Skin Collagen in Menopause: Dr. Anthony Youn's Inside-Out Routine

Dr. Vonda Wright hosts Dr. Anthony Youn, a board-certified plastic surgeon who calls himself America's holistic plastic surgeon and author of Younger for Life. He describes leaving a cut-first mindset behind after a difficult complication, and building a practice around keeping people out of the operating room. His framework, auto-rejuvenation, rests on five causes of aging: nutrient depletion, chronic inflammation, oxidation and free radicals, collagen degradation, and a buildup of cellular waste — none of which surgery actually addresses.

On collagen, he cites that all of us lose roughly 1% a year from our mid-twenties, that the rate roughly doubles for women after menopause, and that the first five years post-menopause are the steepest. His inside-out answers are protein first (a simple starting point of one gram per pound of ideal body weight), a daily hydrolyzed type I collagen supplement, whole foods over ultra-processed, healthy fats, a rainbow of antioxidant-rich produce, and a gut-rest window of about twelve hours.

He is blunt about sugar: it kinks collagen into advanced glycation end products and drives insulin and inflammation spikes, with sugary drinks the single biggest culprit to drop first. From the outside in, he teaches a two-minute routine — morning cleanse, vitamin C antioxidant serum, sunscreen; night cleanse (double if wearing makeup) and a retinol moisturizer, with bakuchiol or peptides as gentler alternatives — plus exfoliating once or twice a week.

He then ranks in-office options by value: red light masks at home, IPL for pigmentation, neuromodulators starting at the crow's feet rather than the forehead, and micro-needling, where he cites recent studies showing a 400% increase in skin collagen after regular treatments. He closes with the one thing that costs nothing: meditation, because stress may be the loudest ager of all.

• 1

  Put protein first 21:30

  Use one gram per pound of ideal body weight as a starting point, then adjust with your own doctor. Collagen cannot be built from raw materials you never ate.

• 2

  Drop sugary drinks before anything else 36:00

  If you change one dietary thing for your skin, cut the sugary drinks — that sugar goes straight into the bloodstream and straight into glycation and inflammation.

• 3

  Three steps in the morning 43:40

  Cleanse with a cleanser suited to your skin type, apply a vitamin C (ideally C plus E) antioxidant serum, then sunscreen. That is the whole morning.

• 4

  Two steps at night 49:30

  Cleanse — double cleanse if you wore makeup — then a retinol moisturizer. Start every other night until you know you tolerate it; bakuchiol or peptides are gentler alternatives.

• 5

  Exfoliate weekly and layer light to heavy 53:30

  Exfoliate once or twice a week with a gentle scrub or an alpha hydroxy acid, then go cleanser, exfoliant, serum, moisturizer. Redness and irritation mean you overdid it.

• 6

  Check your vitamin C serum's colour 46:30

  Buy it in opaque packaging, and if what comes out is dark brown it has oxidized — replace it. A light yellow or very pale tint is usually still fine.

• 7

  The free one: lower your stress 1:02:10

  Ten minutes of mantra-based or guided meditation every couple of days is his zero-cost pick for skin, because stress is one of the loudest agers.