Smoking cigarettes ages skin faster than anything else apart from sun damage.
There’s no gentle way of saying this. If you smoke cigarettes you need to stop.
Aside from the many health issues associated with smoking – if you care at all about wrinkles and you want to look younger for longer – then smoking is out.
One million new smokers light up each year in the US alone – many of them young women who may later come to regret what smoking does to their looks.
As far as the effects of smoking on skin aging and health – it’s much worse for women. That’s official – and it’s supported by many years of research by reputable medical bodies.
The nicotine in cigarettes is more addictive for women and women have much more difficulty quitting smoking than men as a result.
Women who smoke have twice the additional risk of heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer than men who smoke.
Lung cancer kills three times the number of American women than breast cancer – currently around 70,000 per year.
Smoking is also linked to early onset of the menopause in women. Most devastating of all from a looks point of view – the aging effects of smoking on the skin are worse for women who are much more likely to develop “smoker’s face” than male smokers. For women smoking and aging are inextricably linked.
In 2001 the special risks of smoking for women were recognized by the US Surgeon General in a report warning women of the dangers from smoking cigarettes. Similar statements were made by European government bodies and other world authorities.
Even if you dismiss the health risks the effect of smoking on skin may give you some pause for thought. It is worth takingtime to consider how smoking cigarettes will damage your skin and accelerate skin aging. Do you really want this to happen to you?
“For smokers, middle age starts in the early 30′s as the tell tale wrinkles around the mouth and eyes begin to appear. Young female smokers are likely to be wasting their money on anti aging face creams if they continue to smoke.”
Amanda Sandford, Action on Smoking Health
The effects of smoking on skin aging have been recognized for a long time. A 1965 study first identified what came to be known as ‘smokers face’ – gray, pale and wrinkled skin.
In recent years much research has focused on this area and it’s now broadly accepted that smokers skin is damaged by smoking making smokers look much older than non-smokers.
And its not just smokers skin that ages quicker – research in recent years has proved conclusively that passive smoking is damaging to your skin and to your health. Unfair though it seems – whether you smoke or just breathe in other people’s smoke – your skin will suffer the same symptoms of smoker’s face.
The Chief Medical Officer of the UK recently highlighted the link between smoking and skin damage saying that smoking adds between 10-20 years to your natural age.
A 2007 study found that smoking is associated with increased wrinkling and skin damage on many parts of the body – not just the face. Inner arms, neck and decollete are likely to show wrinkling and sagging as a result of accelerated skin aging from smoking.
Smoking speeds up skin aging in a number of ways. It all starts with the free radicals formed in your body by the exposure to cigarette smoke.
Free radicals are highly unstable and powerful molecules that can cause disease and damage to cell DNA. The cells of your body start behaving erratically producing a range of responses that make your skin age faster.
So just how does smoking affect the skin?
- smoking restricts blood flow through the capillaries (tiny veins near the skins surface) preventing oxygen and nutrients getting to the skin
- smoking increases production of an enzyme which breaks down the supply of collagen to the skin’s structure. Collagen supply is vital to the skin’s elasticity. It decreases with age but smoking cigarettes accelerates this process.
- smoking reduces the body’s store of vitamin A which provides protection from skin damage
- smoking gets in the way of absorption of vitamin C – a vital antioxidant for skin protection and health
- smokers continual puckering from drawing on a cigarette and squinting in reaction to the cigarette smoke results in deeply wrinkled skin around the eyes and mouth – classic signs of ‘smoker’s face’
Smoking statistics will clearly tell you the risk of death and disease from your smoking habit. If that’s not sufficiently frightening – this is what you might expect your skin to look like if you continue to smoke:
- dull appearance to the skin – loss of skin glow and vitality
- discolored skin (an ashy look on white skins)
- deeper wrinkles around the mouth and eyes
- loss of tone and elasticity more than with the normal aging process
A key question from most smokers is – if I stop smoking can I reverse the skin damage. The simple answer is that you won’t be able to completely reverse the damage that smoking has done.
But – with a good diet, skin supplements and great anti aging skin care you can do a lot to get your youthful skin back. What you will do if you quit smoking is stop the damage getting any worse. Why wait and then stop smoking later when even more damage has been done to your skin?
When you look at your skin remember that some damage won’t appear until ten to twenty years after you began to smoke. So if you haven’t been smoking that long and you don’t see much damage yet – don’t assume it won’t happen.
“Smoking exerts such a noticeable effect on the skin that it’s often possible to detect whether or not a person is a smoker simply by looking at his or her face. Smokers have more wrinkles and their skin tends to have a greyish pallor compared to non-smokers.”Professor Young, Head of Dermatology, Guys School of Medecine, London
The important thing for your skin and your looks is to stop inflicting continued damage on yourself. If you quit smoking now you will stop your skin aging any faster than it normally would. And with proper anti aging skin care and nutrition your skin will look much better into the future than it will do if you carry on as a smoker.
