#38: Breast Reductions, Gut Health & More: A Chat with Arrae Founder Siff Haider

‍Podcast #38 Breast Reductions, Gut Health & More: A Chat with Arrae Founder Siff Haider

On this episode of The Natural Plastic Surgeon…

Announcer (00:01):

On this episode of the natural plastic surgeon...

Dr. Barrett (00:04):

So how often were you getting sick?

Siff Haider (00:05):

Dr. Barrett, it was insane, all the time. And I remember high school, I would constantly be missing school, because I would just come down with anything and everything. Whatever was in the air, I would catch it.

Dr. Barrett (00:16):

People think that's normal. It's not normal.

Siff Haider (00:18):

Thank you for saying this, because people deal with things and it might be common, but there is a difference between common and normal.

Dr. Barrett (00:26):

Some of these foods, these cereals, these companies are so far removed from actually caring about people. And so that's why I like your products, because it seems like you have a lot of passion behind your product line, and you really care.

So we're here, we're at episode 38, The Natural Plastic Surgeon Podcast. We have Siff, who's a patient of ours, who just underwent a breast reduction. And so we have her here today on the podcast. And we're excited to kind of talk about before, during, and after, now, while you're healing about your whole experience.

And then, also, you're here to also talk about your product line and some of the things that you're focused on, which actually aligns well with some of the things that I promote.

Siff Haider (01:12):

So well.

Dr. Barrett (01:13):

And this is your company called Arrae, is that correct?

Siff Haider (01:14):

Yeah.

Dr. Barrett (01:14):

Okay. And we have one of your bloat products here, which has digestive enzymes in it. I checked it out online, actually, before. And you actually gave me some here, which I'm really excited to try out, because this is really huge. I'm a big believer in digestive enzymes. I take them every day, and the more natural, the better. And so I guess, why don't we go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself, and what made you come out with this product line? And then you have some questions for me too, so I'm happy to be your guest as well.

Siff Haider (01:42):

I'm Siff.

Dr. Barrett (01:42):

Siff.

Siff Haider (01:43):

I'm the founder of Arrae-

Dr. Barrett (01:43):

Yes.

Siff Haider (01:46):

... and The Dream Bigger Podcast, which you're going to be on-

Dr. Barrett (01:47):

Yes.

Siff Haider (01:48):

... and I'm so stoked.

Dr. Barrett (01:49):

I know.

Siff Haider (01:49):

But essentially, started Arrae, because I had real issues with my immune system, kind of felt like I wasn't getting what I needed from my Western medicine practitioners, essentially. And really got into the world of natural remedies, and started experimenting with herbs, minerals, vitamins. Started to see huge, long term changes in my immune system. Not just like antibiotics after getting a little bit sick, it was real changes. I wasn't getting sick anymore. And started experimenting, from there, with all the other issues that I had from li, I was running really anxious, so dealing with that, digestion, which was a big pain point for me, fatigue.

And I really saw the power in supplements, which obviously you're a big proponent of as well.

Dr. Barrett (01:49):

Absolutely.

Siff Haider (02:36):

And wanted to kind of fill this white space that I saw in wellness by creating a 100% natural, targeted supplements that were fast acting and just really beautiful as well. So women would want to integrate it into their routines. Because one issue that we've seen with supplements as well, is that people take it, maybe they stuff it to the back of their pantry, forget about it.

Dr. Barrett (02:36):

Yes.

Siff Haider (02:57):

So we really wanted to make a really chic, yet, efficacious experience.

Dr. Barrett (03:01):

Amazing. And so I want to just dive in a little bit deeper on you. You were getting sick a lot. I didn't know that about you. So how often were you getting sick?

Siff Haider (03:10):

Dr. Barrett, it was insane, all the time. And I remember high school, I would constantly be missing school, because I would just come down with anything and everything. Whatever was in the air, I would catch it, like flu, cold, cough, just prolonged sicknesses. Literally, anything that was floating about in the air. And I hit my breaking point actually in my early 20s, I ended up fracturing a rib from a chronic cough.

Dr. Barrett (03:32):

Wow.

Siff Haider (03:32):

And I was like 22, I think. And when I went to my doctor, there was no real long term game plan. It was more so like, "Here's some Codeine." And I was like, "Okay, but that's today, what do I do afterwards?" And there was no plan. And so that's kind of what led me down this path. And so glad I went down that path, because it's very powerful.

Dr. Barrett (03:53):

Well, I want to peek into that just a little bit. I mean, it's just so many rabbit holes we could dive down into.

Siff Haider (03:53):

Oh, yeah.

Dr. Barrett (03:58):

So it's funny, because I'm a traditionally trained doctor. I went through traditional medical school. There's no focus on nutrition. It is very pharmaceutical heavy. The entire second year of our medical school is basically, here's the chronic disease and here's the pharmaceutical that can mask the symptoms.

Siff Haider (04:15):

Totally.

Dr. Barrett (04:16):

Very few things actually cure anything. And so it's li, if you have a loss of thyroid function, what is the solution? "Oh, we're just going to replace your thyroid hormone with a synthetic thyroid hormone." How about we figure out why our thyroid is being-

Siff Haider (04:29):

Yes.

