166. Carolina Reis de Oliveira: The Missing Link Between Skin and Longevity

Welcome to Extend with me, Dr. Darshan Shah, a podcast dedicated to cutting-edge science, research, tools, and protocols designed to help you extend your health span. Having become one of the youngest doctors in the country at the age of 21 and trained in board-certified at the Mayo Clinic, I've accumulated three decades of practice as a board-certified surgeon and longevity expert. Over that time, I've discovered that a mere 20% of health knowledge yields 80% of the results when it comes to your health span. We are living in a new era where we are creating a new healthcare system no longer focused on disease management but achieving optimal health and vitality. Join me as I interview world-renowned experts, offering you a step-by-step guide to proactively avoid disease and most importantly, extend your health span. Are you treating the symptoms of skin aging or are you addressing its root cause at a cellular level? This episode with Dr. Carolyn Race, CEO and co-founder of OneSkin, reveals how her team of scientists revolutionized skin care by focusing in on cellular senescence. We discover how their groundbreaking peptide is the first scientifically validated ingredient to specifically target and reverse biological age by clearing out senescent skin cells. Dr. Race shares the fascinating journey from growing many organs to meticulously testing thousands of compounds on skin samples that were grown in the lab. How uncovering most anti-aging products are ineffective or even harmful to the skin at a cellular level. We are going to learn about the critical role of the skin barrier. The surprising impact of UV exposure and why choosing the right sunscreen is paramount not just for aesthetics but your overall health. This conversation really challenges conventional wisdom about skin care. There's a new paradigm for maintaining youthful, resilient skin from within. Tune in to understand the science behind true skin longevity, how inflammation accelerates aging and practical steps that you can take to protect your skin, which is your body's largest organ. And it's a vital part of your overall health and wellness strategy. Carolina is so fantastic. And finally, I've been trying to get you on the podcast for a year now. I know. Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Shah. It's such a pleasure. Yes, you're amazing because you have such a depth of longevity science and cellular science and you've turned that into a truly revolutionary product. And I just would love to dive in with you on. I just can't wait to pick your brain on everything in longevity science, but also your journey. Like, you know, you're a scientist and to then find a product that actually works for people is it's a long way to go. Not a lot of scientists do that, right? Yeah. And this is actually what drove me to be a scientist in the first place. I always want to research something that would eventually be translated to, you know, create something that would impact and change people's lives. And interesting enough, I didn't expect that I would be in skincare. I was always I was never necessarily obsessed about beauty, but I was always obsessed about health. And now it's interesting to see how, you know, through skin, we can actually impact our health as well. Wow. But my PhD was actually in stem cell biology and tissue engineering. So that's the area that I got, you know, first really fascinated about because there are so many potential applications. And how I actually started was initially growing human tissues out of the stem cells. Wow. So initially we're growing, you know, skins, we're growing like mini hearts and mini brains in the lab. And we're using this as a model to test like new products or new drugs that were being developed to test like efficacy and safety. And eventually it's hard to get more traction from the cosmetic industry because the cosmetic industry needs models that are not based on animals. They can't use animals and the skins that we're growing was actually a good option. And as we started to test these products that were in the market, primarily anti-aging products, we were seeing that they were not developed to target aging itself. They're always trying to mask the symptoms of aging, you know, minimize the fine lines and wrinkles, but they are not going at the cellular level where aging is happening. And that's when we saw an opportunity to do something about it. Wow. So first of all, you were growing like human skin. So you're actually testing products in the lab on human skin, which is very difficult to do, right? Unless you actually grow the skin. So now you've created a new model for testing these products. Exactly. We created this platform that we basically understand how the skin ages. And then we can test any product or any active or any new ingredient, any new molecule. And we can measure how such a product is changing what we call like the skin's biological age, but also we measure like the skin structure. If the skin gets thinner or thicker, so we can visually see how products impact the skin. And it's very interesting, sometimes shocking to see that a lot of the, you know, best sellers anti-aging products are actually damaging your skin. Oh my gosh. They are causing inflammation. They are causing toxicity because unfortunately they're, you know, they contain some good actives, but they also have some like not so good ingredients that eventually cause that inflammation. So it's really, really important to know what we're putting in our skin because eventually we can, you know, end up like, you know, causing more harm than good. Yeah. And so this is a big topic of interest for me because, you know, a lot of these chemicals that we put on our skin, they're endocrine disrupting chemicals, their immune system disrupting chemicals. And the part of this is really, really bad is that we do this every single day, sometimes twice a day with these products. And so I always recommend to my patients to scan their skincare products with some of these apps like Yucca or ThinkDirty. So they know how toxic the products are. And to your point, I would say the majority of the skincare products out there are very toxic, right? To our biology. Yeah. I, it's, yeah, I would say that a lot of them are. So I think it's really important, as you said, like just, you know, look at the ingredients and look at some of these websites that help you screen and look for the science behind, right? Because I think in the end it's testing like the final formulation and very few companies do that and understand what that final formulation, how that formulation impacts the