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THE effects of smoking on your health are well-known but cigarettes also have a big impact on your looks.

Smoking can add 10 years to your appearance – as well as taking 10 years off your life.

Glasgow facial aesthetics expert Dr Kieren Bong said: “The best way to combat the premature ageing effects caused by smoking is to quit as soon as you can. This will allow your health to improve and your skin quality to be reinvigorated.”

The sooner you stop the better for your health to limit the damage and your skin will begin to look better a month after quitting.

Skin

Smoking affects the appearance of your skin – making you look older.

Dr Bong explained: “Even though premature skin ageing as a result of chronic smoking may be hard to notice initially, the more cigarettes you smoke and the longer you smoke directly impacts on the process of premature skin ageing.”

Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide, which displaces the oxygen in your skin. Nicotine reduces blood flow, leaving your skin dry and discoloured. Smoking also cuts many nutrients, including vitamin C, which helps protect and repair skin damage.

Wrinkles

Cigarettes lead to wrinkles and saggy-looking skin much faster.

Dr Bong said: “The classic signs of a chronic smoker are lines and wrinkles on the face, particularly noticeable around the upper lips and corners of the eyes also called crow’s feet.

“Chronic smoking can take up to 10 years off a person’s life, while adding at least 10 years to their appearance.

“It can expedite the normal ageing process of the skin, contributing to formation of wrinkles and folds.

“As nicotine is known to narrow blood vessels including those of the skin then your blood flow to the skin suffers.

“When you inhale cigarette smoke, you inhale carbon monoxide. Generally, blood absorbs this highly toxic gas 200 times faster than oxygen.

“In other words, the carbon monoxide effectively displaces oxygen and when this is coupled with the narrowing of blood vessels, the skin is starved of oxygen and other important nutrients, such as vitamin A.

“Without oxygen, skin cells can’t function normally. The consequence is that the skin

of smokers becomes wrinkly and saggy much faster than non-smokers.

“The chemicals in tobacco smoke damage the skin’s collagen and elastin, reducing its elasticity as well as its vitality and ­luminosity. Loss of collagen and elastin results in wrinkles and sagging of skin.”

Even the action of smoking will lead to wrinkles. Dr Bong said: “Chronic smoking and sun exposure are the two most significant factors in premature skin ageing. Repeated exposure to the heat from burning ­cigarettes coupled with the repetitive muscular actions of smoking such as pursing the lips, sucking in the cheeks and squinting your eyes to keep out smoke can lead to wrinkles around the lips, mouth and eyes.”

Bags under eyes

Smokers are four times more likely to have problems sleeping – which could lead to bags under your eyes.

It’s thought nicotine withdrawal overnight could lead smokers to toss and turn in bed, so they suffer from poor sleep quality which will leave them looking and feeling tired.

Yellow teeth

Nicotine in cigarettes will stain your teeth yellow which is another way to make yourself look older than your years. White teeth help give you a more youthful appearance.

Stained fingers

The nicotine in cigarette smoke can also stain your fingers and nails – another way smoking leaves its mark on your looks.Thinner hair

It’s thought the toxic chemicals in smoke can damage the DNA in hair follicles and also lead to cell-damaging free radicals.

This can mean smokers have thinner hair that tends to go grey sooner – which will make you look older.

●Dr Bong is a cosmetic doctor at Essence Medical Cosmetic Clinic www.essencemedical.co.uk