Another Reason Why You Should Not Smoke?

Being the largest cause of preventable death in the world, smoking can lead to numerous diseases including cancer, respiratory disease, heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure) and stroke.

Smoking can by itself increase the risk of heart disease. But when combined with other risk factors like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, or sedentary, the risk of chronic diseases and death can be very high. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people die because of smoking. More than 440,000 people in the United States of America and 100,000 in the United Kingdom die as a result of smoking each year.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), smoking produces a greater relative risk in people who are under the age of 50 than those over 50. A recent study showed that smoking not only harms the lungs and hearts, it also makes one look older than he or she really is.

During the 38th Annual Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio held between August 2 and 4, 2013, researchers presented a report on 79 identical pairs of twins. These twins were identified during Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio between 2007 and 2010. Only one twin smoked or where one twin smoked at least 5 years longer than the other.

Participants answered questionnaires with their standardized photographs taken by professional photographers. A panel of 3 blinded-judges analyzed the twins’ facial features and graded wrinkles using the validated Lemperle Assessment Scale, and ranked age-related facial features on a 4-point scale.

Their findings, which were published in the November 2013’s issue of journal ‘Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery’, identified a few major areas of accelerated aging in the faces of the smoking twins. The smokers’ upper eyelids drooped while the lower lids sagged. The smokers also had more wrinkles around the mouth, and were more likely to have jowls.

The researchers explained that smoking reduces oxygen to the skin, which also lowered blood circulation. This can result in weathered, wrinkled, older-looking skin. They also concluded that facial aging caused by smoking primarily affected the middle and lower thirds of the face, and a 5-year difference in smoking history could bring noticeable differences in facial aging in twins.

What is the logic behind this study? While the threats of cancer and heart disease could not really stop people from smoking, perhaps the appealing to a person’s vanity might. The findings, however, do not intend to make smokers feel bad. Stop smoking can in fact make a difference for all aspects of the health, including the skin damage to the face. As soon as one stops smoking, the repair begins not only to the skin but also to the lungs and heart vessels.