Accelerating Aging: Smoking and Secondhand Smoke
Have you ever noticed when they have those programs on television where they try to make ordinary people off the street look years younger and they always seem to choose people who have been long time smokers?
There is a very good reason for this… cigarette smoking is one of the biggest causes of skin deterioration.
Not only does smoking affect your skin condition but just being around smokers and having to breathe their secondhand smoke will also negatively affect your own skin condition.
Cigarette smoke contains a high concentration of a compound that destroys the DNA of skin cells and in doing so reduces the ability for those skin cells to renew themselves.
The problems for the smoker are considerable.
It is quite easy to spot a smoker from the fine lines that have formed prematurely around the mouth as a result of the action of regularly sucking on cigarettes. There are also generally lines around the eyes from trying to look through the smoke haze while smoking.
Nicotine found in cigarettes slows blood circulation and this in turn causes other skin problems including higher rates of skin cancer and an inability to heal if there is ever any damage caused to the skin.
Smokers will usually have thinner dryer skin and an inability to utilize antioxidants that are required for maintaining healthy skin.
Smokers have skin that is considerably thinner than non-smokers due to the deterioration of collagen and elastin and this is also responsible for the skin sagging.
The skin will rapidly begin to look lifeless and will lose its tone and elasticity with increased smoking.
Not much else will cause more damage faster than smoking and will ensure that you look old well beyond your years. To stop the accelerated rate of aging that smoking causes… it’s never too late, stop smoking now!
