May 20, 2025 • 33 mins
It’s not just nostalgia or low-res photos—there may actually be biological and cultural reasons why people in the past looked so old. To get to the bottom of it, I spoke with Dr. Caroline Hudson, a facial plastic surgeon based in Chicago and co-author of Analysis and Assessment of Facial Aging.
To see the images we reference, check out our newsletter at www.nosuchthing.show. Want advice from Manny, Noah, and Devan? Leave a message at (860) 325-0286 or email us at mannynoahdevan@gmail.com.
Like this episode? Check out Why does Dasani water taste like that?
Follow Dr. Caroline Hudson on Instagram. Original music for this episode produced by Zeno Pittarelli.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, before we get today's episode started, we are working
on a advice column mail bag episode. So if you
want many Noah and Me to give you friendship advice,
maybe you have an annoying coworker, send us an email
at Manny Noah Deevin at gmail dot com. You can
either send it in text or send us a voice memo.
(00:24):
Or we actually have a hotline now, so we'll have
that number in the show note, so you can give
us a call, leave us a voice memo.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Try to keep it short. All right, let's start the show.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I'm Manny, I'm Noah.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
And this is Devin.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
And this is no such thing the show where we
settle our dumb arguments and yours by actually doing the
research on today's episode. Why do teenagers back in the
day look so damn old?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
There's no such thing thing.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Such, all right, fellas, I feel like this happens every
other year at this point, But people are once again
circulating a photo of the cast of Chairs from the eighties.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
And they're always bad. And it's getting a lot of
attention because people were saying that these people who at
the time were in their thirties look like they're someone
were saying in their forties, and somewhere going as far
as saying in their fifties or sixties. And this is
just another example of this growing conversation that we have
(01:47):
been having and people online have been having around why
people in the past look so much older than people today.
Have you ever wondered why people in the past looked
so much older than we do?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Did people used to look older? Brandon McCarthy asked on Twitter,
and evidence poured in.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
You see, I'm convinced that people in the past looked older.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Than their age, or people today look younger.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So just first of all, do we all agree with
that general sentiment that people back in the day, say,
a thirty year old in nineteen seventy, looked older than
a thirty year old looks today.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yeah. You see it all the time. You see these
like old black and white photos of someone who's like
this person was only seventeen when they started this company,
and it's like they look like they're forty five.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, yeah, it looks like a grown man.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
The other arena I run into to this phenomenon all
the time. Is watching old sports footage.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Funny you say that because you actually sent this in
our group chat a little while ago. If you want
to pull up this video.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
So this is a TikToker going through Penn States? Is
this this is increded nineteen eighty five team.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
I am genuinely confused whenever somebody makes the claim that
gen Z is aging like milk, because this is what
college football players look like in the nineteen eighties. This guy,
Michael Zordik, he looks like he has kids that are
currently in high school. This guy Bob White looks like
he's been serving as a cop for the past ten years.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
No, yeah, they look ancient. I think college athletes are
probably some of the healthiest people in the country.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, oh yeah, just.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
In terms of like their physicality. Maybe they're eating bullshit
on campus.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
But like they're doing a lot more.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Sure, they're working out at least twice a day. They're young. Yeah,
so yeah, it's bizarre to see, you know, some of
these photos.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
All right, So what do we think or why do
we think people back in the day looked so much
older than they do today?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Like, what are something that theories that come to mind
for you? Guys.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
Some are general health things, so I think people drink
more water now true as yeah exactly seventeen sixteen, Yeah,
sunscreen and kind of more general like wellness things like that,
I think, and and then maybe overall diet.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I One of my theories too, is that when we're
looking at old footage or pictures or something that's very
clearly from that era, we might be associated old with
the past.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, Like there's a theory that all of this is
basically because of the style.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Yeah, I think a lot of it is, but yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Don't know if I buy that. I don't know. I
think some of it is.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
I think some of it can you know, maybe it's
ten percent. But to me, I'm like, Okay, with a
lot of this stuff, I'm just seeing this person's face
right Like we're in these headshots of these football players.
I'm not even seeing there's no style. Okay, shuret to
happen much, kids, And.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I love much.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
When you watch Quirai or something and they take someone
and do a you know three, do you give them
the makeover?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, even just their hair or.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
Something that can take a lot of like that. I
can take about ten years off you easily.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, I think it can account for some of it.
I don't think it counts for like a lot of
what I'm seeing. Like people are like, there's a huge
thread of this on Twitter, like four or five years ago,
and people were posting like their parents, Yeah, their parents
being like twenty two years old, like pregnant with them,
and these people look like it's the person's grandparents. And
(05:33):
the photos, you know, and that's like, yeah, some of
it may be okay, the photos black and white. But
I'm just like, if I took a current photo and
made it black and white, I wouldn't think, oh, no,
it looks like he's forty five years old.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Well, let me back up for a minute. How do
we think we look as a group?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Age and how people perceive my age is a very
common occurrence in my life because because of how often
I get carded at bars. Recently, I was in Williamsburg
trying to get into this like cool new wine bar
and the guy at the front carded me, but I
left my card at home and I was like, all right,
(06:14):
thanks anyway, man, And then I went to the side
started talking to my friend who I went with, and
I was like, man, if only this person who I
was fucking thirty three years old. And then he oh
he heard me, and he was like, you're thirty three
years old, Like you should have led with that.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Come on in you thought you were a twenty year
old young boy.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yeah to get I've got a baby face, so I
got the cheeks on me. I think that contributes to it.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
If I didn't know you, I don't think twenty, I
wouldn't say twenty. I would say twenty four. Maybe, yeah,
I was going low. Yeah, I probably guess like like
twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, weights to I think with my weight, like if
I lose a little bit of weight, I look older.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Oh, this is me contradicting myself based on what I
said earlier. I think we as a group here younger
than what we are. We live in New York, we
dress perhaps younger than a lot of our peers would, like,
you know, when you go on the suburbs that are
not dressing like.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
Us, yeah, or like going into an office yeah exactly
where like you know you know.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, So I think that also helps in terms of
like how we appear. But I think I still stand
by the theory that in general, our generation looks younger.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
Especially if you're just looking at faces and not taking
in the style side of things, that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
After the break, I chat with a plastic surgeon who
did an analysis on how and why our faces age.
