Smoking not only harms your lungs, but also ruins your appearance

Many people love beauty, and this is how the cosmetics and skin care industries are driven.

Furthermore, anti-aging products are the most popular category. Data analysis shows that the global anti-aging market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 6.7% between 2022 and 2027. It is expected that the market size will reach US$93 billion by 2027. This shows how great the demand for anti-aging and beauty is.

Before we spend a lot of effort on anti-aging products, we should also pay attention to other money-saving "anti-aging" tips, such as quitting smoking. This is because smoking will make the skin age faster. If you can really quit smoking, you can save money on cigarettes and improve your skin, which is really killing two birds with one stone.

Image source: Tuchong Creative

If you don’t believe it, let’s look at a story.

A story of twins

Once, an academic journal reported the story of a pair of twins.

The researchers recruited a pair of twins, aged 52, who lived together until their 20s and then separated to work in the same type of jobs at the same latitude (with similar levels of sun exposure).

They had no other skin diseases or skin cancer, and had all worked as drivers for courier companies for 10 years. In terms of lifestyle, they did not sunbathe, rarely drank, did not exercise daily, and were all overweight.

The only obvious difference is that one twin smokes and the other does not. The smoking twin is a heavy smoker, and it is calculated that her smoking is equivalent to smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes every day from the age of 18 to 52.

The results showed that smokers' skin aged significantly, which was identified by the researchers as "severely aged", while non-smokers only had "mild to moderate aging".

To expand on this, smokers have deep wrinkles that are widespread, including around the forehead, eyes, cheeks, and lips. They also have a lot of discoloration, moderate skin sagging, and some scattered light spots.

The non-smoking twins also had facial skin problems, such as fine lines, scattered spots, and mild skin sagging, but the degree of aging was significantly milder than that of the smokers.

This is a convincing observational study that reveals the negative effects of smoking on the skin, namely accelerated aging, and indirectly emphasizes the benefits of quitting smoking.

So, are these twins just a special case?

No, it's not a special case.

Next, let’s review the research history of smoking and aging.

Overview of research on smoking and aging

As early as 1856, scholar Solly first proposed the link between smoking and premature skin aging. At that time, he found that smokers would have some signs of aging, such as sallow complexion, wrinkled skin and thin face.

More than 100 years later, in 1971, scholar Daniell pointed out that smokers have more and more obvious wrinkles around their eyes.

In 1985, scholar Model even coined a term - smoker's face, which means "smoking face". He pointed out that people who have smoked for more than 10 years will have a smoking face that is significantly different from non-smokers.

Combined with the research of other scholars, the overall conclusion is that smoking and skin aging (especially skin wrinkles) are closely related, and the more cumulative smoking, the higher the risk of wrinkles and the more obvious aging.

However, it should be noted that aging and long-term cumulative sun exposure are also related to skin aging, and the relationship is greater, while the impact of smoking may be smaller. For example, if the sun exposure exceeds 50,000 hours, the probability of wrinkles is 8 times that of people who have not been exposed to the sun (but other influencing factors are the same); if you smoke for 1 year (1 pack a day), the probability of wrinkles is 3 times that of non-smokers.

Some curious readers may ask, why does the smoke inhaled into the lungs affect the skin? Isn't this too mysterious?

Then let’s take a closer look at the mechanism.

The mechanism of aging caused by smoking

The mechanism by which smoking causes skin aging is actually similar to sun exposure. They both degrade collagen in the skin through a complex process. Collagen degradation is actually a core change in skin aging. In addition, normal elastic fibers will also denature and dissolve.

The combined result is a loss of skin elasticity, resulting in wrinkles, sagging skin and a variety of aging appearances.

The influencing substances are the various chemicals in the smoke, including nicotine.

In addition, nicotine will increase the content of vasopressin in the blood, which in turn will cause the contraction of peripheral blood vessels and affect the blood circulation function of the skin. During this period, a lot of reactive oxygen will be produced, and then the reactive oxygen will participate in the process of skin aging. In fact, reactive oxygen is also one of the key components of skin aging caused by ultraviolet rays in sunlight. We can see again that the skin aging caused by smoking and sun exposure has the same mechanism.

Summarize

Whether it is the individual case of twins or the research data and mechanism analysis, we can see that smoking and skin aging are closely related - it is basically a foregone conclusion that smoking destroys one's appearance.

Not to mention the old topic that smoking damages the lungs, just for the sake of skin health, to have fewer wrinkles, or to have wrinkles later, we also advocate that everyone actively quit smoking.

The article is produced by Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project (Creation and Cultivation). Please indicate the source when reprinting.

Author: Tang Jiaoqing, attending physician of dermatology, doctor of medicine, popular science author

Reviewer: Cheng Fang, Chief Physician, Department of Dermatology, Xingtai People's Hospital, Hebei Province