If you smoke, you probably know all the obvious reasons you should quit. The medical industry and mortality rates have proven that smoking damage is present in every organ in your body. Smoking is also shown to increase the risk of virtually all diseases. Those are all internal results of smoking, and not visible without x-rays.
If smoking damage were a bit more obvious, you may have already quit by now. Well, smoking does damage your looks. Here are ten ways smoking damage can affect your appearance.
Smoking damage destroys your skin’s glow
Have you noticed how smokers’ skin sometimes seems off? You’re not alone. A National Center for Biotechnology study came up with the term Smoker’s Face to describe certain facial characteristics, such as wrinkles, gauntness, and a gray appearance of the skin, caused by smoking.
Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide, which displaces the oxygen in your skin, and nicotine, which reduces blood flow, leaving skin dry and discolored. Cigarette smoking also depletes many nutrients, including vitamin C, which helps protect and repair skin damage.
We can all appreciate the distinguished appearance of aging naturally, but wrinkles from smoking look anything but wise.
What causes those wrinkles on smokers? Smoking hampers the blood supply that keeps skin tissue looking supple and healthy.
A twin study published on www.cnn.com illustrates some of the physical damage and aging caused by smoking when comparing smoker to non-smoker sets of twins.
Skin cancer
Smoking is a leading cause of cancer, including lung, throat, mouth, and esophageal cancer, so it should be no surprise that cigarettes can also increase your risk of skin cancer.
In fact, smokers are three times more likely than nonsmokers likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common type of skin cancer.
Bags under your eyes
When you don’t get a good night’s sleep, it can show on your face. If you smoke, you’re four times as likely as nonsmokers to report feeling unrested after a night’s sleep, according to Johns Hopkins study that indicated nightly nicotine withdrawal could cause smokers to toss and turn.
Stained teeth
Who doesn’t appreciate a great smile? If you smoke, you can probably kiss a beautiful smile good-bye, because the nicotine in cigarettes can stain teeth. You can fight it though, at a steep cost. According to the Consumer Guide to dentistry, a professional teeth whitening procedures costs an average of $650.
Thinning hair
As if the wrinkly skin wasn’t enough, smoking hurts your hair too. Experts think the toxic chemicals in smoke can damage the DNA in hair follicles and generate cell-damaging free radicals as well.
The end result? Smokers have thinner hair that tends to go gray sooner than nonsmokers. That is, if they have any hair at all.
Men who smoke are about twice as likely to lose their hair as nonsmokers, after taking into account factors that increase the risk of baldness, such as aging and genetics, according to National Health Services research.
Tooth loss
Smoking puts you at greater risk for all kinds of dental problems, including oral cancer and gum disease.
In fact, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology, smokers are up to six times more likely than nonsmokers to develop gum disease, which can lead to tooth loss.
Warts
For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, smokers are more susceptible to infection with human papillomavirus, a large family of viruses that can cause warts—including genital warts.
While genital warts are caused by sexually transmitted types of HPV, smoking is also a risk factor. Even taking the number of sex partners into account, women who smoke are nearly four times as likely to have genital warts as nonsmokers, according to one study.
Flabby Tummy
Cigarettes have long bee used as an appetite suppressant and smokers often have lower body weights than nonsmokers. However, a study by the Public Library of Science found that smokers had more visceral fat than nonsmokers.
This deep fat pads internal organs and can accumulate in your midsection, ultimately increasing the risk of other diseases, such as diabetes.
Stretch Marks
The nicotine found in cigarettes damages the fibers and connective tissue in your skin, causing it to lose elasticity and strength.
Stretch marks, red skin striations that can gradually fade to a silvery hue, form when you gain weight rapidly. Anyone can get stretch marks with rapid weight gain (such as in pregnancy), but cigarettes can be a contributing factor.
Wondering what effect smoking could have on your physical features?
Click here to upload a selfie and try a free demo of the age progression software from Change My Face.
For something even less technical, apply one of the filters from you phone like I did below!
Are you ready to kick the habit and start restoring a healthier appearance?
If you have decided it’s time to quit smoking, but you are unsure about your ability to quit, we can help!
Alpha Lifestyle Center
1010 Bowers St.
Birmingham, MI 48009
248.594.1303