(07:54):
We're back, so I chatted with doctor Caroline Hudson.
Speaker 5 (07:59):
I am a old plastic surgeon who has my practice
in Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
So what what attracted you to your field? Was there something?
Is this something that you were thinking about since you
were a kid. Is this something that you got into
when when you're in college.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Honestly, I uh, it started as a child when I
watched those plastic surgery shows on TV.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Oh yeah, literally, like I know, yes, yes.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Honestly it's not very academic the way it all started,
but that I was pretty into those shows, very fascinated
by it all, and I alway kind of knew I
wanted to be a doctor. It felt like a calling
for me just from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I remember all those plastic surgery shows that like CLC Yeah,
were you guys fans?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Yeah, I watched the one with the boob jobs all
the time. I can't remembering, I can't remember the name,
but like all these women would go in and they would.
It was like very uh revealing actually for a cable
TV show. Shows were very yeah you can they blurg
(09:02):
essentially just like just a tiny nipple and yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
But they're cutting open people and it's just like on TV.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Yeah, that was a little bit crazy for us to
be watching at age thirteen.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
I just always knew it would be plastic surgery, but
I decided to focus just mostly on the face, so
I did five years of had a neck surgery. I've
always just cared about how things look like pretty simply,
it matters who does your plastic surgery. It matters less
like who takes out your appendix, but it really there's
(09:36):
a level of artistry and taste to plastic surgery, and
that refinement is something I really liked.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
And it's one of those things too where I feel like,
what this is like a lot of things where people
don't notice it until it's like a good plastic surgeon,
you won't notice right, like.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Yeah, you only notice it really when it is bad.
So that's I think why it can have kind of
a bad reputation. People are thinking of the duck lips
or thinking of the wind tunnel, you know, face lift,
when really like true plastic surgery is so much more
subtle than that that most of the time you're not
even going to be able to tell if or what
(10:14):
procedure someone has had done.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So that's like the goal, right, But I think often
when we think of plastic surgery, we think of like
the extremes of like the Michael Jackson's or like low
cam or you know someone who's just like that person
doesn't look like they used.
Speaker 6 (10:26):
To look like, or it doesn't even look like a person,
like yes, natural person.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, it's like this other thing.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So I came across doctor Hudson because she was one
of the authors of the Analysis of Facial Aging, which
was a review summary which synthesizes like what we know
about facial aging. And it's one of those things that
like I think we all know, like, oh, that person
looks old and that person looks young, but like I
(10:53):
wouldn't before reading his paper be able to put into
words why someone looks outside of like you know that
it's like that persons wrinkles, yeah, yeah, like crows feed,
yeah exactly, Like why like what changes happen to your
face as you age?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So that was the first.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Thing that I want to hear it sort of break
down and like, what are the big changes that happened
to your face as you age?
Speaker 5 (11:21):
A lot of things change, you know, intrinsically, like what's
going on with your body as you age. You're losing
facial volume, so a lot of times it's at the temple.
You'll get some hollowing here, you get some hollowing in
your cheek area. You're just losing some of the fat
that lives kind of right underneath the skin and deeper
closer to your actual skeletal structure. So a full face
(11:45):
around face is considered a youthful appearance, and then like
a gaunt or more skeletal face is considered more an
aged look. So we talk about it in terms of
like a triangle and an inverted triangle. A triangle means
like you have more fullness to the lower part of
your face versus an inverted triangle. The angles and the
(12:06):
contours of the face change in pretty much a negative
way with aging, where we're losing everything that's good. We're
losing fat, the collagen starts to break down, We're not
turning over as much collagen, the elastin the moisture content,
how moisturize. Our skin is gets worse with age, so
just everything just kind of declines.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
It's kind of refreshing to hear a surgeon talk about
fat as a good thing.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I know.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Was that was kind of shocking, Yeah, because you think
about a baby, it's like, yeah, they have, you know,
fuller faces.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, and we've I guess it was a year or
two years ago was the big uh Google fat surgery
trend where they kind of go into your mouth, I think,
and take the fat away from the inside of your cheek,
which makes you appear more skeletal for lack of a
better word. Yep, but people like that it's like a
gaunt look.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Yeah, and that I've definitely noticed that with even just
like following different like actors in movies or something, you'll
just notice, you know, yeah, they lose weight just naturally
is your age or whatever. And then it's like, oh, yeah,
now it's like you definitely look a lot older.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
So naturally, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I wanted to know sort of like what other factors
outside of just time that caused our faces to age.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
We quote in the paper eighty percent of extrinsic aging
is directly related to sun exposure. So alcohol, we know
it's not good for the skin. Cigarette smoke is not
good for the skin. But sun is going to be
like the main you know, negative factor when it comes
to aging.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So it's out of all those smoking, drinking, you know, stress,
the sun does the most damage.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
Yeah, for sure, for sure, And like we've learned that
along the way, right like decades ago, that was of
like maybe background information, if a consideration at all to
most people in the world or Americans, And now it's
something that's like very prevalent in societies, like apply your
sunscreen sun damage skin cancer. Reapply light skin people, dark
(14:19):
skinn people, whoever you are, put on sunscreen, you can
get skin cancer. Like it's so much more in the
public's mind, which is good because like the sun is
very harmful when it comes to skin and aging.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
All right, So she was talking about sun being the
biggest factory. That's also interesting if we're going to keep
using myself as an example.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Here, because you don't use sunscreen.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I don't use sunscreen, but you know, I like being
in the sun, but I but I've noticed that I
become uncomfortable in the sun a lot sooner than most
of my friends. So I'm not in the sun.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
As much as that's true, you do hide from the
sun interesting and call it hiding.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
But project when I go to the beach, for example,
you're in like hours and ninety minutes and I'm done.
Oh yeah, some people are there like six hours.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
This makes sense because I was thinking about you when
she was saying this, because I know for a fact
you do not use sunscreen, because we've argued about this before,
and I was like, how is Mann. You look so young,
but you just limit your son time?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Uh look, not in not weird play video games all day?
