Skin Care Mistakes That Are Aging Your Skin (and Wrecking Your Hormones)

24:08A lot of times that's done via people are trying to change it via a medication or maybe a conventional skin care product. And it's almost like sometimes it's like, OK, I'm going to try and replace one bad habit with another or one bad product with another. It's like I'm going to switch from smoking to drinking soda. It's like, well, this is not fixing the actual problem here at all. And I love it. It's all about environment, you know, changing the environment there as much as you possibly can. It's like, hey, if you want to plant to grow a beautiful, Chelsea, my wife and I, we just planted, did a big garden this year.

24:39And so, you know, we were very strategic in terms of the soil we bought. And we were doing this mixture of certain types of worms with certain types of mushrooms and fungus with certain types of pima. You know, like. So fun. So I did a lot of research on what is the ideal soil for a raspberry bush to grow in versus, you know, zucchini versus tomato versus, you know, other things. But it's very similar. And it's different for everybody, you know, different for everyone's skin. Whereas I know some people have naturally more oily skin. Some people have more dry skin. Well, are there any recommendations you have for people based on their skin type?

25:12Yes, but there's a couple that apply to everyone. Yeah. And I'd love to share with those. So people are doing all of this, you know, amazing stuff for their skin. But if they're using hot water to cleanse their face or standing in a hot shower and letting that hot shower water be on their face, they're destroying their skin. That is the thing that will keep you oily and dehydrated at the same time. You'll be red and you won't know why. Your rosacea will flare. Hot water is ruining everyone's skin. And the thing is, is it basically halts the healing response that you're trying to get when you go and do expensive treatments.

25:43Like, for example, you go do a high heat laser or you do even just microneedling when there is no heat. and you're going home and using hot water in the shower, destroying your skin and destroying the barrier. So that's causing people a lot of issues and nobody benefits from doing hot water on their skin. So that's one. But then based on skin type, I mean, it really depends on if you identify as being oilier, you're going to do better with hyaluronic. Hyaluronic-based things, aloe-based things, and those can be good for everyone too, but it's all about how you layer. So everyone's going to benefit from a hyaluronic.

26:13Everyone's generally going to benefit from an aloe blend. And so doing thinnest to thickest in your routine and then figuring out what ingredients work best for your skin. Like if you're combating redness, you're going to want some like cooling herbs. You're going to want to avoid things that have like any sort of like pepper in them or anything like that or things that feel caustic. You know, so it's just about listening to your skin and layering thinnest to thickest with really good ingredients and calming ingredients help everyone, too. So really looking for those like anti-inflammatory things like a little bit of turmeric or some willow herb that benefits everyone.

26:47Yeah. And I've noticed, for instance, like my my skin does really well with the with the things that are very cooling. Aloe, rose, hyaluronic acid, all the things you're mentioning there. Whereas my mother in law, she's through menopause or in menopause. You know, she she does well with the oil or doing well with the things that are more sort of, you know, moisturizing in that way, too. So obviously there's a difference in ages. Any thoughts on that as well? There's different. Yeah, I mean, dryers. Mature skin tends to be a little bit more dry, especially when testosterone decreases. Testosterone is kind of like what fires the oil production.

27:21That's why guys, like teenage boys, tend to be like really, really oily. And then it calms down. But women, especially after they go through menopause, their skin is notoriously dry. So it just wants to drink up everything. I still think layering thin as to thick as with like a serum and then finishing it with an oil, that's how you seal it in. But not all oils are the same either. So some oils like coconut oil are pretty thick, and they have a comedogenic rating of 5, which means it's like the highest comedogenic rating, very likely to break you out if you're acne prone. Then there's other oils that have a comedogenic rating of 0.

27:51So anyone can use them. And what are those? Hemp oil, which is one of my favorites. I get massaged with that. So organic cold-pressed hemp seed oil is fantastic. And then jojoba oil can be a 0 or a 1. It's usually safe for most people. Rosehip oil, amazing. Argan oil is generally safe for most people. And then safflower and sunflower. And then ours is actually watermelon seed oil, which is organic and cold pressed. But it has comedogenic rating of zero. And we actually blended it with sodium hyaluronate. So it's like multiple layers of hydration. Because a straight up oil, it's not the best for everyone.

28:26You want a nice blend or you want it to be on top of a thinner molecule like a sodium hyaluronate, hyaluronic acid. So one of the things that surprises some people is you can have too much of a good thing. and you know today we're living in this world where vitamins and supplements are very popular I do quite a few vitamins and supplements myself but I'm actually pretty conscious anytime I'm buying vitamin and supplement brands I'm buying things that are more whole food based and that tends to actually be lower dosages yeah and more absorbable you guys had mentioned this earlier vitamin b12 high doses can actually cause breakouts yeah and actually cause acne it makes sense to me because your liver is having to deal with a lot of that.