Dr. Barrett (04:29):

... attacked by our immune system versus trying to just create... I mean, I get it, if nothing else works, we got to have some kind of thyroid hormone. But why don't we get to the root cause of these problems?

Siff Haider (04:41):

That was the real issue for me that I just felt like that conversation never happened. And thankfully, we have gotten to a place where more and more doctors like yourself are recognizing the power in more of an integrative approach, which I am all for by the way. But it's really nice and refreshing to see yourself also have of a supplement protocol during recovery, which-

Dr. Barrett (05:03):

Yes.

Siff Haider (05:03):

... for me, that was really the thing that I was like, "Oh, my God, he really gets it."

Dr. Barrett (05:08):

Yeah. It makes a huge difference. We have some digestive enzymes, some BiOptimizers that I think work really well. I'm going to try out your product, definitely, as well. And I'm open to offering it to our patients as well. But it's funny that the difference that the patients, when I first started my practice, when I didn't have supplements afterwards geared towards them, and all the experimentation, everything that I've got to bring on the supplement line that I do for each particular surgery has been very transformative, in terms of people's recovery and their results.

And it's a matter of night and day. People are getting back to work sooner. They're feeling better. They're in less pain. They're not taking narcotics as much. I do still prescribe antibiotics a lot of times, which I also did for you, which I don't to do, but at the same time, we're kind of opening up your body to a possible infection. Less so much with breast reduction, which you had, but there's still that chance. And we don't want to run that risk.

Siff Haider (05:58):

Well, but you also recommend probiotics, and then there's-

Dr. Barrett (06:02):

Well, not only probiotics, but prebiotics. IgY Max, which is a leaky gut guardian, which helps replace bad bacteria with good bacteria. And it's funny, people are like, "I still taking the digestive enzymes, because I'm not getting any bloating anymore. I take them..." And that's the same thing that your product does, is it prevents bloat, right?

Siff Haider (06:20):

Exactly. Exactly.

Dr. Barrett (06:21):

It's just like, people think that's normal. It's not normal.

Siff Haider (06:23):

Okay. Thank you for saying this, because people deal with things and it might be common, but there is a difference between common and normal. And my issue is that things become normalized and they really shouldn't be. We shouldn't be okay with feeling subpar for forever more.

Dr. Barrett (06:40):

I know, but it's having that awareness is missing in so many people. It's like people eat eggs for their breakfast. I was eating eggs for my breakfast, and I didn't realize my body was sensitive to it. I took a food sensitivity test. I realized I was very sensitive to eggs. So I cut it out of my diet and I felt immediately better. And then I was like, "Well, why am I sensitive at eggs?" And I realized I had horrible leaky gut. I had 25 things that I was sensitive to. And then over time, I kind of healed my gut with things digestive enzymes, like you have, fasting, IgY Max. And I was able to actually restore my gut. Now, I got it down to two moderate sensitivities, and I can eat eggs now. And I don't get that same crappy feeling. I just thought that was normal. I was like, oh, you don't normally feel that way when you have eggs.

Siff Haider (07:17):

It's a constant thing that people are just... They don't realize that there is a different way, and you can get better through different modalities, different supplements. And I'm so impressed with the fact that it's part of your practice and how you approach patients. I think it's very refreshing.

Dr. Barrett (07:36):

Well, I mean, I think my fundamental rule is how would I want to be treated? You know?

Siff Haider (07:36):

Yeah.

Dr. Barrett (07:42):

Do I want to wait long for my appointment? I want to make sure I get a good value for money that I'm paying. I want to be treated with respect. I want people to actually care. Have you ever go into a place that people really don't have any passion about what they're doing for you-

Siff Haider (07:42):

Yes.

Dr. Barrett (07:55):

... it's just like they're another cog in the wheel and you don't get... It's like, at the DMV, you're going to get your driver's license for the first time, and they're just like, "Next." It's just like, nobody's excited for you.

Siff Haider (08:09):

No.

Dr. Barrett (08:09):

And I'm not expecting that at the DMV, God knows. But you know what I'm saying? It's just like, when you go to a plastic surgery office, I mean, if you buy a supplement... Some of these foods, these cereals, these companies are so far removed from actually caring about people, and so that's why I like your products, because it seems you have a lot of passion behind your product line and you really care. You care about the effectiveness. You care about the health of the people that are actually taking these products. And how I feel too, is like, I want to go in, if I'm going to get plastic surgery with somebody, I want somebody who's passionate about it-

Siff Haider (08:09):

Totally.

Dr. Barrett (08:44):

... really cares about the finer details. Because there's things I do during surgery that nobody's ever going to know the difference, but I know it's going to make a difference, right?

Siff Haider (08:44):

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dr. Barrett (08:51):

And so it's like, at the end of the day I go home and I judge myself. I'm like, look, did I do the best work that I can do today? And that's what I care about, at the end of the day.

Siff Haider (08:59):

You really want to change people's lives, right?

Dr. Barrett (08:59):

Right.

