Encore Episode: Reversing The Aging Process... Is It Possible?
Episode 137
Today, on Integrative Wellness Radio, Dr. Nicole & Dr. Nick tackle one of the most common questions our society asks: how do we reverse or prevent aging? Dr. Nick discusses some holistic approaches to slow aging and gives us a scientific insight into how some of these tools and ways can rejuvenate us from the inside out. Dr. Nicole weighs in on some of our daily habits that might contribute to our untimely aging. She also shares some products and DIY hacks that can help balance out hormones, improve cellular health, and encourage detoxification, helping us look and feel younger longer. Tune in to the whole episode to learn more! Interested in working with IWG? Book a complimentary consult call to learn more using this link: https://bit.ly/IWRcall2021 Noteworthy Time Stamps: 01:47 Hydration & the quality of it 03:30 Bluelight-blocking glasses 05:38 Melatonin is not just a sleeping hormone 10:01 Some benefits of Infrared Sauna 11:17 What lymph congestion looks like on your body 12:29 3 tips to breaking up this lymph blockage 14:01 Ridding the “ripple effect” of cellulite 17:40 How wrinkles are created 19:16 How cupping helps detox 21:57 Healthy cells, healthy body
Topics: unknown, aging, episode, nick, look, process, integrative, hormones
Key takeaways from this episode
- Nick and Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey.
- Hello, everyone. **Unknown:** Welcome back to another episode of Integrative Wellness Radio.
- So reverse osmosis is always, uh, a great option with that. **Unknown:** Um, but really you want to have just pure quality water.
- So upon request, we are going to be doing a bit of a beauty episode, and, uh, this is something that I know a lot of women are curious about is, you know, how can I slow the aging process?
- How can I look like Jennifer Aniston? 'Cause what she puts- How can I look like Dr. **Unknown:** Nick Carothers?
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole, opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Nick and Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey.
Hello, everyone. **Unknown:** Welcome back to another episode of Integrative Wellness Radio.
Transcript
**Unknown:** I've been up all night, no sleep. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole, opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr. Nick and Dr.
**Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey. I feel like I'm always dreaming. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out with you. Hello, everyone.
**Unknown:** Welcome back to another episode of Integrative Wellness Radio. So upon request, we are going to be doing a bit of a beauty episode, and, uh, this is something that I know a lot of women are curious about is, you know, how can I slow the aging process? How can I look like Jennifer Aniston? 'Cause what she puts- How can I look like Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick Carothers? So it's like, we look at celebrities and they're like, "They're 50," and they look, you know, better than most, uh, 23-year-olds. So, uh, so yeah, obviously we have to consider cosmetic enhancements, but there is a lot that we can do that is going to be more holistic, more natural, and not only be addressing the external, but also addressing the internal. Uh, because really from an aging perspective, uh, when women are going gray, or men and women are going gray at early ages, um, what they don't realize is that is an accelerated aging process.
**Unknown:** So yeah, sorry, Dr. Nick, I know you've been going gray for a while, but it's cool. We're working on it. Some things are genetics.
**Unknown:** My grandma was 21 when she was full silver, so. So it just shows how toxic your family is. 100%. So on to beauty.
**Unknown:** Tip number one. Hydration- Yes ... is by far the most important thing. You know, it's like people will spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on all these products and try all these crazy things, but it's like, at the end of the day, they're not hydrated and that is one of the worst things for your skin, epithelial tissue.
**Unknown:** And more importantly on that hydration is the quality of it. Mm-hmm. So it's like making sure that you're having pure water in. It's not hydration from coffee, which is a dehydration.
**Unknown:** Um, since I actually just brought that up, any diuretic, so it's like coffee, teas high in caffeine, you have to drink, let's say one cup of coffee, two cups of water to neutra- take you back to neutral. Yes. Um, so that's not just two cups for your day of actual intake, it's two cups and now I'm back to zero. Yeah.
**Unknown:** But when looking at the quality of water, I mean, there's tons of things out there. Reverse osmosis is good. We use the Berkey system, um, because it doesn't take out the minerals, but honestly, we should be getting most of the minerals we have in food, not so much water anyways. So reverse osmosis is always, uh, a great option with that.
**Unknown:** Um, but really you want to have just pure quality water. Um, that's my number one tip. Yeah, no, that's... It's huge because I think that a lot of people are unaware of the diuretics that they're consuming in a day, coffee being one of them, but like you said, is sometimes when you really start to think about it, you're barely breaking even on the amount of things that you consume to dehydrate you versus to hydrate you.
