Speaker 1 0:00
Kay. Well, hello, hello, guys. You're listening to beauty bites with Dr Kay secrets of a plastic surgeon, and today's podcast is going to be all the secrets of biohacking and longevity. We're interviewing Kayla Barnes. She's one of the world's top female longevity experts, and she's created the female longevity optimization protocol for over a decade. She's really dedicated herself to preventative and regenerative methods and really specific to optimizing female health. She's one of the most measured women in the world, and you guys have heard of Brian Johnson, but she is the woman who's measuring every parameter of her health and publicly sharing her own labs her biological age, which is 11 years younger than her actual age, and her gut health and toxic burden scores. All these things are so going to be so beneficial for us. She's highly recognized and gained international recognition from publications like Fortune and Forbes and Business Insider in the New York Post, and her goal is to live to be 150 so as the co founder of a really innovative longevity medical clinic, she's one of the leading voices in wellness, health and longevity. Welcome to the podcast. Kayla. Thank you so much for having me. Wow. So you're one of the most comprehensively tested women in the world. I love that. For people who are just starting their longevity journal, can you talk a little bit about that? Like, where do you start out testing yourself? Do you just start with basic labs with your primary doctor? And how do you get your primary doctor to think in your own mindset? Or do you have to leave the medical landscape to do that?

Speaker 2 1:43
Yeah, that's such a great question. I mean, I always want to focus on meeting people where they're at and what they have access to. I think some data is certainly better than no data. We can talk about how comprehensive my labs are, if women are interested in exploring it, in that in depth. But I think starting where you can so at least getting, you know, the one to two basic lab panels. And I think it's interesting, because nowadays, you know, you can actually take those basic lab panels, run them through, maybe an AI of some sort, and get a better understanding of where your health is from. My personal experience with just standard, conventional medicine, a lot of times your labs will result in it although, or as long as everything is within the normal range, as they call it, we know the normal range is not optimal, then there's not really too much dialog about what's going on with your health. So I am excited that we do have new tools coming. Of course, AIS can hallucinate, so it's always very important to double check with your doctor and have a medical team. But on the most base level, just getting those standard labs that are available to you, if you can convince your doctor to look at a few areas a little bit more comprehensively, like for women, it's really important that we have an understanding of our thyroid health, maybe asking to add on some TPO antibodies. So that's going to give you, you know, really clear indication if you have something like Hashimotos thyroiditis. We know that women have about 80% of the autoimmune condition. So this is something that's definitely on my radar as it relates to lipids. I look to look at something called a NMR panel. So that's going to give you more in depth lipid information, not just, of course, LDL and HDL and triglycerides, which are important, but it can actually dive deeper to show you the size and shape of the particles, look at some of the inflammatory markers in your cardiovascular system, and we know that CBD is the number one killer of both women and men, so something to be thinking about. I also really at the top of my list, prioritize our metabolic health. So I love not only getting, you know, a fasting glucose, but a fasting insulin. I also love to look at a metric called the Homa IR, so that'll give you a score based on those two numbers. But we know for women, it's really important for us to be focused on our metabolic health, because it can lead to dysregulated metabolic health. Sometimes can lead to things like PCOS or other conditions. So as a woman, those are some of the top things that I'm looking at. But yeah, you can either just get basic labs, maybe try to convince your doctor. You know, what I have found is that friends that are only seeing kind of Western medical docs, if they come in with a really good reason as to why they need some of these values, there's a decent chance that the doctors are actually giving them to them. So sometimes they'll give me a ring, and I'll be like, well, maybe, you know, explain it this way. And, you know, I would say, like, 70% of the time they're able to actually get labs that they're requesting. They don't get them. If I give them, like, 100 marker panel, you know, if they're just like, hey, what's your panel, and I give it to them, they don't necessarily get all of them, but

Speaker 1 4:33
some of them, I think that's so critical, because I Modern medicine is really geared for, well, you're not going to die. Your labs look like they're in the range that we created in 1950 that we thought humans should be at this you know, you're 60 years old, you're going to deteriorate. It's okay. You're you're on the on track to deteriorate correctly. But the new longevity focus is more about retaining your growth factors, blood values, hormone. Owns everything. It kind of like your 3035, year old optimal self, right?

Speaker 2 5:04
Yeah, how I think, you know, it's interesting too. I don't really feel like this is spoken about much when, as it relates to when you test your hormones. And please, you know, chime in if you have any additional insight. But you know, most women are just taking a hormone test anytime during the month. That works for their appointment, right? So, but if you want a more accurate read on maybe estrogen, then considering doing that on like day three of your cycle. And then if you want a better read on progesterone and where that might fall as to where it should be, maybe doing it in on like day 22 or day 23 so that is just even a small tip that I think could give us a little bit more accurate of information.

Speaker 1 5:41
And is there what are kind of some of the supplements and things that you think people should be taking? Like one of results of getting all your lab work done is you realize maybe you're low in iron, maybe you're low in your B twelves. Are there some baseline supplements you think that all folks should be on, and women specifically?