29:05So every time you over consume something, vitamin C, that's going to be your kidneys, right? So if you're over consuming something, there's an organ that has to deal with that stress. Walk me through, are there any other vitamins, nutrients outside of vitamin B12 that we can have too much of that will actually cause breakouts or skin issues? We love this question. So many women are getting high quality supplements. They're just taking too much of things, and it's not really matching what their deficiencies are. And then they get, you know, quote, hormonal acne, and then they go get put on spironolactone.

29:40But it's really been caused by their vitamins. So vitamin B12 is another one. And I have seen and experienced personally that levels of, like, over 500 % RDV can be problematic. And it'll get you in your neck right along your jaw. So it looks like hormonal acne, but it's generally right along the jaw. I see that all the time. And when B12 shots were a thing, people would come in. Like my phone was blowing up at the clinic when that became a thing. So that's number one. And then excess vitamin D, believe it or not. Most people are deficient in vitamin D. We do not want to be that deficient. But if you get told you're deficient and then you go and get, say it's like 800 % RDV and there's no K2 and you just start taking that.

30:20And you start taking that for a year, two years, three years. And you don't get your levels rechecked because most people don't. that's when you get the surplus because it's fat soluble and it can spike testosterone for some people vitamin d is also a hormone it throws off other things if you're taking way too much of it and it's not being metabolized properly that'll get you in the goatee area so excess vitamin d i see you get people right where they're where they'd have a goatee so what's so interesting is what one you know if you ever looked at ayurvedic or chinese medicine face mapping i mean these are all areas like, you know, liver here.

30:54And then you've got things like in terms of I think like kidney, stomach, urinary tract in this area. And then up here, this is more lung channel. Yeah. And so it's because you're, you're, you're overwhelming the organ with too much, even if it's a good thing. Too much of a good thing. Yeah. And the thing with vitamin D, as your point, you have to have vitamin K2 and magnesium to even absorb it. And if not, if it's not absorbed, it's, you don't want it floating around in your body because it's going to cause imbalances. So I love that you're saying it. So B12, number one, vitamin D, number two, is there a third or any others that are issues?

31:24Yes. Excess vitamin zinc. And I see this every year during cold and flu season and it was rampant during COVID. So too much zinc can spike testosterone. Testosterone is the key hormone that in dihydrotestosterone, but testosterone is the key thing that when it spikes can create hormonal acne and it spikes throughout the day and it spikes from various different things. But taking too much zinc, like a standalone zinc supplement, it's usually like 300 % RGV. That's where you can start seeing hormonal acne around the mouth. And I see it kind of on the mustache. I don't know why it gets right there, but like on the upper lip, I've seen that from too much zinc.

31:56And then vitamin B7, which is biotin, that doesn't have so much of a hormonal impact, but it can make you produce excess keratin. That's why it's in all the hair, skin and nails supplements. And excess keratin protein is one of the core genetic factors of acne in the first place. So if you've ever taken a hair, skin and nail supplement, it can have like 10 ,000 to 80 ,000 % RTV of biotin and you start getting little bumps everywhere. Wow. Yeah. So those are the four main ones. One other one that we feel is so important to mention, we've really only seen it become rampant in the last two years because so many more products are being formulated with it.

32:32And that's stevia. So there's a lot of research coming out right now that stevia in excess amounts acts as a progesterone blocker. So it's mimicking effects of birth control. By no means is it necessarily acting as a birth control to not get you pregnant, but it is linked to infertility issues through some of these studies and also linked to acne through some of these studies as well because of the hormonal impact that's having by blocking testosterone in excess amounts. I saw there's one study on that that I've seen and they were doing very large doses, very, very large doses. But yeah, that's - The interesting thing about it, though, is we're now at the day and age where sometimes people are consuming up to 15 different products that have it.

33:20Understood. Yeah, their energy drink, their protein powder. What if you're drinking Zevias every day and everything else? Exactly, putting it in your coffee. So it is the excess doses and buildup. And if people are not detoxing properly, we've been seeing this a lot in blood work lately, people's detox pathways are backed up. Yeah. And so it's building up in the body over time. It's not saying that if you have Stevia every single day for one week, you'll start breaking out. But we're now compounding a year, two years. Detox pathways are clogged up. And so, again, it's coming back to the very first thing everyone should be doing is making sure those detox pathways are open.

33:55We're having bowel movements. We're sweating. We're getting it out. But it's just something to be aware of. We don't like to create fears of everything and everything is in the dosages. but just being aware of how many products throughout the day you're consuming with stevia it's not a bad thing it's just looking at how many things have it and just limiting it maybe it's your protein powder like whatever that is just limiting the amounts yeah i'm glad you're saying this one of the things and this is why i just uh this isn't me pushing back this is me agreeing but also wanting to clarify is that i have people sometimes they'll hear stuff like this like i'm not gonna do any stevia and the reality is is that i think generally stevia has been used for thousands of years.

34:34It was used in Native American medicine to sweeten teas. It's used in Japan and Asia. They also used it as birth control. I mean, it's used everywhere. Again, what you're talking about, though, is incredibly high doses. Yes. And it's been used as medicine in Asian medicine for thousands of years. Yeah, in the buildup. The dose is in the buildup for people that aren't eliminating. Exactly, to your point. It's the very same thing. You shouldn't eat five cups of blueberries a day. It's just way, way too much for people. And so I think that's where this sort of imbalance is. And I had a patient once, now this wasn't, this was Splenda, this was Sucralose.