**Unknown:** So, uh, so beauty tip number two is why don't you tell everybody why you're wearing those glasses? So I'm wearing these glasses. They are blue light blocking glasses, and it's more important to wear blue light blocking, uh, glasses in the afternoon. Um, these are only taking probably somewhere between 30 and 50% out.
**Unknown:** Um, when you get towards, uh, night, uh, or in the morning, we can look at is that when we're tired at night, it's because it's our melatonin that's increasing. And we, when we're the most awake, uh, hopefully in the morning, uh, it's when our cortisol is highest. So our cortisol-melatonin ratios, uh, should be inversely, uh, related with the highest at night, lowest in the morning, uh, with cortisol being the highest in the morning and lowest at night. So at night what I do is I take, transition from these glasses, which look like normal glasses, um, to more of an amber, uh, colored lens, which takes out 100% light.
**Unknown:** And then I actually sleep with, um, the beauty night mask because I care so much about my looks. Um, but no, what I really care about is my body, my brain's ability to heal and rejuvenate. Uh, and when we have light comes in, that decreases our melatonin, which is our strongest, uh, antioxidant that it produces to be able to detox and heal at night. But it also, a big part of that is when we have any light that comes into the eyes, that doesn't allow the melatonin production from our pineal gland.
**Unknown:** And with that, it also disrupts our sleep, and it doesn't allow us to get into our deep sleep, which is that regeneration process. So it's like, really, if you care about beauty, first and foremost, uh, make sure you're hydrated, and second foremost, make sure you're getting deep, quality sleep- Mm-hmm ... because your body's never gonna be able to regenerate. Yeah.
**Unknown:** Well, another thing too is the glasses are serving their purpose on helping your body to make melatonin, which you get better sleep, which is obviously huge for healing and restoration. And then, like Nick said, we actually did a different podcast about melatonin being the master detoxifier of the body. But you should definitely listen to that because melatonin is way more than just sleeping. It is a huge antioxidant detoxifier.
**Unknown:** So this is helping your body from the, you know, beauty and anti-aging from the inside out. Um, so kind of on that note, something, if you already have sleep issues, you can obviously start embarking on the use of blue light blocking glasses. Uh, but there is also, uh, topical melatonin creams that, uh, can also be very helpful as an anti-aging lotion that will help to get your sleep back. You don't wanna use these long-term because you don't want to depend on them.
**Unknown:** Uh, anything in that hormone type world should always be temporary, but the melatonin cream, uh, it's through a company called Zetpil, uh, Z-E-T-P-I-L.If you head over to our site integrativewellnessgroup.com\currentpatients, you can actually get, um, our link to access the melatonin cream. Uh, so that is definitely something to, to consider but also is they have now proven that blue light from your phone, which how many of you are sitting in your bed looking and browsing through Instagram and Facebook, um, the blue light from your phone is damaging to your skin. So this is not even just about having your, uh, blue light glasses. This is also about putting a blue light blocking screen on your cellphone as well.
**Unknown:** Uh, and you can also do this on your laptop. I don't know ... So the, there's a, a we- or there's a site called f.lux, L-U-X, and this is something that I've downloaded on my computer to take the blue light out of the computer. Um, I would assume you can download it on your phone as well.
**Unknown:** All Apple phones. I'm not sure about Androids, but all Apples, uh, it has a nighttime version where it takes out the blue light. Okay. So n- put your phone on nighttime, um, or you can embark on getting some type of blue light blocking, uh, if you have a different type of phone or device.
**Unknown:** So those are some really key things to keep in mind. Speaking of light that's good for your body would be infrared. Yes, but I want you to share, I don't know the name of your amber-colored glasses. Do you know that company off the top of your head?
**Unknown:** It's BluBloker, uh, B-L-U-B-L-O-K-E-R, I believe. It's a, an Australian company. Um, and the, that's, so there's a lot of companies out there that have kind of jumped on that blue light, uh, bandwagon, and they do a lot of other things. This company, what I love about them is they do a bunch of research, but it's also the only products they sell are geared towards taking out blue light.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. That's all they do. Yeah. The, um, this company that has, uh, the glasses that Nick has on, I know for those of you that are just on iTunes can't see it, but they're very fashionable.
**Unknown:** But they're by the company MVMT, uh- If you wanna see how good I look, you can go on YouTube. So, uh, the, those are my glasses that you stole- ... by the way. Um, but that company I, I think is really great.
