During a live Zoom webinar broadcast from their home in Orange County, California, renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Terry Dubrow—from E! Network’s hit T.V. series, Botched—and his wife Heather Dubrow—Real Housewives of Orange County alum—joined me for an extensive chat about health/wellness, diet, time at home during quarantine with the family, plastic surgery during COVID-19, proper face mask usage and of course, their new book together, The Dubrow Keto Fusion Diet. Here are some highlights and be sure to check out the full segment on YouTube or at the bottom of this page.
Photo Credit: Rod Foster // Amanda Jackson (food styling)
ON THEIR NEW BOOK AND THE 12:8:4 EATING SCHEDULE
DR. TERRY DUBROW: We’ve combined the best parts of keto with the best parts of intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is usually an 18:6 or a 20:4 [schedule] where you don’t eat for 18 hours and then you’re allowed to eat for the rest of the day. Well, this is a 12:8:4 program; 12 hours where you’re basically not eating or you’re eating very little, 8-to-10 of which you’re sleeping anyway so it’s super easy. Then an eight hour period of a variation of ketosis that allows you to fat burn [and] allows you to eat food rather than starve yourself, but it’s a type of ketosis diet that’s very easy. Then the next four hours as opposed to a ketosis diet where you’re still not having any carbs—because by the way if you eat an apple, you’re out of the traditional type of ketosis—you’re now introducing low glycemic index—which means they have very little sugar in them—carbohydrates that allow you to replenish your carbohydrate stores, eat the fruits and vegetables and all those well-balanced foods that you need to sustain yourself and a well-balanced diet. And then the next day you start it again, where you’re fat burning during those eight hours of ketosis during the day, at night you’re less fat burning but you’ve amped up your fat burning enzymes by going in and out of ketosis intermittently as Heather was mentioning each and every day. So, you’re eating [and] fat burning, but you’re eating well-balanced at the same time.
HEATHER DUBROW:Â It’s truly a lifestyle plan. Part of the problem with intermittent fasting is that you go hours and hours without eating; that’s very challenging for some people. Keto, also very challenging, because you can’t have anything good! It’s like the bacon and butter diet. So the question was, how to marry these two together and really create a plan that takes away the challenges of both, gives you the benefits of both and allows you to live your best life. So, what we’ve come up with based on Terry’s science and my lifestyle plan was to put it in a way that you can follow it; it’s easy, it’s attainable, it’s sustainable and you’re getting your cheat day, you’re getting your alcohol on the diet. It’s truly a lifestyle plan. The weight loss is swift and it’s real, but for me even better is the anti-aging effects, the hormonal balance, the immune-boosting properties of living a lifestyle like this.
DR. TERRY DUBROW: And you can have alcohol!
DEYVANSHI MASRANI:Â Can we hear that again, one more time?
DR. TERRY DUBROW: And you can have alcohol! [Group laughs]
Photo Credit: Haute Living via Zoom
ON THE DO’S AND DON’T’S OF WEARING FACE MASKS TO REMAIN SAFE AND PROTECTEDÂ
DTB:Â One of the things that really disturbs me…what I don’t love, for example, is that people wear masks…and they’re touching the outside of the mask, pulling it down, speaking to people, and when people are coming by, they’re pulling it up. That’s the worst thing you can do because your masks are contaminated, theoretically. So, you touch the outside and pull it down; all you’re doing is introducing that contamination exactly where you’re not supposed to be introducing it, which is your nasal and oral cavities. This mask thing is potentially a very dangerous practice…Just today, the CDC came out and said, “It doesn’t look like we’re really getting much transmission from contaminated surfaces anymore.” So, the risk now appears to be very low from inanimate objects and it’s more of just person-to-person. So, as we evolve and figure out what the truth is and what the real science is, it’s really unfortunately, [like] we’re living in a test tube at the moment.
HD: Terry going to work doesn’t worry me because if anyone knows how to use PPE, it’s Terry and his staff. His office is probably the safest place to be. What worries me is we’re actually giving ourselves equipment to use without the instruction manual. I want Terry to do this but I feel like we need tips on how to properly wear the masks. I’ve seen people wearing the mask and leaving their noses out.
DTB: Everyone knows you’re not supposed to touch your face. But every time you touch your mask, you’re touching a contaminated surface that now, as you pull it down, is touching your face. So you’re making it easier for potential viruses to be transmitted from your outer mask to your mucosal…surfaces. Don’t touch your mask, just touch [the straps]. And don’t pull it down to have conversations with people and then put it back up because guess what? You’re now the transmissible agent and the enemy and the vector—as we call it in medicine—of yourself. Be aware of your mask—it’s your best friend and your worst enemy all at the same time.
ON PREDICTIONS FOR COSMETIC SURGERY TRENDS COMING OUT OF QUARANTINE
DTB:Â I think people are now more used to seeing themselves on these computer screens without their filters. And so, they’re a little bit shocked with what they’re seeing. It’s one thing on Instagram how you can put your best self forward. It’s impossible to put your best self forward here. So there’s a lot of pent up demand for cosmetic procedures. You’d think that because now we’re wearing masks, they would mainly focus around the eye area and I think to a certain degree that’s probably true.
HD: In general we spend most of our time looking at the top third of someone’s face. Now we’ve taken away the bottom two-thirds [by wearing masks]…I’m never going out without lashes ever again! And I feel like a lot of people wear sunglasses to disguise the eyes…I have a feeling that more people will go without sunglasses so that more [of the face] is exposed…I think there’s going to be an uptick in eye procedures and a downtick in lips.
ON A VERY YOUNG GENERATION OF GIRLS GETTING FILLERS/INJECTABLES AND PEOPLE NOT TAKING PLASTIC SURGERY SERIOUSLYÂ
DTB:Â I think this whole Botox and fillers before 18 [years old], I would wait. I know the American Society of Plastic Surgeons has changed their mind about doing earlier procedures…I really disagree with that. A lot of this has to do with some reality stars that are young that have sort of moved that needle in that direction, but I would wait. I don’t like it. The problem is, lip filler and Botox injections aren’t without risks. If you watch this season of Botched, you’ll see some girls who are just a little bit older than 21, who had lip filler injections and nasal filler injections that led them to losing parts of their face; because if you get an injection, even if you do it properly, there’s a chance you can get an injection into the arteries that can cut off the blood supply, that can cause the tip of your nose to turn black and fall off.
HD:Â A lot of people don’t see [plastic surgery] as surgery, and it is. It has all the risks of any kind of surgery…I think what Terry and Paul [Nassif] have done an amazing job of is really to tell the cautionary tale of what can actually happen. I really wish a lot more people would listen but especially the younger kids.
DEYVANSHI MASRANI:Â Heather, I completely agree with you that people don’t take plastic surgery as seriously as other surgeries. Why do you think that is?
HD:Â When you see it done in so many accessible places…when you see people doing Botox in hair salons and filler in dentist offices… these are procedures that are supposed to be done in a Board-certified plastic surgeon or dermatologist’s office for the injectables, and operating just for the surgeons. I think [people] become immune to it.