Speaker 2 6:00
Yeah, so you made a great point looking at labs. So that's how I think of supplements in three buckets. So I have my baseline supplements that I'll talk about that I think are pretty applicable to most people. Then I have what are called My protocol supplements. So that is whatever my labs are telling me. So I get the question all the time, what supplements should I be taking? And it's so bio individual. So I do micro nutrient testing, which will actually show me what I'm deficient in, of course, with the lab work, with my gut testing, with my toxin testing. So at minimum, every quarter what I'm taking from a supplement standpoint, is changing. But a few things that I think are pretty applicable to most people are an high quality Omega three, I mean, so I keep my omega index closer to 11. This is a lab that you can also have ran. There's some good longevity data on stating If it's over eight, but it can actually be beneficial for longevity. I think magnesium is pretty widely deficient, so I think a good magnesium supplement is a great place to start, and then potentially a vitamin D supplement. We know that the majority of Americans, at least, are deficient in vitamin D. I also think that the acceptable range is far too wide. So I mean, I like to keep my vitamin D at like 60 to 70. So if you get your labs back and you had vitamin D checked and you're in the 20s or 30s, I would definitely recommend considering a vitamin D supplement with all of these different supplements, though, we can get too toxic with vitamin D, so we don't want to be taking, you know, a massive amount. We want to be really cautious, and, of course, work with medical providers to figure out what to take. But then I have a third bucket, which I call my longevity supplements. So these are exciting new molecules that I'm primarily testing, but I have seen some good results in so things that go in that bucket are things like NMN, the precursor to NAD, things like spermidine, which is showing some interesting results for potentially improving autophagy, which is like the cellular cleaning and recycling phase. And then also we have something that I like is called metoparish. That's urolithin, a you can also get this from pomegranates, actually, but this is clinically back to benefit mitochondrial health. And mitochondrial health as a woman is certainly something that I'm thinking about, because we know that we have the highest densities of mitochondria in the brain and the heart, but we also have a really high density in the oocytes and the ovaries. So I'm always doing different protocols to try to improve mitochondrial health for me in hopes to potentially improve ovarian longevity and overall quality of life. But, yeah,

Speaker 1 8:28
that's a good breakdown in the three buckets. And are you a person who cycles supplements? I find that sometimes I'll take all of them really religiously, and then next month, they'll be like, Screw it. I'm not taking anything mark like sometimes cycling off and on. Do you feel that that cycling is a good strategy in general for sometimes the relentless biohacking? Can it give you some cellular exhaustion? Yeah.

Speaker 2 8:55
I mean, I certainly cycle everything. Like I said, at minimum, my whole protocol is pretty much changing once a quarter, based on my labs, but there's a lot of other things I cycle too. I mean, I've been on something called LDN, or low dose naltrexone, and I cycle that I'm cycling, actually, I'm doing an interesting rapamycin protocol. So there's a study called the vibrant study. The results are not yet out, and it's not yet peer reviewed, but I'm excited to look into or see what the results are going to be for ovarian longevity. So they're using a dosage. I won't disclose that here, but of rapamycin, I'm just doing this once per year right now, given my age, but it's seeming, it's seeming, to potentially push out, you know, ovarian longevity by up to five years. So that's exciting. But overall, yes, always cycling my supplements and changing because our needs change right? Our exposures change, our diet may change, our nutrient status may change. And so I think it's important to continually be modifying our protocols.

Speaker 1 9:53
This sounds like a very expensive venture, all the testing and all the devices and like the monitoring. Like, what would you say every quarter you how much money you spend on testing? Yeah,

Speaker 2 10:05
I don't, I don't keep track as well. But, I mean, I've been asked this question in Prince press interviews, and my husband and I did the math. It's, I mean, we're spending six figures a year. But keep in mind that's also investing in technology that's certainly not required for optimal health. You know, we can certainly go through all these really advanced but I think it's important for everyone listening that no matter where you're starting, if you can master the map, the basics, which I would say, are sleep optimization, nutrition, exercise, social connections and stress reduction, you're going to be healthier than 95% of people, right? So I'm kind of operating in this, you know, 5% tile range of what's possible with the body. How healthy can we get? How much can we, you know, reduce inflammation, how optimal can we get the lab? So it's exciting to talk about all this stuff, but I just don't want to discourage anyone either that might, might not be knee deep in the biohacking protocol space? Yeah.

Speaker 1 11:05
I mean, you don't have to start with, like, investing so much money, start with the basics of movement and exercise, light and, yeah, deep and, like, good nutrition. So, like, people shouldn't feel overwhelmed with you have to buy a whole array of products and array of supplements. What's the number one mistake that you see women making with their health and wellness protocols that they could change?

Speaker 2 11:30
Well, I would say two things. Actually. I think that number one, that a one size fits all is going to be perfect for that woman, right? Because I think a lot of times us as women can get disturbed discouraged because there's so much information on the internet, right? It's like one person says the keto diet is perfect for women, the other person says that the vegan diet is great, and we have to have so much protein, but not not too much protein. It's just the opinions are so conflicting. So I think operating off of information that you just find on the internet and then changing your routine, you know, all the time based on these different inputs is not going to be successful long term. We know that routines take time to really implement and have great results. I would say, really, that's that's the biggest mistake. I would say. I was going to say two, but we'll just leave that as one.

Speaker 1 12:15
And should women be doing things differently in terms of, like, the male physique and like things like cold plunging or sauna time. Like, how do you adjust those tried and true kind of bio hacks for a woman's body?

