A New Wrinkle In Your Face?

There is a new study in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery that has a unique finding. As you approach middle age a few extra pounds may be a good thing. It seems that a few pounds may be just what you need to smooth out wrinkles on your face and make you seem younger.

The authors of the new study are plastic surgeons at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. They analyzed photographs of the faces of 186 pairs of identical twins taken at the Twins Days Festival, held in Twinsburg, Ohio.
Since they all had the same genetic material, any differences in how old they looked had to be due to their behavioral choices and environment.

The study team had the twins fill out extensive questionnaires about their lives. Questions ranged from how many times they had married to whether they had regularly used sunscreen. Afterwards four judges independently estimated the twins' ages by looking at photos taken in Twinsburg.

The most interesting conclusions concerned weight. Many of the twin pairs weighed about the same, but when one looked younger or older than the other one. The differences was when one had a body mass index (BMI) at least four points higher than her sister. If they were under 40, the heavier one looked much older. But the surprise was that after 40, that same four-point difference in BMI made the heavier twin look much younger.


The possible reason was "volume replacement" or the fat filled in the wrinkles of the older twins and gave them a more youthful look. This theory was supported even more dramatically by twins older than 55. For them, having as much as an eight-point higher BMI than their twin was associated with a younger appearance in the face.

That being said they only studied faces and not the whole body. If they had there might have been adjustments made for those who kept their youthful figure, and added a couple years to those who were more well fed.

The report concluded , regardless of weight, healthy living is crucial for keeping a youthful face. Those who smoked and didn't wear sunscreen looked significantly older than those who avoided cigarettes and tanning. Those twins who had been divorced also looked older (by about 1.7 years) than the twins who didn't divorce. (They also looked older than those who had stayed single, (maybe it’s better to stay single than get into a bad relationship?)

A rather harsh finding in this report was those who had taken antidepressants looked older than their twins who hadn't. The researchers believe this has something to do with the drooping relaxation of facial muscles that antidepressants can cause.

So what we might be able to conclude from all this is that if you care mostly about a young looking face, don't smoke, don't go into the sun without protection, and try not to get into a bad relationship that will make you depressed. Or while at the beach this summer, stay inside and have an ice cream. Make it two scoops.