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Not in a not in like okay, well man refuses
to come out suns out.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
But just like you, you always.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Look for shade when we go out to places, and
like you're not someone who's just gonna like sit in this.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Like I guess it's uncomfortable, like.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
After like thirty minutes or something like oh finding some shade?
Speaker 7 (15:46):
Yeah yeah, no, do you use somebuck not not like regularly,
only pretty if you're going to the beach or you know,
laying out of the pool, but like not like I
walked over here, you know, through the park.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
No sunscreen.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
I so every day, like in the morning, I will
put sunscreen on before I wash my face. Really like,
I'll do like a water I wake up, I'll do
a water thing, and then I put sunscreen on because
I like when I'm walking my dog, that's the most time.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I'm spending outside. Yeah. Well I was saying this too.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Growing up, you know, and black community, and this is
still something I argue with my family about today.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
They're like, we don't need sunscream we're black.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah, it's like no, we do, Like, yeah, we thought
the idea.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
What is the idea is that, like you have more melanin, right, so.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's more of a protection. Obviously.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
You know, I've never gotten sunburn in my life, and
for a large part of my life I did not
wear some block.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah, but doesn't mean it's not harmful.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah, exactly. Exposure to the sun is like not great
for your skin. And she also looks at you know that,
saying like black donk crack. How different ethnicities tend to inch.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Yeah in the brows strokes general speaking, you know, ninety
characters or less. It's Caucasian folks. White folks will have
less collagen in their skin, and so they are going
to be more susceptible to things like fine lines and wrinkles.
Melanated folks will have more and tighter collagen bundles, making
(17:25):
them less susceptible to things like wrinkles, and so skin
stay smooth, but jowling, sagginess, laxity can be more obvious.
So we lose like bony volume, like your your eyes
get a bit wider, the fat in your like your
eyebags under your eyes get more pronounced in everybody, but
then some of those changes are even more so in
(17:49):
say an African American individual. So it's sort of like
everybody has a pro and a con in what they're experiencing.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, it's interesting thinking about, you know, the what causes
different demographics to have to have those kind of different
perceived effects on their age. Never thought about it like that.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Did you guys see differences between men and women?
Speaker 5 (18:16):
Yes, so, And some of this is compounded by the
fact that men kind of expose themselves to higher risk behaviors.
They're going to be more so like heavier drinkers and smokers,
especially depending on you know, what country you're talking about,
but pretty much universally men smoke more than women. So
those factors can kind of compound things and make it
(18:39):
so that men are going to be wrinkling earlier on
and have like more pronounced wrinkles. But again, I think
the society at large sort of accepts that about men. Yeah,
and it's more of like, oh, he's like distinguished in
his old age. It's it's it's still considered like can
be considered part of the beauty aesthetic, whereas like if
(19:02):
a woman were to look wrinkly, it is automatically like, ooh,
she's really let herself go. She's old. So, although it
is true men like age faster per se, I think
society is like more accepting of that.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I know we're talking about a lot of like aging
in terms of how people look. How much of this
is tied to like your biological health? Do people who
look older generally have worse health than you know, someone
else who may look younger at their age, or is
or is this just like a whole different thing.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
It's a good question. I don't think there's a simple answer.
I think it's that kind of classic nature versus nurture debate.
It's like does this person have good genetics or in
the example you provided of someone who looks like older
than they are. Do they just have bad genetics or
have they been unkind to their body? I would say
I guess, just anecdotally that most people who look well
(20:08):
beyond their years have had some hard times in life
where I don't think they're on their skincare regimen and
applying their SPF and you know, like hydrating their body.
You know, like tend to have some unhealthy habits that
contribute to aging. But genetics certainly play a factor. Your
own biology can definitely play a role in aging. Those
(20:29):
are what we call intrinsic factors, which are just like
your DNA, your exposure to free radicals, and how your
body processes that. So like there's certainly like a biochemical
element of how your body responds to the aging process
versus somebody else.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Yeah, yeah, I've got to guess that genetics is probably
a factor. Can I can easily imagine, yeah, you know,
someone doing all the work they can, but you can't fight.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Some people just look oh yeah yeah, and they don't
you know, it's not because of what they're doing out.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
In the world.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
When I was in middle school, one of our classmates
had a beard.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
In middle school, That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
And you know, and we're in middle school, so he's
instantly aged or whatever. Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
So there have also been a bunch of studies that
show that, based on like people's biomarkers, that people today
are biologically younger than they were in the past. So
I think maybe that plays a part as well in
terms of just like people taking better care of themselves,
like we were talking about earlier, not smoking, you know,
(21:39):
exercising that sort of thing. But back to kind of
where we started, I wanted to put our theory in
front of doctor Hudson. Did she think a thirty year
old today looked younger than let's say, a thirty year
old in his seventies In general?
Speaker 5 (21:55):
I think that is true.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yes, Why do you think that is?
Speaker 5 (21:59):
I think there are a lot of different like things
that can contribute to that. But from my perspective as
a facial plastic surgeon, is, like we mentioned, like the
beauty aesthetic our culture views beauty today is like looking
youthful and equating youth with like that dewey glass skin,
lack of wrinkles, poudy lips, like you name it. Like
(22:22):
the features of today, it's much more important. It's much
more at the forefront. Skincare is something that like a
lot of just regular people think about and participate in.
You know, to what degree varies, but you know, people
think about what they're putting on their face. They're adding
like potions and lotions of various kinds, right, And that's
something I don't think like people fifty years ago we're
(22:45):
spending any time thinking about. So it's just part of
our The public awareness about sun exposure and UV is
a big thing. The beauty standard of like having a
know what we equate with looking youthful is more of
a priority now. And so I think, like from a
(23:07):
esthetics standpoint, those were the two things that I could
come up with. I also think some of it's just
sort of like psychology, where we were looking at someone
a picture from like the nineteen seventies and like what
they're wearing, ye, clothing, yeah, kind of how we it's
like old people clothing. It's like an old person outfit. Yeah,
(23:31):
And so there's just some psychology that goes into it
of like that person looks really old. If you put
them in like more modern clothes, they suddenly wouldn't look
as old as old. Yeah, I mean, and I think
life was probably just had a lot more like exposure
to like cigarette smoke. And Yeah, people weren't like working
(23:53):
like work from home laptop jobs. They were you know,
they were like out there in the world doing like
harder manual labor jobs. They didn't care as much about
you know, how they looked.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah, all those factors make a ton of sense. It
makes me. I wish there was some way we could
test it where we go back fifty years or whatever
and give someone like a good skincare Do.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
You really care? You gotta use sunscreen every day.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
If you have a time trouble machine, this is what
you do. You can do anything.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
I don't kill Hitler. I want to see how young dance,
and we're gonna give him sunscreen.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
All right.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So if someone is listening, it's like, okay, I want
to look as young as possible for as long as possible. Yeah,
what are some tips that you would give them?
