like have you have you dug around you know um national health care and other countries have you seen have you looked into any of that is is is that anything that you have any points of view on some of that i think that the hard thing is is

21:49Dr. Anthony Youn:when everybody gets any care that they want and there's no um limits on it that you end up having to ration it in some way. And now you get these long lines where it's like, oh, I need my gall bladder taken out. Well, you got to wait three weeks or three months, you know, or, or I've got a bad knee. Oh, get a knee replaced when you got to wait a year. And that's a, that's where the United States healthcare system is very good. And that if you need care right away, if you have insurance and means to pay, then you can get that care in general, very, very quickly. I think in the end, there's a number of things that we are not good as a society.

22:23Dr. Anthony Youn:I think it's personal responsibility, you know, I think we need to be responsible for our actual health. And if we use more health resources, or let's say we lead a lifestyle that is a much less healthy lifestyle, then there has to be some ramifications to it, you know, like we have to, or at the opposite way, you know, we have to be, we have to benefit from not using this care, you know, there has to be, and the problem with a lot of, I think, of these nationalized healthcare systems is they don't have that in place. One of the things that we see, unfortunately, I worked in the ICUs in my training for several years, and you would have somebody who's like 85 years old on a ventilator who's not dead, but who is in horrible health, being kept alive by all of our machines, and anybody, an ethicist, physician, nurse, could look at this patient and say, you know what, this is probably not the best use of our hospital resources.

23:22Dr. Anthony Youn:When it's costing us$50 ,000 a day to keep this 88-year-old person who's got multiple medical issues alive, if you use that money and spent it on childhood healthcare, spent it on preventative care, it could go so much better. But the problem is that if you've got a family member who says, no, you're not going to pull the plug on grandma. What are you going to do? You can't. Because if you do, then you're going to get sued, and now the lawyers come in, and it's a horrible situation. So unfortunately, I think there are certain difficult decisions that do need to be made that we just don't want to make as a society.

23:59Dr. Anthony Youn:And shifting, let's say, some of the cost of health care in people who are quite old, who are using so many hospital resources, just to try to keep them alive when those resources can be used, I think, to help people live a better health span and all of that, it seems to make more sense. But we don't want to make those decisions, unfortunately, in our society. It's too hard and too polarized.

24:20Darin Olien:Yeah. And it also speaks to that bigger problem of how unhealthy our society is. Exactly. So it's like, okay, well, you solve this problem. The bigger issue.

24:32Dr. Anthony Youn:And there aren't incentives, Darren, for us to be healthy. That's the problem. There aren't. And so it's how do we get our, you know, how do we, I think it starts with education first. That's, I think, the cornerstone of it. And then it goes from there, I guess.

24:48Darin Olien:I mean, certainly when you don't feel good, that's the opportunity, right? When you don't feel good, the opportunity is like, hey, man, we have to create some sort of better cylinders of support around changing habits. I know that when my mom has a bunch of issues for sure, and she's never, I wrote her first program when I was 18 years old, and she never followed anything. But there was one point when she literally had to get her gallbladder out, and so she was in recovery, and she couldn't eat certain things. So I said, hey, would you mind if I got this restaurant, like the one in my town to create all this organic food, deliver it to you and try that out and see if it helps?

25:40Darin Olien:And she took on, lost 20 pounds. And then as soon as those six weeks went by, she went right back. Like, you know, it's it's again, you can help people, but it's it's also like this bigger, bigger thing where, you know, certainly from that generation, they're not used to that. Number one. And number two, it's just the the the personal responsibility coupled with this massive change in how our food is. Yeah.

26:16Dr. Anthony Youn:Doesn't help. Yeah, I mean, as you know, and you've talked about it, it's scientifically formulated for people to be addicted to it and to eat more than what their body needs. It's a tough situation because I think you really have to be educated with it first and then have...

26:30Darin Olien:One of the biggest questions I get constantly is, Darren, where can I find the best non-toxic cookware? Listen, I don't mess around with things that go ultimately in my body, and that includes what I cook with. That's why I swear by Our Place, because from day one, they've been committed to making clean, healthy, non-toxic cookware and kitchenware. No sketchy coatings, no forever chemicals, just pure, conscious design that are beautiful as well as highly functional. I've been using their titanium always pan for months now. It's the only pan I cook with and here's why. Pure titanium, non-toxic, PFAS free.

