The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
239. Dr. Shawana Vali: Healing Skin from the Inside Out, Collagen Degradation & Skin Aging
27 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
If you remove all the things that you use for your acne and stuff like that, leave it alone for a few weeks, your skin will wake up and you won't break out as much.
You know the skin, you know what makes it youthful, what makes it healthy.
Chapter 2: What does it mean to heal skin from the inside out?
But the vast majority of what you talked about was healing the skin from the inside out.
It's easy for us to give you thick hair, perfect skin, but on the inside, we're actually coming first with mood, concentration, performance, sleep. We're all looking at you on the inside out rather than the outside in.
When you walk into most cosmetic clinics, you can get lost in the programs that they're trying to offer you without really having a fundamental understanding of which one of these is actually going to give me real skin regeneration.
Chapter 3: How are biomarkers linked to accelerated skin aging?
The skin is one of the biggest organs, and what it does every day, it repairs itself. Let it do the work. God's given it the cells for it to work. We just need to tweak it a little bit.
Chapter 4: What is the connection between stress and skin health?
I always say this to my patients, less is more.
So what does a good basic skincare routine look like for you?
I would go back to basics again, and I would say...
Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist, Gary Brekka, where we go down the road of everything, anti-aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between.
And today's podcast guest is a double board certified cosmetic dermatologist that I actually met when, for the first time face-to-face, when we were in Saudi Arabia speaking at a Zenos Health Summit. I was fascinated by her talk. She was already on my schedule, so I was excited about that.
But watching her describe skincare as a dermatologist, as something that happens from the inside out, I found really fascinating.
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Chapter 5: What are the major causes of rapid skin aging?
And the plan that she uses to approach her patients to restore healthy, youthful skin really didn't begin with the topical applications. It began with rebuilding from the inside out. So I'm really excited to unpack this. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Shawana Vali.
Chapter 6: How do exosomes enhance skincare products?
Thank you, Gary.
Yeah. You really did a great job in Saudi.
Well, I was put before you, so I couldn't let you down. Why did they put me before Gary? Why am I straight before Gary?
It's better to go before me than after me, I guess.
Exactly.
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Chapter 7: What role do collagen and elastin play in skin aging?
But what I found fascinating was the vast majority of your talk, and obviously as a double board certified cosmetic dermatologist, you know skincare and you know the skin, you know what makes it youthful, what makes it healthy, how it grows, how it ages.
And from a medical perspective, but the vast majority of what you talked about was healing the skin from the inside out, youthifying the skin from the inside out. So can we back up a little bit for the people that didn't have the benefit like I did of attending your talk, which I really found fascinating. And it's so incredible how much of what you do, I not only...
do with my private clients, but I also deeply identify with. I just never really correlated it to all of these positive skincare outcomes. So I'd love to unpack what a typical consult with you is like and where you start with somebody's skincare journey. You even talked about different personality profiles of people that come to see you. So yeah, I'd love to unpack that.
Well, we have the privilege of meeting all different types of people and different types of ethnicities, different types of personalities. So I think as practicing physicians, you need to be aware of everything and experienced in everything.
Chapter 8: How does hormone replacement therapy affect women's skin?
I specialize in cosmetic dermatology, medical wellness, regenerative medicine, longevity. So we've always looked at everything inside out. We've never been like, oh, you've got some acne or you've got some rosacea. We've always been, what's the root cause? Whole person. Whole person, where's the inflammation coming from?
So we've always looked at you, you know, it's easy for us to give you thick hair, perfect skin, contour your body to suit your gender, ethnicity, your silhouette. But on the inside, we're actually coming first with mood, concentration, performance, sleep.
libido gut health fertility immune system musculoskeletal we're looking at you on the inside out rather than the outside in because the problem i've got is if you've got an inflammatory skin condition and i'm just doing some laser and resurfacing you with some exosomes and some fun stuff on the outside or topically like you mentioned yeah i'm not fixing the root cause it's going to come back you're going to be unhappy and you're not she's not a very good doctor
Right. What are the major things in your opinion that cause skin to accelerate? I want to get specific conditions of skin like acne, wrinkles, what have you. But what are some of the just the major offenders of healthy skin that we do to our bodies from the inside out?
I think it's just general lifestyle things, right? So right now we're all living multi-hyphenate lives. We've got multiple roles. Our bodies weren't designed in that manner. So you're a man, you're supposed to be a hunter-gatherer. I'm a woman, I'm supposed to be a protector-provider. Yet we're both entrepreneurs. We're both burning the candle at both ends.
We've both got multiple businesses and multiple roles. We're pushing our body to the limit that we've never pushed it, i.e. the ultimate human. So if our body hasn't caught up with what we're supposed to be doing, then physiologically, we have to look at you on the inside and optimize that.
And that's why I always say, when I take a consultation, the first thing I do is, diagnosing your skin is easy for me. Diagnosing what's happening on the outside is easy. And the first three questions I always ask is, who referred you? Because for me, it's like, what kind of aesthetic are you looking for?
Ah, and you could tell that from their friends?
Yeah, but also what kind of journey have you had? You know, did your friend refer you to me because you're perimenopausal and so she? We fixed the inside first before we came on the outside, right? Then I asked, how old are you? If you're in your 20s, you've got social media pressure, you've got lifestyle pressures going on, you're trying to establish yourself.
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