What happens to your skin when you quit smoking

Skin that covers our body’s outer surface and prevents our body from different diseases, environmental hazards, and temperature harshness is the true manifestation of various body dysfunction. Can you believe, many ongoing and upcoming diseases can be easily detected from the skin and its appendages. These are anemias, malignancies, and nutritional deficiencies respectively. Skin can elicit all these problems and give us a chance to treat them at the earliest. In this article, we will discuss the different manifestations of smoking on our skin and how our skin recovers from these effects when we give up smoking.

Smoking exposes the body to different cancer-causing ingredients and inflammatory agents. These agents are responsible for the yellowing of the skin, pigmentation, and even dry skin. The sole reason behind these etiologies is that these ingredients decrease the blood flow to our skin; hence all these manifestations result. But can you believe what happens to your skin when you quit smoking? Let’s discuss it here;

1. Smoking inhibits the production of all the connective tissue proteins that provide elasticity to the skin. It eventually results in hard, dry skin that loses its texture. Researches have proved that quitting smoking for about two months can produce all these proteins, and skin again gets back its tone and elasticity.
2. Smoking results in the darkening and hyperpigmentation of the skin. These manifestations are due to byproducts of smoking which get deposited in the skin. For around three months, cutting down on smoking can reverse the skin’s dark patches and hyperpigmentation.
3. Smoking compromises the blood supply of skin, resulting in scaly and pale skin. But luckily, these changes can be corrected by stopping smoking for about a month. Blood vessels can grow again, and the blood supply is restored.
4. Tobacco and nicotine are the sole reason behind many skin diseases like psoriasis, dermatitis, and different skin infections. It is important to note that smoking affects our immune system, and the result can be seen in the form of pathologies. Researchers have concluded that people who don’t smoke or quit smoking tend to suffer from these conditions less likely.
5. Wrinkling of the skin, which everyone thinks is the sole result of aging. Can you believe that smoking ten cigarettes a day can wrinkle your skin even when you are in your thirties? Regular smoking alters the connective tissue structures in the skin, and wrinkles result. These wrinkles and skin sagging can be reduced by cutting down on smoking.
6. The dull, greyish yellow complexion that appears in the form of dark circles and wrinkles can be reversed by quitting smoking. Hardly it will take three to four months after quitting smoking to get your clear skin back.
7. Dark spots on the fingers that can result from excessive heat transfer from cigarettes can be worrisome in some people and take even four to five months to get cleared after quitting smoking.

It is important to note that the skin and the whole body get cleansed after stopping smoking. It takes time, but the results are auspicious. Though the results are delayed at times, they will come for sure.

Conclusion

Smoking effects and manifestations on the skin are very deleterious in the form of skin infections, inflammatory reactions, pigmentations, and dark spots. These side effects can be minimized by stopping smoking. Though quitting smoking is not as easy as pie, and at times you have to juggle between leaving and continuing, remember life is precious, and we have to regard it. Let’s quit smoking today and have clear, smooth, and gentle skin.

References

1. Yazdanparast, T., H. Hassanzadeh, S. A. Nasrollahi, S. M. Seyedmehdi, H. Jamaati, A. Naimian, M. Karimi, R. Roozbahani, and A. Firooz. 2019. “Cigarettes Smoking and Skin: A Comparison Study of the Biophysical Properties of Skin in Smokers and Non-Smokers.” Tanaffos 18 (2). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32440305/.
2. Thomsen, S. F., and L. T. Sørensen. 2010. “Smoking and Skin Disease.” Skin Therapy Letter 15 (6). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20532469/.
3. Urbańska, M., G. Nowak, and E. Florek. 2012. “[Cigarette Smoking and Its Influence on Skin Aging].” Przeglad Lekarski 69 (10). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23421102/.