35:09And they were doing cups and cups and baking. They had to be admitted to Vanderbilt because they got chlorine poisoning. Because if you have too much Sucralose, it breaks down into chlorine in your body. And so anyway, to the point, there's always that 1 % of people that don't, they're the people drinking 10 Zevias a day on the hour, 20 cups of cough. We've been seeing that though, especially like with electrolyte powders. People have four to five electrolyte powders a day and it's in their greens powder and their protein. I'm actually, I have another patient I'm working with and it's a male who has prostate issues and kidney issues.

35:48And he started to have a lot of his kidney markers go up because he was doing so much, some of these electrolyte powders. It's just too much. It is. Yeah. And And the other thing, just to touch on electrolytes for a minute, some of these, the number one selling brand right now, they're a five to one ratio of potassium to sodium. Unless you are running a marathon or a travel, you don't need that much sodium. It's way, way too much. Most people need more potassium. They're much more potassium deficient. So a lot of these, even products that are formulated today, they're just grossly off. So people are, sodium will cause your body to hold onto water.

36:24Potassium will release it. It's more detoxifying. What ratio do you like? It just so much is dependent on how much you sweat. If you're a person that's not sweating much, I like actually higher potassium and lower sodium. Because that's what you're going to get in fruits. It's what you're going to get in vegetables. I don't even really, I mean, so I want to hire. If you're sweating a little bit, a one-to-one or moderately, a one-to-one is probably more correct. If you're a professional athlete who sweats a lot, you could probably get away from a two to one or even a five to one ratio if you are like sweating buckets and buckets and buckets.

36:59But it's, you know. It's so helpful for people just to hear and understand. Yeah. I love that you guys pointed out the zinc thing because so many people, the zinc sales of products, I know this because I've owned something companies, the zinc sales went through the roof during COVID. I mean, so, so high. And I like zinc. There's some people, actually I've had people who had acne and they started doing zinc and it got better. I mean, really improved. If you're deficient. If you're deficient. It's all about that Goldilocks. We don't want to be too low. We don't want to go way too high. That's right.

37:28And the thing, though, that people, if they do a zinc supplement that only has zinc, it almost always imbalances copper. And copper is an antiparasitic. It's an antiviral. So where zinc strengthens the immune system, it actually, if you decrease your copper, your body can't fight pathogens as well, like parasites, which can cause acne issues. So I think just when people are buying supplements, buying something that's balanced, more food-based, more in that realm is always better. We're such advocates of getting it through your nutrition. The whole carnivore diet had a moment, and everyone's having steak for breakfast, lunch, and dinner now.

38:08Like the diet crazes are just funny to watch. I follow the blue zone principles of some kind. So that is what makes me feel amazing, and I'm the most acne prone individual like on the planet. Even today at 40, I'll still break out. If I have like eggs are another secret acne trigger, egg white protein can be a big trigger for a lot of people. If I have an omelet, I will literally wake up with a cyst like within two days. Yeah, the eggs are very dampening and they're going to create that sort of excess moisture as you're talking about. I love that you know that. Some people are like, no, they're a superfood.

38:38How dare you make me think differently about eggs? Like they break people out like crazy. You know, my entire career, I've really tried to focus on personalized medicine because to your point, everyone is radically different. I mean, if I have somebody come in with inflammatory bowel disease, I have them eat almost all soup. If I have somebody with cancer, yeah, yeah. In zero raw food, no salads versus somebody with cancer, I might have them do a good amount of raw food. So it's very dependent upon the person. And I think this is why the more in tune somebody can come in with their own body, watch what works for them.

39:07I think that's incredibly important. But there are so many women struggling with what you guys struggled with, which is acne. Walk me through, like, what do both of you eat typically for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to optimize your skin health? I just started recently incorporating more soups, like bone broth. I like to make a big vat of it at the week. And then, like, as the week goes on, I'll just, like, change the flavor, like, each day by, like, adding turmeric or ginger. A really good, like, bone broth soup with, like, vegetables, carrots, celery. It's just what I like. Kind of that, like, comforting chicken noodle soup feeling.

39:36so I do that or I do chia seed pudding with like coconut yogurt I do the cultured one I'll add cinnamon I'll add mint I like to make the colorful thing like everything else like five colors I'm not hungry in the morning and I do realize it's important to start your day off with protein so I make a big matcha and like a big mason jar thing and it has a ton of water and I do a scoop or two of the protein powder so I'm getting like 30 grams of protein if not more right there and then I go about my day at 1030 is when I'm hungry And I'll make either like ground lamb or ground bison. I put something pickled, either pickles or pickled onions or kimchi.

