Fastest way to tighten sagging jowls and turkey neck

So let's say you look in the mirror one day and something feels a little bit different. It's not something dramatic and it's not an overnight change but you're noticing that your jawline isn't as sharp, that the skin under your chin feels looser and there's a softness that wasn't there before. And the frustrating part is this, you're doing all the right things. You're eating well, you're taking care of your skin, maybe you've even tried facial exercises or creams but nothing seems to actually reverse it. In this video I'm going to show you what's really happening underneath From both a modern medical point of view as well as a traditional Chinese medicine point of view. What the root cause is and what you can actually start doing from a holistic point of view to slower prevent that. Hey guys I'm Dr. Alex Hein, board licensed doctor of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine and author of the health book Master of Death. Let's jump in. Let me tell you about one of the most famous stories about a doctor named Zhang Zhongjing, the great Han dynasty physician later called the medical sage. One day Zhang Zhongjing met a man named also known as Wang Zhongxuan, one of the great literary figures of the late Han dynasty. Now Wang was still young, talented, respected and from the outside he didn't look like someone on the edge of serious illness. But Dr. Zhang Zhongjing looked at him and saw something different. He told him you already have a disease and if you don't treat it by around the age of 40 your eyebrows will fall out and after the eyebrows fall you'll die within half a year. Imagine hearing that as a young man. Wang Chan didn't believe him at all. He thought it was too far away, too strange, too impossible and some versions say Dr. Zhang gave him a formula named but this famous poet never truly took it. Some time later Zhang saw him again and asked if he had taken the medicine. Wang said he had but Dr. Zhang looked at his complexion and spirit and said essentially no you haven't. Why are you treating your life so lightly? And according to the famous story some years later Wang Chan's eyebrows began to fall out and not long after he died. Now whether we treat every detail of that story as literal history or medical legend the point is powerful. In ancient China physicians didn't separate the face from the rest of the body. They didn't see wrinkles or sagging as cosmetic issues. They saw them as diagnostic clues and there are records of doctors who could look at a patient's face and immediately understand what was happening internally. They would look at the jawline, the cheeks, the skin tone, and the complexion but they weren't thinking how do we tighten this. They were asking what is no longer being supported internally. Because in Chinese medicine the face is considered a reflection of your internal organ function. Not health in general but the ability of the body to hold, nourish, maintain that structure over time. So when a physician saw sagging along the jaws they didn't think this is just aging. They thought when they saw a loss of fullness the substance that nourishes the face is declining. When they saw puffiness or heaviness they thought something's accumulating that the body isn't clearing. So they weren't treating the face they were reading it and once they understood what was happening internally the treatment became obvious. Now from a western point of view sagging in the lower face is usually explained as collagen loss, elastin breakdown, and structural changes in fat and muscle over time. And that is true but that explanation is incomplete because it doesn't really explain why some people age much faster in this area than others or why the change can sometimes feel like it happens almost overnight. And when you zoom in on the biology a few processes start to stand out. First the collagen, like the main structural protein that gives your skin firmness, is constantly being broken down and rebuilt. And when you're younger that cycle is balanced. But over time, especially with things like UV exposure, stress, bad sleep, poor blood sugar, that balance shifts. Then we have elastin which gives skin its ability to snap back. And unlike collagen, elastin doesn't regenerate easily. Once it's damaged, again from UV, inflammation, oxidative stress, it's hard to replace. So the skin loses that recoil and that tightness and begins to hang more under gravity. And when you layer on top of that the role of circulation, you know your skin and connective tissue depend on a steady supply of oxygen and nutrients delivered via microcirculation. So if blood flow isn't good, even slightly over time, you're not delivering the raw materials needed for repair and maintenance. At the same time, waste products aren't easily being cleared. Hormones also play a major role. Estrogen, for example, is directly involved in collagen production and skin thickness. And as levels decline with age, the So when you put all of this together, what you're seeing in the mirror isn't just skin getting older. It's a combination of reduced collagen, increased breakdown, bad circulation, hormonal changes, and chronic low-grade inflammation all happening at once and often reinforcing each other. So from a Chinese medicine point of view, let's look at some of the patterns here. One pattern is called spleen qi deficiency. In Chinese medicine, the spleen organ network involves digestion, lymphatic flow, and interstitial fluids. And as a very specific function, it holds things up and maintains the structure. So when the spleen organ network is strong, the face looks firm, lifted, and defined. But when it's weak, that lifting function starts to decline. So that's sometimes where you start