Facial Exercises To Look Younger

Apparently, facial exercises can make you look younger, almost three years younger, at least if you’re a woman between the ages of 40 and 65.  We know this because researchers at Northwestern University had 16 women do 30 minutes of facial exercises daily for 20 weeks. Dermatologists then used a standardized facial aging scale (Merz-Carruthers Facial Aging Photoscales) to estimate the ages of the women, based on photographs taken before and after the 20 week period. They estimated that the average patient age decreased over the course of the study, starting at 50.8 years, dropping to 49.6 years at eight weeks and then to 48.1 years at 20 weeks. The also found that upper cheek and lower cheek fullness, in particular, was significantly enhanced as a result of the exercises.  So what are the exercises? There were 32 in all, and each one was done for about one minute a day. One is The Cheek Lifter: Open mouth and form O, position upper lip over teeth, smile to lift cheek muscles up, put fingers lightly on top part of cheek, release check muscles to lower them, and lift back up. Repeat by lowering and lifting the cheeks. Another is The Happy Cheeks Sculpting: Smile without showing teeth, purse lips together, smile forcing cheek muscles up, place fingers on corners of the mouth and slide them up to the top of the cheeks, hold for 20 seconds. Read more about the study in JAMA Dermatology.