40:12And then I'll do like some sort of herb like dill, cilantro. I don't eat a ton of carbs. I get that through fruit, fruit and vegetables. So I don't like do, I don't feel like I need grains. Maybe if I'm working out, I'll add some of that. But it's generally like some really clean ground meat with a bunch of green herbs, arugula, pickled things. And it's very fun. Nice. How about you? I'll wake up in the morning. I drink like a big mason jar full of water first thing in the morning. You guys have your mason jars. It helps me drink a lot of water. Yeah, that's good, yeah. Because if I'm ever traveling and I don't have my mason jar, maybe I'm at an Airbnb or a house with just a cup, I really struggle to get enough water.

40:50Cups are tiny. Yeah. And I always use leftover soup mason jars. But I'll drink a whole thing of water, usually with a little bit of lemon. And then I have about 20 to 30 grams of protein through a bone broth protein powder. And I have that just blended with water. I've recently been eating before I work out. My whole entire life, I always used to work out fasted. And I just feel like my hormones really want to eat before now, but not something heavy. So my body has been thriving having bone broth protein powder right before I work out. And then after I work out, I might make another one. or I have like my favorite protein bars, Rar Bars.

41:29They are like homemade out of Wisconsin. She loves Rar Bars. I'm obsessed. Yeah. They're like a whole food base. So I normally have one of those. And then I'll have my coffee after I work out. I love coffee. So I'll have my cup of coffee then. Lunch is normally just an herby salad, usually arugula. I'll just buy a bunch of random herbs at the market, whether it's dill, parsley, mint, basil, throw that in. With some type of protein, it's usually whatever I made for dinner the night before. So whether it's like salmon or steak or chicken, and then dinner is typically a fish or a steak with an arugula salad.

42:04I mean, that's a good diet. That's a clean diet right there. Yeah. My family is actually Peruvian, and they do their biggest meal, like a lot of places in the world, which I think is healthier. They do their biggest meal for lunch. So if you have time to burn it off, metabolize it off. I don't feel that good when I have a bunch of steak and then go to bed. No. So I'll try to do my heaviest meal. I do like almost a pound of meat like during the day. that kind of recipe I described. I'll just eat that throughout the afternoon. And then at dinner, it'll like generally be fish or more soup. I like fermented miso, like the Okinawan.

42:32Yeah. You know, there's the ancient Chinese medicine principle around diet is eat like a king for breakfast, a pauper for lunch, and a peasant for dinner. I've never heard that. That's so spot on. They're very much like eat a smaller dinner because you want to give your body so much time to digest and sleeping on. And also have a three-hour block from when you eat at least to when you go to bed. and then walking around your meals. Yes. And so those are, you know. Love walking after a meal. Digestion is huge for skin. Yeah. If you increase digestion, you know this, right? If you optimize digestion, you have a cascade positive effect on nearly every other system in the body.

43:09Would you agree with that? Oh, yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. It's connected to everything. Yeah. It's really especially connected to people's skin. A lot of people aren't digesting their macros and they think digestion, gut health. Okay. Probiotic. Where we see a lot of people have the issue is actually in the stomach. like not enough enzymes, not properly chewing their food, low stomach acid. That's where you don't break down your food and the chaos starts. So we're big proponents of maximizing digestion. Apple cider vinegar before meals, hot water with lemon before meals, sitting and chewing the food thoroughly makes a huge difference in your skin.

43:40Yeah. Yeah. And part of that too is not rushing. Yeah. You know, of course, cortisol is going to go up. I encourage people to not be on a tablet or a computer or your phone. Just when you eat, just eat and just either look out the window or have the conversation with the person in front of you and just really take time to relax and not be working while you're in the middle of eating. I've noticed this. If everybody would do this, if they would sit down and notice, if they're doing something when they're eating, they will eat so much faster. If they just sit there and just take a few deep breaths, it'll take you twice as long to eat, but that's what you want.

44:11And you wind up eating so much less, too. I have that issue all the time where I would just shove a bite in my mouth, be looking at something else. I wouldn't even chew my food and I'd already have another bite loaded. And I'm like, why can't I lose weight? Why is this such a thing in my family where none of us are thin? And I paid attention to just setting the fork down in between bites and thoroughly chewing my food. I eat like a third as much as I used to, but I'm three times more satisfied. That's so good. Hey, Dr. Axe here. I want to let you know about an absolutely incredible and cutting edge line of skincare called Clear Stem.

44:43That stands for clear skin and also helping stem cell production. I am a big fan of stem cells because they've helped me heal and regenerate my body. And now I want to do that, not just internally, but via my skin. If you've dealt with breakouts, you know that typical acne products, they dry you out, they damage your skin. While traditional anti-aging products tend to be all oily and clog your pores, well, Clear Stem is really different. It's comprehensive. Also, it's backed with rigorous scientific studies and evidence. And unlike other skincare brands, Clear Stem is dedicated to both product safety and efficacy.

45:22I want to encourage you to discover Clear Stem, what I believe is the most powerful skincare line for helping acne and stem cells, helping you look younger. You can go to clearstem.com slash D-R-A-X-E and use the code Dr. Axe for 15 % off. You know, there are a lot of skincare treatments out there. I'd love to hear from you what you like, what you maybe think is overrated. Everything from laser therapy to, again, listen, you guys are going to tell I'm not that educated in skincare. I know some of the Chinese and Ayurvedic mental principles. I know the diet, but in terms of some of the treatments.

