If you’re a smoker you’ve probably been told that smoking is bad for your lungs and heart. These particular organs are important to your overall healthcare and should be taken care of, but did you know that smoking effects your largest organ as well? The one that covers your entire body, your skin.
How Smoking Affects the Skin 
That’s right, smoking has been proven to take a toll on skin, primarily by aging it more rapidly.
So, how does smoking “age” your skin if you’re always the age you are? The same way overexposure to the sun can: causes it to lose elasticity, wrinkle, and lose moisture. This happens in myriad ways. A very direct correlation is that smokers regularly hold a flame next to their face–some of the most delicate skin on the body. This can lead to direct burns, or, overtime, a general drying of the skin. Just like going into a heated room in winter can cause your skin to dry out, so can keeping a cigarette nearby.
More Than Aging
One theory about the link between smoking and the appearance of aging in the skin, is that vasoconstriction, or a narrowing of the blood vessels, reduces the supply of blood to the skin and can cause loss of collagen and changes in skin elastic fibers. Effectively: wrinkles. While smoking effects the whole organ, it seems the effects are most visible around the mouth in what are called “smoker’s lines”.
This effect on the skin isn’t limited to wrinkles and acne–which it exacerbates as well–but can effect the skin’s ability to heal. Whether you have a scrap of a surgical wound, quick healing is important to staving off wound infections, graft failure, and blood clot formation. Again, the correlation is less clear, but its thought that these are a result of lack of oxygen reaching skin cells and delayed growth of new blood vessels.
Are you dealing with the effects of smoking on your skin? Call the friendly professionals at Four Points Dermatology to schedule a consultation today! They’re quality Austin dermatologists with a passion for serving their valued customers.
