If you’re trying to think outside the box for a way to boost your mood in the new year, there’s an anti-wrinkle treatment that could be the answer. It works by temporarily paralysing muscles, tightening the skin to help reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. It can also help with excessive sweating, muscle spasms and even migraines. But one of its lesser-known properties, which research has appeared to back up time and time again, is its effect on depression.
Existing treatments
Many people use antidepressant medications and therapy to help manage symptoms of feeling sad and/or hopeless for a long time. But many experience unwelcome side effects from these medications, and you may have to try several different types before you find one that is actually helpful. If all this sounds familiar, or if you have just been struggling with general low mood, this anti-wrinkle treatment could be an effective solution.
Research is still ongoing, but there have been numerous studies, like this one, that suggest this simple anti-wrinkle treatment delivers genuine, measurable benefits for people’s mood, even if they have been diagnosed with depression.
How does it work?
The studies conducted so far are promising, but it is still unclear just how the treatment actually treats depressive symptoms. Initially, it was thought that the benefits to appearance results in the antidepressant effect. The theory was that having fewer wrinkles might make you feel more confident and thus improve your mood.
But a review of earlier studies conducted in 2016 concluded that a person’s results were not impacted by the severity of their frown lines, suggesting appearance is not a factor. The current hypothesis is that the anti-wrinkle treatment is beneficial to the body’s ‘facial feedback’ mechanism.
Facial expressions send feedback to the brain, so emotions like fear or sadness lead to a contraction of forehead muscles, causing glabellar frown lines. In depressed people, the activity of these muscles is increased, so by blocking these ‘frown muscles’, a person’s mood may be improved.
Find out for yourself
Whatever the explanation is, there has been plenty of evidence to suggest that this anti wrinkle treatment can help boost mood. So if you live in Dubai and want to head into 2019 looking and feeling your best, why not contact Sun Face Medical Center and ask about our anti wrinkle treatments today? Call us on 04 443 2346 to find out more.