9. Anti-Aging Tips for the Skin with Rachel Varga

Rachel Varga 0:03

The more I work with people and see what my most vibrant radiant clients are doing, the more I really have understood the importance of hormone balancing, and all these other body mind spirit energy, things that we can do to bring forth a higher level of radius and PT that you just can't rejuvenate in the clinic.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 0:25

Welcome to the longevity blueprint podcast, I'm your host, Dr. Stephanie gray. My number one goal with the show is to help you discover your personalized plan to build your dream health and live a longer, happier, truly healthier life. You're about to hear from an aesthetic nurse Rachel Varga and today she's going to share tips to help you stabilize your skin so that it will age well. And I'm even going to ask her her feelings on procedures like fillers and Botox who should get them and who shouldn't. So let's get started. Welcome to another episode of the longevity blueprint podcast today. We have the beautiful Rachel Varga joining us. Rachel Varga has been a Board Certified aesthetic Nurse Specialist since 2011. With over 18,000 procedures performed. She's an international clinical trainer, speaker and academically published award winning author in the field of plastic and aesthetic nursing their education on skincare and laser rejuvenation, non surgical solutions and healing lifestyle practices. Rachael helps inspire others with her unique toolkit to navigate and strategize aging, and possibly well, using the science of beauty. So welcome, Rachel.

Rachel Varga 1:32

Thank you very much for having me, Stephanie. It's a pleasure to be here.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 1:36

So I met Rachel last year in California at a conference for healthcare entrepreneurs. And I've always wanted to add aesthetics to my practice the integrative health and hormone clinic here in Iowa, and I thought she would be a great resource I need to meet her. And so last day, we had an amazing last day of this conference. I just kind of tapped her on the shoulder and said, I think we need to meet and we've been connected since you may recognize her name because recently I've I spoke on a seminar that she put together last minute for individuals for free really to learn how to protect their families from covert. So that was a wonderful expert series that she put on for free. And you can still see that whole link, which is amazing. I will post that in the show notes. she interviewed people for over three hours. So I think you have a lot to look for with this interview. She's wonderful at these things. And I appreciate having her on today. I'm sure we could talk for hours, but I really want to get down to the nitty gritty her strengths today. So I want to talk about how we can maximize our skincare routine. I want to talk briefly about the benefits of skin procedures through the use of lasers and even talk about neural modulators. That's a fancy word and fillers. So before we get started and dive into all this good stuff, Rachel and I both started our careers in nursing. So tell me Rachel how you got into the field of nursing and how you landed in esthetics also.

Rachel Varga 2:55

Okay, let's go way back to actually when I was in high school, my Mother is a registered nurse and she specialized in geriatric nursing. And my grandfather, we lived with my my Nana and Papa growing up. And I come from a lovely lineage of women. my great grandma was actually the second ordained female evangelical minister in Canada. So I love family and all this goodness and my grandpa had a stroke. And my mother and I and the palliative response team came into our home we were able to offer end of life care at home, and he passed away with his family around in his own bed. It was actually a really beautiful crossing over for him, if you will, let's go to nursing. That was palliative care. And then when I was graduating nursing school, I didn't quite feel ready to be finished with learning. So I actually looked into becoming a naturopathic physician, American Medical Doctor.

So I did my med school prerequisites studied for the Cat. And while I was I was doing that I was working as a pediatric ICU nurse. So working with little ones. And at about age 25, I, you know, wanted to improve my skin a little bit started to see just the first signs of aging, acne, scarring, things like that. So I had a few procedures myself to improve my skin. And I just felt like the care I received could have been better. For example, more time spent during the assessment and more time spent with education on what to do before and after to optimize your outcome. And so that's actually really what got me interested in aesthetic nursing. Because we all want to feel good and we want to look good in the process. And I promise the surgeon that I started working with a year and then I'd be off to med school, and it's been almost 10 years later and I found my passion, just really weaving the the inner and outer beauty together. So it's It's interesting, I've personally come full circle in my work I've made a living on helping people improve their skin with rejuvenation procedures. But the more I work with people and see what my most vibrant and radiant clients are doing, the more I really have understood the importance of hormone balancing, and all these other body mind, spirit energy, things that we can do to bring forth a higher level of Radiance and beauty that you just can't rejuvenate in the clinic.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 5:28

So you work for a plastic surgeon, but you also offer online consultations. I know I took advantage of one of those. So how did you get into that offering online? or virtual consultations?

