Smoking's Effects on the Skin

Oxygen

When you breathe, oxygen moves around your bloodstream, taking nutrients and vitamins to your organs, essentially feeding your tissues from inside the body. Your skin is your body's largest organ, and it is dependent on this oxygen-rich blood to function in a healthful manner. When you smoke, carbon dioxide takes the place of oxygen in your blood, blocking sufficient oxygen from reaching your organs, namely your skin. This can cause catastrophic effects on your tissues, as you basically are starving them from their food supply when you smoke.

Besides carbon dioxide, cigarette smoke also contains ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, nicotine, pyridine, arsenic and other dangerous chemicals. These foreign chemicals put your liver to work in high speed, and over a period of time, can make your liver unable to perform its job of expelling chemicals and waste from your body. This can result in a backup of toxins in your system, causing your skin to dull and to develop a yellowish hue. Obviously, the more you smoke, the worse this discoloration can become.

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, one your body cannot produce on its own. Cigarette smoke actually utilizes about 35 mg of Vitamin C per cigarette, lowering the amount in your body. Vitamin C is extremely important, both for immune support to help ward off infections, and for collagen preservation in your skin. This collagen works as a filler, giving a full, plump look to your skin. The breakdown of collagen from smoking lessens that youthful fullness, creating wrinkles around the eyes and mouth prematurely.

The puckering motion you do with your lips while taking a puff from a cigarette also, over time, will cause wrinkles prematurely. Additionally, people tend to squint when smoking, to shield their eyes from the billowing smoke from their cigarettes, causing wrinkles in the eye area.

The easiest way to stop smoking is to never start. If you are already a smoker, consult your physician about a game plan that is right for you to start the quitting process. Smoking effects not only your skin, but it also has countless medical repercussions for your overall health, and the health of people around you who breathe in your second-hand smoke.