Siff Haider (09:02):

And I think plastic surgery does that massively. I see that in myself. Now I've just been texting my friends, being like, "Why didn't I do this sooner?" I just wish I had, and plastic surgery really has the ability to change lives.

Dr. Barrett (09:14):

It does.

Siff Haider (09:15):

And I feel the same way about our business as well. For me, I'm very purpose-driven. And I knew that I wasn't someone who was ever going to start a business to start a business. It had to be something that I really cared about, and to know that I touch people's lives. And the emails we get and it's the same for you guys, right? Just constantly-

Dr. Barrett (09:38):

Yeah.

Siff Haider (09:38):

... "You changed my life."

Dr. Barrett (09:40):

I get-

Siff Haider (09:40):

And I'm like, "Oh, my God, that's..."

Dr. Barrett (09:41):

I get thanked. I mean, even you telling me, I mean, and I'm very grateful for you as a patient. And thank you for trusting me with your body, because that's like a most important thing, right?

Siff Haider (09:48):

Huge.

Dr. Barrett (09:49):

You're not going out there buying a car, of course, you want your car to be safe, whatnot, but if you don't the seats, whatever, you trade it in in two years. If you're happy with a surgery on your body, it affects you for the rest of your life, you know?

Siff Haider (09:59):

Totally.

Dr. Barrett (09:59):

So I try to take that seriously. No, I do take that very seriously. And I always remember that, when I go into each room, no matter how busy it gets, I'm always just remembering, all right, it's this person's first time. And it goes back to again, how would I want to be treated? And then I add in a bunch of other stuff, like the recovery stuff the supplement stuff, because we want recovery to be fast. We're all busy. We want to get back. We want to heal right. We want to have less complications. And so it's like, if I don't support that whole process of the person as a whole, my surgical outcomes are not going to be as good, and my patient's going to suffer. So it all ties up.

Siff Haider (10:33):

Also, I have to add, when I went through with you guys, and I know every person is different, every case is different, but I actually never had to take prescription grade painkillers. And I used your CBD oil, which is phenomenal. I have to-

Dr. Barrett (10:48):

Thank you.

Siff Haider (10:48):

... call it out. Incredible. And I obviously used magnesium as well.

Dr. Barrett (10:51):

Yes.

Siff Haider (10:51):

And then I used Tylenol for the first few days as well, but that's literally all I needed. That is wild. And obviously arnica was incredible too. It really helped with the inflammation.

Dr. Barrett (11:02):

I mean, thank you. These are products that I've researched, and we've gone through different companies, and it's not about a profit incentive on any of these. The only one that we've actually gone off and made our own is the CBD right now, because we needed certain specific things that were specific for surgery healing. I don't need CBD that helps you focus, because there's all kinds of blends of CBD and there's terpenes that you can add to them. And then having it organic, having it-

Siff Haider (11:33):

Totally.

Dr. Barrett (11:33):

... high concentration and I didn't want to have any sweeteners in it, I wanted it all natural. Because that's important to me. I mean, Stevia, they wanted to put Stevia in it, and I was like, "No." I was like, "Let's-

Siff Haider (11:45):

You don't even need it.

Dr. Barrett (11:46):

You don't need it. And so we came up with that CBD, because I just needed something specific for post-surgical pain and helping you sleep afterwards, and not using narcotics, which I think are garbage, by the way. So I'm glad that hurts.

But then there's other products, these are not my products, but I've taken them, I've tested them out, and we do sell them in the office, but it's not really to make money off of these products. It's to provide an endorsed product that we recommend to help you heal. Magnesium, I like BiOptimizers, because there's seven different types of magnesium in there, and you get the most absorption. So it helps bowel movement after, if you get constipation from all the anesthesia, it helps with the muscle tightening. It helps with sleep at night. So all those things, that's why we recommended that for you to take.

Siff Haider (12:29):

Honestly, incredible protocol. I mean, obviously, you know, but I recommend you to everyone under the sun who will listen to me.

Dr. Barrett (12:36):

Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Siff Haider (12:37):

I have people being like, "I'm booking my consult." I'm like, "Go to him, he's the best."

Dr. Barrett (12:41):

Awesome. Well, wonderful. Well, so I'm a guest on your podcast.

Siff Haider (12:45):

Yes. Let's dive into the question.

Dr. Barrett (12:45):

All right, let's go.

Siff Haider (12:49):

I'm so stoked. So I think let's just dive right in and talk about breast reduction and some myths. Okay?

Dr. Barrett (12:49):

Okay.

Siff Haider (12:57):

Because I remember when I was looking into breast reduction, the thing that I kept hearing is that recovery is truly the gnarliest process. And you're going to be down and out for months and all of these things. So what are some myths around breast reduction, specifically, that you hear a lot?

Dr. Barrett (13:18):

I think that's a myth. I think if you go and you get the right procedure done and you have a surgeon who does a lot of pre-injection with numbing medicine, and uses appropriate surgical technique, you actually will feel relieved when you wake up from surgery. It's one of the few operations where my patients wake up, and, literally, when I'm train answering to the gurney, they feel a weight's been lifted off their chest. So that's rare, that doesn't really happen with anything else.