Rachel Varga 5:38

Yeah, I just had people coming to me in my community and they had say, had an aesthetic consultation at another clinic before and then they'd met with me based on a referral from a family or, or a family member or a loved one that had a great time with me. And you know, they would start to say to me, I had this like 1530 minute free consultation at this other place. But you spent an hour with me and we covered so much more. And I felt just ethically that's how much time I should spend with people to hear them talk about their goals, discuss at home and in clinic options, and help them strategize what that would all look like, in accordance with everyone's budget and lifestyle. So I work with women that are, you know, on a pension or people from all walks of life. So I basically helped come up with a plan. And it didn't seem quite fair for just people in my local community to access that type of care. So I started to just offer this type of educational information that people all over the world and it's been very well received, and it just lights me up all the time to help people.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 6:47

Well, let's get into some of that. So, I see clients for various reasons at my practice as a functional medicine provider. And I feel like regardless of the issues they present with many times, we have to emphasize the moment Have gut health with them. So even if they are coming in for skin issues, acne, psoriasis, whatnot or aging, we need to focus on gut health. And if I can get that client to really commit to clean eating, right, avoiding inflammatory foods, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, usually gluten and dairy whatnot, yes, their skin can clear up. And that begs the importance, again of improving gut health. But many times we don't have to focus on other steps in the longevity blueprint process that I work my patients through many times they can save money on supplements, and they don't have we don't have to run additional labs if they will really let me help them improve their gut health. Would you say that individuals need to spend less with additional aesthetic procedures and fillers like when they have a great skincare routine?

Rachel Varga 7:44

Yeah, first and foremost. So working with a provider like yourself, Dr. Gray to do those individualized Labs is I think, really the first place to start before even looking at rejuvenation procedures. It's like okay, what can I do? To make my physical body more balanced, because we live in a world of duality, good, bad, light, dark, healthy, unhealthy, the more balanced we can be with our gut health and our hormones, you know, the better things are going to be functioning in general. So I'm a firm believer, before really doing anything is to get your labs checked out, even you know, your genes, see what's happening and your detox pathways. Because if you need to heal the last you want, you don't want to just start to do these procedures because you're going to be healing in that regard. You have to heal yourself first. And of course, healing your gut has a huge impact on your skin.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 8:44

So tell me, this is my weakness. You were able to help me with getting a good exfoliator going, you have a whole skincare regimen and in fact, you have a cheat sheet that you provide to your clients. So tell us more about skincare and about that cheat sheet and where listener can really Get started with skincare.

Rachel Varga 9:02

Yes, I have a free resource for everybody. It's my free treatment planning guide, and also my sophisticated skin cheat sheet. You get that as soon as you register for my newsletter, which you can do so at Rachel market.ca slash register, and just click on the newsletter button and you're in, you're going to get those two downloads right into your inbox. And it's just all about making things easy. So for example, what I've really found to be critical is to just actually stabilize the skin and how do we do that? Well, we just have to look after properly right? So I've identified four key aspects that just across the board, no matter what someone's skin concerns are their genetic background because yes, your genetic background does play into which products and ingredients you're going to do better with. So cleansing the skin morning and night, moisturizing the skin morning and night. It's like putting on your topical supplements that he will sign protection every single day and insulating a couple nights a week. It doesn't have to be complicated, but those are really the four steps. But it's not just doing those four steps. It's then making sure that you're using products and those four steps that are individualized and customized to what your specific needs and goals are.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 10:14

So I experienced skin cancer last year, and I will fully admit that I neglected having lesion on my head looked at I unfortunately, got biopsies while I was pregnant, and so I could not have a skin cancer surgery. during the pregnancy, I had to wait till the end long story short, my surgeon then left on maternity leave so my surgery got pushed way out and I look back in hindsight at how this could have been prevented. I have very fair skin. My husband does as well. Our son is very pale is very, I'm gonna have very sensitive skin growing up. I I recognize how important that skin protection step is. I learned the very hard way I had to have a major surgery. Thankfully, you're gonna help me with my scar. I'm moving forward. But I absolutely believe in all of those steps but one that I know that many people may neglect is protecting the skin and I was very concerned I wasn't going to be able to find a gluten free skin protectant. Right, something's going to have this SPF to block the sun. That actually would look it on my skin, but you were able to find something for me. That's working wonderfully. So if you are listening and you're looking for products that could really work for your skin. That's part of what Rachel does. She helps personalize your plan. Then you walk your clients through all those steps and you're you can suggest products Am I correct?

