Male aging war waged on wrinkles, shrinkage

Is the man in your life showing his age a bit?

Now you certainly wouldn't want to tell him so directly, but some subtle ways can help him pull up his socks in the health and appearance departments. None of the problems addressed here are likely to kill, but they sure can be annoying.

Let's start with loose skin. Anybody who has been to a pool or locker-room has probably had to look away from old guys with flaps of pendulous skin. Droopy skin is not very nice on the face, either. It's caused by a slowdown in the production of collagen and elastin, as well as a decrease in the rate of shedding of dead skin cells.

Some skin aging is inevitable, but the American Academy of Dermatology's website, www.skincarephysicians.

com/agingskinnet/basicfacts.html, has some good tips.

Of course, it starts with avoiding sun exposure and smoking. But some of the cooler ideas include changing your sleeping position, since, as the site says, "resting your face on the pillow in the same way every night for years on end also leads to wrinkles."

The website notes "people who sleep on their backs do not develop these wrinkles, since their skin does not lie crumpled against the pillow."

The academy also advises us to stop doing facial exercises to maintain a youthful-looking appearance, because "repetitive facial movements actually lead to fine lines and wrinkles."

There, you've been warned.

Other sources, such as a website by author T. O'Donnell, who calls himself TigerTom, advise using a moisturizer after every wash to keep water next to your skin.

He also urges people to avoid cosmetic surgery because, "our perceptions of human beauty rely on very subtle clues in another's face: small lines, dimples, contours, expressions."

Letting a surgeon alter your looks brings the risk of becoming, as O'Donnell says, "a type, a Hollywood social X-ray, a waxen-faced thing."

Now maybe a little collagen shot or some Botox for dad's wrinkles wouldn't be too bad. It's all a matter of taste.

Another area where collagen is an issue is, well, just under the belt buckle. The loss of collagen can be a factor in reduced penile size and ability to hold blood in the penis, which is necessary for full erection.

Shrinkage can be a particular issue for men who have had prostate surgery.

Evidence published in the Journal of Urology showed some men experienced penile shrinkage after having prostate-removal surgery.

Overall, the study found "a slight decrease in the size of their flaccid and stretched penis."

And, for 20 per cent of the survey participants, the loss in penile length was around 15 per cent.

For most aging males, however, the problem isn't that the penis is getting smaller, it's that the surrounding area is getting fatter and obscuring the member. So, it's really an optical illusion. Well, that's a good story anyway.

The ultimate size-matters worry is a rare and bizarre condition called Koro, also known as penis panic. It's defined in a journal article as "a transient state of acute anxiety characterized by the triad of a deep-seated fear of penile shrinkage, its disappearance into the abdomen and apprehension regarding inevitable impotence or even death."