Speaker 5 (24:52):
It's a common question, I get. So I do like
ABC like vitamin A derivatives. So we've all heard of
like retinol or retinoids. Retinoid is like the stronger version.
The brand for that is typically threton a so or retina,
(25:12):
which is tretono in. So everybody should be on some
percentage of that because that is the best topical treatment
you can do to your skin when it comes to
hyper pigmentation, fine lines, pores, stimulating collagen. It's an excellent
topical solution for any of your skin care needs. So
(25:33):
everyone should be on thretono in in my opinion, B
would be like block for like some block, so everyone
should apply their SPF. And then the third thing is
vitamin C. So that helps kind of protect your skin
against free radicals and kind of some of those extrinsic factors.
They're basically like things that like the sun radiation will
(25:54):
give off that can kind of break down DNA in
your skin at the cellular level to lead to fat,
you know, a rapid more rapid aging process. So free
radicals are bad basically, and vitamin C helps protect against those.
People ask like do I need certain products? Do I
like are the more expensive products that are better?
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (26:16):
I tend not to think, so I equate it more
to like exercise, consistency is the key. So if you're
doing those three things, like you're doing better than ninety
five percent of the population, and if you're doing on
a consistent basis, that's really like the best way to
set yourself up for like you know, a smooth aging process.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
In outside of the products, there's also some lifestyle things
that you can keep in mind.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
I mean, drinking water for sure will help, even just
like temporarily a lot of times, if you're like, wow,
I'm looking really wrinkly and old, if you just have
like two giant, like cold glasses of water, that will
have like a plumping, nice hydrating effect on your skin
and you will see fewer fine lines. It's not a
like a fix or of like a temporary effect, but
(27:08):
one hundred percent hydration will make your skin look plumper
and nicer and give you like a glow. So your
hydration matters what you're putting in your body just in general,
what your diet. If you eat like crap, your skin
will look like crap. If you eat well and like
treat your body well. Your skin is just an organ
like everything else. So if you treat your body well,
(27:28):
like your skin will be in a healthier place and
hopefully like visually, will you know reflect that as well, the.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Body keeps the score.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
Yes, yeah, it's I just came up with I just
came up with that thought.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And then as far as things that we can do without.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
Oh so many of.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
I tend to.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
I'm not sure how we got into like ie creams
as a Thing's like, why are eyes a separate part
of your face? Then, like you're just your face skin?
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Okay, this is this is big for me because that's
one of the few things I do have, is like
an a caffeine I cream because someone told.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Me to use it.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Yeah, yeah, and that's fine, right, Like people, I'll meet
patients who push back and they're like, I love my cream,
and I'm like, that's great. I don't.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I don't really, I can't tell.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
I don't know when we got to a point where
I eye products were separate things. So I think some
and they're so expensive, so I think it's a little
bit gimmicky. Like expectation is everything. So if you're expecting
something like with huge results, most things just have very
small results.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
All right.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
So based on what we heard from doctor Hudson, first
of all, you guys gonna change is not changed? Are
you going to start doing the skincare routine? Care about
your face.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Are you guys?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Just like whatever I look young, genetics are good enough.
I'm not gonna put on some block.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
I'll probably do it a little bit more. But to
be honest, I don't care that much. Yeah, I'm not.
It's not like I'm worried about other things trying to
get through the day.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Did you see that Trump got elected again? I'm actually
pretty preoccupied. No, No, I I don't know. I'm probably
not going to change all that much. I will try
out the facial, the face, moisturizer with an SPF, with
an SPF, the sun block when I go outside. I
think that's going to be a tough one for me.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
No, I'm not saying put on some block every time
you go outside. I'm just saying, moisturizer with an SPF.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Not on your body, yep, just on your face.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Okay, why not?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I'm sure me I had something in here that you
could just pop on.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
It's probably five different and once you becomes part of
your routine.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
I used to be like you guys, Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah,
about ten years ago, I wasn't doing any of this stuff.
It's it's pretty easy, like putting on lotion, doesn't take
that long.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I do put lotion off.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah, it's just like you're already in yet.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, many, you have no excuse because you're already in.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I always like that he's introducing something new to his
unless it's you know, cold out in his hand exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
This man's not daily moisturizing you already.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
You already got to put it on your body, so
it's just like, just get another another thing to put
on your face. As I was wrapping this up, I
came across this video.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
The title of this video is high school prom two
thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Now, so that was two years before.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Fortunately, that's only two years before we had our high
school proms.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah, and I'm going to read you a comment here
from Nurse Tommy.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Nurse Tommy, all right.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
You cannot convince me that teenagers in this era did
not look like they were at lead twenty five.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
Some of these guys look older, but I'd peg these
as seventeen to twenty.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Okay, Yeah, but they were to argue about how old
the people in the video looked.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
The point is that.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I think it's a bit of human nature to think
that you look younger than you actually look. So there
was actually a study that came out last year about
this phenomenon oka They found that fifty nine percent of
(31:37):
adults age fifty to eighty years old thought they looked
younger than their peers. And what I found even more
interesting about the study is that the people who reported
that fifty nine percent who looking younger than their peers
also reported having better mental and physical health. So we
(32:01):
may be lying to ourselves by saying we look younger
than the people around us, but that lying, or at
least that attempt to look younger, may lead to some
actual benefits. No thanks, No Such Thing as produced by
(32:32):
Manny Fidelle, Noah Friedeman, and me Devin Joseph. Our theme
song is by Manny. Additional music for this episode by Zeno.
