Transcript #513 Anti-Aging Tips from a Top Skin Care Expert with Rachel Varga
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- Today we look at the work of Rachel Varga.
- Find out about Wendy’s upcoming docuseries.
- Learn about Rachel Varga’s background.
- Get insights into medical spas.
- Learn about a 5 step rejuvenation process.
- Take a deep dive into skin scrub ingredients.
- Hear Rachel’s thoughts on ideal skin formulations.
- Find out the best way to start a skin protocol.
- Learn about the best supplements for skin health.
- Get information on the relationship between hormones and skin.
- Learn about the importance of micro injuries for skin rejuvenation.
- Get insights into reducing laxity in the face.
- Take a deep dive into neuromodulators.
- Find out how to contact Rachel.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Hello everyone. I’m Dr. Wendy Myers. Welcome to the Myers Detox Podcast. On this show, we talk about everything related to heavy metal and chemical toxicity and health conditions caused by toxins and bioenergetics. We talk about that a lot, and I’m going to be talking more and more about anti-aging, and the topic of today’s podcast is Anti-Aging Tips from one of America’s top skincare experts. Her name is Rachel Varga, and she’s someone that I personally consulted with on my own skin. After I hit menopause, I was like, what is going on with my skin? I mean, I do have good skin for my age, but I really wanted to optimize my skin and improve it and preserve it for as long as possible. And so we talk about all the different things that can help to preserve your skin and improve the collagen and elastin and the firmness in your skin.
And we’ll be talking about nutrition. We’ll be talking about protecting your skin with sunblock. We’ll talk about lasers, and all the different tips that you can do there as well. And what I’m doing as far as laser treatment for my skin. And we’ll talk about diet and nutrition, collagen, and all these different types of things that you can do to optimize your skin and improve its health as well. So you guys listening to this show, you’re very committed to your health and you’re very concerned about your toxin load. And so I created a quiz called heavymetalsquiz.com. Just takes a couple of seconds to go there and take that quiz and you’ll find out after you take it, your relative body burden load of toxins, and you’ll get a free video series on how to detox your body, answering all of your frequently asked questions, info about testing, how long it takes to detox, and just nutrients you can take for detoxification. Lots of really good info after you take that quiz at heavymetalsquiz.com.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And now a word from one of our sponsors. So imagine a world where we don’t actually fight cancer, we just tell our bodies to stop growing. It sounds groundbreaking, right? Dr. Dana Flavin, who’s a world-renowned cancer specialist for over 40 years warns we are swimming in toxins, they’re in our daily products, our food, water, and air. The real danger, these toxins signal our body to grow cancer. That’s why I urge you to join Dr. Flavin and Nathan Crane, an award-winning health researcher. In an eye-opening web class, they’ll reveal the nine key toxins that could be triggering cancer in your body, and most importantly, how to eliminate them. Don’t just fight cancer, go right to its root cause. So join me by going to conqueringcancer.com/wendymyers, M-Y-E-R-S now to register for this free web plus it’s so important. Again, that’s conqueringcancer.com/wendymyers Make the change today.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And I’m also, I’m really thrilled to announce I have a new docuseries coming out called Heavy. This is the first time I’m announcing it right now, and that’s going to be coming out next year in 2024 on Valentine’s Day, on February 14th, it’s going to be premiering. And I have over 100 speakers from Dr. David Perlmutter to Dave Asprey to Dr. Mercola and so many other colleagues in this field talking about how heavy metals are an underlying root cause of so many of our chronic health conditions like obesity, diabetes, hormone issues. We talked about hormones on this podcast today as well. We talk about brain health issues, and how toxins promote dementia. We talk about how toxins interfere in our digestion and we talk about anti-aging and beauty as well on the heavy docuseries, such a wealth of information. So as we get closer to the launch and release of the heavy docuseries, I’ll give you more information, where to sign up for it, et cetera.
Our guest today is Rachel Varga. She’s an RN and she’s also a double board certified aesthetic nurse specialist. And since 2001, she’s performed over 20,000 rejuvenation procedures. And Rachel is very passionate about non-toxic skincare and rejuvenation for powerful outcomes and skin health. Rachel is a board member, peer reviewer, and regular contributor to medical journals in the USA and the UK. With a passion for teaching and educating, she helps both the patient and the provider achieve more powerful rejuvenation outcomes and longevity by incorporating biohacking and research-backed solutions. You can learn more about Rachel Vargas’s work at theschoolofradiance.com for skincare one-on-one sessions, skin camp expert tutorials and cultivating a higher level of radiance in her membership platform. You can also tune into her top 20 podcast, the School of Radiance podcast for Uplifting Skin and Radiance Tips. Rachel, thank you so much for joining the show.
Rachel Varga: Oh, it’s always a pleasure to connect with you, Wendy. And boy, have we, I’ve got a lot to talk about in today’s session.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes. Yeah. So you are an expert on skin, so why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you got so much into skin and anti-aging and all the research you do.