skin, because in the end it's not only the presence of a certain ingredient, because the dose can make a huge difference. So a certain ingredient in a higher dose can be very toxic, in a small dose can be totally fine. And so testing the full formula and understanding what that causes in the skin, that's when we actually see, you know, the final, you know, impact. Got it. Got it. And so this skin model that you developed through stem cells and growing new skin, I mean, obviously there's different types of skins out there, right? Are you able to grow different types of skin, different colors, different thickness, all of this? Yes. Yeah. So we partner with clinics that do plastic surgeries and we get like leftover of like abdomen skin, sometimes like facial skin. And then we can sometimes we get skins from like 30 years old, 40 years, 60 up to 90 years old. So we can really see how the skin, as we regrow the cells, you know, the skin of those donors, we can see how the skins grow in the lab. Like, and they have like different morphologies based on their age. Yes. And then we can also receive some different ethnicities, like Afro-American, Hispanic and Caucasian, Asian skin. And then very interesting, we measure like some genes that are very commonly associated with aging. So for example, P16, they're usually lower in Asian while they're very high in Caucasians. What is this now? So the P16 gene. P16 gene. Okay. So it's higher in Caucasians? Yeah. Okay. So it's, so the genetically they are more, they age faster than the Asian, you know. Oh wow. Yeah. So that's. So you've pinpointed the gene that actually causes Caucasians to seem like they're aging faster than Asians. Yeah. They're very classic, like gene markers that we evaluate. So P16, P21, these are like senescent, you know, markers. And then we evaluate inflammation. We also evaluate proteins or enzymes that break down collagen. And then we can see how they vary in terms of like, is this gene more active or like suppressing different like ethnicities? And we see these different variations and it's very interesting. Wow. So if we're comparing Caucasian skin to like Asian skin, or what is besides the P16 gene, which is a gene that regulates cellular senescence, right? Yeah. What are some of the other factors that lead to rapid aging of skin? There are several factors. One is inflammation, right? They want the another one is. So for example, inflammation, we look like IL6, IL8, those interloquines. We also look at proteins that produce collagen or degrade collagen. These are metalloproteinases or just collagen enzymes. Hyaluronic acid, synthases, elastin, you know, enzymes. So we evaluate all of those genes that basically control like the skin biology and in how the aging process works. Got it. So if we do it hone in on three main reasons that you're seeing when you evaluate these skin models, it is cellular senescence, which is basically like clearing of old dead skin cells, right? Yeah. So cellular senescence are essentially these damaged cells that accumulate in our skin, in our body. And this is actually a mechanism of defense from our body, because if the cells that are already damaged, they continue to divide, they could potentially become a cancer. Sure. And when we are young, our body is able to clear out those senescent cells in our skin. But then as we get older, our immune system also gets deficient. And then the cells start to build up. And the problem is that they don't only sit around, they are like start secreting inflammation and they basically induce the cells around it to become senescent and to age faster. So in the lab, when we see, for example, a skin that is like a 30 year old skin, if we add more senescent cells in that skin, the skin is going to look like a 50, a 60 year old skin, just because the presence of the senescent cells is inducing more inflammation, is inducing more collagen breakdown. And then we see that this is one of the key drivers of skin aging. And that's one of the areas that we got really interested in. We thought, can we prevent the accumulation of the senescent cells? And that's the research that led us to study peptides and eventually get to OS1. Amazing. So cellular senescence is one. Inflammation is another one, which is kind of related to senescence as well. But there's other reasons inflammation can develop in the skin as well. Like we were mentioning earlier, using toxic skincare products could be another reason. Even being exposed to pollution can be another reason. Yes. Yes. And then lastly, you were saying either the formation or the breakdown of collagen, right? Yes. And this can be induced by several factors. For example, UV exposure is a, basically UV exposure accounts for like 80% of like the visible signs of skin aging. And 80% of the visible is UV skin exposure. 80% is like environmental stressors in general. And UV exposure is like the main one. Yeah. And so you said pollution and other, you know, types of radiation. This can all count as like environmental stressors, but UV exposure is the main one. And basically UV exposure really causes this collagen degradation. We have a UV simulator at our lab and we expose the skin and we see that the collagen degradation really increases. And actually when we apply some of our peptide or even the SPF, including the peptide, we completely protect against that collagen degradation and we actually boost the collagen production with the peptide. Wow. So is there, I have so many questions on this. So your peptide actually prevents UV light from degrading the collagen. So is that what you're saying? So our peptide basically empowers the cells to be more efficient in repairing the DNA damage. I see. So the DNA doesn't accumulate in the cells because the machinery of the cells in repairing damage is more efficient. And it is what happens when we are young, right? Like we're able to repair damage and then as we grow older, we decrease that we lose that efficiency. So that's what our peptide is doing. It helps preventing the accumulation of damage from UV and then prevents the collagen degradation as a consequence. Got it. Makes total sense. So, you know, there's always a lot of controversy around how much sun exposure is the right amount of sun exposure, right? And so I'd love for you to answer that question because you need sun. Yes. Yes. So and I love sun. I think for us is you can enjoy sun as long as you are protecting your skin and and doesn't mean even that you are going to prevent vitamin D production. If you have sunscreen and if you're out there, eventually you're going to even potentially get a little more tanned. But if you're not getting sunburn, if you're, you know, have