Rachel Varga 11:35

You are absolutely correct. And what you talked about with our skin type you and I actually have pretty well the same skin type we have what's called Fitzpatrick skin type two. You guys listening might think, Oh dry, oily, sensitive, acne prone. Those aren't really skin types. Those are like skin qualities conditions. So the actual Fitzpatrick skin type is like a scale of how much melanin you have in your skin or don't And you and I, we are like a Fitzpatrick skin type two. We don't have a lot of melanin, which means we don't have a lot of innate protection of our skin cells because we have less melanin. So when people are of a darker ethnicity, they have more melanin so like if it's after three, four, and so they tend to not burn as much they get that beautiful goddess tan You and I, we've said we like burn like a tomato. So I actually take supplements to assist myself internally so that when I want to enjoy the sun and go swim and snorkel and enjoy being outside with my husband, I'm already slathered in sunscreen but that it actually isn't enough physical sunscreen, by the way mineral based sunscreen. So I take internal antioxidant supplements to actually boost my internal sun protection. This is actually a thing.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 12:53

I've never thought of antioxidants as protecting us in that way when you're exposed to the sun. That's brilliant. That totally makes sense. Another reason We need to take antioxidants love that.

Rachel Varga 13:02

There are actually specific formulations that are specifically designed for that purpose. There is also specific formulas out there to suppress an overproduction of melanin in the skin, which occurs when we experience things like melasma. For example, during pregnancy or a menopause, some of us are just going to be a bit more prone to melasma and pigmentation than others. But there's actually supplements out there to reduce that overproduction of melanin in the skin, which causes things like melasma and brown spots. It's really fascinating. And not to mention, sometimes this is coming from one of our colleagues, Dr. Beth O'Hara, she's a gene analyst. She was telling us, I interviewed her recently on the Rachael Barker podcast that sometimes pigmentation can be an indicator of a blockage in your detox pathways.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 13:55

I have heard that before. Go back to the antioxidant piece. So I do I have clients who have had melasma and I have just generally recommended antioxidants across the board. Do you can you speak to specific formulations for melasma?

Rachel Varga 14:09

I sure can. Yeah, I actually interview on my podcast the founder of Gleason and skin nutrients or glycerin is how we say it in North America. This is a company that's been around for, I think, about 15 years and tons of third party research on their products. And which fantastic so it's, it's a, it's a brand that's actually basically supported by a number of dermatologist, plastic surgeons all over the world. And their specific brightening formula has an enzyme that's derived from tomatoes, that is shown to suppress the overproduction of melanin in the skin. There's also another antioxidant enzyme that you can take a dermal formula so there's options for different skin needs, but it's really cool. So they take superoxide dismutase, which is really potent antioxidant. And with theirs, they do have to have like a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of gluten around it so that when it actually gets into your stomach, it doesn't break down, right? Because when we ingest certain supplements, they have to be able to absorb in our intestinal tract, right. So they basically figured out this way to allow this SSD to be potent when ingested and effective.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 15:26

Very interesting. I'll have to look into that and I'll put that company's name in the show notes. I used to take prior to having a baby I need to get back on it and so a catalyst product to help with gray hair which I have now considering haven't been able to get my hair done in a few months. So we know antioxidants are even beneficial for preventing and treating, treating gray hair back to melasma. Tell me about how lasers can benefit those darkening spots, dark spots or melasma on the skin.

Rachel Varga 15:57

That's a really great question and a lot of times when people Have pigmentation or melasma, they just want to go straight to treatment. But in fact, I don't like taking that approach. And so I discussed this during one on one work, which you can schedule your one on one consultation with me at Rachel berger.ca. You have to stabilize the skin first, right? So especially if you're prone to melasma. If you say just dive right into laser treatment, you could actually get rebound hyperpigmentation. So if you are not first setting the groundwork for stabilizing your skin, and getting your skin used to active it's going to be you can basically look at your at home or team doing some of the prep work first so that when you decide to invest in the laser technologies, those treatments are actually taking care of what's left over that your skincare couldn't do on its own. And then you have the right products after your laser treatment to properly hydrate and protect your skin after it's really important to not just get a laser treatment and then just Use whatever you get online or from the drugstore, you do need to be properly guided to what to do before and after.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 17:07

But speak to that for a moment. So a lot of my clients always ask me why the products we carry, I feel are so much more important. And in fact, on a previous podcast interview I had, we talked a lot about sourcing of ingredients and all of our products and the potency that we decided to carry and all the evidence behind the that formulation, right that's on our shelf. So I imagine skincare is the same So Rachel, can you tell me the difference between just an over the counter skin line versus like a medical grade mine?