Rachel Varga: Yes. Well, I mean, if we’re going to get really deep into it, it came from a lot of self-esteem things when I was younger. And I essentially made it my prerogative to be as beautiful as I could be when I was younger. I was made fun of a lot, and it sent me on a quest to look and feel my best at the unconscious level. And a lot of us actually experience these things as we age, but it runs in the background. What is the deeper-rooted reason behind wanting to be our most beautiful versions? It’s actually less superficial than you might think. It’s to build confidence and to build community. And so on my journey right now, I’ve been a double board-certified aesthetic nurse specialist since 2011, with 20,000 rejuvenation procedures. I write academic research articles almost every year now. I just wrote one on oxidative stress status and its impacts on skin aging.
So obviously we can talk about that. But before I got into medical aesthetics, I was a pediatric ICU nurse and then worked alongside a highly skilled and brilliant oculoplastic surgeon. So ophthalmology, think eye aging, right? The first area of the face is to show signs of aging. And then I started to notice that a number of my clients were healing faster. And what they would often say to me is, Rachel, I just want to look as good as I feel they wanted the outsides to match the inside. And that’s where I find people get the best rejuvenation outcomes when they’re also balanced body, mind, spirit energy-wise, low oxidative stress status, not when they’re looking at rejuvenation from a more superficial lens. I keep up appearances on social media. There’s a lot that comes up with skin and beauty and subconscious programs, but at the end of the day, I’m just passionate about helping other humans become their most high-eye, beautiful radiant selves. I’m sure skincare and rejuvenation can help, but the detoxification side of things is massive for slowing aging, better skin, fuller hair, and being able to communicate in the best way possible with ourselves and those we love.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes, and I did a consult with you a while ago and I was so thankful for all the, I mean just the depth and breadth of the information that I got from our consult, which I highly recommend to anyone who’s looking to improve their skin, their beauty, anti-aging, do a consult with Rachel because I came away with that with a whole plan to improve my skin. And I know a lot about skin. I’ve been studying this since I was a teenager. I was super into dermatology and I actually wanted to be a dermatologist and was looking at medical school for that. I mean, I’m into skin. And so you just taught me a lot of things that are based on the research that I didn’t know. For instance, I had gotten a series of laser treatments and I was looking, there’s all these different options and they’re really expensive and painful.
And so you really helped me to kind of focus on what I exactly needed. I did an AV beam for redness on my skin. I was looking like a pink little pig for a while, and I was like, what is going on? Why am I so pink? And I’m actually scheduled to do a cyan BL laser, not a Brazilian butt lift. I’m doing a cyan BBL L, and that’s to get rid of pigmentation spots. So I’m really excited about that. And really your advice has helped me dramatically improve my skin. So I’m really thankful for that.
Rachel Varga: My pleasure. I started doing virtual consults in 2017, and the reason why is that people were flying to see me from all over the place. And here I am, this young aesthetic nurse. I was like, what’s going on here? And I started to listen to my clients about why they chose to come to see me. And they simply said what you said, I took the time to actually listen to what their needs were and create a comprehensive full plan with ongoing support, skincare, and rejuvenation, with specific recommendations for technologies. And to be honest, this type of care, it’s not common practice. And the reason why, actually over the last few years, a number of med spas have been bought by corporate conglomerates and investors to diversify their portfolios. So investors come in, and they buy the clinic. And then this is also why, I know we covered this in the consultation, why you are seeing so much marketing for specific technologies that honestly are not the best, in my opinion.
We don’t even know the long-term outcomes. And it’s because these clinics have a lot of marketing dollars and it’s moving away from patient care, unfortunately to the bottom line. So I’m here to lead in disrupting that because I don’t think that’s okay, right? Because medical aesthetics is sort of this blend of sales and care and now more than ever with everything our health products or beauty products, technologies that we utilize, different forms of media that we consume, and what’s on our mind, all of these things are key to be aware of and to be a more conscious consumer with everything these days.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And I think it’d be careful too when we’re all going to med spas looking, we can do to improve our skin and whatnot, but a lot of times they’ll have one or two lasers or something they specialize in, they’ll just push that even though that’s not necessarily what you need. So it’s important to have more of an objective opinion. So that’s why I really valued my consultation with you so much. I got some vast improvements in upgrades in my home, personal skincare, and great very personal recommendations there. I have my whole treatment plan with my dermatologist too as well, where I’m very focused. I go in, I know exactly what I want, know what I’m looking for. And people have been fishing on all kinds of stuff. I’m like, no, no, no, no. I want this. I know what I want. I have my plan with you. So tell us about just some basics. So what are some basic things that everyone should have in their skincare to maximize hydration, maximize anti-aging, and things like that?