Our guest this week was doctor Carolina Hudson. I'm gonna
link to her Instagram. She does these great breakdowns of
plastic surgery procedures where she actually reveals.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
How much they cost.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
If you want to see if Manny actually looks like
he should be carded, you can check us out on
Instagram at No Such Thing that show.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
We post reels and some bonus clips there.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
We're going to link to some individuals we were looking
at at our newsletter and no such thing.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Dot Show and gratest five Stars to you next week.
Hey, before we get today's episode started, we are working
on a advice column mail bag episode. So if you
want many Noah and Me to give you friendship advice,
maybe you have an annoying coworker, send us an email
at Manny Noah Deevin at gmail dot com. You can
either send it in text or send us a voice memo.
(00:24):
Or we actually have a hotline now, so we'll have
that number in the show note, so you can give
us a call, leave us a voice memo.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Try to keep it short. All right, let's start the show.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I'm Manny, I'm Noah.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
And this is Devin.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
And this is no such thing the show where we
settle our dumb arguments and yours by actually doing the
research on today's episode. Why do teenagers back in the
day look so damn old?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
There's no such thing thing.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Such, all right, fellas, I feel like this happens every
other year at this point, But people are once again
circulating a photo of the cast of Chairs from the eighties.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
And they're always bad. And it's getting a lot of
attention because people were saying that these people who at
the time were in their thirties look like they're someone
were saying in their forties, and somewhere going as far
as saying in their fifties or sixties. And this is
just another example of this growing conversation that we have
(01:47):
been having and people online have been having around why
people in the past look so much older than people today.
Have you ever wondered why people in the past looked
so much older than we do?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Did people used to look older? Brandon McCarthy asked on Twitter,
and evidence poured in.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
You see, I'm convinced that people in the past looked older.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Than their age, or people today look younger.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So just first of all, do we all agree with
that general sentiment that people back in the day, say,
a thirty year old in nineteen seventy, looked older than
a thirty year old looks today.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yeah. You see it all the time. You see these
like old black and white photos of someone who's like
this person was only seventeen when they started this company,
and it's like they look like they're forty five.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, yeah, it looks like a grown man.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
The other arena I run into to this phenomenon all
the time. Is watching old sports footage.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Funny you say that because you actually sent this in
our group chat a little while ago. If you want
to pull up this video.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
So this is a TikToker going through Penn States? Is
this this is increded nineteen eighty five team.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
I am genuinely confused whenever somebody makes the claim that
gen Z is aging like milk, because this is what
college football players look like in the nineteen eighties. This guy,
Michael Zordik, he looks like he has kids that are
currently in high school. This guy Bob White looks like
he's been serving as a cop for the past ten years.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
No, yeah, they look ancient. I think college athletes are
probably some of the healthiest people in the country.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, oh yeah, just.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
In terms of like their physicality. Maybe they're eating bullshit
on campus.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
But like they're doing a lot more.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Sure, they're working out at least twice a day. They're young. Yeah,
so yeah, it's bizarre to see, you know, some of
these photos.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
All right, So what do we think or why do
we think people back in the day looked so much
older than they do today?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Like, what are something that theories that come to mind
for you? Guys.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
Some are general health things, so I think people drink
more water now true as yeah exactly seventeen sixteen, Yeah,
sunscreen and kind of more general like wellness things like that,
I think, and and then maybe overall diet.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I One of my theories too, is that when we're
looking at old footage or pictures or something that's very
clearly from that era, we might be associated old with
the past.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, Like there's a theory that all of this is
basically because of the style.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Yeah, I think a lot of it is, but yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Don't know if I buy that. I don't know. I
think some of it is.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
I think some of it can you know, maybe it's
ten percent. But to me, I'm like, Okay, with a
lot of this stuff, I'm just seeing this person's face
right Like we're in these headshots of these football players.
I'm not even seeing there's no style. Okay, shuret to
happen much, kids, And.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I love much.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
When you watch Quirai or something and they take someone
and do a you know three, do you give them
the makeover?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, even just their hair or.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
Something that can take a lot of like that. I
can take about ten years off you easily.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, I think it can account for some of it.
I don't think it counts for like a lot of
what I'm seeing. Like people are like, there's a huge
thread of this on Twitter, like four or five years ago,
and people were posting like their parents, Yeah, their parents
being like twenty two years old, like pregnant with them,
and these people look like it's the person's grandparents. And
(05:33):
the photos, you know, and that's like, yeah, some of
it may be okay, the photos black and white. But
I'm just like, if I took a current photo and
made it black and white, I wouldn't think, oh, no,
it looks like he's forty five years old.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Well, let me back up for a minute. How do
we think we look as a group?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Age and how people perceive my age is a very
common occurrence in my life because because of how often
I get carded at bars. Recently, I was in Williamsburg
trying to get into this like cool new wine bar
and the guy at the front carded me, but I
left my card at home and I was like, all right,
(06:14):
thanks anyway, man, And then I went to the side
started talking to my friend who I went with, and
I was like, man, if only this person who I
was fucking thirty three years old. And then he oh
he heard me, and he was like, you're thirty three
years old, Like you should have led with that.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Come on in you thought you were a twenty year
old young boy.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yeah to get I've got a baby face, so I
got the cheeks on me. I think that contributes to it.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
If I didn't know you, I don't think twenty, I
wouldn't say twenty. I would say twenty four. Maybe, yeah,
I was going low. Yeah, I probably guess like like
twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, weights to I think with my weight, like if
I lose a little bit of weight, I look older.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Oh, this is me contradicting myself based on what I
said earlier. I think we as a group here younger
than what we are. We live in New York, we
dress perhaps younger than a lot of our peers would, like,
you know, when you go on the suburbs that are
not dressing like.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
Us, yeah, or like going into an office yeah exactly
where like you know you know.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, So I think that also helps in terms of
like how we appear. But I think I still stand
by the theory that in general, our generation looks younger.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
Especially if you're just looking at faces and not taking
in the style side of things, that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
After the break, I chat with a plastic surgeon who
did an analysis on how and why our faces age.
(07:54):
We're back, so I chatted with doctor Caroline Hudson.
Speaker 5 (07:59):
I am a old plastic surgeon who has my practice
in Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
So what what attracted you to your field? Was there something?