Rachel Varga 17:38

Yes. And first and foremost, let's just do a little PSA here. If you guys haven't seen the show broken on Netflix, you need to watch this documentary because the counter fit beauty industry, whether it's makeup, skincare supplements, household cleaning agents, basically anything you're putting on your body or using in your home, you do not want to be buying off of these third party auction websites. And the reason why is because of the counterfeit beauty industry. We actually had a colleague of ours have her line ripped off, right, the packaging might look the same on this auction website. But they're made in these really sort of like dodgy back alley labs, right. And they test positive for your rehab, fecal matter, all these terrible things. So yes, just because something says it's manufactured in North America doesn't necessarily mean anything. Because the ingredients still could be derived overseas from really low quality manufacturers, if you will, but actually manufacturer the ingredients right, and then they get shipped over and then they get put in for me. So long story short, don't bother trying to buy stuff on these third party websites that you know nothing about. If you're on a website, and you're like, oh, the site isn't secure, because you can check a site secure if it's got that little lock icon in your your toolbar.

And if you feel like you're getting a virus from that website, Probably not. So it's really important to I would say after age like 3040 to switch over to medical grade skincare, because like with your supplements you work with, there's a greater emphasis from these companies that are making these a lot of great products on the chemists sourcing really great antioxidants like vitamin C, hyaluronic acid peptides, vitamin A, and then putting in a formula to make sure that that formulation is stable. And then they test it to make sure it's actually giving results on the skin. So this is a whole different ballgame than say just going to your local pharmacy drugstore or chemists and picking up this like 10 $15 cream that you see all these ads for a lot of times over the counter products. Those companies spent a lot of money in marketing. And then some of these medical grade brands you probably haven't seen any ads for because those companies typically would Place their dollars in their manufacturing and their education research yet to teach other ascetic physicians and nurses like myself.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 20:09

Wonderful. So you laid the foundation for why it's so important to get a good skincare regimen

Rachel Varga 20:15

before wanting to work right?

Dr. Stephanie Gray 20:17

Before you would consider laser, but I still have to ask what is your favorite laser? For plasma?

Rachel Varga 20:24

Yeah, so melasma basically any laser company is going to say, Oh, you know, IPL type devices aren't. You don't want to treat anybody with plasma, any laser companies can tell you that. So first and foremost, this educational information. What I'm about to say is not medical advice before making any lifestyle modifications, do check with your physician, now that we have that out of the way. There are a lot of really cool studies coming out. And there's two studies from Harvard that actually looked at bbl broadband late, which is a form of IPL, intense pulse light and basically these special Big types of technologies. IPL isn't technically a laser, but it's kind of in that category. It's a bright light and the lights attracted to reds and browns on the skin. So the Chroma for target is hemoglobin for the Reds like rosacea, redness on the cheeks, nose, it's like that red acne scars. And then the other target is melanin. So pigmentation in the skin, so like the melasma, the brown spots, things like that. So they essentially help to break it down and then your body just reabsorbs those little selfie fragments and then poof, you know, a couple days later skins clear, which is fantastic, but there are varying different qualities of laser technologies. So to figure out what could be right for you. I'm happy to help you learn about that in a consultation but there's tons of studies out there that IPL is, is quite helpful for pigmentation.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 21:50

Wonderful. I want to get into fillers. But also Botox. So maybe let's talk about neuromodulators first talk a little bit about Botox I have clients who have asked my opinion on that and asked if it's something that I would want to offer in my practice. And I, I want to offer more aesthetics here, but I really, I knew that I needed to do more research before I would answer that question. And I believe there are some safer alternatives to Botox. So let me ask your personal opinion. Or maybe explain first what a neuromodulator is, and then go into if you believe that Botox is a safe therapy or if there are safer therapies that are just as effective if not more available?