Rachel Varga: Absolutely. Well, it actually does come down to the basics and being consistent with them. So many people these days are making the mistake in the skin world of purchasing a product because they’re purchasing it out of fear or hoping that this one product is going to address their dryness, pigmentation, fine lines, and wrinkles. It’s never going to come down to just one product. It’s actually going to come down to a consistent routine and reducing oxidative stress in general. So in my research articles, I publish rejuvenation algorithms and I teach this to other doctors and nurses internationally, which is really fun. And at home personally, I went from about 60% in clinic rejuvenation. I get access to everything and 40% home care. But then I did all the detox work and purified my air and water lighting electromagnetics, reduced my oxidative stress in the body, and then remarkable things started to happen.
Acne scars were going away faster, and pigmentation was fading on its own with foundational skin care protocols. And then I switched to about 90% home care, and 10% in the clinic. And I didn’t even think that this would be possible as a practitioner myself. So I’m a testament to that. So when it comes to the foundational basics, it comes down to cleansing in the AM and PM with a double cleanse in the pm. Now, when it comes to toxins, air, there’s a lot of toxins in the air, whether it’s mold, whether it’s heavy metals, and other things. And what particulates in the air do to the skin is they actually tell the keratinocyte stem cells to die faster. They tell them to undergo apoptosis, which is early cell death. That’s why cleansing with a cleanser, not just a splash of water in the AM and PM with that double cleanse in the PM is so key to clearing things out.
It’s like detoxing for the body. You got to cleanse that skin that’s saying to wash the day off, wash the energy of the day off in the shower. There’s something to that, right? Cleansing off even the air in your bedroom while you’ve been sleeping is really important. The reason I’m highlighting this is in my experience since 2011, clients that complained of red skin and sensitive skin across the board, usually we’re missing one or two of, I would say five key basics, cleansing being the first key basic next up is moisturizing. And there are lots of trendy moisturizers that are coming out with peptides and this active and that active. I prefer to work with products and activities in formulations that have stood the test of time. There’s always new things coming out. And I recommend not going for the bright shiny object because a lot of times I see these heavily marketed products be really expensive for what they are.
The formulation doesn’t look, feel, or you have to use three times the amount compared to some of the more practitioner-grade products that I work with. I see that a lot. And they just don’t provide those long-term results. So with your moisturizer, you really want it to be a blend of humectants like moisturizers, antioxidants, and pep peptides and peptides have been around in practitioner skincare even since before I started in the industry. So when I started to hear peptides and biohacking a couple years ago, I was like, this is not new in the skin and rejuvenation space as well. So I just wanted to put that in there. And then the third step is to send protection. But now with chemical filters, if you look on the back of your product and you find the medicinal ingredients, if it’s anything other than zinc and titanium like Abel, Benzone, or oxybenzone, you need to stop using those immediately because they’re known hormone disruptors, they’re in moisturizers with sunscreens, baby creams, CC creams, primers.
They’re readily available in the marketplace and they’re just absolutely terrible. But I do love getting full-body sun exposure every day. But the high real estate areas, face, eyelids, neck, chest, top of the chest here, and hands are really key to cover every single day. And then the fourth step is exfoliation. So similar to cleansing, we want to get the debris off the skin, but we also want to remove some of the top layer of the skin, which is the stratum corneum. And a lot of times people with red or dry skin, are not rinsing their cleanser off enough and they’re not exfoliating because someone online told them not to cleanse twice a day and exfoliate. And one of the worst things you could do is to actually not exfoliate, but the trick is to use the red exfoliant that isn’t going to scratch or tear the skin and open up the skin to bugs and mites and all sorts of things, but to buff and polish. And then the fifth component is starting to use actives, whether they are amino acids, glycolic acids, salicylic acids to a degree as well as retinoic acid or vitamin A, getting the skin used to certain actives through skin cycling with your basic routine and then actives a couple times a week. And then there’s also dermal rolling for the cherry on top homecare routine. So cleanse, moisturize, sunscreen, and scrub for basics to do consistently.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Great. And I always shied away from the scrubs that have, some of them have sand in them. They say they’re all-natural, but they’ll have sand or they’ll have sugar or salt. And I mean, I just instinctively just thought, this is just so harsh, it’s actually hurting my skin and making it raw, insensitive, that’s not what you want. You want to spoil it. You don’t want to take off your two layers of skin, you know what I mean? Or damage or injure your skin.
Rachel Varga: You don’t want to be scratching or tearing at the skin. So some of the scrubs that I like to use are tenacious particles or magnesium in a spherical format to polish the skin when it comes to the body. Sure. That’s when you can make your own products. Say, for example, avocado oil with salt. I love using salt on my body. Actually, I love bathing in it with all the benefits of bathing in salt for detoxing as well as for your human biofield or field and all of that. But I do want to touch on something that you just mentioned. This was all-natural. I think it’s necessary for us to just spend a bit of time here because, in marketing, all-natural chemical-free products are used a lot. And I have a background in general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry. So when I hear chemical-free, everything is a chemical. What matters is, is that chemical bad for us or is it good for us?
Dr. Wendy Myers: There’s a lot of greenwashing in the product industry and we even see a lot of products will have natural ingredients at the department store or what have you, or even stuff at Whole Foods, that’s not so natural or good for your skin or your hormones or what have you.
