11 Ways How Smoking Affects Your Skin !
05-08-2019 | Posted By: Shagun Parasher | 3927 View(s)
Smoking is just as harmful to your skin as it is for the body. When someone tells you smoking can harm your skin, what is the first thought that crosses your mind? You might think they are talking about the wrinkles, saggy skin etc. and that is very much right. Toxins emitted from the smoke are capable of damaging the collagen and elastin, which are fibrous components of Skin that keep it supple and firm. This damage speeds up skin ageing, the appearance of wrinkles on the face and body by double. Let us dive into this article and find out the Ways How Smoking Affects Your Skin
11 Ways How Smoking Affects Your Skin
1. It Causes Premature Ageing
Someone who smokes regularly and a lot develop ‘smoker’s lines’ around their mouth. These are vertical lines which appear from continuously pursuing one’s lips to draw a cigarette over and over again.
Another one is Crow’s feet, which is a typical kind of wrinkling around the outer edges of the eyes. For smokers, crow’s feet appear before they appear to people of their age. This is because collagen and elastin damage is a huge factor in causing premature ageing, but vascular constriction caused by smoking is also responsible. Constricted blood vessels stop the blood flow and oxygen from reaching the skin cells, leading to skin ageing.
2.Wound Healing
The toxins in cigarette smoke cause vascular constriction, which has a negative effect on wound healing. Continuous lack of blood flow slows the body’s ability to repair itself. Most doctors strongly recommend, or ask the smoking patients to stop before a surgical procedure because of the impact cigarette toxins have on wound healing. Smoking also leads to an increase in the risk of wound infection, blood clot formation, skin graft failure, and tissue death. Scars tend to become more pronounced. There are also evidences that smoking may increase stretch marks, which are also a form of scarring usually caused by rapid weight gain.
3.Acne Inversa
Acne Inversa, which is scientifically known as HidradenitisSuppurativa, is a relatively common inflammatory skin disease. It affects people in areas of the body where skin rubs against the Skin, like the groin, armpits and under the breasts in women.Acne inversa causes boil-like nodules that drain with pus. The condition is excruciating and can last months or even years. Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for acne inversa.
4.Vasculitis
Those who smoke are at a high risk of Buerger’s disease which is a form of vasculitis. Every type of vascultis involves inflamed blood vessels in some part of the body.Buerger’s disease interferes with the blood flow of a person’s extremities by blocking the blood vessels around this region, resulting in pain and damaged tissues.
5.Telangiectasia
Telangiectasia is a skin condition which a small blood vessel in the body gets dilated, causing damage to the capillary walls. They can occur anywhere but mostly noticed closer to the surface of the Skin, where one can see permanent traces of veins or purple blotches. These are also called spider veins.
6.Skin Tone/ Staining
The skin tone of smokers can be uneven, with an orange and grey hue. This is not it. Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide (which replaces oxygen in your skin) and nicotine (which reduces the blood flow) making skin dry and discoloured. Smoking a cigarette depletes body’s nutrients, including Vitamin C, which helps protect the skin from damage and also repairs it.
Lack of oxygen to the skin cells play an essential part in why and how this occurs with a negative effect of numerous other chemicals in tobacco. Cigarette smoke is full of 7000 deadly chemicals, including 250 that are poisonous, and 70 can cause cancer.
7.Psoriasis
Psoriasis is a skin condition that produces red itchy scaly patches. Stress is a trigger, but smoking is a risk factor. Doctors revealed that nicotine is the link between smoking and diseases caused. Nicotine affects the immune system, skin cell growth, skin inflammation and all these factors lead to psoriasis.
Smoking doubles the person’s risk of developing psoriasis with the risk increasing day by day depending on how many cigarettes one smokes. Heavy smoking also causes PalmoplantarPustulosis, a form of psoriasis.
8.Sagging Skin
Yet another reason as to How Smoking Affects Your Skin is that it can lead to sagging skin in other parts of the body. In particular, upper arms, breasts etc. are often affected by the loss of skin elasticity due to smoking.
9.Lines and Wrinkles Around the Lips
The cigarette smoke causes damage to the elastin in the skin which affects the skin around the mouth. Another way is the development of wrinkles around the mouth from the act of smoking. These two together can lead to early ageing signs around the mouth.
10.Skin Cancer
How Smoking Affects Your Skin ? Well, Various factors cause skin cancer, smoking being one of them. If you smoke your chances of developing squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) can be as high as 52 per cent higher than if you never smoked. This type of cancer is one of the most common forms of skin cancer and appear mostly on the lips of smokers. Researchers suggest that this increased risk of SCC is because of lowered immune system response due to the toxins that are present in cigarette smoke. Out of all the ways of how Smoking affects the skin in our body, this one’s the deadliest.
11.Stretch Marks
So, by now we hope you know that the villain behind everything terrible happening to your Skin is nicotine. This nicotine in cigarettes damages the fibres and connective tissue in the smoker’s skin, leading to loss of elasticity and strength. Stretch marks that are red skin striations at first and then turn into a silvery hue form when one gains weight rapidly. But that is not all; smoking cigarettes can be a contributing factor for the stretch marks that you have.
It is always better to take prevention than struggling to get treated or cured after time runs away. Hope this article on How Smoking Affects Your Skin will make you more aware of the bad consequences of Smoking and act as a deterrent. We hope this article was helpful to you. Stay Healthy, Stay Happy.
