Does smoking make a person look older?

Question

I know that smoking is'nt a healthy passtime, but my Aunt tells me it can also make me look older than I actually am. Is that true & if so, how does it cause premature aging?

Answer 1

it can age the skin yes

Answer 2

'It may be hard, but the best thing you can do for a beautiful, glowing complexion is to stop smoking. Smoking both dehydrates and deprives your skin of oxygen, so you will see real benefits - skin will become smoother and more radiant.' Sarah Monzani, make-up artist to Madonna

Smoking ages you
Along with sun damage and hard living, nicotine can add years to your appearance. According to Dr. Nicholas Perricone, dermatologist and author of The Perricone Prescription (HarperCollins), the effects of smoking in terms of ageing are significant. When we inhale just one puff of cigarette smoke, more than a trillion free radicals are produced in our lungs, which then trigger an inflammatory response that circulates throughout the body. And if that wasn't enough to persuade you to kick the habit, in 1985 the term 'smoker's face' was added to the medical dictionary. The characteristics of a smoker's face, which tends to make people look older than they are, was defined as the following:

Lines or wrinkles on the face, particularly radiating at right angles from the upper and lower lips or corners of the eyes, deep lines on the cheeks or numerous shallow lines on the cheeks and lower jaw.

A subtle gauntness of the features, with prominence of the underlying bony contours.

A grey skin palour.

Cigarette smoking causes biochemical changes in our bodies that accelerate aging. Research shows that a person who smokes 10 or more cigarettes a day for a minimum of 10 years is statistically more likely to develop deeply wrinkled, leathery skin than a nonsmoker. It also has been shown that people who smoke for a number of years tend to develop an unhealthy yellowish hue to their complexion. Additionally, a study conducted in 2002 showed that facial wrinkling, while not yet visible, can be seen under a microscope in smokers as young as 20.

These signs can be greatly diminished, and in some cases avoided, by stopping smoking. Even people who have smoked for many years, or smoked heavily at a younger age, show less facial wrinkling and improved skin tone when they quit smoking.

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Answer 3

Smoking ages ones skin

Answer 4

please Teresa dint start smoking, i am a smoker and wish that i had never picked them up. i have chronic bronchitis, and a terrible cough that wont go away. it also isn't cool to smoke because u may look older. your time is coming to have fun, just plz don't smoke. it also causes wrinkles around your mouth and besides that the risks of smoking outway the coolness that u r looking for. as for your aunt she should encourage u not to smoke for your health amoung other things.

Answer 5

Just check out around a persons mouth who smokes and one of a similar age who does not, all the lips are usually puckered up.

Answer 6

You know it does. It creates these little ridges right above the lips and effects the smoothness of the skin. It invades every pore in your intire body. It will not only make you look older, it will make you look dead. I saw a lung in a medical setting that was a smokers(they had died of lung cancer) and it was black and looked as if it had ridges and tears in the flesh. My friend (who smoked) had to have one lung removed from lung cancer. I beg you to quit.

Answer 7

Nicotine constrict blood vessels and this somehow hampers our cells from receiving oxygen and nutrition that is carried by the blood. Thus prolong smoking will cause unhealthy skin (among other harmful things) and smokers usually have dull complexion. The dermis layer of the skin is deprived of adequate nutrition which is then reflected on the epidermis ( top most layer of the skin). In due time, unhealthy skin will contribute to premature ageing.

Answer 8

Smoking not only stinks, it's terrible for skin because a cigarette around the mouth causes probably much more then wrinkles.

Answer 9

This does cause you to look older as it makes your teeth turn yellow and your nails go all flaky.
If I were you I would try to stop smoking. I hope you know that people who smoke do not live as long as non-smokers. My aunt was refused a MORTGAGE because she smoked!

Answer 10

Yes. I work in a shop and I can normally guess which customers are going to ask me for cigarettes. Apart from the way they smell, which is awful, they have deeper voices (because their throats have been damaged by the cigarettes), they have yellow finger tips from the nicotine, and their faces look pinched, grey and lined.

Answer 11

Your aunt is correct it will make your skin dry and look older..but you can overcome this by not inhaling the smoke.