Articles on Smoking | Topics: smoking, smokers
by Reyna Patel
There are several reasons to quit smoking, most importantly for your health. But, if the damage you are doing to the inside or your body isn't enough of a deterrent, perhaps you should consider what you are doing to the outside. In addition to the bad breath, yellow teeth, and yellow fingers, smoking is slowly but surely destroying your skin and making your skin age much faster than nonsmokers.
The Effects of Smoking on the Appearance of Skin
Smoking causes the skin to wrinkle, appear gaunt, and develop an odd colored complexion. Basically, the skin is much weaker and, therefore, less resilient. When this is seen in the face, it is often referred to as "smoker's face." In fact, smokers in their 40's and 50's often have wrinkles in their faces equivalent to those found in nonsmokers 20 years older.
These effects are sometimes reversible if the smoker quits early enough, but decades of smoking will mean it's too late to reverse the effects. The effects do not, however, always reverse themselves. In fact, some studies have shown 40 and 50 year olds who only smoked in their teenage years and while in their 20's had excessive wrinkling for their age. Many of them regained the pink hue to their skin, but never lost the wrinkles.
How Smoking Causes Wrinkles
There are many ways smoking causes wrinkles. One study found that smoking actually switches on a gene that destroys collagen, which is the protein that provides skin with its elasticity. Without elasticity, skin is unable to "bounce back" to its original shape when it is stretched, ultimately leading to wrinkles.
Smoking has also been found the lack of oxygen to cause damage to skin cells and to disturb the flow of blood to the skin. In fact, just smoking for 10 minutes decreases the oxygen supply to the skin for almost an hour. The nicotine within the cigarette narrows blood vessels and prevents the blood from properly circulating to the capillaries, which are tiny blood vessels, as well as to the upper layers of the skin. The capillaries are responsible for nourishing the skin. When they are not capable of properly performing their job, more wrinkles, as well as deeper wrinkles result.
Smoking and Skin Color
People who smoke also lose the "healthy glow" found on the skin of those who don't smoke. They lose the pink color to their cheeks and, instead, take on a grayish hue. Nutritional depletion combined with lack of oxygen flow may attribute to this phenomenon.
Smoking and Skin Healing
| Historical Quote |
What a vast traffic is drove, what a variety of labour is performed in the world to the maintenance of thousands of families that altogether depend on two silly if not odious customs; the taking of snuff and smoking of tobacco; both of which it is certain do infinitely more hurt than good to those that are addicted to them!
| —Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733) |
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Because smoking restricts the flow of blood and oxygen to the skin, it also interferes with the healing process. Wounds to the skin take longer to heal and often produce more scarring. In addition, patients who smoke who are recovering from surgery often take longer to heal.
Smoking and Thinning Skin
There is also increasing evidence that smoking causes the skin to thin excessively. In fact, researchers at St. Thomas' Hospital in London performed an interesting study in which they compared 25 sets of identical twins. In each of these sets, one twin was a smoker and the other was not. With one particular set of twins in their 50's, an ultrasound revealed that the smoking twin's skin was 40% thinner than the other twins' skin. In addition, she had much deeper wrinkles and fewer pores. In the remaining 24 sets of twins, similar results were found, though none had quite as significant of a difference.
Skin Cancer
Of course, skin cancer is also attributed to smoking. In fact, research has shown that smokers are three times as likely to develop a specific type of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, than those who don't smoke. In addition, current smokers are more likely to develop the cancer than former smokers. Skin cancer which leaves unattractive marks and results in ugly scarring is found to be responsible for 9,800 deaths in the United States every year, with 2,000 of those being from squamous cell carcinoma.
Reversing the Effects
Unfortunately for smokers, the only way to reverse the aging effects smoking has on skin is to stop smoking – the earlier the better. No anti-aging creams or other medications will help. Eating a health diet won't even alter the effects smoking has on the skin. Sadly, quitting may not even be enough, particularly after the damage has already occurred. For those who started smoking when they were teenagers in order to look more "mature," they will certainly get their wish when they are 40 years old and look 60!
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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "Old before your time – How Smoking Damages your Skin" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by HealthExerciseSports.com. |
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