Cigarette smoking nearly guarantees that you will look old and unhealthy before your time on the outside, as well as on the inside. Smoking is a confirmed cause of premature facial wrinkles, according to Mayo Clinic.
Tobacco smoke contains more than 400 chemicals! Exposure to these chemicals decreases the body’s collagen and elastin levels, the fibers that allow skin to stay firm and pliable. Less skin elasticity results in more skin sagging. Even exposure to secondhand smoke causes this damage. You do not even have to inhale to suffer the consequences of being exposed to 400+ chemicals.
The nicotine in cigarettes reduces blood flow to the skin by causing the blood vessels to constrict. Because blood delivers oxygen and important cellular nutrition to the skin, if less blood is getting to the skin’s surface, the skin is deprived of life-giving, nourishing material and loses its suppleness and elasticity.
Here is the damage that smoking can wreak on your skin:
• Loose folds and pockets of skin under the eyes.
• Deep crow feet on the outside of the eyes from the heat of burning cigarettes and the squinting from the smoke.
• Dark, blotchy age spots on the face.
• Pale or uneven skin tone due to oxygen and nutrient deprivation.
• Deep lines around the mouth and lips from puckering and loss of elasticity.
Smoking is not just hard on the face. Research shows that the loss of skin elasticity from smoking causes inner arms to droop and breasts to sag.
While the wrinkles that smoking causes don’t disappear as soon as you stop smoking, they will stop progressing and ease up a bit over time. Mayo Clinic reports that within 12 hours of quitting, the skin starts to repair itself as the carbon monoxide levels decrease. After three months of smoking cessation, the skin’s circulation is returned to what it was before smoking began.
Despite improvements in facial skin that ex-smokers enjoy, there is often much residual damage remaining from even a short period of smoking. This is where life-altering help from a Cosmetic Doctor can be used to reduce the appearance of wrinkles with dermal fillers, Botox, or non-invasive laser procedures.
Your Laser Skin Care is your source for highly skilled and creative Los Angeles Skin Care solutions. Please call us at (323) 525-1516 for a free consultation.