that layer of protection that's preventing that really strong damage that can come from like direct sun exposure, you can still harness, you know, the benefits of the sun and not like damage your skin. Got it. So what is the minimum amount of time someone should be spending in the sun every day? Wow. That's a very tricky question. Yeah. I think this is more from a longevity standpoint. You know, personally, I love like, you know, 15, 20 minutes early morning, sometimes even, you know, if the UV index is not too high, even with my bare face, I don't mind. Yeah. But then I think if the UV index is higher, obviously, you know, you need it to be more mindful of how much you're exposed. And then you can be exposed and obviously wearing like UV protected clothes and, you know, hats and etc. So yeah, I think what you said early morning is better than like when the sun is in full, in full blast on you is better as well. Okay. Got it. And then what is the best type of sunscreen that people should buy? This is a question that comes up a lot. Yeah, that's a great one. So there is a lot of discussion about, you know, chemical versus mineral sunscreen. The chemical sunscreens, they can get into your bloodstream. So this can be a little bit more risky depending on the amount of sunscreen that you apply. So to be extra safe, we recommend the mineral sunscreen. And I think in the past, this was a challenge because mineral had not a great, you know, texture, it was like a paste, but now they can be like a beautiful, nice texture, they can blend well. And in our case, like we developed this mineral sunscreen that contains the peptide, contains like six other antioxidants, including a very stable form of vitamin C. So it's kind of a trifecta product in a way that you are protecting. You are enhancing, you know, the cellular activity with the peptide and the antioxidants are like neutralizing the free radicals that are also causing damage in our cells, in our proteins and, you know, preventing the acceleration of the aging process. Got it. And is there zinc in your sunscreen? Yeah, it's basically made of like zinc oxide. Great. Great. How does zinc work to protect your skin? It creates a layer, kind of a mineral layer. And so very simply put, like it kind of doesn't allow the UV to penetrate. So it doesn't go inside the cells. It's basically like reflects. It's not, yeah, it's not necessary, but, you know, that's a simple, simply put, like it reflects the UV. Yes, yes. And I believe your sunscreen is SPF 30, right? It's 30. Yeah, it's 30. Yeah. Is there a reason to go higher on the SPF ever? So the difference of 30 to 50 is not very significant. You go from like 97% protection to 99%. And the problem going from 30 to 50, then you need to add so much more zinc that then the texture becomes a huge challenge. And if you have a product that people won't use, then it's not helpful, right? So we needed to have something in between. But this protection is already like really, really good to prevent, you know, the majority of the damage that you would get. Amazing. So, you know, I want to go back to stem cells again, because I think it's a really important topic that people have a lot of questions about. When you're growing stem cells into skin and you said even hearts and things like that, how does that process work? What is what are you actually doing in a laboratory? Yes. So right now we are only researching skin. So hearts was like, you know, back in Brazil when I was still in Brazil. But basically from the skins, as I said, we get the tissue from, you know, leftover plastic surgeries so we can separate the derms from the epiderms. These are the two main layers of the skin, like the dermal layers, the layer that contain the fibroblasts. These are the cells that produce collagen that will, you know, give like the firmness and the structure of the skin. And the epidermal layer contains like the keratinocytes and the melanocytes. So this will form basically the skin barrier. You know, the keratinocytes will create this keratin layer that will, you know, isolate the skin. And so basically these cells are able to replicate in the lab. And then we put them together. We have a system that we put the cells on top of a grid. So the skin becomes exposed to air and the exposure basically induces the cells to differentiate it like our human skin, right? Because the human skin is exposed to air. So we're able just to mix these cells together. First the layer of the derms and then we put the epiderms on top. And then we created this 3D model that when we put side by side to a human skin is exactly, is very similar. So now we have like this model that's really similar to a human skin that we can test everything. And then we have a beautiful ability to predict how the skin will behave when we bring a product to, you know, to market because basically evaluated again, the ingredient, the combination of different, you know, ingredients together. And that basically allow us to be more successful with like anything that we bring out. And how big is the skin that you're growing? Is it like a one inch patch or like a big? Yeah, it's kind of a one inch. It's small, but then we can grow like a hundred different pieces, you know? Yeah. And we can test like different variations depending on what we want to test. Got it. And I assume it's in some sort of specialized culture material or something because there's no blood flow to this, right? So there is like we call like culture media. Like it's a liquid that's underneath the skin that's providing all the nutrients. Right. Got it. Got it. So fascinating. I'd love to visit the lab like this. It would be so great to have you. You still have this lab? We have. Yeah. We have it at the lab in San Francisco. Amazing. We grow, we test, you know, in the skins like every week. So if you have a chance to come, it would be such a pleasure to show you. Yeah, I would love to come and visit. I mean, it's just maybe I'll do like a YouTube video or something from your lab because this is just fascinating because this technology has not been around for a long time, right? You guys, how long has this been around? Well, this skin growing ability, it's been around for maybe a few decades, like 20 to 30 years. I think the main innovation of one skin is really on finding new peptides that can actually target senescent cells. So this research about senescent cells and the impact in our skin is very recent. It's been like 10, 15 years and this is mainly in academia. So we've been researching this for the past 10 years and we are the first ones to actually target senescent cells in the skin. Got it. Yeah. So I'm 52 right now, but I'm still pushing