Rachel Varga: Oh, absolutely. So we touched on chemical-free, if anything has water in it, it has a combination of oxygen, hydrogen, and two atoms coming together to make a chemical. So I just want to clear that one up. And then also, all-natural means anything from planet Earth, and pretty sure gasoline isn’t good for the skin, so that’s another one to be aware of.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, gasoline is all-natural, petroleum’s all-natural.
Rachel Varga: The longer you’ve been in this industry. I feel so bad for the modern consumer these days because it’s so challenging to discern what’s a good product, what’s a not-so-good product, and what’s going to deliver the results that I’m after? And honestly, it’s usually not from one specific skincare line either. That’s why I literally sell over 250 products. So I’m always looking for the best of the best in line. But here’s the frustrating part, and I’ve also seen this happen even just over the last six months, as even some of our colleagues have still continued to recommend particular brands, but what they don’t know is that there’s one particular skin brand. I’m not going to mention the name, but it’s recommended by a lot of people on social media and in client consultations. I notice these trends because I review the products that people are using. So it’s a way for me to keep my pulse on the industry as well. And I’m seeing canola oil actually being used in a lot of products that were previously. So I think it’s a similar thing with med spas. I think a lot of big beauty brands are being bought by, I’m just going to say it, big food and big pharma,
Dr. Wendy Myers: And there’s a lot of vegetable oil too. There’s a lot of vegetable oils and body lotions and things like that. It’s super inflammatory. It’s not good to eat and it’s not going to put on your skin too where you’re also absorbing it. So those omega sixes and rancid oils are very inflammatory.
Rachel Varga: Absolutely. One of the things that I’ve been doing behind the scenes is formulating my own skincare, this is years of research and development in the making, and I’ve officially made the best cleanser I’ve ever used. And being able to basically take a look at formulations for multiple companies, feels really good. This formula is excellent. This removes makeup really well, and then I’ve actually been able to create a specific type of cleanser that rinses off very easily, and it also removes eye makeup. So for me to make my own products gives me more control over the quality. So there isn’t going to be this shift in the ingredients list from the manufacturer. They don’t disclose when they do that. So literally every time I order products, I’m going through the ingredients list. So this is going to be a huge time saver across the board when my line is finally launched.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yay. I can’t wait for that. That’s so amazing. That’s the first time I’ve heard of that, that you’re formulating your online. But yeah, it’s hard. There are so many different products out there, but that’s why I am using supplements. There’s so much stuff out there, but I couldn’t quite get what I wanted and get the performance that I wanted in different supplements, so I created my own, so that’s awesome. So do you know when that’s coming out?
Rachel Varga: Yeah. Later this year
Dr. Wendy Myers: I’ll be
Rachel Varga: Starting with pre-selling. So I chose not to work with investors because I don’t want people to say, okay, you have to take out this ingredient, use this ingredient to get a better margin on it. So it’s all self-funded by pre-selling with the community, and I’m one of those people who really like feedback as well. So I listen to the feedback on different products that my clients have been using with me since 2011 and have officially nailed the best cleanser that I’ve ever used. I was so proud when I got the first r and d sample and then did another round of it to get it even better, but the first sample was fantastic, but I’m always, okay, how can we make this even better? Right.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Nice, nice. Yeah. And why don’t you tell us though, if you could formulate the perfect topicals or the things in serums or moisturizers, what are some of the top ingredients that you think people should be using, like rotating vitamin C or the retinol or what is your dream come or what you use for anti-aging and have really healthy moisturized skin?
Rachel Varga: Yeah, so when you look at a beauty product, oftentimes on the sales page you will see things like contains these five key ingredients, hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, vitamin E, some type of lightning agent, maybe kojic acid and some type of exfoliants can have salicylic acid, glycolic acid. And then of course retinol. Retinol is usually more of a standalone type of product, and that’s used in the evening. And something like vitamin C is used mainly in the AM to give the skin extra support because when you’re wearing sunscreen, UV rays, but I mean now primarily LED is actually constituting for a lot of our skin’s radiation damage and just with us being inside so much more now, the evidence on this is coming out, and I touch on this in my research paper. At the end of the day, it’s not always about what active ingredients are in a product.
It’s also about the consistency of it and how well it wears. How does it make the skin feel after 20 minutes? And most skincare research is looking at, okay, how does the skin feel in 20 minutes? Are the active still around there? It’s pretty common in skincare product research to look at a 20-minute window, but it’s important to use products that actually keep your skin feeling fantastic all day. So it’s not just about having those activities, it’s also about having those activities be kept stable. So this is where a lot of really hippie-dippy, ultra crunchy skincare falls flat because if you have, I mean, I’m just going to be honest with it,
Dr. Wendy Myers: And I agree with that. I don’t think it’s, you need to be using 100% organic products with all the ingredients organic, because a lot of the actives on your skin, can’t be a hundred percent organic. So great if you have some of the ingredients that are organic. But I am in agreement with you that you can’t get away with that and really have the best results doing that.