So that's definitely a myth. Breast reduction should be a very positive procedure immediately. And then not only does it functionally feels good. Cosmetically, it feels good too. It looks good. You fit into close better. It's just like a win-win. They're my happiest patients. I mean, clearly, you're ecstatic and I love it. And so it's-

Siff Haider (13:57):

All I've been doing is shopping. It's actually problematic.

Dr. Barrett (14:00):

Right. I know. I mean, it's funny. It's people come to me, it's not how their body looks naked. It's like, what clothes they can fit into. That's what it's all about. And it's not about their husband. It's not about their boyfriend. It's about themselves, and what clothes can fit in, and that's what our society is sometimes. But it's fun. It's all right. Life is short, so go for it.

So a couple of myths with breast reduction is it really depends on the procedure. There's a type of breast reduction procedure that is by far superior than others. The old school way of doing it is this inferior pedicle wise-pattern. It's an anchor scar. Have you heard about that?

Siff Haider (14:00):

Yep.

Dr. Barrett (14:35):

Okay. I'm pretty sure we talk about it during our consultation.

Siff Haider (14:36):

Yes. The first thing. Yeah, I remember.

Dr. Barrett (14:37):

Yeah. And it uses your skin to hold the breast up, and it's this old school way. It takes the volume out of the side of the breast. So the breast ends up looking flat and boxy and it looks good on two dimensional paper that we use during residency. We learn about it? And everybody learns about that, and that's what a majority of doctors do. There is a female doctor up in Canada named Betsy Hall-Findlay, over 10 years now, probably 20 years now, she developed a vertical breast reduction technique. Meaning that it only uses a incision around the areola and line going down, so it's called a lollipop incision. And then it combines liposuction with it as well, so you don't get these horizontal components. And it treats the breast as a three dimensional structure, which is a far superior way to have the breast look.

So one of the myth is that if I'm going to get a breast reduction, I'm going to have all these horrible scars. So you don't need that. If you go to the right doctor that does a lollipop or vertical breast reduction technique, you don't need have those crazy horizontal scars. So make sure that if you're going to get breast reduction, and size doesn't matter, any size can be done the vertical breast reduction, you want to make sure that your doctor can do that technique.

Siff Haider (15:43):

What do-

Dr. Barrett (15:43):

So I went and I learned from her, exactly how to do this procedure. And now it's the only thing I do, because it's far superior.

Siff Haider (15:50):

What do you do afterwards for scar reduction?

Dr. Barrett (15:52):

Scar reduction, it starts with your inflammatory state in your body. So I want people to be healthy, not stressed out going into surgery. We want to handle the tissues minimally during surgery. So there's a lot of surgical technique involved, I'll spare you with a lot of the details. And then the closure, I close all the breast incisions in five layers. It's kind of lasagna, five layer lasagna, bring all the layers back together, very precisely. Your body's like, "Oh, nothing happened. Hey, you were just here, and you put it right back together." So it doesn't need to put out all the scar tissue to close the gap. So that's where it starts.

And then the scar management protocol afterwards. So we tape all of our incisions for six weeks afterwards and that prevents little micro movements in the skin, so that it has time to develop that strength across. And then at six weeks we start a scar gel. I recommend Skinuva. It's not my product, but I think it's the best product out there right now. Has silicone gel in. It has some fetal growth factors in it. And I think it has some lightening agents in it, too, to help reduce pigmentation. And we do that for at least three months afterwards. And then if we have to, after that, we can do a little CO2 laser on top of that.

And that's been our secret to minimizing... It's not our secret. We tell everybody. We tell other surgeons, "Do this." Because it's like, the more we make plastic surgery more mainstream and less complications, the more people get plastic surgery, the more that we all benefit. And I feel better about that.

Siff Haider (17:13):

It's actually such a great way of thinking about it, so I respect that. What about deciding on a size? How do you work with a patient to decide on a size that works for them? Because a lot of the DMs I've been getting lately has been like, "Oh, how did you know you were going to be happy with yours size?" So what's that process like?

Dr. Barrett (17:36):

It's very patient dependent. So I ask my patient to do a lot of soul searching. And I try to keep you within a happy medium, and that happy medium is something that kind of matches your body. I have some people that want, "I want absolutely nothing at all." And I'm like, "You really don't want that." Because most of the time you don't want that, you'll end up looking a bowling pen, right?

Siff Haider (17:36):

Yeah.

Dr. Barrett (17:57):

And so I try to kind of steer people... But I still will sometimes do that. And it never looks great when I do it. And these are people that are double whammy, I don't care. And then they end up actually happy that it is completely flat. But these are people that really, really, really want that. I know people feel they want that when they have very big breasts, and they're like, "God, just get rid of them completely."

But there is a point where you go too far, and then the grass is always greener. First of all, your breasts are too big. Now they're too small. So what you don't want is to reduce somebody so much, so that then they want to come back and get an augmentation, because then you're just doing two operations instead of one. So it starts with the patient to do soul searching, starts with a great consultation.