all of my limits. I'm running long distances. I travel across many time zones to support my work and I just want to live my life to the fullest. Staying active as I age isn't just about willpower. It's about supporting my mitochondria, the powerhouses of my cells with the energy that they need to recharge my muscles and recharge my brain. My topure is a supplement that I take. It's backed by solid research showing that it can boost cellular energy, increase muscle strength and support overall healthy aging. Personally, I take my topure every single day. It's helped me continue my active lifestyle, whether it's a high intensity workout or keeping up with my kids. So if you are looking to support your body and want to feel younger from the inside out, my friends at Timeline are offering you a 10% discount on your first order. Go to timeline.com slash doctor Shaw to get started. That's timeline.com forward slash dr shah. Your future self will thank you. So this peptide is called OS1. Yeah. And can you describe that peptide? Is it similar to other peptides that are out there? And how does it target the senescent cell? because senescent cells are not only in your skin and we have senescent cells all throughout our body so why not inject the os1 peptide? Yes, yes, great question. So how we found os1 in the first place is so we collaborated with Sena Universi in Brazil. They had a library of 200 microbial peptides initially and our hypothesis was are any of these peptides able to reduce senescent cells. So basically we tested this 200, we got to four peptides, then they worked but we thought it could work even better so we used machine learning and we generate like another 800 peptides and we did another round of testing. I mean this is just incredible, to use machine learning to generate 800 new pept versions of the four that you found that work in senescent cells. And I don't know if a lot of people know this but this is how they found the GLP1 peptide, right? Because they had, they knew we had GLP1 but it just only lasts a few minutes. How do you make it last a week? And then they tested it with machine learning and they found the Hela monster peptide lasts a week in humans. Without machine learning none of this would be possible. Machine learning slash AI, right? Yeah, exactly because what it allows us to do we know from the peptides that worked compared from the ones that didn't, you know let's maintain what worked and let's change what didn't and then machine learning can create like hundreds of iterations and then we tested this in the cells again. We tested this in senescent cells in the lab skin cells and then we measured the ability of those peptides to reduce the total amount of senescent cells and that's when we found OS1. So OS1 is a completely novel peptide. It's a peptide that has 10 amino acids and we found that it works by basically getting inside the cells as I said increases the DNA repair and for the cells that are already in the senescent states and they are secreting inflammation it basically shuts off the inflammation pathways because if the senescent cells are not releasing the inflammation they are not causing damage they are just there and so the peptide helps doing that and then what happens when there is less inflammation the surrounding tissue our own body can go there and clear those senescent cells because our immune system is not overwhelmed by the inflammation. So basically this peptide has this ability to reduce in our models we saw up to 40% the load of senescent cells in the skin and to your point like if it could reduce senescent cells throughout our body it could it's a very difficult process to test like you know in a model then we would need to test in animals and because we are mostly focused in the skin it's not our priority right now but in the future potentially there is an opportunity to see what you know how this can be you know applied systemically and help us you know clear senescent cells systemically but there are other ways even like natural extracts or even you know things like fasting that can also help our own body clear senescent cells internally so we are primarily focused on the skin for now. Yeah no I mean it's always easier to start with skin just because of you know once you get past skin then there's a whole different set of regulations I know plus hundreds of millions of dollars at that point in time but you know there are a lot of people that are suffering from a lot of inflammation then we may measure some biomarkers of senescence right so just systemically from blood and then they're always like now what do I do like my these markers of high levels of senescence and we recommend obviously fasting and some of these more natural supplements and extracts but and I think there is one or two peptides that people use for senescence but nothing that's been adequately tested in humans yeah yeah most of the clinical studies targeting senescence they're either using they're ongoing right now they're using fisetin or fisetin or the dizetini plus cursetin but again yeah with peptides they're still only in preclinical stage they're not like in human stage for senescent cells as far as I know yeah so so the os1 peptide goes into the cell it then shuts off the inflammatory pathways in the cell so then the immune system has an easier time getting to these senescent cells to clear them out of your skin and then this leads to less damage build up over time because it's just less inflammation inflammation causes damage to the surrounding skin cells that's how it works exactly amazing yeah and so you know there's other skincare products out there that have different effects on skin you mentioned vitamin c in some of these free radical scavengers right and so are those also important to be using like simultaneously with something like this at clear senescence yes definitely so if you think about the antioxidants and the role of like protecting against the free radicals this is one way that you can prevent even the accumulation of senescent cells as well so in our products we will always combine os1 with other antioxidants and even other ingredients that will help with moisture like hyaluronic acid or glycerin because the skin needs that moisture to maintain also the barrier is strong so we always combine os1 with those ingredients that are supporting the activity of the skin as a whole and we think that's it's possible to reduce the amount of products if you combine these ingredients in one product and simplify the skincare routine because you also don't want to overwhelm your skin with like too many actives a lot of times it's so interesting because in the lab we clearly see that