Speaker 2 12:29
Yeah, you know, I think that from a basic standpoint, all of the same behaviors in terms of exercise, sleep, sauna is incredible, is great for both men and women, but I found nuance in nearly every category. So I'll start with sleep. Sleep, obviously is incredibly beneficial for both sexes, but what I have found, and the literature supports this to some extent. So the literature says that women need between 11 and 20 minutes more of sleep per night. I have found when I'm in my luteal phase, for example, I need upwards of 40 minutes more of sleep. So I think finding that nuance for women, but also on a bio individual level, if we start looking at some of our at home biometrics, so things like maybe a wearable or just self reporting sleep, how do you feel when you get seven hours versus how do you feel when you get eight hours? If you don't have a wearable of some kind, then you know, potentially you need more sleep. Same thing with exercise. I mean, we have our cycle, which, if we go by what the data says, when we should feel our strongest, that would typically be in our follicular phase. So days one through about days 14 to 16 or so, is our follicular phase. Then we enter the ovulatory phase. So that's around day 14 to 16. But we're all different, right? Some women are having anti ovular or in ovulatory cycles and are not ovulating. So it's important to know what your body is doing before you go and consider making any amendments. You can do a cervical mucus test to see where in your cycle. If you don't have a wearable, I use the aura ring with the basal body temperature that helps to confirm ovulation. But if we're looking at this data around exercise, then we might be the strongest in our follicular phase, and we might be recovering fastest in our luteal phase. Our body temperature is going to be increased from the increase in progesterone. We could feel a little bit more tired, a little bit less motivated. So I think it's important not to pre planned changes to your exercise routine, because at the end of the day, consistency is the most important thing as it relates to exercise. But just be really aware. If you're in your luteal phase and you know that you don't have much motivation, then you know, maybe stack higher intensity workouts in the follicular phase. So that's another area in which we can differ. Obviously, even things like our insulin sensitivity changes throughout our cycle slightly, so we're more insulin sensitive in the first half, a little bit less insulin sensitive in the second half. So we can take that into consideration when we're programming things like our nutritional and micro and macro nutrients. So they're not massive differences, I would say, but we do. Have many more considerations. Given that, you know, menstruating women are going through a 28 to 30 day cycle with pretty significant shifts than when we enter perimenopause or pregnancy or post pregnancy, there's an entire different list of considerations that we have to have in mind that men just simply don't.

Speaker 1 15:20
Yeah, we're very much more complex. We I see behind you a hyperbaric oxygen machine, and so I just have to ask like, how often are you doing hyperbaric what's a good regimen, and what are the main benefits that you derive from that?

Speaker 2 15:35
Yeah, so hyperbaric oxygen combines pure oxygen with pressure, so it really drives into the cells. It's incredible for blood flow. So blood flow, you know, potentially to the brain throughout the body, healing. There's a lot of surgeons, actually, you know, plastic surgeons in your field, that use h bot for healing post surgery. So that is a great benefit. Yeah, great benefit. I mean, I originally learned about it when I did training under Dr Daniel Amen for brain health. So he was scanning a lot of professional athletes that had had concussions or some sort of brain trauma. His first prescription would typically be 40 sessions of hyperbaric oxygen. He would rescan them, and he saw massive improvements in their their brain activity, the blood flow in the brain. And we know blood flow is so incredibly important for our overall health, specifically to the brain. So I really enjoy it for that there's some interesting research going on for female fertility and HBot. The studies are not yet published, but I'm excited to see you know where they go for my protocol. I actually have two different protocols per year, so I do have a physician that consults me on all of my protocols, and so I'm doing what is called the body protocol, which is at the the atmospheres of 2.0 so this chamber can either be 2.0 ATA, that's essentially the pressure in the chamber, or it can be 1.5 so the first protocol I'm doing 40 sessions, one hour per day, five times per week, not seven times per week, because it can produce a Little bit of oxidative stress. So taking two days off per week, and I'm hitting that 40 sessions at the 2.0 for the body protocol, and then for the brain, we're dropping the pressure down to 1.5 I'm doing that later in the year for another 40 sessions at the same intervals of one hour per day, five times per week. The literature says up to 90 minutes in the chamber. So I'm doing 60, but my physician has kind of just created a protocol based on my age and current health status that we were going to do 60 minutes instead of the 90. But if we look at the literature, I believe it's 60 sessions at 90 minutes with a air brake, which is just ambient oxygen, and that was where most of the longevity benefits came in into play.