And now you know all about the dangers of cigarette smoke for your skin – find out why tanning is worse than smoking for skin.
Erika – glad you like the site. Thanks for the suggestion – hypnotherapy has had great results with helping people quit smoking – whatever works for you is good as we are all different. The important thing is to stop cigarettes damaging your skin and your health.
Brilliant blog! Hypnotherapy is a great way to stop smoking, you are 10 time more likely to quit smoking and remain a non-smoker using Hypnotherapy. This is because you look at your smoking triggers and make sure you have the coping mechanisms, motivation and determination to become a non-smoker. Take the first steps today to becoming smok free and being able to enjoy living life to the full with a strong and healthy body.
Nurul – Google quit smoking and you will find a lot of self help stop smoking sites – my advice would be to go first to well known and trusted sites like Mayo Clinic or Action on Smoking Health or any good medical site. You should find some good advice to help you. The most important thing is motivation – if you truly want to stop you will! Good luck
Melissa – I don’t like to think I terrify and depress people but if it helps keep you off the ciggies – glad to oblige! know when I originally researched the article several years ago little was being written about smoking and its effects on skin aging. Yet the more I dug into it the more awful facts emerged. I had noticed the effects on smoking damage on skin myself from observing how friends who smoked came to look over the years – now I can usually tell who smokes just by looking at them. It seems to me that many women are more likely to be put off smoking by knowing that it is one of the surefire ways to wrinkled and older looking skin. Only sun damage is worse. Anyway – good luck keeping smoke free1
Lance – stop now and the damage will not get any worse. Reversing the damage smoking has already done to your skin depends on not smoking any more and changing your lifestyle if you need to. Get yourself a great skin care regimen including regular hydration and increase the amount of antioxidants in your diet (green leafy veggies and high colored fruits (berries). Make sure you get aerobic exercise regularly to get oxygen into your skin and you’ll soon see a healthy glow returning. You are bound to feel much better too!
I need to quit smoking and soon….thank you so much for the information….i’m 47 and have smoked on and off for 30+ years, luckily I have great skin and very, very few wrinkles, but with hitting 50 soon…….not only is this necessary for my skin, but for my health and lungs as well! I am also very vain about my skin…….thank you thank you thank you for the info!
I quit smoking 6 weeks ago after smoking for 19 years, I am 34 years old now and started to notice I had very grey skin especially on my hands this has completly gone now and the palms of my hands are now pink again.
I have been smoking for about 5 yrs yet not on a daily basis yet I have noticed my skin has aged alot even the little of ciggarettes i may smoke (4-5 ciggarettes per week). I was wondering would i be able to completely reverse the damage smoking has done to my skin due to the fact i haven’t been smoking for that long?
Thank you for this terrifying and depressing article. It should be, too. People like me, newly non-smoking, need your efforts to keep us motivated and not slipping.
I want to quit smoking i have been smoking sing 15 years please help me
Congratulations James – quitting smoking after so long is difficult but you did it. I’m sure it’s the best thing you did for your health as well as your looks! I think slowly the message about smoking and skin aging is getting through and that should help more people give up or steer clear of smoking in the first place.
I with considerable effort quit smoking about 6 yrs ago. Am told am growing younger. When T was smoking I was being placed 15 to 20 yrs above my age. I smoked for more than 30yrs.
As a quick note, I’d like to testify to the accuracy of this article. I’m a 34 year old Wife and Mom to four and I’m also the oldest of my siblings. My Sister is ONE year younger than me and a Mom of one, she smokes but I never have. To those who don’t know us, people are always shocked to find out that I’m the oldest. The usual assumptions are that people think she’s anywhere from 5-10 years older than I am. Her skin (especially her face) has a very noticeable “grey” appearance with no natural “glow”, her complexion is muddy and generally “bad” and she’s developed deep lines and wrinkles. My facial skin is still taught with a healthy appearance & color with no lines or wrinkles setting in yet.
She also loves the tanning beds whereas I try to limit my sun and UV expousre to just what I get from moderate outdoor activity in warmer months and prefer not to bake in the sun or use tanning beds. I learned that lesson when I was still a teen and after a long day at the beach (which resulted in a pretty bad burn) I developed a few (maybe 6 or 7) very light but still noticeable “sun spots” (look like very faint freckles) on my chest that never went away. They remain to this day. Trust me, the “tan” never compensates for the skin damage.
If you’re a smoker and haven’t really considered the impact of the habit on the skin, I’d urge you to read up about it some more and take it seriously. I’ve yet to see a case where a smokers face (women particularly) did not suffer considerable damage and early aging. Good luck to all!