this when we combine too many peptides we think that we are gonna deliver better benefit and no like the skin responds like in a worse way because it gets like overwhelmed by too many actives at the same time so i think it's important as i said like to know what the final formula it's delivering terms of benefits and you can only know if you test the full formula but as you know antioxidants vitamin c we actually have vitamin c as i said in our sunscreen and then you know ingredients that will support the barrier of the skin like ceramides fatty acids glycerins got it and so you have all those combined in the same product got it so if we're using and i've been using the os1 product for a while now what should i be using with that or is that all i need well we try to simplify for those that want a very simple and effective skincare routine so you could only focus on os1 and in our line we have like a face moisturizer we have an eye cream that actually has a little bit of a higher concentration of the peptide and has other ingredients that support the the skin around our eyes because the skin it's thinner and accumulates more senescence and it's actually there's data showing that the biological age of the skin under or above your eyes can be 20 to 30 years older than the skin around your temples so this formula is actually more potent in terms of like actives so for for me what i do is like you know wash my face with a cleanser apply the face moisturizer apply the eye cream i'm done and then in the morning i will i skip the washing face because my face is already clean you know from the last from the night before and then i just apply the moisturizer and the sunscreen and as i said like the sunscreen has the vitamin c so i don't need another vitamin c serum the only product that is not included and it's very common in a skincare routine is like retinol or retinol so you could add this to your routine you know mostly at night you could apply it first if your go is really to targets like the fine lines and wrinkles but if your skin is a little bit more sensitive and you want to create like a layer of protection sometimes i alternate so i apply os1 first and then i apply the retinol because i feel that my skin it's more protected when i have the one skin first got it got it now does retinol work yeah retinol basically activates this cell renewal capacity so the upper layers of your skin will basically peel off and you are going to grow a newer fresher skin so it's really good to smoothing the lines or giving you a better texture because it's inducing that cell renewal effect some people are more sensitive and they cannot necessarily tolerate because retinol can also cause inflammation and irritation and the other thing well retinol also induces collagen production but in the way that it pairs well with os1 it's because it's not targeting the senescent cells so we want to be able to do both right you want to be able to support the collagen production you want to be able to induce the cell renewal try to minimize the inflammation and you know combat the senescent cells accumulation and that would be like a really well rounded routine got it got it yes i mean just you know skincare routines are tough because i see you know people with like 30 products on their bathroom on their sink you know and like go through this and it takes a long time but sounds like you're trying to simplify this as much as possible and the only thing maybe to add is a retin a retinoid at night time right yeah to help with if you have fine lines and wrinkles which most people have yeah and for women that and this is actually you know a product that we are working right now that are going maybe through menopause and have like a little bit of a drier skin there obviously we know that as estrogen declines your skin will lose moisture we lose collagen so a heavier moisturizer on top of os1 could also be beneficial and that's something that we are working on so that's gonna come up soon yeah yeah heavier moisturizer yeah exactly like a richer cream to really lock in moisture because when your skin you know is dry then you know the the barrier will be compromised and then the signs of age will even look worse because your skin is so like dehydrated so really enhancing like that barrier protection the function of the skin is really really important and is this also protecting people from obviously everyone wants to have a good looking skin but is it also protecting people from like the toxins and the environment etc that can be absorbed through our skin yeah because the main function of the skin is to be a barrier right and the barriers to prevent from these environmental stresses and pathogens to get into our skin so when our barriers compromise they can get in easier your skin can get more irritated and can get more sensitive so by strengthening your barrier actually enhancing like your immune function right because you're like protecting against those pathogens and I think another interesting study that we did was with the body lotion because what we didn't realize when we started you know one skin is that because the skin is our largest organ as the skin degenerates and accumulates in essence cells the barrier breaks it becomes more susceptible to you know the pathogens and there is an increase in inflammation that's coming from our skin that eventually elevates our internal levels of inflammation so we did a study that we recruited participants that were like 60 years plus we measured their blood at baseline we measured the inflammation level in their blood at baseline and they used our body lotion and their face product for three months and after three months we measure again the inflammation and we could see a decrease in inflammatory markers in their blood by basically restoring their skin so people dealing with inflammation too getting their skin restored could be another way of reducing some of that yeah because what we don't realize that the only the fact that skin is aging there is an inflammation that's being accumulated from that aging process so for example people that have psoriasis you probably know that they have like 50 percent more chances to develop cardiovascular disease I do not know that yes 50 percent 50 percent if you have psoriasis you have 50 percent if you have delusions that are not like treated if they are constantly you know flaring that inflammation that's coming from your skin impacts your internal health and you know increases your chance to have cardiovascular disease so skin aging is similar but it's very low a low level of inflammation but it's happening like in this incremental process that we don't realize but if we don't