to see sagging, not just in the face, but everywhere in the body. So these are the people who feel tired, bloated, who crave sugar, and they're noticing that change in their face over time. From a scientific point of view, this relates to poor protein metabolism, weakened connective tissue support, and reduced structural integrity in the fascia and skin. The second pattern is blood deficiency. Now this one is subtle but extremely important because not all sagging is about structure. Sometimes it's about what's nourishing the tissues. So in Chinese medicine, we say the blood is what nourishes the skin, the muscles, and connective tissue. It gives the face its fullness, tone, and vitality. So when blood becomes deficient, the face is thinner, people get more age lines, is more dried out kind of appearance, and less resilient. People tend to have dry skin, light sleep, and maybe a history of stress or under eating or hormonal depletion. So from a science point of view, this overlaps with nutrient depletion, bad circulation, and sort of decreased tissue regeneration. The third pattern is what we call dampness and fluid accumulation, sort of a loss of definition. Now this pattern is what we call dampness. Dampness being a kind of fluid stagnation that the body isn't properly transforming, and when it builds up, it creates heaviness. So in the face, this shows up as puffiness, swelling under the chin, the eyes, or a loss of jaw definition, and a heavier look that doesn't look like a true volume of the face. So these are the people who feel bloated, sluggish, heavy after meals, and notice lots of water retention. From a western medical point of view, this maps to lymphatic stagnation, fluid retention, and poor drainage. So this is actually weight pulling downward on the tissues. Now at this point is often where people get stuck, because they start to see this happening and they treat it like the same problem. Collagen, facial exercise, skincare, but they don't really know what's physiologically driving it underneath. And if you don't know what's driving it, then you're going to take hundreds of dollars of random skincare supplements. So if you're thinking it might be that pattern, it might be that pattern, download my free root cause quiz below this video to figure out what's going on with your skin. You can go to dralexhine.com forward slash quiz to know exactly where your pattern is coming from, and then some of the best related videos we've shot for actually how to treat that. So check it out below the video here in the pinned comment. Now if there's deeper structural aging, the fourth pattern I see is what's called kidney deficiency. In Chinese medicine, the kidneys govern aging, structural integrity, and like the long-term resilience of the body. When the kidney energy, which includes your sex hormones, your stress hormones, progesterone, testosterone, when those are strong, the body maintains the structure over time. But when it declines, you start to see those deeper changes happening. That's where sagging is more pronounced, and it's hard to reverse. It's also a hormones are changing, they're trying to get hormone replacement therapy or testosterone injections. From a western point of view, this overlaps with hormonal decline, collagen loss, even a lot of osteoporosis. And this is not that surface level of aging, it's really like the root level of exhaustion. Now here's where it gets interesting, because in Chinese medicine, they didn't just observe patterns, they treated them. And there were very specific herbs used to restore structure, circulation, and function. So let's start with one of the most important, astragalus or huang qi. In Chinese medicine, huang qi is known for one function, it strengthens the body's ability to hold and lift. What's fascinating is that the modern research shows that astragalus contains compounds that reduce inflammation, protect collagen, and improve skin resilience. And some studies even suggest it supports cellular longevity and structural integrity at the level of the skin itself. The second category is called the blood-nourishing herbs like dang gui. In Chinese medicine, dang gui is one of the most important herbs for building and moving blood. And remember, in Chinese medicine, blood is what nourishes the hair, skin, and nails. And modern research supports this. The improved circulation delivers oxygen, nutrients, and building blocks to your skin, directly affecting the tone, elasticity, and repair. So when someone's face looks thin, depleted, or less like lifted, it's not just cosmetic, we say it's a nourishment problem. Another important group is the antioxidant-rich herbs like goji berry. In Chinese medicine, these nourish the liver and kidney, and are good for long-term vitality. And from a modern point of view, goji berries are rich in antioxidants and compounds that help protect the skin from that oxidative stress we talked about. That's one of the main drivers of collagen breakdown and premature aging. So again, you see the overlap. Protect the internal systems, the face will reflect that. And one final herb is chuanxiang. Chuanxiang is used to move blood and prevent stagnation. Because if nutrients aren't reaching the tissue, it doesn't matter how much you're taking in, the skin won't get better. Modern physiology says the same thing, where if the microcirculation is not good enough, it's critical for maintaining skin health, collagen turnover, and tissue repair. So improving flow is just as important as improving the structure. Now if you want to go a little bit deeper, watch this next video here where I break down the exact facial techniques and acupressure points I use clinically to support lifting the circulation in your face, especially around swollen and puffy eyes.