And then I kind of guide them about what matches their body. There's small, medium and large about what matches their body. And I generally try to keep people within that, because we want to kind of balance the proportions that match your body. For you, for example, I think we did a result that kind of matched your goals. I think you showed me some photos, and at the end result though, that we wanted to match your body, and I think we hit a home run. What do you think?

Siff Haider (18:57):

Yeah, it was absolutely perfect. Because I was a G and I never wanted to go down to an A.... Yeah, I know I was a real gnarly. I knew I never wanted to go down to an A, because I wouldn't feel myself in my body, and it just wouldn't look proportional either, I don't think. So I was so happy with the final result that we had. And honestly, I think I look great in my clothes. It looks right, finally. You know what I mean?

Dr. Barrett (19:21):

Yeah.

Siff Haider (19:22):

So one of the questions I get loads is about breastfeeding. Now I think that this is actually, if you could a answer about both implants and reduction, does going through surgery on your breasts impact your ability to breastfeed in the future?

Dr. Barrett (19:39):

The answer is yes. The short answer is yes, and to varying degrees. If you're going to get a breast augmentation, the studies show, I don't have specific data on my patients, although I probably should try to do some data on this, but I have a lot of patients who go on and breastfeed. I haven't had anybody come back and tell me they haven't been able to breastfeed, but that's not statistically significant, because I haven't been doing a study, and I haven't been polling all my patients. Nationwide, there's studies that range for anywhere from seven to 15% of women who get breast augmentation report difficulty breastfeeding, that means that they can't.

Siff Haider (20:06):

Seven to 15%, isn't a large population though.

Dr. Barrett (20:09):

It's not. That's not a huge percentage. I like to think that my operation is different. I really try to preserve, if you think about the glandular structure of what a mammary gland is, it's a pyramid and at the top of that pyramid is a nipple, right?

Siff Haider (20:09):

Yeah.

Dr. Barrett (20:22):

So what you don't want to do is disrupt those ducks that are going to the nipple. So when I design my operations, I always try to minimize that impact of that pathway to put the implant in, to avoid the majority of the mammary gland tissue. When it comes to breast reduction, we're actually taking mammary tissue. But the good news is you have so much of it, it's like, okay, we have probably seven times the amount of mammary tissue that we actually need to successfully breastfeed.

Siff Haider (20:50):

Geez. Oh, your Lord. Okay.

Dr. Barrett (20:52):

Right. For a G, I mean you could breastfeed a small village if you wanted to. You know what I mean? Basically you have the ability to squat 2000 pounds with your breasts is basically what you have with Gs. Because you look at some women, they're A cups and they can breastfeed fine. Isn't that crazy?

Siff Haider (20:52):

Yeah.

Dr. Barrett (21:11):

What the human body can do? And then they up-regulate and they can control it. So when it comes to the resection pattern for a reduction, the statistics say that it's about 40% reduction in ability to breastfeed for breast reduction. And that varies, depends on what kind of study you want to do. So if breastfeeding is the most important thing in the world, I recommend that you don't have breast surgery at all, because then you just don't have to worry about it. Go have your kids, breastfeeding, and then do it later.

But conceptually, when we do a breast reduction, we're taking kind of a quadrant of the breast, we're taking the lower quadrant of the breast. And I really try to not mess with that apex going into the nipple portion, so that there's always a connection of some glandular tissue connected to that nipple, so that there is an ability to breastfeed afterwards.

Siff Haider (21:57):

Very cool. So also something that I want to discuss is the fat transfer procedure that we did for my boobs.

Dr. Barrett (22:03):

Exactly. And that was a nice touch.

Siff Haider (22:05):

Yeah. I wanted a little bit more fullness at the top, but I wanted to do that without implants, if possible-

Dr. Barrett (22:12):

Exactly.

Siff Haider (22:12):

... which is kind of what we did. So what is the difference between implants and fat transfer, if someone doesn't know?

Dr. Barrett (22:20):

Well, breast implants are made typically now of cohesive silicone gel, so it's gummy bear. They're very safe. They're very inert. They tend to hold shape very well, much more so fat. Fat's kind of liquid. You put it in there in a kind of fluff scenario up, but it doesn't have any kind of shape defining characteristics. So it's great for this procedure, because when we do a lift associated with our breast reduction, there typically is a tiny bit of flatness at the top part of the breast, so you get this kind of this shelf appearance.

So what we do is we take a little bit of fat that we already harvested from that lateral part of the breast. And we put that right at that top portion. So you get this, perkiness, more of this kind of teardrop shape that starts, and it gently goes down to the breast. So we find that's a win-win, because we're taking fat where we don't want it. We're putting where we do on it. And then we don't have to use an implant.

For people that really want that pop and that perkiness, an implant's the way to go. And then that's always going to really just be that high pronounced perky look at the top. But, of course, there's complications associated with that. It's a much harder operation to do. And so most of the time I just recommend, if we need to in a certain situation, just to put a little bit of fat there, most people are happy with that.