treat our skin we are actually allowing you know the skin to also you know introduce inflammation in our body so that's why at one skin we think of skin as a longevity you know part of your protocol right like it's also you're thinking about you know nutrition sleep and we are thinking okay how I should address my skin in a way that can support my longevity and and the focus is like I'm going to improve the barrier of the skin I'm going to keep my skin as healthy and resilient as possible and this is the way that I'm supporting my health and the you know good part is that the consequence you're going to look better because you know a healthy stronger skin you know is also a better looking skin yeah I think this is kind of a new concept for me because you know I've worked with people on getting their skin looking better but it's always more of a thought the thought is almost more around like how young can I look yeah but the reality is your skin is actually a very functional organ yes and you need it to be as healthy as possible because it's protecting you from the outside environment and the more you're protected from the outside environment the less inflammation you have the less toxins you get absorbed through your skin so it is an organ of longevity it's a protective organ right we focus so much on gut health yeah but you know your skin has a large amount of surface area as well that protects you from the outside environment I think it's like if you took your skin and you laid it out it's like the size of a tennis court right yeah I don't know exactly but I know that is it is the largest organ in our body yeah that's what people say you laid out one cell at a time it's a lot of cells in our skin that is yeah that is amazing wow Hi Dr. Shah here I want to take a minute to talk to you about cellular health so in my clinics I've actually seen 30 year old people with cells that look like they're pushing retirement and I've also seen 60 year olds with cells that look like they're 40 years old so what's the difference it's really about how fast their tillameres are breaking down your cells you see are like phones and they have limited cell phone battery poor sleep stress processed foods all of these things can drain that battery way faster than it should so this is the reason why I partnered with IMA IMA powers that cellular battery it's not just another multivitamin it's a comprehensive 92 ingredient formula designed specifically for cellular health and longevity I'm talking 900 milligrams of vitamin c that's like 20 oranges worth dna protection the clinical dose of coq10 that you need to power your cellular engine you also get zinc selenium vitamin e alfalfa epoch acid all of these works synergistically for cellular repair and protecting your tillameres so instead of taking a handful of pills every day and all these supplements IMA actually gives you everything that you need in one scientifically formulated system and this isn't just a theory anymore IMA had partnered with Oxford University the International Space Station San Francisco Research Institute and they've done studies and they've gotten this NSF certified to truly power your health most people are aging twice as fast as they should unfortunately you don't have to be one of them try IMA I actually have a discount secured for you if you go to drshaw.com slash ima or go to ima health.com slash discount slash drshaw and you can get 20 off with my discount code drshaw you can also find the link below you know one of the things that we talked about earlier was the concept of these aging clocks is there like an aging clock for the skin that you can actually measure how aged your skin is yeah so we actually developed one this yeah back in 2018 when we started this research we wanted to measure how the skin ages changing through the epigenetics and at that time there was no specific clock for skin the best clock available was the skin and blood from Horvath but it was not specific for skin yet so we did build one only trained with skin samples and that's the clock that when we developed the peptide and we measured how the peptide would impact the skin's biological age we saw 2.5 years decrease in the skin's age in the skins that are retreated in the lab with the peptide yeah so we developed this clock but we also tested our peptide against other clocks that are available and we see consistent decrease in the biological age more recently there is another company working on a non-invasive type of clock so basically they collect like tape strip like the biological sample with tape strip of your skin okay and then they built a clock that using the more like this the surface layers of the skin and that we are collaborating with them because our clock still needs a biopsy which is like very invasive yeah and then if we can get something that's non-invasive that would work better that would be amazing I mean yeah so basically you take a piece of tape you put on your skin you send that tape in and they do the genetic sequencing the methylation yes and then you can and they run their own they develop their own clock and then they can measure the biological age of the skin that's when is that coming out so that clock is already available it's from Mitra bio it's a different company okay but we are doing a study with them to see how our products now you know that's using their technology how we can measure the the changing in the age of the skin using our products yeah and does it give you like a skin age yeah it does yeah I can send my skin in is like your skin is aged as much as our 50 year old or 45 year old exactly and this is commercially available for people not direct to consumers yet they are still working more with clinical research so I think they are more like focused on B2B and clinical studies for now yeah wow amazing exciting stuff because now you can really it's another way of just testing the efficacy on a human on an NF1 basis right so if you're doing a skincare routine and you measure you know your skin age before and after a new skincare routine and it's working why would you stop doing that skincare routine right and so I think this is this is really powerful for patients to get in their hands too so hopefully they go direct to consumer hopefully soon yeah it's still very expensive so hopefully they will decrease be able to decrease the cost with scale yeah that's fantastic and then so with this product OS1 do you think there's other peptides that can be potentially helpful in the future for skin aging and and just aging in general yeah totally that's one of the lines of research at one skin we are not only developing novel products we are also developing we