Speaker 1 17:44
How would you feel after that? Or kind of, what changes can a person expect when they're doing 40 sessions of hyperbaric

Speaker 2 17:53
Yeah, I mean, when you're in the chamber, you have great mental clarity because you're just, you know, saturating your body and oxygen. The other unique finding that I realized was that when I had my aura ring on, as soon as the pressure the chamber had become fully pressurized, my aura ring logs me into restored immediately. So I'll go from stressed to restored as soon as the the chamber is pressurized. So I really love that it's putting me into that parasympathetic state. And I think as women, it's it's really uniquely important because we report significantly higher feelings of stress than our male counterparts, more depression, more insomnia, even so. Really love the benefit of switching into parasympathetic and then over time, depending on what you're using it for. You know, I think there's a variety of different benefits that you could feel, you could feel less brain fog, less fatigue, potentially, you know, there's even people going in deeper pressures for things like Lyme or reactivated EBV. So, you know, these need to be like doctor and provider protocol specific, but the benefits seem to really span quite a few different areas. And yeah, for longevity, there's really, I think, exciting studies out of like Israel on lengthening the telomeres, which we know shorten as we age. So I think we're at the very early stages of understanding what H box can do, because it's, although it's been used in medicine, you know, I think many hospitals have one, probably like in the basement for emergency situations, or divers have been using these for many, many years. But, you know, personal use, especially like having them in your home, is, I think, really been a little bit unheard of up until now. So I'm excited where

Speaker 1 19:31
the research goes. So exciting. And then you mentioned that you've done things like gene therapy and plasma exchange. So I wanted to dive a little bit into each of those. Tell us about your gene therapy experience and what, what exactly did you do?

Speaker 2 19:45
Yeah, I have not done gene therapy. I haven't done gene therapy for a few reasons. One, I'm 34 I haven't had children yet, so I would like to do that first. I also think that gene therapy can be really powerful. Do I do plan on doing it in the future? You. Fall statin can be great for adding on muscle mass. It's showing some biological age reversal potential. I'm friends with Liz Parrish. I think she's amazing. She was like, the first woman to do all these different gene therapies on herself. Beautiful. Looks incredible, by the way, you know, in real life. So I love that. But gene therapy has not been something that I've done yet, and I won't do probably until I have children, also, because my levels aren't really waning at this point. So if I were to have done fall of statin, I was told that I would have to turn it off anyway, because when you're pregnant, folo statin actually about doubles anyway, so you'd have to have that gene therapy turned off. But I am excited for all the gene therapies in the future, I think getting gene therapy will just be like going to a standard checkup. It's like, okay, we're looking at your Clotho levels and your follow statin levels, and maybe your GH CTU levels, and we're just going to give you a little turn up. You know? So very excited about that, but I have done therapeutic plasma exchange. So super excited about the technology. I'm also excited about another technology that will be coming over from Europe, which is very similar, but a little bit different, called in usepheresis. So instead of with therapeutic plasma exchange, essentially what it's doing is taking all the plasma in your body. For me, that was about 2.5 liters, and it's replacing it with albumin. So from what I understand about plasmapheresis is that it was originally used in these cytokine storms. So either people with really significant autoimmune conditions in a cytokine storm, it was then later used in covid for cytokine storms to really just dump some of those antibodies, I suppose, from from the body with in use for recess, you're actually going to keep your plasma. You're going to get it back, but it's going to filter it. So I am excited about that. My results from the TPE, the timing was perfect. So I have been measuring a total toxic burden for over six years, really consistently. This is a measurement. It's a lab test from vibrant wellness. It looks at environmental toxins, heavy metals and molds and mycotoxins. I've kept an extremely low total toxic burden, and I wasn't. I didn't hear anyone talk about this when I started talking about it six years ago. It's been slightly more popularized now, but I think it's a really important test for a woman, if you're having a lot of chronic conditions that you can't get to the root cause of because there are so many exposures that we're not even aware that we're, you know, experiencing, depending on where you live populated city or not, your makeup and personal care products? What do those look like? Do you have high levels of BPA or phthalates or parabens? It's just a really in depth test. So during the LA fires, actually, you were there too. So I did a test smack dab. I think there were literally only two individuals, maybe all of in LA that did this. I know Brian Johnson did a test, and I also did a test during the fire. So I think on the seventh or eighth, I had my first total toxic burn test. Then I did a TPE session, and then I got a retest about two weeks after that. So across the board, it did reduce toxins by about 11% which, at this time, though, I will say, I had a toxic burden unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. I mean, my medical team didn't even believe it was my labs, because everything that I was breathing in during the fires at that point, we just saw things we've never seen before in extremely high amounts. So I was excited that it took, yeah, about 11% reduction across the board, and all toxins, heavy metals, mycotoxins. There was, of course, some variation, but on an average, that's that's what it did. So I think it's really exciting. I'm looking forward to the price coming down. You know, it's about $10,000 of treatment at this point, so we'll be excited to see the price come down and it become more accessible for people, because we know that we're living in this toxic environment that we've really never experienced before, with the microplastics and the man, the nanoplastics and, you know, the preservatives and parabens and phthalates. We're just experiencing so much in our environment today that I think some level of detoxification, yes, of course, our bodies do that naturally on its own, but I think some level of advanced detox, it's probably going to be necessary to keep people in really good health.

Speaker 1 24:07
Yeah, I think you're right. Does is it exhausting when you have a plasma exchange? To me, it sounds like dialysis because you're hooked up. Shane is basically doing dialysis on your plasma, but I would imagine it feels exhausting, like a dialysis session. And the other question I had is, aren't you worried about the microplastics of all the tubing that your blood supply is going through?

