Facial isometric exercise (FIE) is a static contraction of facial muscles without any visible movement in the angle of the joints. Thus, the advantage of FIE is that it can be performed wrinkle free by aerobic exercises, slowly contracting the muscles while fixing the facial muscle stop with the hand. In previous studies, FIE (9 types) was continuously performed 3 times on healthy participants whose facial skin temperatures were ≤34.0˚C, which resulted in increased blood flow and skin temperature at the corners of the mouth [1]. In a study conducted by Murad Alam et al., participants performed facial exercises (32 types; isotonic/isometric, unknown) for 20 weeks (8 weeks, 30 minutes/day; after 9 weeks, 30 minutes/day), and reported a significant improvement in the lower cheek fullness “bulge” [2].

In recent years, it has been observed that oxidative stress and antioxidation are associated with exercise. In recent years, it has been noted that oxidative stress (an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in the body) and antioxidation (the ability to remove active oxygen) are closely associated with exercise. In addition, it has been reported that the degree of oxidative stress (d-ROMs) and antioxidant capacity (BAP) differ according to the exercise load. Horse (Thoroughbred, 4 - 7 years old) treadmill (multistage exercise test, every 2 minutes [1.6, 3.6, 7, 10, 12, 13, and 14 m/sec]; slope fat 6% speed). As a result, d-ROMs and BAP significantly increased immediately after the exercise [3]. However, no significant difference was observed in d-ROMs and BAP immediately after the treadmill exercise (ICR mice, male, 5 weeks old; 20 m/min, 10˚ tilt, 30 minutes). As reported, a significant increase in BAP as a result of 6 months of continuous exercise (twice a week) was observed [4].

Furthermore, cyclists (19 - 22 years, male) used bicycle ergometers to perform a multistage exercise test (every 3 minutes, 0.5 kp load; 4 kp or later, 0.3 kp) with a heart rate reserve strength of 70%. As a result of aerobic exercise, d-ROMs showed no changes, while the BAP significantly increased from 1 hour after the stress test, and the effect continued for 1 hour after completion [5]. The d-ROMs and BAP may be closely associated with exercise load. FIE promotes the increase in blood flow and skin temperature at the corners of the mouth; therefore, it is expected that exercise performed by a specific body part or area and not the whole body may independently affect the BAP. In this study, we investigated the effects of our FIE program on subjective stress, oxidative stress (d-ROMs), and antioxidant potential (BAP).

Table 2 shows the results, changes of FIE subjective stress (VAS), oxidative stress, and antioxidant capacity.

Based on the results of our study, we recommend the FIE program as an exercise therapy because it can increase subjective resistance without changing the oxidative stress and improving the subjective stress by slowly performing three sets at a time. Anaerobic exercise is a method of enhancing physical ability by simultaneously increasing both the d-ROMs and BAP [7], but FIE trains facial muscles to suppress the increase in d-ROMs and BAP.

An antiaging effect can be expected. Besides exercise, “laughter” also affects stress [8], which includes “spontaneous laughter,” “intentional smile,” and “mechanical smile.” During “spontaneous laughter,” there is an increase in electrodermal activity and the sympathetic nervous system reacts. It can be expected to increase and antioxidant by controlling the autonomic nervous system because it increases and declines rapidly in the recovery period [9], but in “laughter,” passive items [human, talking partner; means, comics, rakugo (a kind of traditional Japanese comedy), movies, plays, etc.] are required to actively promote antioxidants. In contrast, FIE does not need passive items to actively promote antioxidants.

In the maintenance of a human body, signal transmission and physiological functions of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are important. When ROS reacts with biological macromolecules without excessively producing ROS and decomposing/removing active oxygen by antioxidant enzymes, cell dysfunction (lipid peroxidation, DNA mutation, protein denaturation, enzyme inactivation) causes oxidative stress (the balance between active oxygen generation and elimination collapses and leans toward oxidation) [10]. d-ROMs and BAP are used as indicators of lifestyle-related disease prevention and conditioning prior to sports competition. In lifestyle-related diseases, visceral fat area and BAP are positively correlated and creatinine is negative correlated with d-ROMs as the axis [11]. FIE is better suited for pre-sport conditioning than lifestyle-related illnesses

because it has been reported to be a desirable pre-game condition with low oxidative stress and high antioxidant capacity [12]. Many athletes adopt stretch [13], mindfulness [14], music appreciation [15], and so on as methods to increase concentration just before the competition, and FIE is considered to be ineffective here.

It was suggested that the FIE program in this study has mental stability and antiaging effects, and can be applied to conditioning before sports competition. We understand this study warrants further research on the type of sports the program is most suitable for.

The authors thank all of the subjects and staff who participated in this study.

This study was approved by the Ethics Review Board of Kansai University of Health Sciences (Osaka, Japan: process number 18-05).

The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Orita, I., Morikita, I., Watanabe, M., Oh, Z. and Kanai, S. (2021) Effects of Facial Isometric Exercise on Antioxidant Capacity. Health, 13, 1171-1180. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2021.1311086