Rachel Varga 22:29

Sure, that's actually a really great question. And as you know, I teach other aesthetic nurses and physicians all over the world on these techniques. And I love that because when I get to teach, I get to teach about, you know, what you need to teach your patients how to screen them properly, to see if they're a good candidate or not. Because I'm a Canadian nurse, I do actually have to be very careful what I say in regards to medications. So what I can point you towards is actually a paper I wrote. So last year I wrote a paper and won an award from the International Society of Plastic anesthetic nurses. Fantastic. Thank you. And the topic is or the title of the paper is providing optimal rejuvenation the PERI ocular area using advanced neuromodulator injectable techniques. You can just search my name Rachel Varga PubMed, you'll see the paper pop up. So in my paper, I have a chart. And in that chart I list the specific weights of the different neuromodulators that are on the market.

So the ones that we commonly hear about are Botox, Dysport, Zelman, and then there's been some other new ones that have come out like jello and new talks and new things are coming out all the time. But we hear Botox, it's like Kleenex, right? So for you to learn more about, you know, the side effects and all this stuff. You could just go on the internet and go to the actual brand websites and actually read the monograph yourself. I'm not going to get into that. But the thing is, is that some of these products have a higher molecular weight or a smaller molecular weight, right? So when we're thinking of a supplement, he kind of want more of like, as pure of a supplement as possible, as opposed to different additives. So if you just go on that chart that's in my paper, and I can talk about this because it's published data, right? It's pretty, pretty easy to see which products out there have less of these complex proteins in them, which research has shown since 2013. There's tons of studies out there, that the complex in proteins are actually what launched an immune response right over time, which can create neutralizing antibodies, which over time can in some individuals may be given either immune diseases Is that what you're getting

Dr. Stephanie Gray 24:51

at or no,

Rachel Varga 24:53

basically, what we see is over time, it can stop working for people, which is kind of annoying, but what I was also getting There is and You took the words out of my mouth is if people already have an autoimmune disease, you don't want to go near any really any type of rejuvenation procedure, because your body's already working really hard to have a healthy, happy, happy to have a healthy, happy and healthy environment, right? Leave that in. This is real life. We can't, you know, be perfect speakers all the time, right? And so if you're struggling with an autoimmune disease, you do want to just do everything you can to limit your assault, if you will, of external stuff, right? So what I like to recommend is yes, injectables are a big part of what I do, and they can create wonderful results, but it's different for each person, what options could be right for them.

But I love

Dr. Stephanie Gray 25:51

that blanket statement. Just kind of say this is bad. This is good. And it sounds like the answers are complex. Yeah,

Rachel Varga 25:56

it really depends on what the person's individual goals are. But I'm a firm believer of really dialing in your at home routine basic skincare protocol, maybe add some dermal rolling, which can be helpful for your scarring and hairline all sorts of good things for size collagen induction, love red light therapy, and do that follow a really healthy lifestyle work with yourself as a functional provider, a functional medicine provider to do your labs and and your supplements. And I love lasers for you know, creating a little bit of injury in the skin to then tell your fiberglass to make collagen and then only do the injectables if you need to.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 26:37

Let's go back to a couple points you have there. Tell me about red light therapy. I listened to your podcast on the Juve. Is that what it's called or the Juve?

Rachel Varga 26:45

Yes, it's one of the red light therapy devices on the market. There are many my husband and I my hubby's a pro athlete. And we've been using red light therapy at home for almost a decade, and they've really come a long way. So this is an example of You know, we use one of the first generations of red light therapy. They're kind of clunky you have to like strap them to yourselves with like Velcro. And now I actually have my red light device literally four feet away from me right here. And I really like it, it's on a little stamp, I'll just pop it on while I get ready in the morning and the evening like signals that Okay, time to get up, Okay, time to go to bed, or I'll do my legs while I'm sitting at my desk. anything that we can do to reduce inflammation in our body, I think it's really going to be a good thing. And there's a lot of research on the benefits of red light therapy, but it does come down to the specific device you're using the specific energy output, and also the specific wavelength or nanometre of penetration of the light.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 27:47

Awesome. So if you want to learn more, listen to her podcast on the red light therapy. derma rolling is something that I would like to learn more about and I did purchase a derma roller with your guidance. haven't started using it yet. need to learn more. But tell us more about the benefits of derma rolling is it easy is it hard? Why would I Why would I use a derma roller? Even if I don't have the scar?