27:24Darin Olien:Extremely durable, metal utensils, high heat, dishwasher safe. This thing can handle it all. All in one performance. The best stainless steel cast iron nonstick in a single pan. And here's the real kicker. Most nonstick pans, they're still loaded with PFAS, these forever chemicals that break down in your body and stay in your body, and they accumulate over time. We just don't need that. They disrupt the gut microbiome, testosterone, dysregulation, metabolic issues, hormone imbalances, immune dysfunction,

28:02Dr. Anthony Youn:and chronic inflammation they contribute to.

28:04Darin Olien:Think about it. Every time you cook, you could be introducing toxins into your body. And the simple act of switching to safe cookware eliminates that. This is why it's the easiest, most powerful change you can make, certainly in your kitchen, for long-term health and the elimination of toxic exposure.

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28:47Dr. Anthony Youn:The, I think, internal desire to want to improve your health. I think that there are a lot of people who are going through life right now here, especially here in the United States, where they don't know how crummy they feel because this is just their natural state. And it's interesting because for me, I know that there are certain foods that I eat that, oh my gosh, they taste so good going down, but I know within about a half hour, I'm going to feel like crap. And every once in a while, Darren, I will still eat that food just because I can't help myself. But most of the time it's like, no, I stop.

29:20Dr. Anthony Youn:And I'm happy that I did that. And the times that I partake, I always end up regretting it afterwards. But I think that there are a lot of people where they just don't realize that they can feel so much better if they make changes in their health. You know, for me as a plastic surgeon, one of the things that I try to utilize in a weird way is patients' vanity to try to improve their health. You know, so one of the things that I have done that I feel very proud of, you know, I've been in private practice now for 21 years. I have been a plastic surgeon for this long. I've seen tens of thousands.

29:55Dr. Anthony Youn:I've done tens of thousands of operations. and one of the things I'm most proud of is probably the number of people I have gotten off of smoking because I'll tell them, look, oh, you're a smoker. You're not going to have surgery. I can't operate on you if you're smoking. And so for them to actually have surgery, they have to get off the cigarettes and they can't just be off it for a week or two. It's literally like two months. And a lot of times they're off it for two months and they're happy because they're like done. Now, there's some people who don't. They don't get off of it and then they don't have surgery.

30:25Dr. Anthony Youn:Some patients probably lie to me and they say I am off it, and they're not. But I do think that there are a lot of people where they have wanted to quit and they're looking for a reason. And that reason is because, dang it, they really want that facelift or darn it, they really want that tummy tuck. And the only way to get it is to get off the cigarettes. And so, so I think, you know, that's kind of one of the things that I'm proud of is, is in a indirect way, the amount of people I've gotten off of a, you know, probably one of the worst habits that we can have for our health.

30:54Darin Olien:You know, and I want to highlight something that you said about your own trajectory that, you know, you had to re-break your jaw and you had to, and I think life informs us of our path, right? And you're like, as soon as you said, I have an affinity towards art, and then you want to be a plastic surgeon, like, that's a great combination. Like, wow, like someone who loves art and who likes to draw and paint and all of those things and then be artistically be a high functioning surgeon. That's a great combination. Right. So but then it informed you because it changed you so much in in the surgery you had.

31:43Darin Olien:That's a hell of a motivation to go into your career and the willingness to go against your parents, like wanting you in this high stress, but understanding actually who you are and what you wanted.

31:56Dr. Anthony Youn:Yeah, well, I mean, now because I have my own practice, I pretty much do all cosmetic surgery. I took health insurance for many, many years, but I finally gave it up when I stopped. I just got tired fighting insurance companies. It was always a fight. And now my parents are like, oh, my gosh, you picked a perfect specialty because you don't have to deal with these insurance companies. Uh, and it's, it's a, I feel very blessed where I'm at. That's for sure.

