Stop Smoking Academy

The most important reason for anyone to quit smoking is their health. But in case the damage that smoking causes inside you isn’t enough, you probably don’t know how bad it is for your external appearance. In addition to the bad breath, yellow teeth, and yellow fingers, smoking slowly but surely destroy your skin cells and makes your skin age much faster than nonsmokers.

Smoking causes wrinkles in the skin, gauntness, and the development of an odd colored complexion. Basically, the skin is weaker and, hence, less resilient. When this is seen on the face, it is sometimes referred to as “smoker’s face.” In fact, smokers still in their 40’s and 50’s sometimes have wrinkles in their faces as bad as those found in nonsmokers 20 years older.

These effects are reversible only if the smoker quits early enough, but decades of smoking make it too late to reverse the effects. The effects will 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, having extreme wrinkles for their age. Most of them regained the pink hue to their skin, but the wrinkles never went away.

How Smoking Causes Wrinkles
There are many ways in which smoking causes wrinkles. One study says that smoking actually turns on a gene that attacks and collagen, which is the protein that gives skin its elasticity. Without elasticity, the skin is unable to “bounce back” to its original shape when stretched, this ultimately leads to wrinkles.

It has also been found that the lack of oxygen causes damage to skin cells and disturbs the flow of blood to the skin. In fact, smoking for just 10 minutes decreases the oxygen supply to the skin for nearly an hour. The nicotine within the cigarette narrows down blood vessels and prevents the blood from properly circulating through the capillaries, which are very tiny blood vessels, and hence to the outer layers of the skin. The capillaries are responsible for supplying nourishment to the skin. When they are not able to properly perform their jobs, more wrinkles, as well as deeper ones result.

Smoking and Skin Color
People who smoke also lose the “healthy glow” that is present on the skin of those who don’t smoke. They lose the pinkness of their cheeks and, instead, take on a grayish hue. Nutritional depletion added to lack of oxygen flow may be the cause of this phenomenon.

Smoking and Skin Healing
Since smoking restricts the flow of blood and oxygen to the skin, it also tends to interfere with the healing process. Damages to the skin will take longer to heal and often produce more scarring than in non-smokers. To add to this, patients who smoke take longer to recover from surgery.

Smoking and Thinning Skin
There is also a lot of evidence that smoking makes the skin excessively thin. In fact, researchers at the St. Thomas’ Hospital in London performed an enlightening study in which they compared 25 sets of identical twins. In every one 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 showed that the smoking twin’s skin was 40% thinner than the other twins’ skin. In addition, she had deeper wrinkles and lesser pores. In the other 24 sets of twins, similar results were found, though none showed quite as significant a difference.

Skin Cancer
Of course, skin cancer is also said to be a result of smoking. In fact, research shows that smokers are three times more likely to develop a specific type of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, than non-smokers. In addition, current smokers are even more likely to develop this cancer than past smokers. Skin cancer leaves unattractive marks, results in ugly scarring and is found to be responsible for 9,800 deaths in the United States every year. 2,000 of those being from squamous cell carcinoma.

Reversing the Effects
Unfortunately for smokers, the only way possible to reverse the aging effects that smoking has on skin is to stop smoking – the sooner the better. No anti-aging creams or other medications help reverse the damages caused by smoking. Even eating a healthy diet won’t alter the effects smoking has on the skin. Sadly, even quitting may not be enough, especially after the damage has already occurred. For people who started smoking when they were teenagers in order to look more “mature and cool” they will certainly be granted their wish when they are 40 years old and look 60!