Is this something that you were thinking about since you
were a kid. Is this something that you got into
when when you're in college.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Honestly, I uh, it started as a child when I
watched those plastic surgery shows on TV.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Oh yeah, literally, like I know, yes, yes.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Honestly it's not very academic the way it all started,
but that I was pretty into those shows, very fascinated
by it all, and I alway kind of knew I
wanted to be a doctor. It felt like a calling
for me just from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I remember all those plastic surgery shows that like CLC Yeah,
were you guys fans?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Yeah, I watched the one with the boob jobs all
the time. I can't remembering, I can't remember the name,
but like all these women would go in and they would.
It was like very uh revealing actually for a cable
TV show. Shows were very yeah you can they blurg
(09:02):
essentially just like just a tiny nipple and yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
But they're cutting open people and it's just like on TV.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Yeah, that was a little bit crazy for us to
be watching at age thirteen.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
I just always knew it would be plastic surgery, but
I decided to focus just mostly on the face, so
I did five years of had a neck surgery. I've
always just cared about how things look like pretty simply,
it matters who does your plastic surgery. It matters less
like who takes out your appendix, but it really there's
(09:36):
a level of artistry and taste to plastic surgery, and
that refinement is something I really liked.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
And it's one of those things too where I feel like,
what this is like a lot of things where people
don't notice it until it's like a good plastic surgeon,
you won't notice right, like.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Yeah, you only notice it really when it is bad.
So that's I think why it can have kind of
a bad reputation. People are thinking of the duck lips
or thinking of the wind tunnel, you know, face lift,
when really like true plastic surgery is so much more
subtle than that that most of the time you're not
even going to be able to tell if or what
(10:14):
procedure someone has had done.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So that's like the goal, right, But I think often
when we think of plastic surgery, we think of like
the extremes of like the Michael Jackson's or like low
cam or you know someone who's just like that person
doesn't look like they used.
Speaker 6 (10:26):
To look like, or it doesn't even look like a person,
like yes, natural person.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, it's like this other thing.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So I came across doctor Hudson because she was one
of the authors of the Analysis of Facial Aging, which
was a review summary which synthesizes like what we know
about facial aging. And it's one of those things that
like I think we all know, like, oh, that person
looks old and that person looks young, but like I
(10:53):
wouldn't before reading his paper be able to put into
words why someone looks outside of like you know that
it's like that persons wrinkles, yeah, yeah, like crows feed,
yeah exactly, Like why like what changes happen to your
face as you age?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So that was the first.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Thing that I want to hear it sort of break
down and like, what are the big changes that happened
to your face as you age?
Speaker 5 (11:21):
A lot of things change, you know, intrinsically, like what's
going on with your body as you age. You're losing
facial volume, so a lot of times it's at the temple.
You'll get some hollowing here, you get some hollowing in
your cheek area. You're just losing some of the fat
that lives kind of right underneath the skin and deeper
closer to your actual skeletal structure. So a full face
(11:45):
around face is considered a youthful appearance, and then like
a gaunt or more skeletal face is considered more an
aged look. So we talk about it in terms of
like a triangle and an inverted triangle. A triangle means
like you have more fullness to the lower part of
your face versus an inverted triangle. The angles and the
(12:06):
contours of the face change in pretty much a negative
way with aging, where we're losing everything that's good. We're
losing fat, the collagen starts to break down, We're not
turning over as much collagen, the elastin the moisture content,
how moisturize. Our skin is gets worse with age, so
just everything just kind of declines.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
It's kind of refreshing to hear a surgeon talk about
fat as a good thing.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I know.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Was that was kind of shocking, Yeah, because you think
about a baby, it's like, yeah, they have, you know,
fuller faces.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, and we've I guess it was a year or
two years ago was the big uh Google fat surgery
trend where they kind of go into your mouth, I think,
and take the fat away from the inside of your cheek,
which makes you appear more skeletal for lack of a
better word. Yep, but people like that it's like a
gaunt look.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Yeah, and that I've definitely noticed that with even just
like following different like actors in movies or something, you'll
just notice, you know, yeah, they lose weight just naturally
is your age or whatever. And then it's like, oh, yeah,
now it's like you definitely look a lot older.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
So naturally, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I wanted to know sort of like what other factors
outside of just time that caused our faces to age.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
We quote in the paper eighty percent of extrinsic aging
is directly related to sun exposure. So alcohol, we know
it's not good for the skin. Cigarette smoke is not
good for the skin. But sun is going to be
like the main you know, negative factor when it comes
to aging.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So it's out of all those smoking, drinking, you know, stress,
the sun does the most damage.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
Yeah, for sure, for sure, And like we've learned that
along the way, right like decades ago, that was of
like maybe background information, if a consideration at all to
most people in the world or Americans, And now it's
something that's like very prevalent in societies, like apply your
sunscreen sun damage skin cancer. Reapply light skin people, dark
(14:19):
skinn people, whoever you are, put on sunscreen, you can
get skin cancer. Like it's so much more in the
public's mind, which is good because like the sun is
very harmful when it comes to skin and aging.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
All right, So she was talking about sun being the
biggest factory. That's also interesting if we're going to keep
using myself as an example.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Here, because you don't use sunscreen.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I don't use sunscreen, but you know, I like being
in the sun, but I but I've noticed that I
become uncomfortable in the sun a lot sooner than most
of my friends. So I'm not in the sun.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
As much as that's true, you do hide from the
sun interesting and call it hiding.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
But project when I go to the beach, for example,
you're in like hours and ninety minutes and I'm done.
Oh yeah, some people are there like six hours.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
This makes sense because I was thinking about you when
she was saying this, because I know for a fact
you do not use sunscreen, because we've argued about this before,
and I was like, how is Mann. You look so young,
but you just limit your son time?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Uh look, not in not weird play video games all day?
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Not in a not in like okay, well man refuses
to come out suns out.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
But just like you, you always.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Look for shade when we go out to places, and
like you're not someone who's just gonna like sit in this.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Like I guess it's uncomfortable, like.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
After like thirty minutes or something like oh finding some shade?