**Unknown:** I've tried quite a few different companies, but um, the MVMT, I just like how they fit and also the look of them. Um, but going back to what Nick said, when it comes to the infrared light, infrared light is gonna serve a variety of different purposes from a topical perspective but also an internal perspective. So I'll let you talk a little bit more about the topical perspective, and I can ch- I can chime in more about the internal benefits. Well, anything, I mean both, uh, topical or, uh, affecting deep is that infrared works like the sun.
**Unknown:** Uh, so it's going to be absorbed, uh, by tissue. So your skin is actually going to be heating up from the inside out. And with that understanding is it's gonna allow us to detox, uh, and allow our pores to be able to open up a lot more beneficial than just a tr- typical dry sauna, um, that can give you a quick intense sweat. Um, but sometimes actually the intensity of that, um, temperature can actually sometimes cause some damage to some of those porous glands as well.
**Unknown:** So kind of the tortoise, uh, that wins the race is to be able to heat up the skin as well as the porous membranes a little slower, um, and through that intelligent of that kind of slow process to be able to release the toxins and everything that's been held more superficially onto our skin. Well, and also some of the benefits with infrared sauna is when you're, you're heating the body from the inside out, you are also inducing a detox response, and you're also helping to improve the functionality of the lymphatic system. And I know that as a woman and talking to many women is, you know, there's certain women that are just like, "I feel puffy. I feel inflamed.
**Unknown:** The scale is not changing. If anything, I fluctuate two to three pounds a day. You know, I don't know what I'm eating. I think I have food allergies.
**Unknown:** You know, I have cellulite. I'm out of shape." You know, there's, there's so many facets that are happening with women that don't feel comfortable in their body or just feel like they're really, really struggling to get their body where they want it to be. And this is very typical when women are like, "I'm eating low calorie, and I'm working out, and nothing is changing." And it's really has very little to do with, um, fat tissue, but it has everything to do with excess fluid that is being retained due to improperly functioning lymphatic system. And you have lymph everywhere in your entire body, um, but depending on where the lymph is most congested, like if your lymph is most congested in your neck, you might have a double chin.
**Unknown:** You might have a thick neck. If your lymph is really congested in your face, then you might have a really round face. If your lymph is really congested in your thighs and buttocks, then you might notice that you're have, you know, larger ankles, or you're having like cellulite in those areas. If your lymph of your abdomen is really compromised, which is very typical when people have, uh, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, or other types of gut issues, then you're gonna be like, "You know, I'm fit everywhere else.
**Unknown:** My legs are strong. My arms are strong, and I just have this belly, and I can't get rid of it." So it's really interesting because the infrared heats you from the inside out and is actually improving your detox mechanisms, and it's helping you to flush out that excess fluid and decrease inflammation, which is usually a huge culprit as to why women are not losing weight. Oh, 100%. Probably one of our favorites for also just working on that physical, um, part of the body is cupping as well as foam rolling, so- And dry brushing ...
**Unknown:** and dry brushing. So I'll talk about foam rolling, and you can talk about cupping and dry brushing. So foam rolling is amazing because-One of the biggest things that affects our skin, like you were talking about, is that buildup of, uh, lymph. And sometimes you need more of that firm pressure to be able to actually physically manipulate and move and break up the lymph, uh, to get it going.
**Unknown:** And, and foam rolling is one of those awesome things because it's gonna help you realize where muscles are overly tight. Mm-hmm. Um, but also when there's muscles that are over tight, uh, the lymph is also equally as stressed. So being able to work a lot in those areas, uh, of foam rolling where they have higher amounts of, uh, lymph nodes.
**Unknown:** So on the inner thighs, it's one area that most people don't foam roll. Mm-hmm. Um, but if you can make an effort to foam roll that as well as, uh, on the sides, uh, underneath the armpit and that ribcage area. So it's, like, making sure that you're physically, um, being able to actually stress those areas to manipulate and move the lymph, uh, so that there's not more toxicity built up in those areas.
**Unknown:** Well, a lot of women, you know, they're very self-conscious about cellulite, and they try to lift weights and do things to get rid of it, but what they don't realize is that sometimes it is the fascia, which is when you think of a chicken breast and you think of the skin on top of a chicken breast, that's kind of what fascia is in the human body, is it's this, um, this layer that is over top of the muscles, but it also works hand-in-hand with the lymphatic flow. So that's what Nick is describing, is that, you know, you get this buildup, and it can very much affect the fascia, and then that is going to in turn create this rippling effect that we, uh, perceive as, as, um, cellulite. So just by doing the foam rolling or embarking on something called dry brushing, which we actually have a video on YouTube that you can check out, is, um, it's actually taking a dry brush and brushing up towards the heart. And you're doing this, and it's very bristly.