Speaker 2 24:30
Yeah, yeah. Really great questions. I didn't feel exhausted. I actually felt pretty energized. I also probably have a bit of a different stance as it relates to like, medical procedures, so I'm get really excited. It could be exhausting. I could imagine. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't feel exhausted. I was excited. It was fun. It did, you know, takes a little while, and then, yeah, this is a great question, right? So I used to do many more IV therapies, but with the emerging. On these microplastics, I definitely tone those down. So I think that the benefit from the TPE, especially given I had had that recent exposure to all the toxins from the fires, I think that outweighed any risk from the microplastics. But I think it's something really important that we need to be thinking about if we're going to be getting a ton of IVs administered, which most people aren't, which is good. But I mean, personally, I've had enough, like any divs for a small village, I believe, and I used to just, like perpetually be hooked up to one. So yeah, with the new understanding that, yeah, there's microplastic exposure, I've dialed that way back so and I test my microplastic levels too. So I'm excited to do my most updated test here in the next few weeks, to see where they're

Unknown Speaker 25:46
at. Which company does that test. Yeah,

Speaker 2 25:49
it's called plastic talks, so I believe that they're the first ones doing it. But it's interesting. You know, I don't know if it's the most actionable test ever, if you're already doing all the, all the things for micro, needle plastics. But it can be helpful if you know you you're not doing any mitigation, but I think, in general, just starting to reduce, you know, the amount of plastics you use, plastic water bottles. You know, what a shame. Did you see the study that said that the glass water bottles have almost micro plastics,

Speaker 1 26:19
needle in the cap, I think, yeah, Rhonda Patrick said the gum has microplastics, and that just destroyed me, because I like gum. I know, like every time I now, I'm like, no more gum. I know. I know no more gum, because the tea bags have a ton as well. The tea

Speaker 2 26:36
bags, yeah, are a massive source. And you're like, heating it up. And, you know, the coffee, the cake cups, there's so many things, but just starting and trying, like anywhere you see plastic, just starting to swap that out, I think is a good way to go.

Speaker 1 26:48
Yeah, I think you're right. Well, I'm so curious about other toxins, like Botox. And have you done all the amazing facial things that we do in our side of the law, which is exosomes? Yeah, factors using polynucleotides. What kind of things have you done for facial maintenance?

Speaker 2 27:07
Yeah, actually, I have a great question for you too, while we're on the topic, so I do get Botox, which is somewhat controversial in my content, I have a full YouTube video coming out on if I do Botox, if I do filler, and what my opinion is on it. So based on the research that I have done, I cannot find anything that says that Botox has any detriment, detrimental effects on longevity. Do you agree or disagree?

Speaker 1 27:31
Nobody's really looked at it in the in the window of longevity. I think they've more looked at esthetic benefits, and obviously as a toxin that impairs muscle contraction, the muscles will atrophy and thin in any area that you repeatedly place tox. So I'm a fan of doing the smallest dose possible to get the benefit, because you do have it's reverses depression, it gives psychological lift, it gives esthetic beauty, which gives confidence. So there's so many benefits to it, but there's also, we're really the test generation, so I kind of just temper my use, and I make sure I'm doing treatments that build my collagen naturally, in addition to freezing these muscles that are not necessary for general life, like frowning and squinting, we don't need to be doing that. So I think there's like consideration and a balance. I don't overdo it. I don't love a frozen face, yeah? Studies that show that nerves grow back differently once you denervate them repeatedly for a while, yeah? But in general, it's time tested now 25 years and 100 million patients, very safe,

Speaker 2 28:33
yeah, yeah, that's what I have seen, too. So I totally agree with you on the dosing. You know, I typically do offer a different neurotoxin called Xena Minyo. I love, yeah, yeah, yeah. So less, I believe, proteins added to it. Is that right?

Speaker 1 28:50
Yeah, 10 times less accessory junk proteins than the other toxins on the market. So, yeah, that's a winning it's a pure core molecule. It just does the job and doesn't bring extra junk into you. Yeah.

Speaker 2 29:01
So I do do that, and I do it only about twice a year, so I don't feel like I'm overdoing it, per se. But with all that being said, I am embarking on a new skin longevity protocol. I've gotten some great consultation from Doctor diamond out in LA and we'll be doing these other let's say actually, skin beneficial, rejuvenating therapies, because, you know, I spent a lot of time in the sun as a kid. My mom let me go in a tanning bed. I won't be letting my daughter, but, you know, I have some damage that I need to improve and fix, so I'm excited to explore the CO two lasers. I'm going to do a CO two at some point this year. I have done exosomes. I have done microneedling with exosomes. I've actually banked my own stem cells. So I've gotten my own fat stem cells that I can get back at any given time. I've also banked my hair stem cells through a company called acorn, and they actually, yeah, so I just got my secret home, like last week, so I'll be using the sacred. Home, microneedling into my face, which I'm really excited about. So essentially, you know, I I'm okay with, obviously, I'm just say I get Botox twice a year, the healthier version. And I also I want to have this caveat, because I think it's important. So when I consider if I'm going to get Botox or not, I have this data of like, what is my total toxic burden, right? So when I was at peak toxins during the LA fires, I didn't do any neurotoxins then, because it didn't make sense to me, if my cup is already full, then adding an additional elective toxin didn't make much sense to me, because that could be the thing that tips my cup over, right? But if, across the board, my lifestyle is very low toxin, I'm definitely okay, because I haven't. I haven't seen anything on my labs that would indicate that that is detrimental. I haven't seen anything on my toxin tests. I haven't seen anything, you know, my implement inflammation testing, nothing. So, yeah, but we'll see, because if I can get the same results, you know, with things like lasers and micro needling on a consistent basis, I'm really excited to see what's possible there, so maybe, yeah, you can