Speaker 7 (15:46):
Yeah yeah, no, do you use somebuck not not like regularly,
only pretty if you're going to the beach or you know,
laying out of the pool, but like not like I
walked over here, you know, through the park.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
No sunscreen.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
I so every day, like in the morning, I will
put sunscreen on before I wash my face. Really like,
I'll do like a water I wake up, I'll do
a water thing, and then I put sunscreen on because
I like when I'm walking my dog, that's the most time.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I'm spending outside. Yeah. Well I was saying this too.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Growing up, you know, and black community, and this is
still something I argue with my family about today.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
They're like, we don't need sunscream we're black.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah, it's like no, we do, Like, yeah, we thought
the idea.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
What is the idea is that, like you have more melanin, right, so.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's more of a protection. Obviously.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
You know, I've never gotten sunburn in my life, and
for a large part of my life I did not
wear some block.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Yeah, but doesn't mean it's not harmful.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah, exactly. Exposure to the sun is like not great
for your skin. And she also looks at you know that,
saying like black donk crack. How different ethnicities tend to inch.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Yeah in the brows strokes general speaking, you know, ninety
characters or less. It's Caucasian folks. White folks will have
less collagen in their skin, and so they are going
to be more susceptible to things like fine lines and wrinkles.
Melanated folks will have more and tighter collagen bundles, making
(17:25):
them less susceptible to things like wrinkles, and so skin
stay smooth, but jowling, sagginess, laxity can be more obvious.
So we lose like bony volume, like your your eyes
get a bit wider, the fat in your like your
eyebags under your eyes get more pronounced in everybody, but
then some of those changes are even more so in
(17:49):
say an African American individual. So it's sort of like
everybody has a pro and a con in what they're experiencing.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, it's interesting thinking about, you know, the what causes
different demographics to have to have those kind of different
perceived effects on their age. Never thought about it like that.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Did you guys see differences between men and women?
Speaker 5 (18:16):
Yes, so, And some of this is compounded by the
fact that men kind of expose themselves to higher risk behaviors.
They're going to be more so like heavier drinkers and smokers,
especially depending on you know, what country you're talking about,
but pretty much universally men smoke more than women. So
those factors can kind of compound things and make it
(18:39):
so that men are going to be wrinkling earlier on
and have like more pronounced wrinkles. But again, I think
the society at large sort of accepts that about men. Yeah,
and it's more of like, oh, he's like distinguished in
his old age. It's it's it's still considered like can
be considered part of the beauty aesthetic, whereas like if
(19:02):
a woman were to look wrinkly, it is automatically like, ooh,
she's really let herself go. She's old. So, although it
is true men like age faster per se, I think
society is like more accepting of that.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I know we're talking about a lot of like aging
in terms of how people look. How much of this
is tied to like your biological health? Do people who
look older generally have worse health than you know, someone
else who may look younger at their age, or is
or is this just like a whole different thing.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
It's a good question. I don't think there's a simple answer.
I think it's that kind of classic nature versus nurture debate.
It's like does this person have good genetics or in
the example you provided of someone who looks like older
than they are. Do they just have bad genetics or
have they been unkind to their body? I would say
I guess, just anecdotally that most people who look well
(20:08):
beyond their years have had some hard times in life
where I don't think they're on their skincare regimen and
applying their SPF and you know, like hydrating their body.
You know, like tend to have some unhealthy habits that
contribute to aging. But genetics certainly play a factor. Your
own biology can definitely play a role in aging. Those
(20:29):
are what we call intrinsic factors, which are just like
your DNA, your exposure to free radicals, and how your
body processes that. So like there's certainly like a biochemical
element of how your body responds to the aging process
versus somebody else.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Yeah, yeah, I've got to guess that genetics is probably
a factor. Can I can easily imagine, yeah, you know,
someone doing all the work they can, but you can't fight.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Some people just look oh yeah yeah, and they don't
you know, it's not because of what they're doing out.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
In the world.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
When I was in middle school, one of our classmates
had a beard.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
In middle school, That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
And you know, and we're in middle school, so he's
instantly aged or whatever. Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
So there have also been a bunch of studies that
show that, based on like people's biomarkers, that people today
are biologically younger than they were in the past. So
I think maybe that plays a part as well in
terms of just like people taking better care of themselves,
like we were talking about earlier, not smoking, you know,
(21:39):
exercising that sort of thing. But back to kind of
where we started, I wanted to put our theory in
front of doctor Hudson. Did she think a thirty year
old today looked younger than let's say, a thirty year
old in his seventies In general?
Speaker 5 (21:55):
I think that is true.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yes, Why do you think that is?
Speaker 5 (21:59):
I think there are a lot of different like things
that can contribute to that. But from my perspective as
a facial plastic surgeon, is, like we mentioned, like the
beauty aesthetic our culture views beauty today is like looking
youthful and equating youth with like that dewey glass skin,
lack of wrinkles, poudy lips, like you name it. Like
(22:22):
the features of today, it's much more important. It's much
more at the forefront. Skincare is something that like a
lot of just regular people think about and participate in.
You know, to what degree varies, but you know, people
think about what they're putting on their face. They're adding
like potions and lotions of various kinds, right, And that's
something I don't think like people fifty years ago we're
(22:45):
spending any time thinking about. So it's just part of
our The public awareness about sun exposure and UV is
a big thing. The beauty standard of like having a
know what we equate with looking youthful is more of
a priority now. And so I think, like from a
(23:07):
esthetics standpoint, those were the two things that I could
come up with. I also think some of it's just
sort of like psychology, where we were looking at someone
a picture from like the nineteen seventies and like what
they're wearing, ye, clothing, yeah, kind of how we it's
like old people clothing. It's like an old person outfit. Yeah,
(23:31):
And so there's just some psychology that goes into it
of like that person looks really old. If you put
them in like more modern clothes, they suddenly wouldn't look
as old as old. Yeah, I mean, and I think
life was probably just had a lot more like exposure
to like cigarette smoke. And Yeah, people weren't like working
(23:53):
like work from home laptop jobs. They were you know,
they were like out there in the world doing like
harder manual labor jobs. They didn't care as much about
you know, how they looked.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah, all those factors make a ton of sense. It
makes me. I wish there was some way we could
test it where we go back fifty years or whatever
and give someone like a good skincare Do.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
You really care? You gotta use sunscreen every day.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
If you have a time trouble machine, this is what
you do. You can do anything.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
I don't kill Hitler. I want to see how young dance,
and we're gonna give him sunscreen.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
All right.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So if someone is listening, it's like, okay, I want
to look as young as possible for as long as possible. Yeah,
what are some tips that you would give them?