**Unknown:** It's a, it's a very tough brush. But your goal is to move the lymph to help with overall detoxification, but then also you're breaking up any adhesions that's happening in the fascia, which can reduce the look of cellulite as well. I guess that's like that, um, something blaster that- The fascia blaster? Yeah, that somebody created is...
**Unknown:** You know, and women are loving it because it's, it's- they're, you know, advertising it as a getting rid of cellulite, so it's a very similar concept. And you could, you know, spend the money to do that. A dry brush is about 10 bucks and, uh, a foam roller is, like, 15 bucks. Yeah.
**Unknown:** So you could definitely get a lot of benefit from using those therapies. But when it comes to cupping, I'll let you talk about cupping, but, um, one of the things I personally do is facial cupping. And, uh, one of our, our good friends who's an esthetician, she actually started to use or customize some of her facials to use facial cupping, but also to use, um, a gua sha... What exactly are they called?
**Unknown:** Gua sha, like, muscle releasers, or are they just called gua sha? Just gua sha. Yeah, so, like, a gua sha jade stone. So, um, the facial cupping is great.
**Unknown:** I bought my kit on Amazon. It's literally looks like a little street cone, but it's maybe, like, three inches tall. So I use it in the shower. I put my face wash on, and then I suction it to my face, and you just move it around.
**Unknown:** And it's actually breaking up any type of adhesions. It's helping with the lymph flow of the, um, face as well as the sinuses. So you're getting this, you know, anti-aging, um, type of, of treatment essentially, but you're also helping with the, um, uh, flow of the lymph nodes. You're also helping with your sinuses, and you're helping with any type of puffiness in the face.
**Unknown:** So it's really, really helpful. I will make a disclaimer though, is I, like I said, do it in the shower, so one time I did my face and then I did it on my neck and I was like, "Oh, this feels so good." And then I got out of the shower and I looked like I had a full, uh, neck of hickeys. And I was like, "Oh, well, it's summer, and I can't really wear a turtleneck- ... so this is great." Yes.
**Unknown:** With cupping, if you leave it on too long, it will leave marks. Yes. So beware of that. Um, and then w- a similar concept is actually the gua sha jade stone.
**Unknown:** It literally looks like a giant guitar pick. And this is something that can be used on the muscles of the face. It's- Those jade rollers too. Yeah, the jade rollers.
**Unknown:** They're, they're very similar aspect. Yeah. I like the, the gua sha stone just because I feel like it can get in a little bit better. But if you're kind of nervous and you're like, "I don't know what to work on," then I would definitely recommend just doing the jade roller.
**Unknown:** But the jade roller is great because you can put it in your freezer, and then once you take it out, you can roll your face and it acts, like, as an anti-inflammatory. But that's a really great thing that you can use as just a, you know, a daily or weekly maintenance for, um, your, your facial care. Yeah. So it's, like, a big thing that people don't understand is that wrinkles are really just created through that fascia tightening.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. So it's, like, because we make the same facial expressions over and over and over, or we squint our eyes the same way over and over and over, that puts a repetitive stress onto our skin, which, like we were talking about, affects the fascia underneath. Mm-hmm. And when that fascia gets stuck onto the muscle from repeated emotion over and over and over, that creates this wrinkledge.
**Unknown:** So be able to, whether it's- Wrinkledge? ... wrinkledge. Yeah, just look it up.
**Unknown:** It's, uh, it's 100% a word- ... um, in Iowa. I'm not sure about Jersey. I love when Nick makes up his own words.
**Unknown:** Wrinkledge. Uh- So if you wanna de-wrinkledge yourself- ... all you have to do is get facial cupping or gua sha and go. Um, one of the actually beneficial things is to YouTube, um, whether it's either, like, muscle of the face is probably the easiest, um, because you can see how it's actually the muscles are striated.
**Unknown:** So it's, like, around the eyes you have muscle going one way and then coming out underneath the cheeks. You wanna follow that as much as possible. You're gonna do a demo for everyone, aren't you? So yes, I will demonstrate how to de-wrinkledge my face- ...