32:22Darin Olien:Yeah. Um, but you, you, you enjoy it and, and that's, that's a difference. And, and, and your, your, your colleagues, it sounds miserable that they can be very

32:34Dr. Anthony Youn:tough.

32:34Darin Olien:It's not, it's, it's just, you know, and you don't want someone who's, you know, life and death situation sometimes to be under that level of having the health insurance and the hospital's thumb on top of them and they have to perform a certain way. And it's like, it doesn't seem, I don't know what the answer is, but that's just not a great situation.

33:02Dr. Anthony Youn:There is a show, actually, it's very popular right now called The Pit. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it.

33:07Darin Olien:After all that, I watched an episode. It was really, really a few.

33:13Dr. Anthony Youn:A lot of doctors are saying that that's about one of the most realistic medical shows ever because it really shows kind of what physicians as well as nurses are going through when they're actually working in an emergency room. And I've worked in ERs for many, many years in my training and I know what it's like, and it's very, very accurate. And it's difficult because, you know, number one, your number one thing is always treating your patient and giving your patient the best care. But then you've got all these people chirping in your ear, you know, people from administration like, oh, are you meeting your Prescani scores, you know, to social workers who are like, look, you know, this patient came in with all these injuries.

33:52Dr. Anthony Youn:We don't know who the family is. You know, to now we're dealing with all these other government, you know, actions, you know, and it's just a tough time. And I really, really commend those physicians who are on the front lines of taking care of patients, especially after COVID and all this stuff. It's a tough time to be in health care right now.

34:10Darin Olien:Yeah, it feels like the Wild West more than ever in a certain sense. Yeah, it truly does. And yeah, when I watched the pit, it was like the way they shot it was like a fly on the wall. Like the camera was not like perfectly set up. So you feel like, oh, I'm with them and they're transitioning and it's kind of like one long shot, which feels like you're there and you feel the visceral side of things.

34:42Dr. Anthony Youn:I recently made a social media post that we should get continuing medical education credits for watching the pit because it's so accurate. And I recently redid my advanced cardiac life saving. This is, you know, one of the certifications that a lot of physicians have. And for me, like I watch the show and I go back through all my protocols while I'm watching the show. Like, okay, this person's got this issue. This is what you want to do first. And then inevitably they do that. Like, okay, good, good.

35:10Darin Olien:So you're going through your natural. I'm going through, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You get a little PTSD as well?

35:16Dr. Anthony Youn:Not so much. But you know what I do is, I don't know, for some reason, Darren, at least a couple times a year if I'm on a plane, somebody's got a medical problem. and just this happened to me just literally like two weeks ago i'm sitting i'm sitting on a plane minding my own business and this guy walks down like right next to me and he collapses on the floor of the of the plane and i'm just like oh here we go again and then you know you hear i look over i'm like oh no and i mean i'm a plastic surgeon i've got training but you know i would much rather there be an er doctor there so but inevitably it's always me for some reason and so So yeah, I attended to him, got him off the plane.

35:55Dr. Anthony Youn:He ended up doing fine. But this happens to me so much now that I finally now, it's like I have to always review kind of what you do in various situations because I know whether it's on a plane, I've had this happen to me in basketball games, like high school basketball games where somebody collapses and then there's no other doctor. I'm running across the basketball floor to go help somebody. Target, restaurants, I don't know why. So it's something that for me, I'm staying on top of because, I don't know, for some reason that always happens. People always have medical issues and I'm always the only physician around for some reason.

36:32Dr. Anthony Youn:You're a magnet.

36:35Darin Olien:It's got to be on the one hand, of course, a pain in the ass. On the other hand, extraordinary from a societal standpoint that you get to, because of all of your training and the dedication, that you get to be there to help someone literally from potential life.

36:52Dr. Anthony Youn:It's interesting because you talk to some physicians and they're like, oh, I don't say anything. I stay away. But for me, I feel an obligation that if somebody needs my help, especially medically, then I don't hesitate. I'll go in. And understanding that, hey, if there's somebody who may be better suited to take care of this person, then by all means, I will back off. I'm good with that. I'm good with sitting back down. But this is something where I think as, and I can't say all physicians, but I think a lot of us, and I think nurses as well, we feel this is a calling. And if somebody is needing help, we act.

