Cigarette Smoking & Your Skin

Smoking diminishes the skin’s ability to get needed oxygen.  Without oxygen, skin cells are unable to renew.  And, secondhand smoke is just as bad as firsthand smoke.

What the toxins in cigarette smoke are doing to your skin now!

Cigarette smoke contains more than 4000 toxins many of which are absorbed directly into the bloodstream and are taken by the blood right into the structure of your skin.

Smoking cigarettes reduces the efficiency with which the skin can regenerate itself – smoking causes the constriction (narrowing) of the blood vessels at the top layers of the skin which in turn reduces blood supply (to the skin). It is the reduced blood supply which causes a reduction in the availability of oxygen (which is necessary for all living cells) and the removal of waste products, dead cell fragments etc… which provide the necessary environment for regeneration.

Cigarette smoking causes the blood vessels at the top layers of the skin to constrict and so reducing the oxygen level in the blood there. This thickens the blood and reduces the levels of collagen in the skin (it is actually because of this that smoking is also associated with slow or incomplete healing of wounds).

"Smoker’s Face" is defined as one or more of the following:

1. lines or wrinkles on the face, typically radiating at right angles from the upper and lower lips or corners of the eyes, deeplines on the cheeks, or numerous shallow lines on the cheeks and lower jaw.
2. A subtle gauntness of the facial features with prominence of the underlying bony contours. Fully developed this change gives the face and ‘atherosclerotic’ (sic. A bit like choked up blood vessels) look; lesser changes show as slight sinking of the cheeks. In some cases these changes are associated with a leathery, worn, or rugged appearance.
3. An atrophic, slightly pigmented grey appearance of the skin
4. A plethoric, slightly orange, purple and red complexion different from the purple blue colour of cyanosis or the bloated appearance associated with the pseudo-Cushing’s changes of alcoholism"

It affects the young as well. Check out the twins below.

So, if you are a smoker, you're killing your skin and all the anti-wrinkle and rejuvenating creams in the world won't help. You'll have to stop smoking, eat more green leafy vegetables and fruit and drink plenty of water.

Enjoy!

As always, be well

Dannette

PS: It also yellows your teeth...yuck!