Few things age your skin faster than cigarettes. Thinking of quitting? Quit smoking benefits include reversing the signs of aging and looking younger. 

How Smoking Ages You

• One study found that smoking reduces the average age span by 7 years. And use of tobacco products decreases disease free living by 14 years. 

• Cigarette smoking exhausts your body’s defenses and repair functions, which leads to an accumulation of damage throughout the body.

• Most people realize smoking has an association with a number of diseases like high blood pressure and heart disease. But lesser known is the fact that smoking is also associated with many skin conditions, including poor wound healing, premature skin aging, skin cancer like squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma, mouth cancer cancer, acne, psoriasis, and hair loss. 

• Besides age, smoking is a main predictor of facial wrinkling in men and women.

Smoker’s Face 

Photo and accompanying article at NBC News.com.

Yes, smoker’s face is a real thing. A  1985 study found that smokers can be identified by facial traits. These traits include wrinkles, gauntness of the face, and a grayish or ashen complexion. To illustrate the reality of smoker’s face researchers studied twins.The photo above shows twins Brenda and Barb. The twin on the left, Brenda, smoked half a pack of cigarettes daily, while the twin on the right never smoked. The more you smoke, and the longer you smoke, the more your skin’s health will be negatively impacted. Cigarette smoking clearly ages you. 

Yes, Smoking Causes Wrinkles 

Reduces Access to Nutrients

Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide and other harmful chemicals. When you smoke, the carbon monoxide displaces the life-giving, health boosting, oxygen in your skin. Plus nicotine, the addictive chemical in cigarettes, reduces blood flow, leaving skin dry, dull, and discolored. Nicotine narrows the fine blood vessels in the outermost layer of skin. This impairs blood flow, reducing the flow of necessary vital nutrients that keep skin healthy. This process reduces oxygen and nutrients to your cells, so your skin doesn’t get what it  needs to be healthy and regenerative. 

Smoking also reduces the amount of important vitamins like A, C, E that all create glowing skin. Studies have shown that tobacco smoke negatively impacts B vitamins, selenium, B-carotene, and zinc. 

Repetitive Facial Movements

Repeated facial expressions you make when smoking or holding a cigarette in your lips, causes pursing of the lips when inhaling. This leads to premature wrinkles around the lips and mouth. Exposure to the heat from burning cigarettes and to avoid getting smoke in your eyes, you squint, which contributes to further wrinkles around the eyes and forehead.

Lack of Sleep

According to a Johns Hopkins study, smokers are four times more likely as nonsmokers to report feeling unrested after a night’s sleep. Lack of sleep depletes the reparative and restorative processes of the skin, leaving under eye bags, dark circles, and eventually fine lines.

High In Chemicals

Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, leading to further damage of the skin’s levels of elastin and collagen. The skin sags even more. In one study, the rate of collagen (the main building block of the skin) was 18% lowered in the skin fluid of the smokers compared with the non-smokers.

If You Smoke Do This For Your Skin

If you smoke, counteract it with strong antioxidants in your skincare such as vitamin C, vitamin E, niacinamide, and CoQ10. Antioxidants in skincare fight the damage of smoking, pollution and free radicals. And remember quit smoking benefits include improving your skin's health and appearance.