The effects of smoking on skin aging have been recognized for a long time.  A 1965 study first identified what came to be known as “smoker’s face”-gray, pale and wrinkled skin.  In recent years it has become broadly accepted that the skin is damaged by smoking making smokers look older than nonsmokers of the same chronological ages.

The Chief Medical Officer of the UK highlighted the link between smoking and skin damage, saying that smoking adds between 10 and 20 years to your natural age!  So, how does smoking speed up skin damage?  It all starts with the free radicals formed in your body by exposure to tobacco smoke.  As we know, free radicals are highly unstable and powerful molecules that cause inflammation, resulting in disease and damage to cell DNA.  The cells of your body start behaving erratically, producing a range of responses that make your skin age faster.

Professor Antony Young of Guys School of Medicine in London, who was the leader of the team that demonstrated in 2001 how collagen loss was accelerated by smoking stated: “Smoking exerts such a noticeable effect on the skin that it’s often possible to detect whether or not a person is a smoker simply by looking at his or her face.  Smokers have more wrinkles, and their skin tends to have a grayish pallor compared to nonsmokers.”

As a fellow dermatologist I heartily agree with Professor Young’s statement.  Just as you can identify people who eat large amounts of high glycemic carbohydrates by their “doughy” look and lack of facial contours, smokers are immediately identifiable by their unhealthy pallor, wrinkles, sagging and a thick, leathery look to their skin.

What will it take for you to stop smoking?