continue to research peptides and find ways that either other peptides could complement OS1 or we could find a more effective OS1 that could reduce even more you know the load of senescent cells or that could like penetrate you know easier so that's something that we have ongoing with our team of scientists and we have some promising you know candidates so hopefully in the future our goal is to not only necessarily add new products to the line but bring like a 2.0 version of our product like a more effective you know version because this is our mission like it's really to continue to understand the science and develop better products and bring these to you know to our customers to our community because we are on top of everything that's going on on the science and we are able to translate that faster you know to to our consumers yeah I mean it's such an incredible new world where you know now you have grown skin in the laboratory you can test many products that you develop use AI to create peptides that you're testing directly on skin and then you can see which ones work and then you can launch it to people it's a whole new way of doing things and I think you know your lab is a perfect example of the future of medicine really because just like what you're doing with skin like we said earlier skin is like the least amount of regulatory barriers but hopefully we can get there with cardiovascular health we can get there with liver health etc where we're growing little organoids that we're testing yes thousands of molecules developed by AI on them and before we even introduce into human and you're using methylation clocks as well yeah we're actually testing like you know at a genetic level what genes are turned on and off and so you really can understand what's working and what's not working yeah and what you said is already happening so I think we are representing this training that kind of innovation but you know there are many other companies and organizations working on this organ on a chip or organ in the lab and doing those tests and AI is accelerating everything so it's a really exciting time yeah it's an exciting time to be alive for sure so I'm going to ask you some tough questions about that where do you think skin health is going in the next five years I think it's going to this direction of again understanding how we can maintain the skin functioning at this young healthy state in a way that we continue to reduce inflammation we continue to maintain the cells functioning well in order to prevent them to age so I think this preventative you know approach is getting stronger stronger because the goal is that if we can maintain the skin at that you know you know youthful healthy functioning state you don't you then you don't need it to reverse right exactly yeah but in terms of like other exciting you know obviously you know peptides is an exciting area another area there is studying as well is exosomes you know there's a huge potential there there's also you know a lot of uncertainty so there needs to be a lot of testing to understand which exosomes are actually delivering you know the molecules or the growth factors that you expect but I think just being able again to understand in vitro in the lab what's going on in the biology of the skin as it aids and be able to test different interventions I think this is helping us to really come up with like better and better solutions yeah yeah you know going back to um exosomes as well you know one of the things that I see a lot of places doing is they drew micro needling yeah first and then they'll put exosomes yeah in in those micro needling tracks to get better delivery of exosomes into the skin and to your point like what is what is the active compound in an exosome we really don't know you're just going shotgun like everything and an exosome is going to be delivered to your skin right and so I think I think like you said like if we can hone in on what the compounds are and find a better delivery mechanism that's not having to require you to go for micro needling yeah that might become another treatment modality right yeah yeah and now there are different you know delivery systems that we're even testing like you know different types of encapsulation and and depending on the on the exosomes they can you know penetrate the skin so it's more about testing like the content right like how that the what that exosomes is delivering is consistent you know throughout you know different batches of production and the stability as well got it is this something you could test in your lab too with your skin okay yeah so yeah that's that's really interesting because you're right when you get exosomes they're coming from different samples so you don't know what is one compared to the other exactly and making sure that that's consistent is super important and I think in terms of like I think how people are you know looking at their skin I think before we were always trying to pursue that like you know youthful or like young skin and I think now people are thinking more how I can optimize my skin for the age that I am like I don't necessarily want to look like I'm 20 years old again I want to like look at my best now I want to look vibrant I want to look like healthy and I want to look confident so I think it's changing the perception like the way that we thought about that skin age is something that we need to fight right like I think we we needed to understand how our biology is changing and really work with it like how we can optimize how we can you know give the the skin the ingredients that it needs throughout the different phases of our lives right and then I think we will be able to get both like we'll be able to get like you know a good appearance and but also you know support the health of our skin that I think in the end it's more important yes yeah and you mentioned something earlier you said that you know a lot of this is really prevention so the sooner you get started the better right I think that's that's critical because trying to reverse the damage you know is very difficult you have to have more aggressive treatments it is but it's possible it's so interesting like yesterday I was at an event and this young like influencer said like I don't know if your product it's hard for me to know if your product works for me because I don't have many lines so I brought like my mom and I tested my mom and she took like amazing before and afters and it was very clear to see how the product worked for her mom but now that she knows that the product works so like it's gonna work for me too it's gonna be harder for me to see but I know that you know it's working the biologist making my