46:00But everything from vampire facials to Botox to the red light therapy. What are two or three you're saying, I really like this. I really think this works. Here's a couple that I just don't think are good in the long term and aren't that healthy for people. Yeah, so I love microneedling. If you have any sort of textural concern, whether it's wrinkles or old scar damage, anything where it's like the texture, microneedling should be your first stop before you go and do a laser. But why? Because it doesn't have heat and because it's the lowest downtime. So you have a shorter window of possibly hurting yourself after the treatment.

46:37Everything comes down to post-care. And the longer the post-care window, the more damage you can accidentally do. So microneedling, you can usually go back to your normal routine within five days. And there's no heat, so it's not going to really trigger melasma or trigger pigmentation concerns. Pigmentation concerns come when you add heat to things. So microneedling is great. Microneedling with PRP, even better. If you do that once a quarter or if you're like, I really, you know, I turned 40 and I want to really invest in my skincare. Do a series of three of those. You're going to look very different.

47:05And there's very minimal, like, risk or downside. So I love microneedling. If you can afford the PRP part of it because it is more expensive, it is worth it. Red light at home, fantastic. We love red light. Gua sha-ing is fantastic too. But as far as like in-office treatments, depends on what you're trying to do. I'm not personally a huge fan of really high heat lasers. I pigment really easily and I actually got hypopigmentation where my skin turned white. And that's like pretty much irreversible. And that happens a lot. Or if you do a high heat treatment like a CO2 laser or something like that, It can be great temporarily, but then you notice four or five months later, you have melasma in places you didn't have before.

47:44So there's just a lot of downside that can come with super high heat treatments, especially if the practitioner doesn't know your skin. So I stay away from those. Now, what's it called where one time I went and got my skin treatment done? This was a while ago. And it felt like they were taking rubber bands and like flicking me in the face. That's an IPL. Or you have a little more redness. So it could have been like there's IPL's intense pulse light. That's what you're describing. It feels like the rubber band. Okay. Yeah. Was that to get rid of some spots? Yeah. I just had a little bit, a couple of little red spots on the side of my face and my cheek.

48:18And so it was, yeah. I mean, it wasn't pleasant, you know, it was not pleasant. I thought I was going to go in and get like, you know, pampered and it was, you know, rubber band. No, no pampering with lasers. A lot of crying. Another reason why we don't like the CO2 and to what Danielle was saying with the high heat is it causes fat ablation it can cause and people do that and then they may notice a loss of volume over time so then they're going and getting fillers or injectables to re-put that volume back in and so that's why we like the um the skin treatments without heat like the microneedling microneedling with prp because then you're not having that possible concern of loss of fat in the face i did that one time with my wife because she again she she had done this regularly at home and it felt very cooling you know very the opposite of heating i mean what partly you know the prp we kept in our freezer so that's probably why it felt so cooling even days after i mean it felt very that was probably my favorite treatment i'd ever ever done even for folks with rosacea or other skin concerns microneedling can be really really healing for ladies that want more of a lifting effect i really like the ultrasound lifting technologies that are out right now There's the old ones called old therapy.

49:28I used to perform that like 10 years ago and it worked amazing. There's a new one called soft wave that I've done and I love it. Are you using soft wave? Really? Yeah. Ultrasound therapy is really useful and very effective. I recommend that a lot for orthopedic conditions. I've done it for injuries myself, sprained ankles, things like that too. Is it for sprained ankles? Oh, plantar fasciitis is probably the single best thing. Cause what it does is it helps break up fascial tension. And so if it's the same thing I'm thinking soft wave or shock wave therapy, I think it's the same thing. It just depends on how deep you're going into the skin, where you're trying to hit.

50:01But it's pretty much the same thing. I immediately need to research this later. I've had three leg surgery, so I have a lot of buildup in my ankle and knee. And I'm like, oh my God, I need this. Yeah, for connective tissue, fascia issues, low back pain, knee pain, hip pain. I mean, it's... Cool. Yeah, Softwave is amazing. Okay, I'm going to ask you where I should go. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'll let you know for sure. So what do you not like? What are some of the big skincare routines and fads out there? or you're just not a fan of long term? We're not the, I think, we think Botox is to each your own.

50:31But what people need to know about Botox is that it limit, it can inhibit blood flow. And so it can cause inflammation because of that. Like we want healthy blood flow to our face. We want healthy cell turnover. And when you're limiting blood flow in certain areas, you're not getting the most oxygenated blood to that area. So that can over time, it can cause more inflammation, more puffiness, more inability for the lymph system to properly flow. And many times people are getting more and more Botox over time and that's just building up more and more and inhibiting that blood flow in those certain areas.