Rachel Varga 28:10

Yeah so this is perfect because we're going to give you a little bit of one on one coaching on the spot here so definitely listen to me fantastic. So you're all set with your your stabilized skin routine that we've customized for you awesome. And what you need to know about dribble rollers is no you just don't want to like be me message me or email me what brand roller do you recommend Rachel and then try and find it on those third party websites now you want to do you need to be guided on how to use them properly as well. Because I can't tell you how many people I've met with online that have for online consoles that have bought rollers and like oh my my roller really hurts my face. And then they hold their roller up and I can literally see the needles.

They're using like a you know a five or a seven depth roller right there's there's different depths usually want to start with like blood one millimeter and then go up from there, not like point five or point seven, which our stable is just getting first get your skin nice to the active. So you want to be using certain serums with your ruling that are designed to penetrate much cheaper into the skin. So instead of just topical application of a product, when we're rolling, we're basically creating channels of dermal injury like air at Milan. And then instead of you know, using fertilizer which you want to be careful with fertilizer using your lawn and your phone by the way, we want certain actors to integrate into those little channels we've created with the at home rolling like copper peptide, hyaluronic acid, vitamin A, vitamin B good buy on all these great things. So it comes out of using rollers that have been manufactured properly. So I use rollers that have been manufactured since like the 90s and then serums that are proven to be safe and effective for that transdermal integration afterwards. As opposed to just topical on top of the skin, and then you're gonna get a little bit of redness and irritation when you start rolling. So that's why you go back to your just basic security to mitigate that irritation.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 30:13

I love that analogy. So that's what I need to do. Yeah. Okay, one of our last questions may be a little tough, but I know because I know you that we both have a strong faith, we believe in a higher power, and that were created for a reason and that were beautiful in God's image. And so I want to ask you this tough question. Like, how do you respond to naysayers who maybe say this sort of work, right and in the aesthetic realm is not needed?

Rachel Varga 30:38

Okay, this is going to be really funny. Funny yet triggering. Let's just be real here. I was interviewed recently on bulletproof radio with Dave Asprey. A lot of you listeners probably have tuned into that episode, and it's Episode 668 on skin aging. And I told Dave, during the interview, I'm like, this can be a very triggering topic talking about rejuvenation. And he just was just like, if you are of the mindset, you're going to age gracefully, chances are you are going to end up in a nursing home in like your 70s because of incontinence.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 31:12

Yes. Your comments. I listened to that. Yeah.

Rachel Varga 31:16

Yeah. And it's true. It's if you feel like okay, you're just going to cruise through life not do these little extra things. They're not little, they all add up to being very impactful things, that they're all going to help you age really well, right. So if you are just going to follow what 99% of the population is doing, look at how 99% of the population is doing overweight, bad skin, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, thyroid issues. If you don't take the time to look after yourself. That's the path that you're going to go down. But a lot of times people don't think they're worth it. So this rejuvenation stuff goes so much deeper than just okay I want great skin right? Okay, no, it's worth it's, this is important for you and I look after our skin so we don't get skin cancers. Right.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 32:07

Right, right. Good point. Good point. I think self care. Maybe some people say that's overrated, but I see this as self, that we are respecting our body that we've been given, right? We're eating healthy. we're establishing that good foundational gut health, or removing the inflammatory foods and let's face it, God created a perfect world, but it's been contaminated. It's toxic. So now we have to detox right detox our lives, literally. And so I love getting a massage and relaxing Some people love getting a facial or her various skin treatments. I think taking care of our skin is a sign of self respect. So it's okay to invest in high quality products and take care of our skin and our hair and our bodies. That's kind of how I see that.

Rachel Varga 32:49

Oh my gosh, I had so much fun doing my hair mask today. Well, I was doing some other things. I had my rent like, you know my hair up with my mask and I was working away on my computers like multicasts Great, we get to maximize our time doing this self care stuff. And I have fun with it. I don't look at it like a chore. It's like, Hey, I have this amazing body that I was given to have this awesome experience here on Earth where I get to interact with people like yourself, Stephanie, and I really want to navigate this whole thing called life in a really beautiful way. And so one of the things I like to teach are what my most vibrant clients are doing, and I talked about this in my ebook, unlocking your vitality, and it's really simple. It's having a body mind, spirit, energy practice. And usually when women enter their 60s, they've learned how to cultivate this and it's really beautiful because I sometimes see women in their 60s. They've never done anything to their skin. Yeah, they got some photo aging, fine lines, wrinkles, brown spots, but they're stunning, because it's the inner stuff. It's that inner radiance that just exudes from people that you have cultivated the self care practices. So that stuff is even more important than coming to see someone like myself. And the really cool thing about those things body mind, spirit, energy practice cultivation, to bring forth a higher level of beauty and radiance. Most of the time, those things are free.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 34:19