skin you know even younger healthier so it gives more confidence for people that even if they're not seeing the results like to have other people that the results are very clear so I thought was a very good way to think about that yeah exactly yeah but I also think that like you know just like with anything that we do around our health routines you don't necessarily see something right away especially if it's something internal you know so I think you know at some point you have a trust science yes you are being preventative you are creating better barrier you are creating yeah slower aging of the skin as well so I really like that concept of prevention with with the skin yeah and I think it's another important point that in order to change the biology of the skin this takes time it's not something that's gonna happen in two weeks and so with our clinical studies we usually run studies for six weeks 12 weeks six months one year and we can see a compounding effect you know from six to 12 to six months to 12 months so the more consistent that you are you can you know allow your skin to build up those benefits and it's only gonna you know get better so it's very important that people have this understanding because a lot of people get to anxious and want to see results like you know in weeks and then they give up but you need to give time to your biology yeah yeah absolutely I think it's also important to highlight that facial aging is skin aging plus also the effects of gravity plus there's also you know damage as being done by sunlight there's also you know wrinkles that are deeper that accumulate due to muscle movement as well which is also a problem that can be addressed with things like neurotoxins like Botox so it's it's a multifactorial problem it's not just the skin yeah there's other reasons that you that your facial age that can be addressed now minimally invasively I think yeah for the most part yeah and so it's a really incredible time that we live in too as we learn more about through like plastic surgery about doing procedures like fat injections and Botox and fillers and fillers that are not just like injecting hollywood on a gas but also fillers that are like actually building up structure in the face as well so all of these things come together right 100% yeah I think it's very interesting some of those fillers you know collagen boosters right and that will induce your skin cells to produce collagen I'm a big fan of like how we can activate our own cells to produce more collagen what they already should do right but so I think there are some of these strategies and they all complement each other and people can choose you know if they want to do all of them if they would you just want to do the topics I think it's whatever works best for them as long as they are not being again too aggressive with their skin right I think in the past we're like doing very abrasive layers lasers and that can cause so much inflammation and your skin gets so exposed I think now we can find other things as you said that are less invasive or less abrasive and it still you know can help you to have like a beautiful look yeah that's so amazing and I think it's a great topic for both men and women that are listening because men also need to protect their skin and you know I've been very much enjoying the use of your product so thank you so much for sending it to me and being on the podcast talk about everything around longevity how it relates to your skin it's been fantastic thank you so much for having me Dr. Schraub this was such a fun conversation can we have you back on in your next your next new discovery yes I'll be more than happy to be back thank you working people learn more from you and where can people find the product yeah so you can go to our website at oneskin.co also follow us on social media at oneskin.co on our website if you subscribe to our newsletters we'll share a lot of about you know the product development the data behind the products and longevity in general so it's a great source of content for skin longevity and you can be you know aware of when we have new products coming out I love it thank you so much thank you Cure my top five learnings from this episode number one target cellular senescence for true skin rejuvenation most anti-aging products only treat symptoms however os one which is a peptide is a first scientifically validated ingredient to clear out those damaged senescent cells which effectively reduces the biological age of your skin number two UV exposure is a primary driver of visible skin aging environmental stress especially UV exposure accounts for 80% of visible signs of aging by decreasing the amount of collagen you have protecting your skin from the sun is crucial for maintaining its youthful appearance and health number three sunscreen doesn't inhibit vitamin D absorption you can actually enjoy the sun and protect your skin at the same time without compromising your vitamin D levels focus in on safe sun practices and having the appropriate SPF number four we now have the technology to grow skin cells of all ages thickness and color to test cellular aging and our products on so through stem cell research carolina can measure the exact effects of skincare ingredients at a cellular level meaning we can now not only treat the symptoms of aging but treat the aging cells themselves number five a healthy skin barrier is the key to overall health a compromised skin barrier allows more toxins to enter the body protecting and maintaining the integrity of your skin barrier is not vital just for your skin health but also for your overall well-being this is a great episode of dr carolina reese you can download a podcast guide which dives deep into everything that you learn in this podcast and the best practices and what you can do right now in a protocol form to protect your skin and maintain incredible skin health not just for longevity but also for the appearance of your skin just go to my website at drshaw.com slash skin to find the link thank you so much for listening to the podcast today please remember to subscribe if you like this episode and give us a good review and share a link with your friends it really helps to support all of our efforts i also want to remind you that the information shared on this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice diagnosis or treatment please consult with your healthcare provider or physician before making any decisions or taking any action based on what you hear today especially if you have any underlying health conditions or on any medications your doctor knows your personal health situation the best and is always important to seek their guidance