**Unknown:** um, 'cause I do it so much. Um- We're gonna definitely call it that on YouTube. Yes, 100%.On the other side of things, um, working on some of those wrinkledges- ... uh, that people do not want on certain areas of your thighs or, but, uh, you can do the same thing just not with the facial cupping, with regular cups, uh, to be a little more stronger and intense to be able to relieve that fascial stress.
**Unknown:** Yeah, so cupping is a practice that is very often used in acupuncture facilities or Chinese medicine facilities. We do cupping as well in our practice, but it is something that, you know, it... there's a variety of ways you can do it. Primarily, it's putting the cup on the body, and it is remo- or using a suction to remove the air out of the cup.
**Unknown:** So it literally pulls the skin and the fascia and the muscle, kind of helping to put some space between it to release toxins, to release, um, built up blood from old injuries, and to release, um, adhesions in the fascia, like Nick said. So the cupping is not the most pleasant as you get it done, and it does leave some marks on the body as you go through the healing process. But I would say, like, two to three days and usually the marks are gone at that point in time. A week.
**Unknown:** Yeah. Yeah. Or a week. So, uh, so you can see this a lot with, uh, swimmers and, you know, Olympians.
**Unknown:** Like, when you're watching the Olympics and you're like, "What are those weird circular marks on their back?" That is very often f- the marks from cupping. So they do it on more for the physical, uh, response instead of detoxing and, you know, looking good because any of those restrictions, it's going to decrease your range of motion. So for a f- swimmer, you know, an extra half an inch of that arm, uh, leading out is gonna allow them to be able to pull that much more water and get ahead of the competition. Yeah.
**Unknown:** It's true. I would drown, but So that is our quick and easy, breezy, beautiful tips- Oh my gosh ... on de-wrinkledges. So, uh, we hope this is helpful because I know that there's many women that are, you know, embarking on cosmetic surgeries, and Botox is, you know, being hand out, handed out like hotcakes nowadays.
**Unknown:** And, uh, we're usually thinking that we need to go to the extremes to, to look young. But, um, but overall it has a lot to do with, um, some of these strategies that we mentioned. And of course, it has to do with what you're do- putting inside of your body. So obviously, the infrared sauna, um, is a great modality that's helping to work from the inside out.
**Unknown:** But you can do all of the things that we just told you, but if you, you know, opt to have a high sugar, high inflammatory diet, you're not gonna necessarily reap the benefits. And the same thing goes for what Dr. Nick was saying with the water is if you're consuming, you know, your tap water or you're consuming foods that are high in pesticides and herbicides and different chemicals, you're, you're gonna have a push and pull. So you really have to think about what you're doing, uh, day to day, what you're eating, what you're putting inside of your body because they will contribute tremendously to, um, the health of your cells.
**Unknown:** 'Cause if your cells are not healthy, it's impossible for you to feel good, it's impossible for you to look good. And, um, it's, you know, it's always so interesting when, especially when you even see women that are, women or men that are smokers. You know, very often if they've been smoking for a significant amount of years is, you know, you can see, y- you know, having a person who is a non-smoker versus a person who's a smoker, their skin looks extremely different. And the skin has a lot to do with the toxins that are being absorbed by the skin from the smoke, and it also has to do with the toxins that are being built up in the lymph internally.
**Unknown:** So, um, so it's really, uh, when you're trying to take this first step on, you know, embarking on a new beauty regimen is don't go and spend a million dollars on all these different lotions and products. It's start evaluating, you know, what are you putting in that potentially is causing you to be inflamed, toxic, or is causing more stress or damage on your cells. So, um, I would definitely keep that in mind and look at some of our previous podcasts about food and the difference between organic versus not and clean eating, uh, because they are all very, very significant. Um, and if you are looking for a little bit of a reboot, definitely scope out the, uh, podcast that we did about the five-day fasting mimicking diet, uh, because that was one of the amazing things that I've done that I felt like completely decreased inflammation out of my body.
**Unknown:** It, my skin looked different, my hair looked different. It was, it was awesome. So, um, that is definitely a good jumpstart to your system, and it really opens your eyes to being like, "Wow, just doing five days of this, you know, fast made me physically look different." And it allows you to realize that it's not always about all those fancy products. For sure.
**Unknown:** All right, guys, we hope you enjoyed this. Uh, we will hold Nick to it. We will make sure that he gives you the, uh, non-wrinkledge uh, facial cupping and facial gua sha so you guys actually know how to do it at home. And we will talk to you next week.
**Unknown:** We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group as well as Dr. Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com.
**Unknown:** All night, no sleep. 'Cause I feel like I'm always dreaming. Wide awake, that's okay.
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About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
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