Speaker 1 31:05
come visit. You definitely should. I'm a huge believer in collagen bio stimulation. So this concept of neocologenesis, you can teach your own collagen to grow and reactivate your dormant fibroblast, and mixing collagen stimulators with products like topical exosomes and giving micronutrients back to the skin, like the skin is very deprived of vitamins, minerals and the micronutrients that actually your cells need to produce collagen, especially for our girls that are vegan, that don't have they're missing some critical amino acids. So there's so many ways that we can grow new collagen. I'm a big fan of polynucleotides, which are the DNA repair molecules, which we needle those in, and those kind of really create, like a total renovation of the skin. I think the more we teach patients to do that, the less we have to rely on other things, like toxins. We'll always use a little toxin here and there to relax muscle tension. And I think it's interesting, too, that that recreates this happiness. Because when you can't move the expressions of depression and anger and worry, you actually have a psychological lift, which is a proven thing. So I think it's all part of the equation. Like you said, Little moderation of everything.

Speaker 2 32:18
Yeah, yeah. I mean, absolutely, obviously, I'm a big root cause and optimization person from the inside out, so I'm definitely excited to see what's possible. I've also tried soft wave. I'm not sure what you think about that one, but I'm excited to just get, like, a better protocol and cadence so that I'm consistently doing these things so I can really, you know, see what the results are.

Speaker 1 32:39
Yeah, amazing. And then you mentioned stem cells. Have you done any stem cell injections, PRP, platelet rich, fibrin? Have you done anything like that?

Speaker 2 32:51
All of them I have done. Yes, of course. PRP. I used to do my micro needling with PRP, then kind of moved to PRF, which is the thicker version I I suppose. I've also had some PRP, or, sorry, PRF, injected into some little lines, and I think even around my jaw to apparently boost like some collagen there. Have tried exosomes, of course, primarily in the form of microneedling. Would love to hear your opinion on like, exosome products without microneedling, I feel like it just makes sense that they'd be most efficacious if you were opening a channel into the skin. And then I haven't used them yet, but I am really excited about the stem cells that I have banked on my own and my secret home to use those, not only internally, but also externally, with either injections or, you know, PRP, microneedling, something like that.

Speaker 1 33:42
Yeah, that's great that you bank of at a young age. We want young and active stem cells versus, like some people that are the billionaires that are doing a lot of the biohacking, they're like, you know, their stem cells are already exhausted. They're 70 by now. So, yeah, 70. Do you think that people can overdo it in terms of doing too much and getting, like, having to track their heart rate variability, their sleep, their brainwaves, using the aura ring. Like, does it feel like obsession or like, do you feel like you can live a normal life and still track all this stuff?

Speaker 2 34:15
Yeah, I think it's how do you define a normal life? So my life is probably not normal, but I truly enjoy it, from like, the bottom of my heart, I think, you know, obviously everyone can have a different personality, but I always have had, like, a very type A all in or all out type of person, and that's just how I've been with everything. So for me, this is, like, normal, but I definitely can see outside looking in. It seems very abnormal, right? I go to bed at eight o'clock. I'm done eating at 3pm I don't go out to, like, any, you know, late night events. Everybody knows that. As my friend, it's like, Oh, if we're going to hang out with Kayla, it's going to be a dinner at like, four o'clock at her house, so that she can see how it's made, you know. So I suppose you could call it an obsession. I'm okay. I want to own things if, that's if. If it is what it is, and I do, I just love it so much like I think I have a very I get to attitude. So I get to work out. Every day, I get to do this on every day, I get to wake up feeling amazing. I get to go to bed at 830 that I'm in a very blessed position. And I'm also acutely aware of that. I will say, you know, I didn't grow up really with anything, not much at all. And so I worked really, really hard. I mean, I worked for 10 to 15 years, you know, I used to work 80 hours a week to get to where I am now, to have the more flexibility. And posting about longevity well before it ever became a popular topic, you know, I think a lot of people are interested in it now, but I was doing CGMS, you know, when you had to get a prescription for a Dexcom and not a direct to consumer company. I've been doing peptides for, you know, eight, nine years. Did cold plunging and hyperbarics way back then too. So I'm excited that it's becoming super popular, but I've been doing it for so long at some level that it's just gradually built upon itself. So it's not like I woke up one day and then changed everything and and I think it's all about like, what is society told us is celebration? Or what has society told us should bring you joy? Okay? Alcohol is a way to celebrate. Eating a lot of bad food is a way to celebrate. I don't see that as ways to celebrate. I see that as a way I could be harming myself. And so for me, a celebration is, you know, a hike out in nature, or, you know, a relaxing which I do all that stuff anyway. So I think it's all about perspective. I just don't see celebration as the way society sees

Speaker 1 36:36
it. For the most part. I like that mindset. I think that's you think like a scientist. So I love that about you. Imagine that there was one trendy wellness practice that you had to ban. What would that be that's

