Facial ageing is not uniform, research shows

24/09/2007

Smoking and alcohol can both damage the skin and lead to skin conditions and premature ageing, according to one private healthcare provider.

Annabel Bentley of BUPA says that smoking makes skin become "thicker" and "leatherier" while alcohol can cause red, dry patches.

The news comes shortly after researchers at a US laboratory revealed that not all human faces age at the same rate.

Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Centre found that different parts of the face age at different speeds.

The key factor is that the face is made up of different compartments of fat and these do not age uniformly, as was previously thought.

Study author Dr Joel Pessa says that "for hundreds of years" received medical wisdom has been that the face is "one confluent mass, which eventually gets weighed down by gravity".

"In our studies, however, we were surprised to find that this is not the case; the face is made up of individual fat compartments that gain and lose fat at different times and different rates as we age," he revealed.

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