37:26Dr. Anthony Youn:And without thinking of like, okay, this is just for me, that's my calling. And I love helping people. sometimes it's scary because sometimes I question whether I am treating them the right way you know do it is this the right thing but you know it's it's always a privilege to to be that person that can help somebody and so for me like I said it's just kind of one of my callings I think just being

37:49Darin Olien:a physician yeah she's I would hate to be that person who's like I'm not gonna say anything and And then it comes back around to like someone saw you on a video.

38:01Dr. Anthony Youn:So this last time I was getting on the plane and one of the stewardess is like, I know you. Flight attention. She's like, I know you. I'm like, hey. And then literally 15 minutes later, the guy passes out in front of me. And it's like, okay. And whether she recognized me or not, I would have done something. But at the same time, if I hadn't, who knows what she would have put up there.

38:21Darin Olien:You know, it is interesting. thing when I was in college, when I was going through all the physiology class, we had kind of a, I had a very interesting liberal arts study of, of kinesiology, physiology, applied athletic training. Uh, and, and then full on, I just kept taking courses for EMT stuff. I never became one, but it was so cool to be, to get that information. And then inevitably things would start happening and someone would hurt them it it almost becomes i don't know like what you focus on you get more of or something but but it's it's something where you know at least on a general sense you can help someone uh and not hurt them more and it does seem to potentially create more of the the the dutiful side of things when things do go i still remember how to uh tape someone's ankle like if they sprained it.

39:21Darin Olien:Like I still, it's in my, it's like in my nervous system. I can do it like it was yesterday and it was 30 years ago.

39:29Dr. Anthony Youn:But I think the hard thing is when you can't help somebody. I was, I had a situation several years ago where I was, I was in the emergency room and I was driving home. Somebody had gotten bit by a dog in the face. And so I repaired the laceration. I was driving home and, and I was at this big intersection, you know, here in Detroit and there was a big commotion. I pull up to the intersection and I see a body on the ground. I don't see any sirens or any like, you know, flashing lights from cops or ambulances or anything, but I see this body on the ground. And so I run out of my car and this is probably about 11 PM at night.

40:03Dr. Anthony Youn:So it was dark. And I run up to this body. I look around, I see a guy on a cell phone. He was probably calling 911. He was the one that hit this guy basically in this, in this big intersection. And the cars are stopped, but it's like four lanes each way at this intersection at 11 p.m. at night, and I'm standing in the middle of it over this body. And I look down at this young guy, and his head is turned one way, his body is turned the other way, there's blood everywhere. And I just look down at him, and it's like, what do I do? I mean, it was literally out of a horror movie where the body is completely contorted.

40:40Dr. Anthony Youn:So I tried to feel for a pulse, and there's nothing there but looking i'm like there's no way that this is compatible with life and so i kind of stood there and somebody yelled out you know of their car can i help you at all i'm like i don't think there's anything to do here um and then within a couple of minutes fire engine came and they went up to the guy and they started performing cpr on him and i started and i felt like this horrible feeling the gut in my stomach of like should i have been doing cpr like and every time they would push on his chest, blood would just come out of all of his orifices essentially.

41:16Dr. Anthony Youn:And so they did that for maybe a minute and then they declared him and put him in a bag and everything. But for that minute or so while they were doing CPR, I felt like this sickness come over me because it was like, should I have done more for this guy? But then you look at him and it's like, there's no way he can survive this. He was that mangled up. And so there are times like that where things like that happen and it's it's tough like and i drove home that night and i just was like what could i could i have done anything differently should i have done something differently and i felt guilty because it's like was it that i didn't want i knew it was going to be a bloody mess and i didn't want to be a bloody mess by like pumping i like i don't know and and you know it's and it's like hindsight's 2020 of like yeah i couldn't have done anything to save him but for that period of time it was like a question of like shoot did i screw up here you know which i didn't like there's nothing that could have been done but still it's so sometimes

42:14Darin Olien:it can be tough yeah yeah that's that's that's that's tough for anyone and that was probably

42:22Dr. Anthony Youn:their protocol that they had to at least try i think so and i think so yeah and then it was

42:29Darin Olien:probably just what they had to do and then yeah and i hand it to firefighters because i mean they're

42:36Dr. Anthony Youn:It's like they're trained in fighting fires, but they're also first responders. And they're the ones that were there first, and they were taking care of everything. They declared him dead and all that stuff. It's like, man. And now I think sometimes, hey, if I'm on a plane and they're like, hey, somebody needs a doctor, it's like, well, is there a firefighter around? They probably see more of these emergencies than I do.

