Doctors: Facial yoga makes you look younger

What if you could turn back the hands of time without undergoing surgery? The secret could lie in facial exercises.

It may sound crazy, but Northwestern doctors found out it works.

It's called facial yoga.

"The patients looked almost 3 years younger,” said Dr. Murad Alam.

Dr. Alam is a researcher and vice chair of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He and his colleagues conducted a 20-week study of women between the ages of 40 and 65. For the first half of the study, the women were asked to perform 32 specific facial exercises daily for about a half hour. The exercise regimen was performed every other day.

The conclusion from before to after was that the women appeared to have turned back the clock by an average of nearly three years.

Researchers say as we age, skin elasticity tends to loosen over time. What facial yoga appears to do seems to build muscle underneath, giving the skin a more youthful glow.

Dr. Allum says facial yoga won't replace some of the best plastic surgery procedures, but they could be a good compliment. In the meantime, researchers suspect facial exercises will be helpful for both men and women of all ages. They plan on following up with another study to see who can benefit and how long the positive effects will last.