51:09So that's just something for people to know and understand. Some people only get it once a year and that way they can allow it to detox out. Then they can get it again. but some people are getting it every six weeks and I think that and again we're back to the dosages of things um it's just important to understand that aspect of Botox. One of the things just from a you know maybe a male perspective is I think that a lot of women think that maybe they're doing it because one of the Jenners are or somebody else is doing it and they're doing it very young I mean I've seen women in their 20s and I yes and I'm just just to be honest like I thought to myself I don't think you look prettier uh with what you've done I actually think it looks more artificial yeah it's not look the same too yeah exactly yeah exactly everyone starts to look more the same yeah I think it's it's um yeah I don't I don't think it's ideal I've always felt that way I don't like doing Botox at all and it's just because I don't like how it makes me look because I think you look cuter and younger when you're a little bit more excited and expressive yeah and it can kind of a lot of Botox if you look at like the eyebrows that kind of aim down like the Angry Birds like that's what happens a lot as your eyebrows just start aiming down and it's if You look at little kids when they're smiling and they're youthful, the inner parts of your eyebrows should actually be a little bit up.

52:22So I think that's where people go a little bit wrong. So they just look really stern and they immediately look older. Wow. I think another really sad thing, I had a 25-year-old the other day text me and ask if she should get under eye filler. And it just made me really sad at such a young age, these concerns that people have. Like under eye filler at 25 years old? one that is a very dangerous area to be poking around so if someone is going to get anything under the eyes it has to be an extremely extremely vetted trained professional because there's a lot of negative things that can happen when you're poking around that area um but it just made me realize like girls are getting botox at 18 19 years old calling it preventative and we don't have a lot of longstanding research of these things compounding at such a young age.

53:17Because to your point before, people were getting them in their 40s. And now we have women, girls that want to start when they're 18 years old. And that makes me really nervous. Yeah, yeah, it makes me sad. It makes me nervous. Yeah, the thing that I think when I see people get that done, and maybe that's just with some of my background, but I think, you know, this was I think the same with plastic surgery and off in some cases, not all, but in some is there's there's a lack of self worth, like of self value there's an identity issue there you know that's you know that people are overlooking that rather than going to the thing that really they need yeah and there's genuine dysmorphia from being on social yeah selfies yeah well I was I'm writing a book now I mentioned this with dr.

53:55Wilco we're writing a book together and you know we're one of the chapters we really get into how social media big tech has really created this sort of a steam issue and you know the the research on girls, especially in high school. And so it's very, you know, the comparison of, you know, and all the filters and all the things, you know, it's like you combine a filter with, you know, trying to get the perfect shot with Botox and all these things and it's just not, it's not real. Yeah, it's not real. And it does mess with people's heads for sure. I mean, I take a break from social media and I notice my thoughts are very different.

54:29One of the biggest things that we focus on with Clearstem is just helping to instill confidence and self-worth because when you're struggling with acne, a lot of times you're at your lowest. A lot of people in our community are on SSRI, depression, anxiety medications, and a lot of it is because of how much they're struggling with their skin too. And when we can help people clear their skin, it changes everything for them, the way they show up in the world, the way they feel. And it's also another reason why we love hosting in-person events because we want people to look at people in the eyes, in the face, and meet in real life and really understand that they're not alone in this journey.

55:08When everything is done online, it again perpetuates that dysmorphia, that feeling of not enough. But when we can bring our community together, they just feel so much more whole. They feel so much more seen and heard. And it really does help them psychologically. And I think that's one of my favorite things we've done as a brand is bring people off screen to connect to meet in real life and provide them the root cause education to clear their skin because clear skin really changes everything. Not just clearing up your acne, how you feel about yourself and your whole body. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah.

55:48If somebody has acne or severe rosacea or any sort of skin issue, it is, it makes you very self-conscious. It can be debilitating mentally, emotionally. there's no doubt about it there's no doubt you know one of the things i've found over the years is that um it really depends upon the person on what tends to work like i'll just give you an example and taking care of tens of thousands of patients i've had it to where they've had acne and i started doing just we changed their diet generally just got a little bit better and that and it went away i've had it where i gave them a zinc supplement all of a sudden that went away i remember one girl what we i had her just start doing more antioxidants basically more berries, some super fruit powders, berries, all of a sudden her acne disappeared overnight.

56:27It just, it is so dependent upon and then some a lot actually it's, it's a stress thing. We try a lot of diet things and just all of a sudden when they were able to get the stress down. One of the things I love about the focus that you all have had is it's very holistic. It's we want to focus on stress. We want to focus on things you're actually putting on your skin. We want to get the toxins out. We want to do the lemon juice and herbal tea in the morning. People see the best results with a protocol, with an overall life transformation of doing the diet, the herbs, the skin care, all of those things together.

56:57Is that something that you guys have practiced in your clinic in San Diego? Oh, yes. Okay. Yes, we're extremely integrative. When I have a new person come to me for the first time, that appointment's 90 minutes. Oh, wow. And we usually run over. It's quite the opposite experience of going to like a traditional derm with the HMO and your appointment's like 12 minutes. Do you know the average visit is seven minutes? Seven to 12, yeah. I know, right? That's crazy. And that's what we all experienced. So yeah, 90 minutes. We go through everything you're eating, when you're eating it, what vitamins you're taking, when you're having caffeine.

57:26It's like a full traditional Chinese medicine dietary internal breakdown. Yeah, and then we go through what is – I have them dump everything on the bed that's possibly touching their skin. We go through all of them ingredient deck by ingredient deck. Pore clogging ingredients are wrecking people's skin. And it's the most common fillers that every company is using for skin care, hair care, and makeup. there's like about a hundred really common pore clogging ingredients but there's a lot more of them out there but it's the fillers that are in these products and they're breaking people out so we removed all of those from our from the clear stem line that we are like no pore clogging ingredients ever and that's why people get such good results because that's that's why people are breaking out from the topic it's it's internal and external but topically it's from pore clogging ingredients you know one of the trends online right now on social media is doing beef tallow gross we do not like this trend I have a pretty pretty let me give you the I'll give you the opinion on it from a probably a more of a Chinese medicine perspective and that is it's probably not good for most people's skin unless your skin is very aged unless you very very dry and then it can be useful and it can be you you'll do a lot better with it on your body than you ever would your face.

58:41Yes. So I actually have used towel. For instance, I've had patients with cracked heels and beef towel was amazing. I mean, really, really good for those very, very serious, deep, dry stuff beyond your skin. It seems like that would be like, what is that a rating of in terms of that one, that zero to five rating? It's a two. So beef towel is a comedogenic rating of two. So for cracked heels, absolutely. Knees, elbows, go for it. For your face or anywhere you break out, if you're acne prone, it's not going to be the ideal thing for you. Some people are like, this helped my acne. Well, that's, I had people say that one or two, and then I asked them just out of curiosity what they were using, and they were using coconut oil.

59:18Coconut oil is a hard five. So if something is perceived as helping, it's probably because it's better than what you were using, or your dryness was the cause of your breakout. So can it be helpful sometimes? Sure. Is it the ideal thing? Absolutely not, unless it's for your cracked heels. Yeah. What a time you're clogging something, an area of your body, and again, different areas of skin are different, right? It's like you're point your elbows and knees coconut oil go for it yeah your face you know not not not so much um i love the name of your brand okay clear stem clear skin and using stem cells you know stem cell based ingredients i have had stem cells one of the reasons i believe i'm even sitting doing this interview i'm walking today is because of stem cells i had a very really serious spinal infection didn't walk for a year a few years ago oh my god and stem cells i believe helped save my life helped me heal completely.

1:00:06And most people that have skin issues have stem cell exhaustion. In fact, it's one of the nine hallmarks of aging, somebody aging too quickly, is their body isn't producing enough stem cells. And so one of the big focuses on and even when you look at the ingredients used in like the Japanese diet, there's a lot of stems. I mean, you know, astragalus is one matcha green tea is another these are really turmeric. These are really stem cell enhancing foods. And what stem cells are, just for anybody who isn't aware of this, stem cells actually become those new healthy tissues. So if you have skin damage, one of the reasons why it doesn't heal, that acne scar doesn't heal, is your skin isn't producing, your body isn't producing, typically your bone marrow, but it's not producing enough stem cells to help create that new healthy young tissue.

1:00:53And so what you guys have done in your products is you have created and put in ingredients that actually help go and create and produce more of the stem cells on the skin. So talk to me about sort of what caused you guys to sort of, you know, realize that stem cells were sort of this key missing ingredient for people healing acne scars and acne and, and helping heal the skin. I think it's just my earlier training, studying cellular biology, immunology and genetics. Like if you have any sort of background in that, you fully understand, And you just reverse engineer everything back to stem cells, just like you said.

1:01:26So preserving them and utilizing them in whatever modality is beneficial for your concern is just really, really important. They've helped me with chronic pain that I've had, but that was through IV. So it's just different, right? Yeah, we have to go to Mexico for that. It's funny that in Mexico is where it's legal and regulated. Well, at least we can do it in skin care. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah, we just have a very integrative and whole body approach to understanding skin conditions, especially ones that are as complex and multifaceted as acne. But there are some things that are true for everyone.

1:02:01Taking care of your stem cells is one of them. And we always found it a bit confusing why no acne lines were focused on healing the scar damage. They're all like benzoyl peroxide. I just wanted to dry you out and then kind of leave you with that because the marketing approach is you do acne and then acne care and then you do anti-aging. In the beginning of years of Clear Stem, we had so many people try to give us advice and say, you have to pick a lane. You have to either do acne or anti-aging. You can't do both. You're going to confuse the customer. Where are they going to put you on retail shelves?

1:02:34What section? And we were like, no, that's the whole point. The whole point is no one's tackling both at the same time and you can have such better results and faster healing when you do both at the same time instead of just focusing on drying out the skin and then trying to use anti-aging after. But then, as we've talked about on the show already, a lot of the anti-aging products have the filler ingredients that just break you back out again. So you're in this vicious cycle of acne. And when you've exhausted that, you go to prescriptions. And then you're doing spironolactone and then you're doing Accutane.

1:03:07then you're in that vicious cycle. So we can stop it all just by helping the acne and the scar damage at the same time. And stem cells and our epidermal growth factors have been so helpful for people's skin doing it both at the same time. Yeah, it's so powerful. You know, I've done a lot of research on stem cells, and they're highly anti-inflammatory. So that's going to reduce the inflammation that is there with the acne. And they're the most regenerative thing you could ever take in terms of if you really want to create new and healthy tissue, look younger, reverse biological age, there's really nothing more powerful.

1:03:39So I was so excited to have you both on because I hadn't seen anybody who was really tackling acne and different skin and anti-aging from this sort of stem cell, from using stem cells in this way. Talk to me about just a couple of your products in terms of that you guys recommend that you use. Now I used one here just recently and was just so impressed. As I mentioned, I love that there's so much aloe. I love that there's the stem cell ingredients, a lot of these amazing herbals, everything from frankincense to rose to turmeric. I mean, just really amazing. Walk us through maybe three of your products or so that are really, really effective and maybe what's in there that making them so effective.

1:04:16Top products, if you are clear, so I'm curious. Number one, our moisturizer. So most moisturizers out there have pore clogging ingredients. Like everyone's lotion breaks them out. And if you have chronic acne, you're terrified to moisturize. Like, you know that feeling. And they're not wrong. Most moisturizers have pore cloggers. And when I say most, In my professional experience, I would say like 97 % of them. I'm shocked if I find a random lotion that is randomly acne safe. So ours is completely free of pore cloggers. And that's where most people should start because it's very likely that their moisturizer, their current one, is causing them problems.

1:04:47So you start there. My other favorite one is our sunscreen. It's called You Are Sunshine. We want people to go get sunshine. It's 21 % zinc. Wow. And it has GoToCola and green tea, some other Ayurvedic calming ingredients. And it creates this little blur effect that just kind of instantly boosts your confidence if you're dealing with like redness or anything like that. So those are my two favorites. I love our serums. Our serums completely changed my skin. I used to deal with really dry textured skin, just more dull looking. And I didn't realize how many things I was doing that was clogging my pores with skin care, with makeup.

1:05:23So our Clarity Serum, it's our Mandelic Acid Serum. Mandelic Acid is the Goldilocks of serum. So it's not going to dry you out like crazy like a salicylic, but it's not as harsh as a glycolic that can potentially cause a little more sun damage and just can be a bit harsh for everyday use for people's skin. Mandelic acid is that perfect sweet spot. It also helps to stimulate collagen. It gets in your pore and physically dissolves the clog. So it gives the appearance of smaller pores. We all know you can't physically shrink and change the size of pores, but you can change the appearance of it by eliminating the clogs that are essentially keeping your pore more open.

1:06:02So it dissolves the clog. We also have turmeric in there, vitamin C, so it's very brightening. I love that. And then our bounce back serum with all of our peptides in it, it absolutely changed the lines on my skin. That's the one I used and I really, really liked it. Oh, that's incredible. That's my third favorite. It's helped my crow's feet because I have blue eyes, so I'm so used to squinting all of the time. So I always had really aggressive crow's feet, even from such a young age. My crow's feet are smoother than they were when I was 16, 17, 18 years old. And also the scrunchiness that comes kind of in between my eyebrows smoothed out as well.

1:06:37So our bounce back serum has been transformative for my wrinkles. That's so great. Yeah, I saw a lot of the stem cell ingredients in that product too. I was really, really impressed. Yeah, bounce back is our, it's nicknamed our no Botox serum. I made it because I don't like doing Botox. So I made it for wrinkles and it really works. That's so good. Well, Danielle, Kaylee, thanks so much for coming on. This was really, really wonderful. And again, I wanted to have a discussion because so many people are struggling with acne and rosacea and just as many people, their skin is aging prematurely. You know, we want to look younger.

1:07:07And sometimes we look at people and we think, wow, it's amazing. I'm thinking about, well, this is a male Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I'm like, wow, you're in my own dad. My dad's 75, probably looks like he's in his 50s. And so that's that's what we all want, right? We want to look 20 years younger. We want to feel 20 years younger. And so you guys have really created an amazing product line and educating and I know your clinic in San Diego as well is doing some amazing things for people. So thanks so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom today. Really appreciate it. Thank you for having us. And I do want to mention the women here were so generous in offering 15 % off any of their products.

1:07:38If you want to go to clearstem.com again, that's clear, clear stem.com. And if you type in Dr. Axe, that's D-R-A-X-E. Once you go to clearstem.com, You can get 15 % off their products. Enjoy those and help you look younger, feel younger as well there. Again, so grateful for you. Thank you for subscribing, for sharing. You know, there's a lot of people out there that don't know the truth about sunscreen, the truth about stem cells, the truth about acne. There's so many people suffering and their self-image is suffering, their self-esteem is suffering. So really wanted to get this episode out because there are millions of people that need to know the truth about how to have beautiful, healthy skin, the natural way based on science, based on ancient medicine.

1:08:20So I've really enjoyed this episode today. I hope you have as well. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for subscribing. I'll see you on the next episode.

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