Speaker 5 (24:52):
It's a common question, I get. So I do like
ABC like vitamin A derivatives. So we've all heard of
like retinol or retinoids. Retinoid is like the stronger version.
The brand for that is typically threton a so or retina,
(25:12):
which is tretono in. So everybody should be on some
percentage of that because that is the best topical treatment
you can do to your skin when it comes to
hyper pigmentation, fine lines, pores, stimulating collagen. It's an excellent
topical solution for any of your skin care needs. So
(25:33):
everyone should be on thretono in in my opinion, B
would be like block for like some block, so everyone
should apply their SPF. And then the third thing is
vitamin C. So that helps kind of protect your skin
against free radicals and kind of some of those extrinsic factors.
They're basically like things that like the sun radiation will
(25:54):
give off that can kind of break down DNA in
your skin at the cellular level to lead to fat,
you know, a rapid more rapid aging process. So free
radicals are bad basically, and vitamin C helps protect against those.
People ask like do I need certain products? Do I
like are the more expensive products that are better?
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (26:16):
I tend not to think, so I equate it more
to like exercise, consistency is the key. So if you're
doing those three things, like you're doing better than ninety
five percent of the population, and if you're doing on
a consistent basis, that's really like the best way to
set yourself up for like you know, a smooth aging process.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
In outside of the products, there's also some lifestyle things
that you can keep in mind.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
I mean, drinking water for sure will help, even just
like temporarily a lot of times, if you're like, wow,
I'm looking really wrinkly and old, if you just have
like two giant, like cold glasses of water, that will
have like a plumping, nice hydrating effect on your skin
and you will see fewer fine lines. It's not a
like a fix or of like a temporary effect, but
(27:08):
one hundred percent hydration will make your skin look plumper
and nicer and give you like a glow. So your
hydration matters what you're putting in your body just in general,
what your diet. If you eat like crap, your skin
will look like crap. If you eat well and like
treat your body well. Your skin is just an organ
like everything else. So if you treat your body well,
(27:28):
like your skin will be in a healthier place and
hopefully like visually, will you know reflect that as well, the.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Body keeps the score.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
Yes, yeah, it's I just came up with I just
came up with that thought.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And then as far as things that we can do without.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
Oh so many of.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
I tend to.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
I'm not sure how we got into like ie creams
as a Thing's like, why are eyes a separate part
of your face? Then, like you're just your face skin?
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Okay, this is this is big for me because that's
one of the few things I do have, is like
an a caffeine I cream because someone told.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Me to use it.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Yeah, yeah, and that's fine, right, Like people, I'll meet
patients who push back and they're like, I love my cream,
and I'm like, that's great. I don't.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I don't really, I can't tell.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
I don't know when we got to a point where
I eye products were separate things. So I think some
and they're so expensive, so I think it's a little
bit gimmicky. Like expectation is everything. So if you're expecting
something like with huge results, most things just have very
small results.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
All right.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
So based on what we heard from doctor Hudson, first
of all, you guys gonna change is not changed? Are
you going to start doing the skincare routine? Care about
your face.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Are you guys?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Just like whatever I look young, genetics are good enough.
I'm not gonna put on some block.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
I'll probably do it a little bit more. But to
be honest, I don't care that much. Yeah, I'm not.
It's not like I'm worried about other things trying to
get through the day.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Did you see that Trump got elected again? I'm actually
pretty preoccupied. No, No, I I don't know. I'm probably
not going to change all that much. I will try
out the facial, the face, moisturizer with an SPF, with
an SPF, the sun block when I go outside. I
think that's going to be a tough one for me.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
No, I'm not saying put on some block every time
you go outside. I'm just saying, moisturizer with an SPF.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Not on your body, yep, just on your face.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Okay, why not?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I'm sure me I had something in here that you
could just pop on.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
It's probably five different and once you becomes part of
your routine.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
I used to be like you guys, Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah,
about ten years ago, I wasn't doing any of this stuff.
It's it's pretty easy, like putting on lotion, doesn't take
that long.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I do put lotion off.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah, it's just like you're already in yet.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, many, you have no excuse because you're already in.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I always like that he's introducing something new to his
unless it's you know, cold out in his hand exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
This man's not daily moisturizing you already.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
You already got to put it on your body, so
it's just like, just get another another thing to put
on your face. As I was wrapping this up, I
came across this video.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
The title of this video is high school prom two
thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Now, so that was two years before.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Fortunately, that's only two years before we had our high
school proms.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah, and I'm going to read you a comment here
from Nurse Tommy.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Nurse Tommy, all right.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
You cannot convince me that teenagers in this era did
not look like they were at lead twenty five.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
Some of these guys look older, but I'd peg these
as seventeen to twenty.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Okay, Yeah, but they were to argue about how old
the people in the video looked.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
The point is that.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I think it's a bit of human nature to think
that you look younger than you actually look. So there
was actually a study that came out last year about
this phenomenon oka They found that fifty nine percent of
(31:37):
adults age fifty to eighty years old thought they looked
younger than their peers. And what I found even more
interesting about the study is that the people who reported
that fifty nine percent who looking younger than their peers
also reported having better mental and physical health. So we
(32:01):
may be lying to ourselves by saying we look younger
than the people around us, but that lying, or at
least that attempt to look younger, may lead to some
actual benefits. No thanks, No Such Thing as produced by
(32:32):
Manny Fidelle, Noah Friedeman, and me Devin Joseph. Our theme
song is by Manny. Additional music for this episode by Zeno.
Our guest this week was doctor Carolina Hudson. I'm gonna
link to her Instagram. She does these great breakdowns of
plastic surgery procedures where she actually reveals.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
How much they cost.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
If you want to see if Manny actually looks like
he should be carded, you can check us out on
Instagram at No Such Thing that show.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
We post reels and some bonus clips there.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
We're going to link to some individuals we were looking
at at our newsletter and no such thing.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Dot Show and gratest five Stars to you next week.
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