Can Exercising My Facial Muscles Prevent My Skin From Sagging?

by Dr. Steven Wallach

I wish. Unless you don’t eat or talk or laugh or cry – or you’ve overdone it with the BOTOX® – you’re exercising your facial muscles all day long, says Steven G. Wallach, MD, assistant clinical professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. Your skin sags as you age because of multiple factors: The skin thins, connective tissue fibers under the skin stretch out, and facial fat loses volume – and as that same fat descends, it deepens the nasolabial folds around the nose and mouth, and causes jowls along the lower jawline. There are ways to prevent sagging, starting with using sunscreen every day, which helps stop the degrading effects of UVA/UVB rays…