Siff Haider (23:25):

Actually, one interesting question that I kept getting is, when it comes to armpit liposuction. And what's really-

Dr. Barrett (23:34):

Sounds so sexy.

Siff Haider (23:35):

Truly. Just, could there be a sexier procedure.

Dr. Barrett (23:35):

I'm here from my armpit liposuction.

Siff Haider (23:40):

But it's really interesting because this was a problem area for me, for an eternity. I had never in my life worn a tank top, tube top, nothing, because it was so problematic. Obviously, I had to consider the bra anyway, but on top of that, there was a little pouch of fat. So how common is armpit lipo? Is it more so an issue that you see with women with bigger breasts? What's the deal there?

Dr. Barrett (24:05):

Yeah. You nailed it. Women with larger breasts, they typically have more armpit fullness, and that could be fat or that actually can axillary breast tissue. It can actually be real breast tissue that extends in a tail pattern into the armpit. So that's when we did a good exam, I pinched it. I was like, "All right, this is just a little bit of fat." And it generally happens with people that have larger breasts. And so that's why we do that liposuction in that area to kind of take care of it.

And then in certain situations, if it's actually glandular tissue, we need to remove that tissue, and that can be done through direct excision. Or now lately we've been doing an endoscopic technique to so that you don't have a big incision in your armpit.

Siff Haider (24:42):

There was nothing for me.

Dr. Barrett (24:43):

Well, you didn't have glandular tissue, but you had fat. So we just took the fat. And that way we avoid any scars in that area. But it's a game changer. So, again, it's about the bras and the clothes. I know.

Siff Haider (24:53):

Huge. How common is it just... Or how do you, rather, assess if someone has glandular tissue or if it's fat, if a patient just comes in and say they have non-G boobs, regular size?

Dr. Barrett (25:08):

Well, people know. They're like, "This sticks out of my bra." And you can see it, it bulges like a peach almost.

Siff Haider (25:16):

Wow.

Dr. Barrett (25:17):

Versus fat kind of holds its fullness all the way down. But glandular tissue will bulge distinctively. And then the sure way to tell is by exam, if you pinch it, glandular tissue is firmer. If you pinch your breast, it's not fat. There's firm tissue there. If you pinch your butt, it's fat, right?

Siff Haider (25:17):

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dr. Barrett (25:36):

So that's kind of the difference.

Siff Haider (25:38):

And how common is armpit lipo? Are a lot of people coming in [crosstalk 00:25:42]-

Dr. Barrett (25:42):

I get people that come in just for armpit lipo all the time.

Siff Haider (25:42):

Really?

Dr. Barrett (25:43):

I have videos on armpit lipo. I had a German TV pick up armpit liposuction from me, for whatever reason. And now I get a lot of people for armpit liposuction, with breast reduction or just in general.

Siff Haider (25:54):

Wow. And what's the recovery like?

Dr. Barrett (25:57):

Soreness. For you, when we did your breast, we did your entire breast surgery, and then we did that liposuction in the armpit, you probably had the most amount of pain, just in that area. What'd you think?

Siff Haider (26:07):

It fell I'd done a 100 lat pull downs, that's how I explained it. I was like, "Oh, my-"

Dr. Barrett (26:11):

Have you ever done a 100 lat pull downs?

Siff Haider (26:12):

No, but I've done 20. And I've been like, "Oh." It was the same, but way worse than that sort of, you know?

Dr. Barrett (26:20):

Exactly. Yeah. No, that's what I tell people. It's like, "You're not going to feel much for the breast. Breast is going to feel relieved, because you finally lifted this burden. But you're going to feel this liposuction result. It feels you did a lot of big workout. It's not the excruciating stabbing pains. It very doable."

Siff Haider (26:31):

No, it's really not. Yeah, a 100%. I'm sure that you've seen and most people who are listening have heard about the whole Bella Hadid coming out about her nose job, right?

Dr. Barrett (26:46):

Yes.

Siff Haider (26:48):

I mean, obviously, she's had it for a while and she came out and talked about it more recently. But how common is it for celebrities to be getting procedures done without us knowing about it? And the reason I ask this is because these women are absolutely stunning, and just flawless. And I think people have this false perception of what natural beauty is almost, you know?

Dr. Barrett (27:14):

I know. I would say that 95% of all celebrities get some kind of work done.

Siff Haider (27:18):

Wow.

Dr. Barrett (27:18):

And it's not because of vain, it's because it's part of the job.

Siff Haider (27:21):

Totally. Yeah.

Dr. Barrett (27:22):

They are under the most intense scrutiny and my heart kind of goes out to them. I have a lot of patients that are celebrities, but it's a tough world, especially for women-

Siff Haider (27:31):

Oh, my God.

Dr. Barrett (27:31):

How many roles exists for women who are over 30 years old? It drops off tremendously. But there's a catch 22, right? Because it's like, is there some responsibility for people to be honest that they had worked on to get their looks this good for the general population, because there's a large portion of people that are looking up to them as role models. But at the same time, they're trying to get that next gig to keep their career alive. And they don't want to admit that they had any work done, because they don't want it to jeopardize them getting that role.

