Your skin is the most sensitive part of your body. It is prone to various damaging factors due to its sensitivity. Just like the sun’s ultraviolet rays can damage the skin, smoking cigarettes can also have harmful consequences on your skin. The nicotine present in your rolled-up bundles not only poses a life-threatening illness but can also severely impact your skin.
You can experience premature aging, droopy surface or other skin diseases due to smoking. You should be aware of the harmful impacts smoking has on your most cherished organ.
In What Way Does Smoking Affect the Skin?
Smoking can produce free radicals – unstable oxygen-containing molecules – that damage other cells in the body. The toxins in cigarettes lead to such atoms’ production and cause an imbalance between antioxidants and these atoms to cause oxidative stress. Oxidative stress minimizes the oxygen for the skin and can result in both temporary and permanent harm.
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Free radicals might also multiply the possibility of oral cancer, hair loss and gum disease for smokers. You can see various conditions mentioned on the cigarette boxes. If you are a retailer, we would recommend you mentioning different diseases on different types of cigarettes. You can easily get your custom cigarette boxes from any leading packaging company.
Let’s look at the seven most common skin diseases caused by smoking.
Imbalanced Skin Color
Smoking constricts the blood flow of a human and can cause a color imbalance in a regular smoker. Smoking can make your skin pale or grey, owing to the shortage of blood in your body. Scientifically, your capillaries turn up irregular on the epidermis when your blood vessels are protuberant.
Premature Aging
It is the most common problem a smoker experiences. You might get wrinkles on the face, such as crow’s feet – wrinkles etched on the sides of eyes. You naturally get crow’s feet at a later stage of your life, whereas they start appearing at an earlier age for smokers.
Similarly, you can also experience wrinkles around your mouth. They occur due to the pouting action you perform while smoking.
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Furthermore, nicotine also has a dehydrating impact on smokers as it is a diuretic. It cuts the number of vitamins – especially Vitamin A and C – your body absorbs. Hence, it promotes premature aging as antioxidant vitamins are skipped in the process.
Saggy Skin
As we have discussed previously, the nicotine in tobacco can constrict the blood flow in a body. The main proteins – elastin and collagen – that work in your elasticity also get affected by the toxin in a smoke. It will make your skin saggy and slouchy.
Smoking does not sag only your face but also the upper body. It all occurs due to elastosis – a degenerative change in the dermal tissue – to give you an old, saggy appearance in your young age.
Psoriasis – Rapid Skin Cells Multiplication
Smoking is another cause of psoriasis – a skin disorder that generates your skin cells 10x faster than regular rate – turning your skin bumpy. Smokers are more prone to psoriasis and they become vulnerable when people smoke to deal with their anxiety and stress.Â
Stress is one of the reasons it gets triggered as it is an autoimmune ailment, and nicotine deteriorates your immune system. You can experience inflammation and deleterious growth of the cells.
Skin Cancer
Squamous Cell Carcinoma – a form of cancer – is the second most regular type of cancer disease. Smokers are relatively more prone to it. You can see it on the smokers’ lips. Not only SCC, but smokers are also prone to oral cancer and precancerous stage. It can spread to the other parts of your body; however, you can reduce the risk by giving up smoking.
Healing Factor
It has been observed that a smoker’s body takes considerably more time to heal the wounds. Your wounds get open to the risk of infections if they remain exposed. It can impact the production of your blood vessels and other serious conditions. That is why medical experts advise to give up smoking before surgery as toxins in the cigarette affect your body’s healing factor. Your scars and marks will be notable following the operation if you are a smoker.
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There are also possibilities that you can gain weight and experience stretch marks on various body parts in a short span.
Acne Inversa/Hidradenitis Supurativa
It is a chronic skin disease that is common among smokers and obese women. Acne inversa is an inflammatory condition that causes abscesses – inflammation of sweat glands and pimple-like bumps. They are painful and can leave marks after they are healed.
There are many damaging aspects a smoker can experience and these seven points are the most prominent ones. We would advise you to give up smoking, but if you can’t do that, at least somehow cut it down to minimize the risk of skin disorders.
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