Rachel Varga: Yeah, you said that very eloquently actually, because what I also find is, by the way, cleanse, moisturized, censoring scrub, I’d take a photo when a client initially started that, and then two weeks later, say when they came in for facial or laser or something else, and across the board I was seeing less redness reported hearing less dryness, and the skin looked more glassy. So in two weeks with the basic protocol, you can see great shifts. Yes. This is where formulation and chemistry do come into play to create a stable product because what people don’t know is when they’re using these super duper clean products, there’s nothing in there to stabilize a vitamin C. And what’s interesting about that is if you have a vitamin C and it’s actually gone rancid, it’s oxidized, it actually becomes a free radical on the skin.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, bad news,
Rachel Varga: Bad news, but for the body, I’m all about making your own body products. That’s great. I do have a great body peel that takes care of exfoliation hydrogen, and because it has limits, it also works as a natural bug appellant. And it was hilarious because I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting bit by mosquitoes, and everyone around me was getting bit by so much. Every quarter I reviewed the products that I sell, which takes about five days, and there was lemon in my haircare and my body peel products. This is brilliant.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Nice. Nice.
Rachel Varga: Pays to be a nerd.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes. And so it does, it pays dividends to be a nerd. Yes, it does. Yeah. And so anything else? Are you a fan of vitamin C topicals? Are you a fan of retinol and the thing that’s always pushed by doctors is to use retinol as an anti-wrinkle cream? What are your thoughts?
Rachel Varga: Oh, absolutely. So always start with your foundations. You want to start with initially stabilizing the skin barrier by giving it what it needs, cleanse, moisturize, sensory scrub, recommend that for about two weeks. Then I recommend a couple of nights a week or a couple AMS a week, starting to slowly integrate, say a vitamin C antioxidant serum, and I have a few recommendations for that, getting your skin used to these activities because they are active agents. And then especially with retinol, otherwise known as vitamin A, there is a specific retinoid reaction phase that can happen. So if redness, dryness, flaking, depending on the strength of it. So when you slowly start to integrate retinol, I would say even just twice a week at nighttime and then slowly build up, this is called skin cycling is a great approach. Some products, companies, and practitioners believe that you should just push through the retinoid reaction phase for a month. No one is going to do that because their skin is going to feel red, it’s going to look red, it will feel dry, it’ll start to peel. So when you slowly integrate these activities, I think you’re just going to have better compliance and that product is less likely to go into the drawer where products go to die.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, and I have a friend, you can get too much of a good thing. I have a friend that was just constantly putting activities on her skin, the lightning creams and this and all kinds of stuff and spoiling too much, and her skin is always breaking out, and I would just stop putting stuff on your skin, just stop you. You don’t need to be doing something every single night, like you said, it’s just a couple times a week and not overdoing it.
Rachel Varga: Absolutely. If the skin is feeling great, then that’s a time to maybe use your retinol or do your dermal rolling at home. But if it’s feeling a little red, dry, or irritated, then you go back to your foundational skin routine. But the other thing that’s important to consider is that not everything is good for everybody. In addition to that, not just applying topical activities, but also using internal activities. So I’m a huge fan of consuming things like superoxide dismutase, NACQ, Citrin, vitamin C, green tea, extract, zinc regularly, obviously magnesium before sleep too, and omegas because what I found was when I reduced my oxidative stress by reducing exposure to air, water lighting, electromagnetics, regular detoxing, and consuming more actives internally, I can go outside almost all day now and not burn. For me personally, I used to go outside and get pink in 10 minutes the year prior to oxidative stress reduction, detoxifying, and consuming key antioxidants internally too had a huge difference for me. It was really surprising actually.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, it is interesting. I mean, we need those antioxidants to protect us and that’s why plants produce ’em to protect them from the sun and the environment. So workbooks work both ways. And so for anti-aging purposes, say someone’s trying to maximize making sure their skin looks as young as possible for as long as possible, what are some of your top tips for that? Because when I hit menopause, which was about three years ago, just last year, right around the time I was consulting with you, I was like, what is happening to my skin? Dear God, who is this lizard lady that’s in the mirror? This is not me. And so I was just really concerned with the creepiness and laxity that was starting to happen. And so obviously collagen starts to deplete. What are some things that people can do to just maintain that collagen and structure in their skin and help to reduce crepiness?
Rachel Varga: Well, first of all, Wendy, it’s not all in your head
Dr. Wendy Myers: Just
Rachel Varga: Putting
Dr. Wendy Myers: That out there.
Rachel Varga: In the skin world, it is commonly noted to start to see signs of aging seemingly overnight from ages 37 to 42. What’s going on there? Perimenopause, we’re starting to see shifts in hormones. So when estrogen decreases, our elastin and collagen go along with that. So when it comes to integrating an aging routine, I mean, I started at 25. Not everybody listening would’ve started at 25, but I did. And so I’m 37 now, and I haven’t actually experienced any of that. However, if you are in menopause and you’re noticing these shifts progressively drier skin, the skin thinning, loss of collagen, elastin, maybe a little bit more sensitivity than used to have more pigmentation popping up, it’s going to be starting with your home care. Then incorporating activities like what we just talked about at-home dermal rolling at-home peels, and then potentially looking at in-clinic, rejuvenation options.