Siff Haider (28:03):

What's really interesting here is that we all admit to getting eyelash extensions and facials, and it's completely normal, or I have makeup on my face, right?

Dr. Barrett (28:14):

I know.

Siff Haider (28:14):

It's just-

Dr. Barrett (28:14):

So do I, by the way. I do it for podcast.

Siff Haider (28:17):

You look great. But I don't understand why there's this almost taboo or hush-hushness when it comes to getting help beyond these, I guess, easier procedures, if that makes sense.

Dr. Barrett (28:31):

Yeah. I mean, that's always kind of existed. It's getting better, thanks in part to the Kardashians. But if you go on the East Coast, nobody talks about plastic surgery.

Siff Haider (28:39):

Yeah. It's a very strange cultural thing, I think.

Dr. Barrett (28:42):

So you can kind of see how far we've come by just visiting the East Coast or even New York's a little more popular, but still, it's hush-hush, and then coming to LA. It's very open here.

Siff Haider (28:53):

Totally.

Dr. Barrett (28:53):

People talk about their BBLs. Like, "Oh, I had my BBL, I had my nose done." And they're proud of it. And you go to walk on rodeo drive, which is just down there, and you'll see that people have stuff on their nose and they're just out there shopping. It's much more accepted. I think it's going more mainstream, because it's becoming safer. And people are self-actualizing and they're realizing, life is short and they want to feel good about their bodies. And I think as long as it's safe, it's something to be proud of.

Siff Haider (29:17):

Yeah. I couldn't agree more. Last question before we actually go into rapid fire is-

Dr. Barrett (29:23):

Oh, nice.

Siff Haider (29:23):

... what are some plastic surgery trends that you're seeing?

Dr. Barrett (29:29):

I think with the whole pandemic, there's been a large focus on facial aesthetics and neck/double chin aesthetics. So I getting a lot of people that are coming in, because they have tech neck, where they've been hunched over or they feel they have a double chin. So we've been doing a lot of neck liposuction, chin implants. People's appearance on how they look on Zoom.

Siff Haider (29:53):

Wait, what does a chin implant do?

Dr. Barrett (29:57):

It's interesting. People feel they have a lot of fullness in their neck, but they actually could just have a hypoplastic chin, meaning that if your chin is retrognathic, meaning it's too far back, your neck can look bigger than it actually should. So people will come in, they're like, "I need neck liposuction." "Actually, we could do a little neck liposuction, but what we really need is some projection in your chin." And so there's a book I recommend you read. If you're into some of this wellness and natural stuff, it's called Breath by James Nestor. And he talks about how-

Siff Haider (30:25):

I'm going to write that down.

Dr. Barrett (30:27):

... kids are given soft foods and their bottle fed and they're not breast fed, and so their jaws are not developing like normal. And when the advent of soft foods and processed food and farm food came out, that's when people started having bad teeth, and all this other stuff. I know, I'm going on a tangent. But if you want to avoid your kid from having a chin implant, breastfeed them and give them solid food to eat on.

Siff Haider (30:27):

That is really interesting.

Dr. Barrett (30:52):

No soft baby food. All that stuff just stops the stem cells from kind of delivering to the jaw area and you get less jaw growth.

Siff Haider (31:01):

Wait, is this book also the one where he talks about the importance of breathing from your nose [crosstalk 00:31:05]-

Dr. Barrett (31:05):

Yes. That's his main thing. So I do some crazy stuff now. I tape my mouth shut at night, so I breathe through my nose exclusively.

Siff Haider (31:10):

Yeah. I actually want to try... I mean, I'm not a mouth breather to begin with, but-

Dr. Barrett (31:10):

Yes.

Siff Haider (31:13):

... I want to really optimize that as well.

Dr. Barrett (31:15):

Yeah. Breathing is very powerful. You got to read his book.

Siff Haider (31:17):

Okay. I will definitely be into it. So then you have the chin implants, the neck lipo-

Dr. Barrett (31:17):

Yes.

Siff Haider (31:21):

... anything else?

Dr. Barrett (31:25):

Nothing on top of that. Some ear surgery, so people are noticing prominent ears.

Siff Haider (31:29):

Really?

Dr. Barrett (31:29):

Yeah. I'm getting uptick of that.

Siff Haider (31:29):

That's fascinating.

Dr. Barrett (31:31):

Yeah. I know. So a lot of facial related stuff.

Siff Haider (31:33):

And what about the lips? Because this was a big thing, do you see it fading a little bit more? What's going on?

Dr. Barrett (31:38):

A little bit. Kylie's kind of backed off. And I'm thankful, because she's more into more the natural looks. She got them dissolved. And then she came out and admitted, finally, "Okay, I had my lips done." And so I think people are going more into kind of some natural looking things, which I think is good, so thanks to her. [crosstalk 00:31:54]-

Siff Haider (31:54):

Yeah. I see that as well. Okay, to end the show, I want to do a quick rapid fire round.

Dr. Barrett (32:01):

Sure.

Siff Haider (32:01):

So first one, what is one big dream you had that didn't work out? Or did you always know you wanted to be a surgeon?