42:55Darin Olien:Yeah, can we make sure we have a firefighter on every plane? Seriously. you know i've got some i've got some gnarly actually some superfood hunting stuff when people have come on the trip and i remember a guy in indonesia who was uh he was a dp so he was filming some stuff for a segment we had and he was from new york he's like i want to be here and the only way that we're going to get to the remote area was on a motorcycle so we each had to jump on this motorcycle and i looked at him and i was like you don't look too comfortable so maybe get on with the local guy yeah yeah no i wanna i wanna experience it all well cut to when we're coming back from the area in this cobblestone in the middle of nowhere he i've cruised ahead because I'm just having fun.

43:50Darin Olien:I grew up on motorcycles. And I stopped to let everyone come up, and no one came. And I cruised back, and this guy was laying on the side of the cobblestone. His motorcycle was there. What happened was he hit a stone. His foot slipped off the peg, went into the front spoke. His body went up and over and snapped his fibula and tibia in half. And so we were now like, holy shit, what do we do? Like, so I went into that zone. We stabilized. We all picked him up and we got to the nearest hospital. It was a horrible hospital. So we just got some opiates and at least got him out of pain and brought him to a bigger hospital.

44:39Darin Olien:And yeah, he had to have surgery the next day in Indonesia, which was not ideal. But, you know, those things, those things happen. And I have far too many of those stories. But yeah, so this is, I mean, you know, the thing that reigns through from you to me, and I think everyone listening is your care for people.

45:05Dr. Anthony Youn:Oh, thank you.

45:06Darin Olien:Uh, and, and, and which is why I love is love your videos and your, you know, people saying all kinds of shit. And then you're just kind of like, like, okay, you know, and you, you, you, you do that, but also you, there's common sense things that you, you really make digestible for people. So now that you've been in kind of the public in a certain way, you've had a successful career. Uh, what's, what's next for you? What are you looking to do? What's your next expression?

45:39Dr. Anthony Youn:Yeah, I think right now I'm focused. I've got a skincare line that I'm really proud of. We also do some small amount of supplements as well. Collagen is one of my big things that I'm a big proponent of. And we're just coming out now with a new fiber supplement as well, which I think that's something that we, you know, it's one of those where people don't really talk about it. It's not sexy. It's not like, oh, everybody talks about NAD, and they talk about glutamine and collagen. And honestly, fiber may be more important than almost any other supplement, period. And so few of us get enough fiber.

46:13Dr. Anthony Youn:So that's one thing that I'm actually now going to be focusing on as well. So the skincare line, like I said, super proud of, made with natural organic ingredients. And then once again, working on some of these new supplements to try to help people not only feel their best, I'm sorry, look their best, but to feel their best as well. And I think there's so much that we can do that's just simple, easy stuff that doesn't require a ton of money, doesn't require taking time off, getting anything injected into your body. Really, you could still improve your health so much and even improve your appearance.

46:44Darin Olien:Well, it makes sense. It makes sense that you're moving into this area and providing, because it is, because we're in this modern world, we are getting exposed to things that we have never got exposed to. We're nutrient deprived, certainly in some areas. And we have to combat some of this weird stuff that this modern world serves up to us. And I love that you're super focused on healthy ingredients and certainly fiber. Because again, if we had a nickel for every time someone talked about protein, we would be retired 10 times over, right? But fiber is that fuel of so much going on in the microbiome and expressing healthy gut, healthy immunity, healing from some of this other modern day exposures.

47:45Darin Olien:I love that. What was it for you when you really kind of, when it clicked over that fiber was so important?