But it’s not about just going straight to rejuvenation. It’s actually about preparing the skin first. Because when you do rejuvenation, whether it’s light therapy, whether it’s a fractionated laser, which is not, that’s a category of lasers, that’s not a brand name and a lot of youth listening might think, oh, I’ve heard of something that starts with the frat, but it’s not the same. And to be honest, technologies really have to play out for about seven years until we know the final result because collagen draping is something that we need to monitor very closely. And with previous skin rejuvenation lasers that were considered the best 15 years ago by just about everybody, we started to see about seven to 10 years later, the skin looking really thin like an eggshell and looking strange. So this is where tissue remodeling comes into play. So that’s why I’ve never been a fan of jumping on the newest, latest, and greatest technology.
In fact, we’ve also seen this with non-surgical injectables, where neurotoxins are now, where neurotoxins were in the nineties where I think things like peptides stem cells and exosomes are now. So it takes a long, long, long time to get products just right to get those treatment algorithms just right. It takes a long time. The same thing with lasers. So what I’ve seen is typically the second or third generation of a laser and then the algorithms that go along with that application of energy and things like that, it takes a while. So that’s why typically I’ll make recommendations for things that have been around for a while and you probably haven’t seen any marketing for, but what’s really cool about some technologies out there that are light-based, they’re not actually true lasers using a specific nanometer wavelength. What’s really cool about some of the tech out there, say for example, broadband light, IPL, intense pulse light is also a category of technology.
Same with fractionated. These are categories and there are lots of brand names that come from that. There’s tons of variety out there. Some of them are better than others. But what’s cool about broadband light is yes, we want to address things like redness and pigmentation, but with certain frequencies of light. And we know this with red light therapy too, stimulated mitochondria, reducing inflammation, all these things, there are tons of studies on them, but certain rejuvenation options can actually tell the skin cells to behave younger. This is a big deal, the epigenetic expression. So there was a study that looked at the skin cell expression in a 30-year-old and then someone who was in their fifties, and it’s almost like the skin cell expression gets flipped. Certain things get turned on and off, and after certain rejuvenation applications, it reverts back and starts to behave more like the younger skin. This is possible now, which is great. So that can help with things like pigmentation. Then there are other options to address things like c creepiness and laxity. All
Dr. Wendy Myers: Ears on all ears now.
Rachel Varga: Yeah, absolutely. I want to preface this, there are a lot of skin tightening and skin lifting options out there, and you have to say that a lot of that tech that’s available today often leaves people feeling underwhelmed because what I think constitutes true skin tightening is actually looking at a few different angles, not just one magical beauty rejuvenation option. It’s never going to be one thing for beautiful skin transformation. It’s home care and specific things in the clinic. So when it comes to addressing loss of collagen and skin laxity, this is where we want to basically create a controlled injury. Micro injuries, there are lots of ways to do that. There are many ways to skin a cat, but some technologies basically produce better results and have less downtime and less pain associated with them. So I consider all these things. I care about the outcome, but I also care about the experience over the span of three years.
I got my hands on pretty much every single top blazer out there and got to see the application, the patient response, were they comfortable? Was it too painful? Could we even carry on one of ’em? I actually had to even stop. And this one rejuvenation option was outed and inhaled by some of the biggest celebrities on social media as their go-to, and I’m like, oh my goodness, this is one of the worst pieces of technology I’ve ever utilized. This thing is garbage. Literally, that was my feeling about it. But you see all these people talking about different pieces of technology. So I really love fractionated options to basically, it’s kind of like when you take a lawn aerator to the lawn or dermal rolling, you’re creating little micro-injuries, and then next to the micro-injury, the skin is left alone, and then it actually helps that little micro injury heal faster.
So what we’re doing to address things like collagen and help to reduce things like laxity is to actually thicken up the skin. The same thing with healthy living. You can’t just show up to somebody once a month and hope for the best. It’s what you’re doing all the time. Same with your detoxing, same with your supplementation, same with your healthy living as I’m such a fan of at-Home Foundations at-home, peels at-home skin cycling with actives normal rolling, doing the heavy lifting first at home and then looking at rejuvenation options to take care of what’s left over. And then when it comes to things like skin lifting and skin tightening, this is the category where I hear the most disappointment because number one, we want to thicken the skin. We want to get more collagen and elastin stimulated. So you want to be really healthy when you’re looking at doing these rejuvenation options so that you get the best response with the collagen that’s being produced in the tissue reaping.