Dr. Barrett (32:10):

I wanted to be a paleontologist when I was a kid.

Siff Haider (32:12):

Wow. Very cool.

Dr. Barrett (32:13):

Yeah. I wanted to study dinosaurs, and I'm still fascinated by dinosaurs. I read my kid's dinosaur books, and I secretly do that so that I can learn more about dinosaurs.

Siff Haider (32:23):

Ross from Friends.

Dr. Barrett (32:24):

Yeah. Pivot, you guys remember that episode.

Siff Haider (32:24):

That's so...

Dr. Barrett (32:27):

Yeah, no. And then I take them to museums and they like dinosaurs too.

Siff Haider (32:33):

So maybe one of them will be a paleontologist.

Dr. Barrett (32:34):

Maybe.

Siff Haider (32:34):

Who knows?

Dr. Barrett (32:35):

Maybe, I just live vicariously.

Siff Haider (32:37):

What is one wellness hack that you love?

Dr. Barrett (32:42):

I have this ring it's called Oura Ring, and it tracks my sleep. It's probably the single most important thing you can do is actually figure out ways to get better sleep at night. So whether you get rid of all the screen time, right before bed, you get rid of any of the red lights or little dots from electronics. You shut off electricity in your room. You turn off the wifi. All of that can be kind of tracked with this ring, this Oura Ring. And I don't have any stakeholder in it, but it gives me a little summary of my sleep every morning, which I think is very important, so that I can figure out how to optimize my sleep every night.

Siff Haider (33:14):

Very cool. What is one book you recommend everyone reads?

Dr. Barrett (33:17):

Well, we just talked about it, Nestor. But I'll tell you another one, if you can't read Nestor's Breath, Wim Hof Method by this guy Wim Hof. He's all into, basically, cold therapy and taking cold showers, the benefits to that, which I actually recommend to a lot of my patients to do prior to surgery. So it helps them with pain control afterwards, helps them with anxiety, and so on and so forth.

Great. All right, so that's it with our guest you guys, Siff. Siff is there anything you want to tell the viewers out there that we didn't get to talk about?

Siff Haider (33:44):

Go to Dr. Barrett.

Dr. Barrett (33:48):

Can I ask you a little quick rapid fire?

Siff Haider (33:50):

Yeah.

Dr. Barrett (33:50):

What's one thing that surprised you most about this whole process with a breast reduction?

Siff Haider (33:53):

How easy it was. I never in my life expected that after week one I'd be out and about. I mean, I was going out. I'm just past week two. I'm out here interviewing you, going out on long walks, wearing whatever clothes I... It's crazy. I would've never in my wildest dreams imagined how quick recovery is.

Dr. Barrett (34:17):

Well, I think you're also an incredible person, so that's wonderful. And do you have a little bit of advice that you could recommend to someone who's thinking about getting breast reduction, besides coming to see me?

Siff Haider (34:28):

If you've been thinking about it for, I would say, more than a year, I think it's time. It's funny, because I apply this to my life, where like I can't just sit there and complain about something, either I change it or I live with it and learn to live with it happily. But I never thought that way about my breasts. I'd been complaining about it or had... I was just annoyed with it for so long, but I just chose not to change it or live with it, but more so complaining about it. So I feel if someone is bothered about something for over a year, you probably should come see someone.

Dr. Barrett (35:06):

Yeah. I agree with that too. And what's one of your wellness tips hacks that you like?

Siff Haider (35:11):

Oh, my God, so many.

Dr. Barrett (35:14):

I know. It's hard.

Siff Haider (35:14):

It is really hard. Honestly, I would say sleep as well and the easy way without an Oura Ring, if someone doesn't want to get an Oura Ring is probably to sleep at the same time every night, if they can.

Dr. Barrett (35:14):

That's really good.

Siff Haider (35:26):

Because it's the easiest way to [crosstalk 00:35:28]-

Dr. Barrett (35:27):

And wake up in the same night, too.

Siff Haider (35:29):

Exactly. Same time. And actually there's a great book, I'm not sure if you've heard of him, but on Instagram he's a sleep doctor. I think you'll love his book. It's called The Sleep Archetype book or something that. I'll send you the name, but it's an incredible book.

Dr. Barrett (35:43):

We'll put the link in the comments in our podcast.

Siff Haider (35:48):

Yeah, it's amazing.

Dr. Barrett (35:49):

And then, lastly, how can people learn more about your company and your products?

Siff Haider (35:52):

So you can find us at arrae.com or on Instagram @arrae.co. 100% natural, we use really highly active, potent ingredients. Everything is formulated by doctors. We actually just ran third party clinical trials as well.

Dr. Barrett (36:07):

Wow. That's really hard to do.

Siff Haider (36:08):

It is so hard. It took us a year, and it was very expensive, but we're really proud of the results.

Dr. Barrett (36:14):

Amazing. All right. So we'll put that link in our show notes as well. Siff, thank you so much for being on the show, and I'm, I'm happy to be on your show as well.

Siff Haider (36:22):

Thank you. This was a joy.

Dr. Barrett (36:23):

Amazing.

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