Even eye sockets are bedeviled by fat

Mom jeans are bad enough. Now you can blame fat for another hazard of growing older -- baggy lower eyelids.

Doctors, and thus those so afflicted, have long believed that weakened tissue caused that particular type of under-eye puffiness, suspecting that the cover holding the fat in place eventually breaks, letting the fat ooze into the surrounding skin. Treatment often focuses on repositioning the fat or, even more invasively, tightening ligaments or muscles.

But using MRIs of 40 people, male and female ages 12 to 80, UCLA researchers have concluded that fat in the area actually increases with age.

They recommend taking it out. In most cases, anyway. Some surgeons do this already, but the new findings suggest why more should take this approach.

Here's a more complete explanation of the findings. And if you want more information, you'll have to wait for the September issue of Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, which is where the new study will be published.

As for the mom jeans reference, of course men have baggy eyelids too. But they appear to be less flummoxed by it. Of the 240,660 people having eyelid surgery (called blepharoplasty) in 2007, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 205,764 were women.

-- Tami Dennis

Photo credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times