The other things that contribute to facial laxity and sagging are loss of bone and loss of fat in the face. So it’s bone fat thinning of the skin as well as what the muscles of the face are doing. So that’s why I’m such a big fan of microexpressions as opposed to really intense expressions to slow aging, not chewing super chewy food, sleeping on your back as much as you can. If you have to sleep on your side, use a specific pillow. But these are definitely not being a mouth breather too. So for a jawline laxity, if you are a mouth breather, number one, your sleep is likely not very good. Number two, you’re going to be more prone to jawing recession and laxity. I wrote a paper on jawline rejuvenation, which I should definitely be doing a masterclass on, and going through that paper because there are a couple of different things that are going on with the jawline. With the jowl. This is actually a muscle, it’s not fat. When you pinch this area of the face where the jowl is, that’s actually your depressor angular source muscle. So you’ve probably seen the gimmick that a lot of men are doing to get a sculpted jawline, right? They’re chomping at something. You’ve probably seen this, right?
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got Joe Brogans pushing the jaw chompers to exercise your face.
Rachel Varga: Absolutely, and this can be great for men. However, for women, that’s actually the last thing you want to be doing because what happens to the female face? Men having a really strong wide jaw is fantastic. In youthful times, the face is like this upside-down triangle, but as women age, things fall and then this gets wider. So it actually creates more masculinization of the female face with age. So aristocratic women back in the day actually stopped chewing really chewy foods. They were noticing that this was contributing. Another thing to consider is if you are a jock lyncher, consider shifting more into positive emotional states and reducing your impacts of stress in general to save your face. If you were to say, put your fingers on your mass muscles and bite down, if it feels like a rock, then what that does is it creates a hypertrophy of the mass muscle creating more width and projection this way. Sometimes we lose volume here, but a lot of times the masters protrude quite a bit and it can over-maximize the face. So then this is getting into the world of facial yoga and facial exercises as well, which is a whole other topic.
Dr. Wendy Myers: I mean, I’m seeing, I don’t know why I’m getting targeted by a lot of these yoga face apps and seeing these unbelievable results in people’s chins disappearing. And do you think that those really work?
Rachel Varga: I’m glad you asked that because I just did in masterclass almost because I started to see them too. However, when I look at these women, I have a really hard time believing that isn’t surgery.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, I do too. I’m like, I don’t know how you can just get rid of this deposit of fat by just rubbing your face for a month. There’s just no way.
Rachel Varga: And with some of the very dramatic before and afters that I’ve seen, I’m like, that’s jaw surgery a hundred percent. So you have to take that into consideration. However, I am a massive fan of keeping the face in a more positive emotional state. Negative emotional state stress is going to result in a depression of the brow bringing together the area between the brows and then fidgeting with the mouse. So this is also where I love to study communication and how we present. How can we present ourselves in the most beautiful, radiant way? This is like the cherry on top, skincare rejuvenation, but when you communicate, it also should be beautiful and radiant. I love to teach this because there are certain habits that we can do if we’re toxic or stressed out, body, mind, spirit, energy, toxins if we might be biting our nails, which is going to destroy the teeth.
We might be actually chewing. I’ve seen this before on the inside of our mouth, which can actually lead to an overuse of facial muscles. So just notice what your facial muscles are doing throughout your day and capture yourself, right? Start to do more micro-expressions. As mothers and people in certain jobs, they might think that they have to emote very strongly and speak very loudly and in their masculine, especially as women. However, the more you modulate the way that you speak, the slower you speak and use more micro-expressions, everything you say will actually end up having more power to it.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Interesting, interesting. Yeah, definitely. I did Botox personally for a long, long, long time, and I started when I was 25, I was dating a plastic surgeon. He is like, let’s do some Botox. I was like, okay, why not? It was free. And so I was definitely addicted to that for a very, very long time. But now I’m trying to do more natural things, and I think that’s just a great way to just control your face where you’re…
Rachel Varga: Not, well, if you’ve had neuromodulators in the past, you know what that feels like. To have a reduction in the message from the nerve to the muscle. So there is something to be said for that. However, there are different neuromodulators on the market, and some of them have an increased amount of complex proteins that don’t serve a function, and some of them are actually cleaner than others. And I highlight this in a table that’s in my research article on eye rejuvenation. So what’s interesting though, as we age and we look at ourselves in the mirror and consider our beauty in relation to beauty standards, which change every 10 years, let’s be honest, the two most important areas of the face are your eyes and your teeth. The eyes and the teeth. You can’t really rejuvenate the brightness of your eyes. This is where detoxing comes in. This is where reducing oxidative stress status comes in. So if you have red, inflamed puffy eyelids or darkness around the eyes, detoxing is going to be helpful to allow your eyes to be brighter. Not to mention this whole radiance piece, but actually projecting this more of a sparkle, a beautiful energy coming from your eyes. And then for your teeth, the mouth is connected to the gut. So if again, your mouth breather, you’re not eating, although most of you listening are probably pretty healthy and doing all the right things, maybe before doing rejuvenation, you might want to consider looking at the mouth and the teeth, to be honest, because the eyes and the teeth are the two first areas that people look at on the face.
