My mom, just shy of sixty years of age, looks at least fifteen years younger than many people her age. She consumes a healthy diet with plenty of water, avoids prolonged exposure to direct sunlight, and gets plenty of good sleep each night. This self-admitted granola kid is my model for good health, and she possesses an elegance to her beauty that is hard to describe, so you can imagine my shock when she told me that she was considering going under the knife to try to look twenty years younger. Rather than seeing her get one of those Joan Rivers’ “permanent smiles,” I started to look for non-threatening “facelifts”.

I looked first at the creams, but many of them contained harmful ingredients that I knew my mother would not accept. Chemical peels seem to work, but with the acid and occasional allergic reactions I quickly discounted this approach. I came across collagen injections, but there is some pain involved and the idea of a foreign substance being injected into her body would surely get raised eyebrows – just not the kind that she was looking for. Then I came across acupuncture for facelifts. Acupuncture? I knew acupuncture was effective for headaches, abdominal discomfort, and muscle pain, but I never even considered it for a facelift.

With a history longer than many western civilizations, acupuncture is an ancient component of traditional Asian medicine. In the simplest terms, it is the process by which a trained practitioner inserts a very fine needle just below the skin’s surface in order to facilitate the natural flow of energy in the body. As electrical organisms (if you think we are not electrical, send a strong current through your heart and see what happens) problems and discomfort occur because the energy cycle is blocked. The acupuncture needle helps to unblock the flow and thereby facilitates good health.

Over time, our faces lose much of their muscle mass and skin elasticity in the same way that muscles atrophy through disuse. In acupuncture, needles are inserted to restore efficient electrical impulses to hold muscles and skin tight, thereby reducing the appearance of aging. Though there is no proof of its effectiveness, from what I’ve read and in talking with a few acupuncturists I am assured that it is safe and gets results. However, there are some factors to keep in mind. Results depend on age, gender, and sometimes ethnicity. Obviously it is best to work with someone who is familiar with the technique because, like any other medical field, there are specialists and generalists. Surely you would not go to your family doctor for brain surgery? The same is true with acupuncture. You must look for an acupuncturist familiar with the procedure to gain the best results. Since my mother is familiar with acupuncture, this idea might appeal to her. If not, I may have to get used to seeing a Joker-like smile for years to come!

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