Cigarettes contain toxins that age every organ of your body, including your skin. Smoking narrows blood vessels and limits access to oxygen and nutrients essential for skin health and appearance; collagen and elastin production decreases, leading to wrinkles.
Cigarette smoke also staining teeth and fingernails, though quitting smoking reverses many of these effects.
Reduces Your Risk of Lung Cancer
Smoking causes devastating physical harm, but quitting can turn back some of its destructive effects. Quitters will find immediate benefits such as restored normal blood pressure and circulation as well as decreased risk for heart disease, lung damage and erectile dysfunction. Furthermore, yellow stains that develop on hands and fingers due to tobacco smoke will gradually fade as your body repairs damage caused by tobacco smoke.
After just a few weeks of not smoking, your breathing should begin to improve significantly. This is due to microscopic hair-like structures called cilia on the lung lining sweeping away mucus and dirt that has built up, with smoking interfering by paralyzing these cilia – smoking can even paralyzing them completely, leading to chronic coughs such as bronchitis or emphysema resulting from this interference. Your lungs also begin healing themselves naturally as well, eventually clearing away tar that has built up over time from clinging onto them!
Lung cancer is one of the primary causes of death among smokers, yet researchers have recently demonstrated that quitting significantly reduces one’s additional risk for this form of cancer. A study published in Annals of Internal Medicine followed a group of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer cases who quit smoking; results demonstrated they lived 22 months longer.
Findings revealed this to be true regardless of age or smoking intensity; even advanced cancer patients experienced an increase in survival when they quit smoking. This is likely because carbon monoxide from cigarettes binds with hemoglobin in your blood and limits its ability to transport oxygen; when you stop smoking, these levels return to normal, which increases oxygen levels in your system, decreasing lung cancer risk significantly.
Reduces Your Risk of Heart Disease
Once you stop smoking, your blood levels of nicotine and carbon monoxide return to normal quickly, as do coughing and shortness of breath. Within two weeks of quitting smoking, it should become easier for you to walk up stairs or breathe normally while exercising; even conversing may become easier; your lungs will begin healing instantly!
Smoking increases your risk of heart disease by damaging the arteries that carry oxygen-rich blood to and from your cells, potentially leading to heart attacks, aneurysms and peripheral artery disease. By quitting smoking you can decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease while improving lung, skin, hair, blood, bone health as well as stomach health as well as reproductive systems health – making quitting smoking both cost-cutting and health improving!
According to one study of people with coronary artery disease, smoking cessation reduced their risk of heart attack by 44% over 12 years after quitting smoking – this effect being much greater than reduction of smoking amounts and nearly equaling that seen among never smokers.
Quitting smoking improves circulation, providing more oxygen and nutrients to reach the skin. As such, signs of premature ageing (such as yellow stains on fingers and hands from smoking) often fade within a month of quitting. Smoking also interferes with how your body heals itself so quitting could also prevent slow healing wounds; additionally, one small 2019 study demonstrated how cessation may increase collagen production, helping reverse signs of ageing in skin tissue.
Reduces Your Risk of Stroke
Smoking makes the heart work harder, thickens blood and increases your risk of clots and narrowed arteries, while quitting can reverse some of these effects and lower stroke risks. After one year, quitting will cut your risk by half; by 15 years time it should equal that of nonsmokers.
Smokers face increased risks of lung cancer, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Tobacco smoke also puts smokers at higher risk of cardiovascular disease as it reduces oxygen delivery to organs and can even contribute to early deaths from heart attacks and stroke. According to one 2019 study, smokers tend to die younger due to tobacco’s toxic presence preventing oxygen delivery to the organs naturally.
Studies show that those who give up smoking experience lower cholesterol levels, reduced blood pressure and an decreased risk of coronary heart disease and other cardiovascular problems. It also helps those living with cardiovascular conditions find relief without needing blood thinner medications to control symptoms – and vice versa!
Smoking increases your risk of osteoporosis and other bone diseases because smoking disrupts circulation, decreasing oxygen delivery to bones. When you quit, circulation improves and so too do its effects on bones – as well as any yellow stains left from smoking on fingers and hands caused by this habit – thus helping pregnant women give birth safely and with adequate birth weight; smoking while pregnant also increases risks such as prematurity or low birth weight babies being born too soon or too small than expected; it also lowers respiratory complications after surgery or for those living with COPD.
Reduces Your Risk of Menopause
Women who smoke have an increased risk of early menopause (before age 45). Cigarette smoking can reduce ovarian follicles and the amount of natural estrogen produced, because its chemicals – nicotine and polycyclic hydrocarbons in particular – inhibit aromatase, an enzyme responsible for turning androgens into estrogens. Furthermore, smoking reduces peak levels of luteinizing hormone, stimulating ovulation. The combination can result in less frequent, lighter or longer menstruations periods due to reduced production and stimulation by this hormone reduction effect.
Multiple studies have reported an association between cigarette smoking and natural menopause age, but these investigations often have several shortcomings: They tend to be cross-sectional and don’t examine specific smoking patterns; many do not accurately assess time between exposure and outcome; additionally they do not take into account important covariates such as age, body mass index (BMI) or race as covariates;
The NHSII is a longitudinal cohort study designed to provide accurate temporal evaluation of smoking’s impact on menopause. Participants report their cigarette smoking habits throughout their 20 years of follow up; this approach addresses limitations inherent in previous cross-sectional studies as well as confounding or effect modification issues.
If you are currently smoking, quitting can significantly enhance your health. Speak to your physician about available tools for quitting such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication; an Gennev menopause-certified gynecologist can offer their trusted opinion in developing an individualized quit plan; alternatively try hypnotherapy or acupuncture as possible solutions – the goal should be finding something that works and sticks!
Reduces Your Risk of Wrinkles
Smoking harms skin in various ways, from decreasing collagen production and leading to wrinkles to age spots, hyperpigmentation and worsening conditions like psoriasis and eczema – it even can make you appear older than those who don’t smoke at your same age!
One study compared identical twins living different lifestyles and found that smoking twins appeared significantly older due to damage caused by oxidation, narrowed blood vessels, reduced oxygen and nutrient flows and wrinkled skin caused by reduced oxygen and nutrient flow resulting from smoking – these effects contribute to what’s known as “smoker’s face”, including wrinkles around mouth and eyes, crow’s feet wrinkles, dull complexion and sagging.
Quitting smoking can bring many positive benefits for your skin. Within weeks of quitting, its tone, brightness, and hydration will improve significantly; blood circulation may improve as well, helping reduce puffiness and fine lines as well as appearing more radiant as collagen levels increase.
After quitting smoking, your skin’s appearance will change gradually over time depending on various factors including diet, lifestyle and skin care routine. But the key thing to remember is that your ability to renew and repair itself increases significantly as soon as you stop. Therefore it’s essential that a comprehensive skincare plan be part of your quitting plan with in-office treatments and topical products available from FLDSCC’s board-certified providers, who can suggest the ideal products, strategies and treatments to achieve radiant, healthy skin after smoking cessation. To learn more contact FLDSCC today so we can arrange an initial consultation where one of our board-certified providers can recommend optimal products, strategies and skin care solutions tailored specifically for you after quitting.