47:54Dr. Anthony Youn:I think when I started actually taking it myself, you know, I always thought, you know, I eat mostly a plant forward diet. I have a little bit of meat, but probably, you know, I eat meat maybe every two or three days. I try to. And so I actually had assumed because I eat mainly plant-based foods that I would have enough fiber. And so I started actually taking some fiber supplements just to think, hey, let me see how this affects me. And everything changed. Like everything was so much easier. It was more regular. Like I felt better. And so it was just kind of a no-brainer, you know. And as a plastic surgeon, we know that the health of the microbiome has profound impacts on the health of your skin.

48:39Dr. Anthony Youn:And there are some early studies showing that there are certain inflammatory skin disorders like eczema, like acne, like rosacea, that are really affected by the health of your microbiome. And so anything that you can do to try to help support a healthy microbiome is so, so important. And so that's one of the reasons why we're kind of focusing next on fiber. You know, collagen, I think, is great, especially for the skin. So that's something that we've... It's actually our number one selling product overall is our Union Beauty Supplemental Collagen. But I do think the fiber is such a no-brainer.

49:12Dr. Anthony Youn:I know that there are a lot of... I think right now, interestingly, on social media, and I think with everything going on with the government and stuff, there are two very entrenched camps right now in healthcare, and especially in health information. They're the traditionalists who are very anti any supplement, and then there are the alternative medicine who are so sometimes supplement-obsessed that they don't focus on actual eating real foods, And then they kind of get way into things like carnivore and all these kind of outlier type stuff, beef tallow and things. That I do think that for me, it's trying to bridge some of that.

49:54Dr. Anthony Youn:I think that there's a lot of great information in alternative medicine, but my education is rooted in traditional medicine. And so it's trying to combine those things together. That's what I do for my practice. That's what I do hopefully on my social media. That's the idea behind our skincare and supplement company as well.

50:12Darin Olien:That's great. I mean, I certainly have a point of view about like I kept getting questions about beef tallow and everything else. And before I launch into why, because I looked at this research, I looked at, I was like, how is this a thing? What's happening? From a plastic surgeon, someone has skin as your primary focus. Is there anything that shows?

50:41Dr. Anthony Youn:So beef tallow is filled with, I mean, overall moisturizing fatty acids. Okay, so these fatty acids can be really powerful moisturizers for your skin. So if you have, let's say, really dry, irritated skin, then it can be helpful as a moisturizer to your skin. The issue with beef tallow is, number one, it's comedogenic. So you do not want to put it on your face. Otherwise, it can definitely cause you to break out. Um, that's the first thing. And then the second thing is people who are, let's say, making it at home and, you know, you can go rancid. Uh, and so if you buy commercially available preparations of beef tallow, they usually also have honey in them.

51:22Dr. Anthony Youn:So they mix it with honey. Honey is a natural antibacterial, as you know. Uh, and I think that that's one reason why they do that. Um, I myself, you know, if you want to put beef tallow on your body, I, there are people who do say that it helps, it has helped them with some of their inflammatory skin issues can definitely help to moisturize it. Um, but once again, there is nothing in it that's truly anti-aging. Okay. It is really just a moisturizer for your body. Um, if you want to go that, that route. So that's kind of my feeling with it is I'm not pro or anti, but I think that this, that when I look at it from a clinical perspective, don't use it on your face.

51:58Dr. Anthony Youn:If you want to have a moisturizer that's made of beef tallow, which is essentially a beef omentum, you know, it's the, that fat inside the, around the inner organs of the, of the cow. If you want to put that all over your body, that's on you. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'd rather put something different, probably more plant-based on my skin, but hey, that's up to you.

52:22Darin Olien:That's well enough said. Yeah. Well, I'm super stoked to have this conversation with you, and I love that you're doing. And congrats on launching the skincare and the supplement line. I think you're well-deserved to do that. And it clearly shows the care that you have for what you do, but most importantly for your patients and for really the global at large because clearly it wants you to keep helping people in whatever situation is going on. thank you my friend i appreciate darren yeah thank you brother appreciate it