Dr. Wendy Myers: So if someone were going to do a Botox-type neuromodulator, what would be your recommendation for the most natural thing that they can do?
Rachel Varga: Yeah. Well, I’m unable to make specific brand recommendations here, and it also depends on what the needs are of my client. I’m seeing a lot more people over the years wanting to move away from those options, to be totally honest.
Personally, I stopped using what you mentioned about seven years ago because I knew that there were cleaner options out there. However, I do recommend doing the heavy lifting first with your skincare, having better quality collagen in the skin. And then if there’s still something you want to do, then that’s something that we can discuss further and we can talk about that because this is not medical advice, this’s educational information only. I think you have a medical condition, you must seek the guidance of a licensed physician. I do have to be careful what I say in interviews. So really at the end of the day, it comes down to what the values and goals are for each individual. But sure, there are great options for reducing four headlines and lines between the brows and shrinking the jowl. And what’s really interesting, we can talk about this. A product came on the market, I’d say about six years ago, deoxycholic acid to actually tell fat cells to die.
And there’s just a month of downtime required, multiple sessions, thousands of dollars. And I wrote my job paper because I had a big concern over this because of the close proximity to the thyroid. So I’ve always thought about things in a different way than a lot of my peers, which is why I’m a bit of a leader in the industry. It’s like, okay, instead of that, what can we do instead? So I was actually able through photography analysis to get results without having to use something like that, and I was really happy with my client’s work. It was a fraction of the cost. They didn’t have a month of downtime. So that’s another example of something that was on the market a number of years ago for something like the double chin that ended up being a flop. You can’t have it if you have thyroid issues and how many women now have thyroid issues.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, absolutely.
Rachel Varga: Yeah. We have to always think about health first and foremost. Another really interesting thing to mention is heart rate variability and rejuvenation. This is something I’ve never heard anyone else talk about, but I experienced it myself. I had a procedure done, and I noticed that my HRV, my heart rate variability tanked. What this told me was that anytime you do laser injectable surgery, anything, it’s going to require a component of your body’s energy to heal. If you’re going into rejuvenation with an R, full oxidative stress status, or toxic bucket, that could be that one thing that tips that bucket over. So that’s what I talked about in my recent paper too, to provide a bit of an awareness of that.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And there’s certainly, I mean, some of these lasers and some of these procedures that people do, they’re painful. There’s a lot of downtime, and it’s a major stressor. Absolutely. And there’s a lot of, you have to allow your body to heal, and it’s no joke. And watching your HRVI think is really, really smart. That’s your marker of stress. That’s your number one marker. It’s important to track that and do things to boost it as well, especially if you have a procedure. So Rachel, why don’t you tell us where clients can work with you? I personally highly recommend a personal consultation so you can get answers to all of your questions and get a personalized plan. And recommendations. Just for me, it has been just totally life-changing. And in my beauty plan and the things that I’m doing I started like I said, when I hit menopause, I was like, okay, I got to do something about the skin. I thought I was doing all the right things, but I realized I needed a course to correct and do something a little bit more aggressive, a little bit more fine-tuned. And that’s when I saw your help, Rachel. So for me, it’s just been really, really impactful doing that consultation. So I highly recommend it.
Rachel Varga: Well, thank you so much, Wendy, for your testimony there. I wasn’t expecting that. Thank you. Everyone can find me at the schoolofradiance.com. That’s where you can book a one-on-one with me. I warmly invite you to use the promo code, Wendy Meyers, to save on your consultation. And I look forward to connecting with you and providing you with that custom cake recipe. So I do recommend starting with a one-on-one instead of just trying to go to my skin shop and try and figure things out for yourself. I do like to make specific recommendations. And for my one-on-one clients, you also get ongoing support. So when you even emailed me a few times like, what about this? What about that? And I’ll always give you that support. I love doing that for my clients. So the one-on-one is the first place to start over at the schoolofradiance.com.
I also offer seasonal skincare tutorials on how to actually apply your products. I take you into my restroom and show you things like facial GU off or lymphatic drainage. Also, sinus drainage is really important, and you can easily incorporate that with your simple skincare routines. But I also teach more advanced layers to face and body peels, hair growth options, detoxing, pre-post recovery tips, as well as, of course, dermal rolling demonstrations that I don’t share anywhere else. That’s my tutorials. And then for the other things, which is this concept called Radiance, this is where I highlight these strategies in my membership as well. So those are the three areas to connect and work with me. And then of course, tune into my free podcast, the School of Radiance podcast, which you’ve been on, and I look forward to having you on again as well.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes, absolutely. Well, Rachel, thank you so much for coming on the Myers Detox Podcast. And everyone, I’m Dr. Wendy Myers, and I’m bringing you experts from around the world on the Myers Detox Podcast to help you with anti-aging, beauty, detoxification and bioenergetics, and a lot of cutting-edge biohacking tips and tricks of things that I do. I’m always researching, always out there, trying to meet people and give you guys cutting-edge information. So thanks for tuning in. I.
