If you search for the phrase “Stanley Cup Gives Wrinkles” on TikTok, you’ll find a bunch of posts … [+]
Is this the last straw when it comes to protecting your face? If you search for the phrase “Stanley Cup Gives Wrinkles” on TikTok, you’ll find a bunch of posts warning you that drinking through straws can cause premature wrinkles around your mouth. But are such claims long or short on, you know, that thing called scientific evidence? After all, getting health advice from social media posts can be like getting life advice from things written on bathroom stalls, as I’ve indicated in a previous Forbes article. Well, this whole straw question does stirs up some complexities because the answer for a given person does depend on a number of things.
By the way, in this case, Stanley Cup doesn’t refer to the National Hockey League championship trophy, which most people aren’t able to drink out of regularly. Instead, it refers to that brand of tumbler cup with a built in straw that has become so popular. The claim is that the repeated pursing of your lips and sucking motion involved in straw use could end up etching the resulting lines more permanently in the perioral region—which basically means around your kisser.
Now, searching PubMed for “straws” and “wrinkles” on December 4, 2024, returned only eight studies, none of which are relevant. It looks like there haven’t been any published peer-reviewed scientific studies that have compared wrinkle formation in straw-drinkers versus non-straw drinkers. Plus, there’s tremendous variation in how much people suck—suck straws, that is. There’s a big difference between periodically using a straw with light suction to constantly drinking from a straw using Hoover vacuum-like suction force. Therefore, it’s important to understand how the biomechanics of skin work.
Dynamic Versus Static Wrinkles
These straw claims seem to be variations of that whole don’t-show-that-facial-expression-or-it-will-get frozen-on-your-face warning that you may have gotten from your parents when you were young. There is indeed evidence that certain facial expressions when repeated over and over and over again may contribute to the formation of wrinkles. Just look at some of the classic wrinkles that develop over time such as the lines across the forehead, the so-called frown lines between the eyebrows and the so-called crow’s feet around the corners of the eyes. These are areas that keep experiencing small muscle contractions with expressions such as smiling, frowning and squinting practically every day for years and years.
When you move your face in any way, chances are your skin in certain areas will naturally and temporarily crease in different ways, assuming that you haven’t over-Botoxed your entire face. These are called dynamic wrinkles if they disappear soon after you have moved your face back to its original position. Dynamic means changing with time. Static wrinkles, by contrast, are creases that don’t go away with time after you’ve ceased a particular motion. The question is whether different dynamic wrinkles can turn into static wrinkles.
The Elasticity Of Your Skin Matters
That depends on three things: how often you form those dynamic wrinkles, how long you hold them and how readily your skin can bounce back to its original configuration. When you are young, your skin tends to be quite elastic—meaning that it can bounce back like a rubber band after it’s been stretched or Elastigirl’s arm after she punches someone. This elasticity is due in large part to the network of elastin and collagen protein fibers that run through your dermis, the middle layer of your skin. Your skin is also typically thicker, more moist and more oily when you are younger—all adding to the elasticity of your skin. Therefore, when your skin is quite elastic, it is less likely that periodically sucking through a straw will lead to the formation of static wrinkles. That’s assuming that you don’t constantly suck—meaning that you don’t spend much of your days and nights sucking through a straw.
How Your Skin Changes With Aging
However, with aging your skin cells’ abilities to reproduce, produce collagen, retain moisture and secrete oil all slow down. As a result, your skin—particularly your dermis—gets thinner and thinner. All of this can reduce the elasticity of your skin, which along with less support from your dermis and the big G—gravity—can allow the surface of your skin in different parts of your face to pocket downwards in different ways, resulting in static wrinkles. So, this in theory could make it more likely for dynamic wrinkles when repeatedly formed over time to turn into static wrinkles.
There are also conditions that can make you skin drier, thinner and less elastic. Such conditions can make it easier to make the wrong impressions on your skin, so to speak.
How To Prevent Wrinkles In Your Skin
You can do things to slow the loss of elasticity in your skin. Of course, there’s nothing you can do about gravity unless you want to join the billionaires going to Mars some day. However, you can do the following:
- Eat well: Good nutrition can keep your skin cells functioning better.
- Keep your skin well-hydrated: Drink plenty of water and regularly use moisturizer on your skin.
- Avoid ultraviolet ray exposure: UV rays can break down collagen and mess up the production of elastin in your skin. So, stop treating your body like a rotisserie chicken with sun tanning as I’ve urged before. If you want a tan, consider using a spray tan, but maybe go light on the whole orange thing.
- Avoid tobacco smoke exposure: How many people have said, “Smoking has made my skin so smooth?” Add inhibit collagen production to the list of bad things tobacco smoke can do to do your body.
- Minimize exposure to air pollutants: Air pollutants such as particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide that can break down collagen as well. While not breathing is typically not an option for you, you can do things to reduce air pollution like use air purifiers.
- Be careful with makeup: Before you try to cover up your wrinkles with makeup, remember wearing makeup for too long can clog up your pores, which, guess what, can also inhibit the production of collagen.
Ultimately, life is about moderation and balancing various risks and benefits. Straws can certainly be helpful in many different ways. They can help reduce spillage and make it easier to drink something when you have trouble lifting a cup or opening your mouth. There’s no need to treat straws as if they were radioactive. Again it all depends on how you suck and what’s up with your skin. Sure, excessive straw use in theory could leave permanent marks, depending on the elasticity of your skin. However, for most people, periodically using straws to drink is probably not going to do so as long as long as you don’t act as if you are trying to suck the life force out of the drink when doing so.