That was beautiful. My last question I was going to ask you is what your top longevity tip may be now you've already given us maybe you just answered that, but give us another tip. What's your top longevity tip? Okay, the funny

Rachel Varga 34:30

thing is people are like, okay, Rachel, what's your number one beauty tip. I don't have a number one PV tip. My my best tip for you guys listening is to just realize that yes, you are worth it. And it's like putting your oxygen mask on before you know your child's oxygen mask. You're going to be better able to look after them. If you do take the time to look after yourself. Don't feel guilty about it. Do things that feel right for you. We innately Know what feels good for us. And just really tune into that. And this comes down to you know what type of foods you're eating, what type of movies you're watching what type of music, you're listening to what type of conversations you have with your family and friends. It's all of that, that really does impact your your longevity blueprint, everything we can possibly do to reduce inflammation in our bodies will actually allow our genetic blueprint to function the way that it wants to.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 35:29

That was lovely. So Rachel, tell us how the audience can connect with you.

Rachel Varga 35:34

I love connecting with people all over the world. And one of the things that makes me the happiest is when I get a message from someone I work with, oh, it's been you know, two, three weeks and I'm already seeing changes in my skin. Thanks so much. It was like hanging out with a friend on our call. And so I'm just here to show up and help you guys figure out this whole aging thing and connect with people like Dr. Stephanie gray to really bring In that inner aspect as well so I hang out a lot on Instagram at Rachel Berg official also on Facebook at the same and also I now have a masterclass with my husband is a pro athlete at unlock your vitality calm is really cool masterclass where he really brings into an easy to implement way motivation, mindset diet, exercise, and then I couple in the self care body mind spirit energy rejuvenation stuff. It's just this beautiful project that we worked on. And also I do the one on one skin consultations as well. So that's why Rachel varga.ca and you have a podcast.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 36:41

Yeah. And you're unlocking your vitality ebook as well, right?

Rachel Varga 36:46

Yep. All my offerings. Just go to Rachel garga.ca slash register, and they're all listed there, how you can connect with me work with me, and just some of the beautiful offerings that I've really developed with you guys in mind. who are wanting to just really enjoy this time here on Earth together and look great and radiant in the process and I'm offering a special promo to everybody listening. The promo is Stephanie gray 15 for 15% off of the masterclass ebook consultation, and yeah, it's great to just give back and any way we can and help each other out.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 37:24

That was very generous. Thank you for all of your expertise today and your heart to really help our skin age well and stay beautiful from the inside out. I can feel that that you want us to be beautiful, not just on the outside, but on the inside. So thank you for your time and for all of your resources.

Rachel Varga 37:41

My pleasure. And what you're doing as well is just as impactful to write helping people figure out which supplements lifestyle tweaks could be helpful based on some of the labs that you help people and he basically help people uncover their what their body really Once and we can't underestimate that power, the power labs, right? This is where like the really sophisticated route for anti aging and skin health and overall health is going.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 38:13

Well, that's definitely the strength in what we do. Being a functional medicine practitioner, we can help patients discover the root cause of their ailments using labs. What's wonderful is when we can connect and use each other's strengths, right? Because that's going to help our patients live and age even better. So thank you for all your tips on helping us age. Well. That concludes another excellent episode, I hope to continue my quest to learning more about aesthetics. I like to be able to offer laser treatments and neuromodulators at my office one day, but until then, I now at least feel much more prepared on how to take care of my skin and what to recommend to my patients having met and learned from Rachael and I'm sure you do as well.

To learn more be sure to check out all her offerings links of which we will post in the show notes. Be sure to check out my book your longevity blueprint. If you aren't much of a reader, you're in luck. You can now take my course online where I walk you through each chapter in the book. Plus for a limited time, not only is the course 50% off, but you also get your first consult with me for free. Check this offer out at your longevity blueprint comm and click the course tab. One of the biggest things you can do to support the show and help us reach more listeners is to subscribe to the show. And leave us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. I read all the reviews and would truly love to hear your suggestions for show topics, guests or how you're applying what you've learned on the show to create your own longevity blueprint. A podcast is produced by the team at counterweight creative As always, thanks so much for listening and remember, wellness is waiting.

The information provided in this podcast is educational. No information provided should be considered to be or used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your personal medical authority.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai