Plastic Surgery for Wellness and Overall Health | Dr Anthony Youn

Youn tested the routine on people with 'average' skin (not already optimal), had independent observers rate before/after photos from Instagram, and found an average perceived age reduction of approximately 5 years. The routine deliberately excludes unnecessary steps: a toner is optional, moisturizer is weather-dependent. Adding it per application cost is well under $1/day for most people. Youn's brand (unBeauty) sells a CE antioxidant serum that combines C + E, which he calls their most popular product — but he presents the routine as brand-agnostic.

Youn reports that across both initial small testing groups and the larger 10,000-person book launch cohort, the most common outcomes reported were: markedly improved energy ('through the roof'), visible skin improvement noted by third parties unprompted, and incidental weight loss. The program is deliberately simple — he explicitly contrasts it with biohacking stacks of 50+ supplements. The skincare component (2-minute routine) requires the fewest habit changes; the IF component is the highest-friction piece, which is why it is introduced only after a week of dietary stabilization.

Youn synthesized the protocol by cross-referencing ICU and wound-care surgical literature with integrative and naturopathic sources — disciplines rarely combined in conventional surgical training. He reports observing a lower complication rate in his practice after implementing it, though this is observational. He notes that companies are now commercializing similar stacks (mentioning 'Heel Fest' as an emerging competitor), validating the approach from a market-signal perspective. The probiotics component specifically targets C. difficile risk: two patients in his early practice developed C. diff infections from peri-operative antibiotics before he routinely prescribed probiotics.

Youn positions red light therapy as the first non-invasive treatment step beyond topical skincare in his recommendation hierarchy. He personally uses a red light mask and says his skin is notably good partly due to it (and partly genetics — 'I'm Asian, so that helps'). He describes split-face studies where one side receives sham treatment and the other red light: measurable collagen and elastin improvement appears within 4 weeks. The key is wavelength (600–630 nm red, sometimes combined with 800–850 nm near-infrared) and sustained use — the erratic 'try it once and see' approach that most consumers take yields nothing.

Youn explains the purging phenomenon: retinol initially reduces chronic inflammation (its core anti-aging mechanism) but can cause a transient acute inflammatory response during the first 6–8 weeks that resolves for most patients. The 1–2 months of redness and flaking is not a sign of harm but adaptation. Bakuchiol bypasses that pathway entirely. Youn notes bakuchiol has been used in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine but only recently appeared in Western cosmetic formulations, making it a relatively new ingredient despite an ancient lineage.

Youn tells the story of a man in his 50s presenting with a large abdomen, grabbing his belly and asking to remove 'this blubber' — which turned out to be entirely visceral fat, surgically inaccessible. He notes there is a minority belief that liposuctioning fat from one area redistributes it to another area; early studies suggested this but multiple larger studies have since disproven systematic fat redistribution. He observes his practice does far fewer large-volume liposuctions than in 2004 — attributing this partly to practice evolution and partly to increasing GLP-1 medication use in his patient population.

Youn spends considerable time explaining the history of lasers: original CO2 lasers burned the full skin surface, driving significant results but also significant complications (hypopigmentation, lengthy healing). Fractional technology (early 2000s) introduced 'pixel' patterns — thousands of tiny ablative columns surrounded by untreated skin — cutting healing time and complication rates dramatically. Non-ablative lasers create heat without tissue columns; they stimulate collagen but produce less result. IPL/BBL uses pulsed light targeting chromophores: melanin (brown spots) or hemoglobin (redness). He notes that his own purchase cost for a laser starts at $200,000, with IPL at $100,000 — costs inevitably passed to patients, making home red light therapy a far better bang-for-buck entry point.

Youn describes working seven days a week to build a practice gauged by facelift volume, reaching a year-and-a-half waitlist. His pivot came not from diminishing surgical interest but from a moral reckoning: 'We take people who are healthy, we make them unhealthy, with the belief that they're going to be healthy again afterwards.' He spent months analyzing what he could have done differently and concluded the only preventative act was not operating at all. That realization launched the autojuvenation research program and four books.

In the 21-day program, week one is diet cleanup (whole foods, increased protein, eliminated ultra-processed foods) plus baseline supplements and the skincare routine. Weeks two and three layer in two fasting days per week with the polyphenol-fat refeeding pattern. After testing on roughly 10,000 people through the book launch, Youn reports widespread self-reported improvements in skin clarity, dramatic increases in energy, and incidental weight loss — with low reported restriction burden. He notes this is not a formal IRB study but considers the response signal compelling.

Youn withheld the protocol from public release for years, fearing that if a patient on his protocol got an unrelated complication (e.g., a hematoma), their other surgeon would blame his recommendations. Now that commercial companies are launching similar peri-operative supplement stacks (he mentions one called Heel Fest), he feels more comfortable discussing it publicly. He emphasizes omega-3s only restart after surgery due to bleeding risk, and probiotics are particularly valuable because antibiotics used peri-operatively can allow C. difficile to take hold.

Youn distinguishes collagen type by function: type 1 is skin, type 2 is joints, type 3 is muscle. He stresses that collagen supplements should not count toward daily protein macros because collagen is not a complete protein (lacks adequate tryptophan), and its leucine content is insufficient for muscle protein synthesis. For skin purposes, hydrolyzed versions are the only validated form — intact collagen protein has poor bioavailability. He notes dosing of 20 g (common in studies) may be suboptimal and that 40+ g is likely a better target, though he acknowledges that's anecdotal.

The risk is anatomically concentrated at the nasolabial folds, nose, and glabella — areas close to branches of the ophthalmic artery. The mechanism: high-pressure injection into a dermal artery can cause retrograde flow of filler particles toward the eye. Board-certified plastic surgeons and dermatologists are trained in arterial anatomy and emergency reversal (hyaluronidase injection), but practitioners trained in weekend courses often are not. Youn contrasts this with Botox, where the worst outcome (droopy eyelid) resolves within 2–3 months. He also flags that young adults who use Botox prophylactically may be building antibodies to botulinum toxin, potentially reducing efficacy when they actually need it in later decades.