It is a known fact that smoking is injurious to health. It is bad for your brain, lungs, heart, and even your sex life. But it is not just your health which seems to be getting affected by your smoking habit, it is also your looks that are at stake. In fact, with every drag you take, you land up creating a dark pockmark on that beautiful face of yours. Here, we list both the short time effects as well as long time effects of smoking. We’d like to highlight how it is damaging your looks and overall appearance.
Eyes
Now, we have all experienced how lack of a good night’s sleep can make you feel grumpy and drowsy for the entire next day. Nicotine is going to make it worse. The withdrawal symptoms get worse during the night that makes smokers prone to restless nights sleep. Lack of enough sleep is not going to help your pretty looks either. In older people, cataract are a common effect of smoking too much. It happens owing to the oxidative stress placed on your eye lenses due to smoking.
Psoriasis
If you thought, only genes are responsible for causing Psoriasis, think again! People who smoke are also in danger of Psoriasis. Long time smokers run a 60% more chance of being affected by this scaly skin condition than people who keep away from smoking. Passive smoking during pregnancy or childhood is also linked to high risk.
Teeth and Fingers
One of the long term effects of smoking is discoloring of the teeth. Nicotine is notoriously known to cause staining of your pearly whites. It is also linked to decay and erosion of teeth. It also ruins the gums, which could further lead to tooth loss. This means along with your cigarette expenditure; you also need to put on the tab your dentist expenses. Nicotine, moreover, is also known to stain your fingers.
Aging
Wrinkles may signify wisdom, but not when you are still young! If studies are to be believed smokers in general look 1.4 years older than their non smoking counterparts. The blood supply that keeps the skin looking supple and healthy can be hampered due to excessive smoking.
Hair
You can kiss goodbye to your dreams of having long, luscious, flowing hair if you still want to continue smoking. Smoking not only causes thinning of hair, but it also leads to eventual hair fall. Moreover, smoking cause early graying of the hair.
Your scars
If you have suffered injury and wondering why your scars are taking long to heal, the answer is simple. Nicotine causes vasoconstriction. It means nicotine will narrow the blood vessels that limit the oxygen-rich flow of blood to the vessels in the face and other parts of the body.
Skin
Smoking causes skin to become pale and we don’t mean it in a good way. It is commonly observed that the natural glow on the face of people who smoke, just doesn’t exist. Scientists believe that the oxygen in the blood of our skin get replaced by the carbon monoxide from the cigarettes, causing the skin to look pale and discolored. Minor skin problems are possibly a short term effect of smoking. However, if adequate measures are not taken, it may lead to long term issues. Nicotine is no friend of your skin. It is predicted that there is a direct correlation between smoking and stretch marks. Nicotine causes loss of elasticity in the skin by messing the fibers and connective tissues in the skin. Moreover, people who smoke are prone to skin cancer.
The Flab
Your inability to lose the chub from your body may be an effect of smoking as people who smoke put on fat easily than those who don’t. Cigarettes, being an appetite suppressant may work for those trying to lose weight. However, a study from Netherland has proven that nicotine, in fact, increases the body fat. Smoking usually leads to flab around the belly and cause love handles.
It is rather obvious that smoking affects your looks in more ways than you can imagine. With the support around, in terms of the counseling available there is no reason to not quit smoking. There are also many quit smoking medications available that can assist you in killing the habit. All that is needed here is a little will power.
It is a known fact that smoking is injurious to health. However, not many realize that smoking also does you much harm in terms of ruining your appearance. It apparently affects each and every part of your face from hair and eyes to skin to your teeth. Nicotine is also a major culprit in causing grave diseases like psoriasis, vasoconstriction and skin cancer. You can check out various quit smoking medications and read up on methods on how to quit smoking cigarettes on our website. If this is not enough reason to kick the habit then what is?
