Our Healthy Skeptic takes a look at whether facial exercises really can reduce wrinkles and other signs of aging.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
The Claim: Facial exercises can make you look younger.
“Stop making a face or it’ll freeze that way,” is something our mothers told us as kids. Well, today contorting your face is promoted as a way to reduce wrinkles and other signs of aging. You can find facial exercise programs all over the internet, along with celebrities who swear by them. But the evidence for their effectiveness isn’t so firm.
Sometimes called face yoga, facial exercises aim to build up muscles in the face and neck, which can supposedly improve everything from frown lines and crow’s feet to sunken cheeks and double chins.
Research is very limited though one small study of middle-aged women did find that after 5 months of facial exercises, they had fuller cheeks and looked an average of 3 years younger.
This particular regimen took 30 minutes a day, and more than a third of the study participants dropped out. It’s unclear whether other, less time-consuming regimens might be effective or whether improvements last.
Another unknown: whether certain exercises can lead to more wrinkles. Many experts suspect so, but the evidence for this is limited. Otherwise, facial exercises are thought to be safe.
If you can afford it, a more effective option is nonsurgical facial procedures, such as injections, by a qualified doctor.
And we all can prevent skin aging by wearing sunscreen and not smoking… which may be less glamorous than facial exercises but have lots more science to back them up.
Helping you be a healthy skeptic, I’m Robert Davis.