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Smoking makes you look older than you actually are

KARACHI: Smoking in not only a sure pathway to cancers, heart diseases and respiratory system problems, but it makes you older than your age by helping developing facial wrinkles. Smokers in their 30s have facial wrinkles similar to those of nonsmokers in their 50s.

In 1985, Dr. Douglas Model added the term “smoker’s face” to the medical dictionary after conducting a study (published in the British Medical Journal) where he found he was able to identify smokers, who had smoked for ten years or more, by their facial features alone. The distinctive characteristics of a smoker’s face which tend to make people look older than they are were called “smoker’s face” and were present in roughly half of the smokers he surveyed, irrespective of the patient’s age, social class, exposure to sunlight, recent change in weight and estimated lifetime consumption of cigarettes.

Experts say smoking can accelerate the normal aging process of your skin, contributing to wrinkles. These skin changes may occur after only 10 years of smoking and are irreversible. Smoking causes narrowing of the blood vessels in the outermost layers of skin. This impairs blood flow to skin, depleting it of oxygen and important nutrients, such as vitamin A. Smoking also damages collagen and elastin - fibers that give your skin its strength and elasticity. As a result, skin begins to sag and wrinkle prematurely.

In addition, repeated exposure to the heat from burning cigarettes and the facial expressions you make when smoking – such as pursing your lips when inhaling and squinting your eyes to keep out smoke - may contribute to wrinkles. Smokers not only develop premature wrinkling and sagging of the skin similar to those of aging, and they are also prone to premature thinning and graying of the hair. Men who smoke are twice as likely to become bald as are men who do not smoke - and premature graying is three to six times more common in smokers.

Just 10 minutes of cigarette smoking decreases the body’s and skin’s oxygen supply for almost an hour. Nicotine narrows blood vessels and prevents blood from circulating to the tiny blood vessels (capillaries) in the upper layer of the skin. Cigarette smoking causes the blood vessels at the top layers of the skin to constrict and so reducing the oxygen level in the blood there. This thickens the blood and reduces the levels of collagen in the skin (it is actually because of this that smoking is also associated with slow or incomplete healing of wounds).

In fact, smoking a single cigarette can produce a decrease in the caliber of blood vessels for up to 90 minutes. One study suggests that blood flow in the thumb decreases about 24 percent after smoking one cigarette and by 29 percent after two cigarettes. Another study suggested that finger blood flow fell by an average of 42 percent after smoking one cigarette. A further study found that smoking for 10 minutes decreases tissue oxygen tension for almost an hour and concluded that tissues of a typical pack-a-day smoker would remain deprived of normal flow of oxygen for most of each day.

The answer to getting rid of all these troubles is to quit smoking. This task seeming easy is in fact very difficult, as Mark Twain wrote: “Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a thousand times.”

If Mark Twain were alive today, he could have been more successful in his efforts to quit smoking - thanks to what modern science has learned about smoking cessation. In recent years, researchers have learned a great deal about the factors that help people quit smoking successfully, the barriers that may interfere with smoking cessation, and the special problems faced by particular populations - including teenagers. Scientists have also developed new techniques for smoking cessation — including both drugs and counseling methods - that substantially increase the chances of success.

Learning to live without cigarettes is difficult but hardly impossible. People who never thought they could do it now live smoke-free lives. Here are some tips that can help you or someone you care about kick the habit for good.

Try to stop smoking cold turkey, this method works best for most people. You can also try tapering off by cutting down on your cigarettes only half of each one.

Destroy all cigarettes and clean out your ashtrays. Use your favorite lighter to light candles or burn incense instead of cigarettes.

Buy plenty of sugarless gum, lollipops, and raw vegetables to munch on. Hold on to a pencil, or a small ball or toy, to keep your hands busy and cigarette-free. Drink lots of water and fruit juice. Use a straw so you can satisfy the urge to hold a cigarette in your mouth.

Take exercise to relieve stress and tension. Walking, sports, and aerobics will be much easier now that you’re smoke-free. Change your habits related to smoking. Eat your meals in a different place or in the non-smoking section, watch TV in a different chair, study in a library or another smoke-free place, doodle while talking on the phone, hang out with people who support you in your effort to give up cigarettes.

Whenever you feel the urge to reach for a cigarette, stop and take some deep breaths of clean, fresh air and hold them in for a few seconds. Call a friend to give you support.

Know before you quit that you may gain a few pounds at first although two-thirds of people who choose to stop smoking do not gain any weight. Decide that a few pounds are not as bad as wrinkles, yellow teeth, and health problems that cigarettes cause.

Save the money you would have spent on cigarettes in a jar and at the end of the month buy yourself something special with it. ppi

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