Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you. Also known as smoking is related to various systemic disorders and various types of cancer,

• Lung cancer
• Stomach cancer
• Blood cancer
• A specific type of skin cancer known as squamous cell carcinoma
• Different types of cancer of the oral mucosa.

It is also associated with different types of hair loss.
But something that I don't think many people know is that smoking is one of the factors main of aging. In particular, premature aging and skin atrophy.
Studies on smoking and skin aging date back to the early 1970s. Even then, a large study showed a positive correlation between the number of cigarettes smoked per year and skin aging levels of the participants.


In addition to premature aging of your skin, smoking can cause or may worsen the following skin problems:

• Dehydrated skin
• Dull and dry skin
• Psoriasis
• Hidradenitis suppurativa (reverse acne)
• Lupus erythematosus
• Rosacea

When you smoke, there are over 400 different chemicals that enter the body. For the body to remove these, those they must be broken down and processed, explains Dr Carol. As they are breaking down, they release and activate something called a ROS system – reactive oxygen species. ROS is what we would generally refer to as "oxidant"; these include molecules, for example peroxide, different alpha oxygen, radicals hydroxyl. They are negatively charged molecules that tend to bind to everything they find

Of course, the body is very smart. It has a system to fight these radicals through scavenger receptors. These receptors bind to radicals and escape from them.
Impairment of collagen production and skin repair
Because smoking causes hyper-expression of MMPs, it leads to an imbalance between degradation and production of collagen cells in our skin.

Collagen has a lifespan of about 3 months and it takes up to 3 months to start is produced again. So, with this imbalance, with the overexpression of these metalloproteinases - especially metalloproteinases 1 and 3 - there will be an excessive degradation of collagen. This it happens so fast that the body simply cannot keep up with it. You cannot produce collagen enough to replenish what is being destroyed due to smoking. From the side next, it starts to create what we call trophoelastin. This is another type of elastin which is not as functionally efficient as the elastin that our skin would normally produce if there would be more time."

Because of this breakdown of the skin matrix and its accumulation abnormal trophoelastin, our skin repair function is impaired. This results in us skin weakness.

• Dull, dry, less elastic skin
• Early onset lines and wrinkles
• Lines and wrinkles that may deepen prematurely
• Decline and formation of calluses due to weakening of the skin


The formation of vertical "smoker's lines" also known as "barcode lines" around the mouth from the physical act of smoking. Hyperpigmentation problems due to the effect of tobacco on melanin production.

How can we prevent premature aging due to smoking? The obvious answer is to never start smoking!"