Speaker 2 36:51
like, juice fast, yeah, number one. They're expensive, if you want to get the benefits of fasting, and it makes sense for you, just, I would just do a water fast, right? It's literally free. There's also other types of fasts that are, like several $100 that give you, like, some crackers and olives, I believe, and it's fine if you need that accountability, but I would say, Save the few $100 just do a water fast. And the last thing that you want when you're fasting is to be just loading your body up with sugar, which is what the majority of these juice fasts are. So I think all things as it relates to sugar that we've tried to make really healthy, whether it be saying alcohol is healthy, you know, in in moderation that's high in sugar, or acai bowls, that's also thing that just really, you know, grinds my gears. It's like, please don't start your day with an acai bowl. Just start your day with some protein and set your, you know, taste buds for the day. So those would probably be things that bother me

Speaker 1 37:47
in the wellness world. I think that's very true. A lot of people are interested in getting into peptides right now, and especially in California, it's very difficult, because it's just difficult to get access. And you don't know, there's no quality control, I don't think. And the bros are selling it at gyms and on Instagram, and it's kind of gotten crazy and out of hand. Do you think there's a safe way to start your journey into peptides? And are there a few peptides you'd recommend starting with? Yeah, it is

Speaker 2 38:15
very it's very difficult in California. It's difficult to get many things in California, even like compounded glutathione. So I don't have a great option right now for if you're living in California, if you're not living in California, you know, most states you can get peptides prescribed. I completely agree with you. I am not a fan of and I don't take the peptides that are these, like gray area peptides, if it says not for human consumption or use on the peptide. I personally, I don't use it. I like peptides that are, you know, compounded, FDA approved pharmacies. They are a prescription for you with your name on it under a doctor's guidance. So that's the first thing in terms of what peptides I like. And I will say too, I am vetting a few companies that are not research grade, but are more widely available. So if I find anything there, I will let you know, because a lot of my audience members also have these questions and don't have access in their state in terms of peptides I like. So I have done many of them. I think BPC is really great. So the injectable form, just for recovery, for your joints, for even performance, really, anything related to healing faster. You know, any post, anything, it's great for I also have found really good benefit in the oral version of BPC for gut health. So obviously, most peptides i and most people would not recommend taking orally, but because you want the peptide to work locally in the gut, then it makes sense to have it orally. So I like BPC, and there's some that even combine it with KPV, I believe, in an oral peptide, which I have found some good results with. So BPC is one of my favorite. I mean, I love the CJC and epimoreline, right? So if you want to shift body composition a little bit, so maybe add on a little bit of muscle, lose a bit a little bit of fat, but you don't want to go on something like a. LP one. I think that the CJC and EPA Maryland could be great. I mean, if you're dealing with some immune system stuff, you know thymus and alpha is great. I think it really, again, depends on what your goal is. If you want to target maybe blood sugar. I've seen some good results with like Mott C there's some interesting more, like sexual based, sexual performance based peptides, maybe like PT, 141, I think kiss, the peptide is an interesting one for skin health. There's the GH CTU, which is great when you can get that both topically and in an injectable form. So that's really exciting. But again, it depends on you and what your goals are, but I do think that they're powerful when you're getting high quality peptides. My concern with a lot of these research grade peptides is, what type of third party testing has occurred? You know, are they contaminated with something that may even be more harmful for you in the long run? So it can be difficult, but I do love peptides.

Speaker 1 40:56
Yeah, there was the report of some women having to go the hospital after getting peptide shots at like the, I think it was at a longevity conference at the RAD conference, so I saw that. That's so crazy. But yeah, they can have contaminants, heavy metals, everything can be in there. You actually don't know, because it's not vetted or tested at all. Yeah, yeah. I think Texas you guys have a much easier time getting stuff, isn't that, right?

Speaker 2 41:22
Yeah. I mean, I think everybody has an easier time getting it than California.

Speaker 1 41:28
We need to catch up. Imagine that it's 2040, what's gonna be a daily biohacking routine for the average person?

Speaker 2 41:37
Yeah, great question. Well, I think that we will all have our actual routines dialed in. I think that we will have broken our addiction to the phone a little bit and prioritized high quality sleep. I think everybody's going to be going to bed early, right? I think we'll look back on this and be like, why did we intentionally cause so much damage to ourself, right? Like, let us all get on this train of optimization. So I think, you know, sleep and exercise routines will be dialed in. I'm excited to see what happens with our food supply, right? Like, hopefully our our we can change from being what, like, 70% of the diet being ultra processed foods, which is absolutely abysmal. You know, my diet consists of zero Ultra processed foods, so just focusing on single ingredient foods and keeping it simple. So I hope that we have all, like, brought in these habits, and they're here to stay. I think 2040, we have some time to get there. I think, I mean, the doctor's visit is going to be completely revolutionized, right? Like, I'm already so excited about the integration of AI, so I don't have you seen open evidence?

Speaker 1 42:35
Yes, I love it. It's revolutionary, exactly.

Speaker 2 42:39
So things like open evidence is already being integrated, from what I've seen, into clinics like the Mayo Clinic, you know, massive system. So I think the time that the doctors have with you will be able to be better used, because you'll have AI to say, oh, here are the most recent studies. I mean, doctors are all well intentioned, right, like you guys all go into this to want to help people, but then this kind of system of standard of care, and the amount of time that you have to see the patient is so condensed that, of course, how can you ask anything about, you know, their sleep or their exercise or their nutrition? It's just it's not possible. So I'm excited to see how AI can, you know, just give doctors more time and be able to show real quick. Like, here are the most recent studies for this person's exact condition. And here's, like, other things to consider. So can't wait for that. I mean, by 2040 we're probably using gene therapies as normal tune ups, you know, just covered by your insurance. And, you know, we're tuning up with a little bit of muscle mass, or, you know, clothes for brain health, or whatever it may be. So I think, I think that's what the future is. But the most exciting part. And, you know, I've seen this revolution over the last 10 years. I used to be like, on the super weird part of the world, and now I'm like, on the actual normal part. So people are excited about this, and I am just looking forward to it becoming more normalized and people being actually excited about improving their health.

Speaker 1 43:57
And I think so, I think we'll have definitely wearables that sense your sweat, levels of all kinds of hormones and your electrolytes and your balance, and maybe like intermittent blood sampling going on and like time, like even normal people will have so much better blood sugar control and insulin levels will be regulated. And I feel like we can maybe optimize our hormones, peptides, everything to our 20 year old self, and who knows if we could live to be 150 Yeah.

Speaker 2 44:27
I mean, I think it definitely is going to require AI and some pretty revolutionary discoveries, right? So you know, whether it be drugs or therapy or gene therapy, whatever it may be, but I think I'm hoping the AI can bring us to that. You know, in the industry, we call it the longevity escape velocity, right? So the point at which you can repair the damage faster than you're accumulating It is super exciting, because the best that we have right now is really just slowing that process down. But, yeah, I mean, I didn't even think about wearables for some reason, but I think they're going to be so much more advanced. I can't wait to have one wearable that tracks like every. Thing, and just get out a morning, print out, and then it can, you know, tell you what supplementation you need for that day. I imagine, like a little threed printer, you know, just printing your little elixir that you need for that day based on what all your values say,

Speaker 1 45:14
just gives you a pill that is pre programmed everything into it. How would that be amazing, which is a new Apple. Watch launch yesterday, and it talks about how it's going to measure, it's a, like a 24 hour battery. It's going to measure your blood pressure and sleep cycles, and, you know, predicting when your hypertension is really active and like the day is coming. The only thing is, I don't know how I feel about being wired to EMF all day long. Yeah, I switched my phone.

Speaker 2 45:42
Yeah, I switched so my bedroom is like we used to sleep in a Faraday cage when we were in LA, because there's just so many homes there, right? And no matter what you do with your Wi Fi, it doesn't matter. But now that we're, you know, way more kind of off grid. I don't need it because I've measured the EMFs, but I just switch my aura ring onto airplane mode, and then I just think it every day. I mean, it is more annoying, but it's it's definitely possible. And then a lot of the other labs are like, or a lot of the other biometrics that I do at home don't necessarily require Wi Fi. I do grip strength testing once a week. I do lung health testing. I do there's a really interesting new blood pressure cuff that I was just doing, a plain blood blood pressure cuff. But now I'm doing this one called Connect, and it actually so shows a central BP shows your oxygen saturation to your brain, so, you know, gives you, like a an idea of arterial flexibility, which is really cool. So I'm excited for these to continue to get better, more accurate, and new devices like this to make it to the market that people can do these measurements in the comfort of

Speaker 1 46:43
their own home. This has been so interesting. Chatting with you. I feel like we need to hang out. Definitely. Yeah, you gotta come visit. And I have so many great ideas about what we need to do to revolutionize how we take care of our skin and our faces. And I'm working with some amazing new companies I have to tell you about too. But yeah, where can people find you? What's the next longevity meeting you're going to and what are all your handles?

Speaker 2 47:09
Yeah, so people can find me. Kayla Barnes, com, K, a, y, L, A, B, A, R, N, E, S, com, on there. I do have a great membership that I really enjoy connecting with. It's all female. So it has all my protocols, my philosophies. You can connect with other women that are on this mission to really optimize their health. It also has a link to my protocol website. So that's protocol dot Kayla Barnes com. You can see everything I eat, all the lab tests, every workout I do. It's very comprehensive. So and then I also try to, you know, rank tests. Like, if I was just starting out, I would start with this gut test and this genetic test. But then if you want to do all the tests, you can see those too. So that's a helpful resource. I post free content every day on Instagram, where I have about 530,000 followers or so. That's at Kayla Barnes. And then I, more recently, have been doing long form content on YouTube for women, morning routines, evening routines, midday the whole nine yards. And I also have a podcast. It's called the longevity optimization podcast,

Speaker 1 48:09
amazing. Okay, well, those are all handles where you guys can learn so much about beauty and longevity and overall health and wellness. It's all about well being. That's it for now, guys, don't forget to check out my Instagram. It's Beauty by Doctor Kay. That's where you can find me doing amazing things with people's faces. It's and our website is the same Beauty by Doctor Kay, com, and that's where I have actually my brand new skin longevity line, which has mitochondrial boosters and ad precursors and all the peptides for collagen and elastin stimulation. So Kayla, I've got to send you some. Yes, please. Do love you to try it. That's it for now. Guys, stay biohacked and beautiful. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai