Skin and smoking: how does a bad habit affect your face and how does your appearance change after quitting cigarettes?

Do you think your skin is aging due to smoking?

Yes, of course. Unlikely

One of the most harmful habits is smoking. Despite the fact that doctors have long proven that smoking can lead to serious health problems, the number of smokers is growing every year.

In addition to the internal harmful effects, smoking also negatively affects the appearance of the smoker . A lack of oxygen and nutrients, as well as dehydration, makes the skin sagging and dry . Both men and women with nicotine addiction are given away by their faces. What is it like - the face of a smoker?

How does your appearance change after quitting smoking?

The removal of nicotine from the body begins almost immediately after the cigarette has been smoked. It turns out that if a smoker decides to get rid of a bad habit, then he has every chance to restore his body and appearance in a short time. So, what happens to your facial skin when you quit smoking?

Changes in facial skin after quitting smoking by day and week:

• After 12 hours without cigarettes, the lungs recover, breathing evens out, and bronchospasm disappears. As a result, the skin is better supplied with blood, and the complexion becomes healthier.
• After 24 hours, the amount of oxygen in the blood increases and the carbon dioxide content decreases. Nutrients begin to flow into the skin more intensively, making it cleaner. The appearance of acne stops. The formation of new rashes is possible - this means that toxins that have accumulated during the period of smoking are being eliminated.
• After 4 days, most of the toxic substances are eliminated, and odors from the mouth and body disappear. Increased sweating is possible, thus the body removes harmful substances through the pores.
• After 7 days, the digestive system is restored, the amount of toxins in the body is greatly reduced and the blood is purified. Pimples practically do not appear.
• After 1 month, complexion improves significantly, skin elasticity increases, fine expression wrinkles formed as a result of smoking are smoothed out.
• After 1.5-2 months, the unhealthy complexion will completely disappear, a blush will appear, the amount of collagen and elastin in the skin will increase, making it more elastic, and pimples will disappear.

It turns out that the skin needs 1.5-2 months to recover after giving up such a bad habit as smoking. This is for men and women with little smoking experience; for heavy smokers, the regeneration period can double.

Signs that a teenager is smoking

Teenagers usually hide their bad habits, so parents will benefit from recommendations on how to find out if a person has smoked. There are several simple ways:

1. Typically, breath from the mouth will not indicate anything, since teenagers quickly mask the smell with mint gum. Ask to breathe into an empty glass container. This makes it easier to recognize traces of tobacco.
2. If you need to find out about a harmful addiction without advertising it, it makes sense to just sniff. Tobacco smoke literally eats into your hair and nails. There the smell persists for 1.5 hours.
3. You can carefully examine the child’s things – his bag, pockets. There may be traces of tobacco there.

More about the dangers of smoking for skin

In addition to imperfections in appearance, a smoker can get serious diseases :

• Vincent's disease. A disease that affects the mucous membrane, causing the death of the gum epithelium.
• Melanoma. Through smoking breaks on the street, the smoker's lips and oral mucosa are exposed to sunlight and high temperatures of cigarette smoke, this injures skin cells and leads to the formation of malignant tumors that quickly spread metastases to other organs. In smokers, the disease progresses twice as fast and death is also more likely.
• Oncology in the oral cavity and lips. Smokers are 75 times more likely to develop cancer than non-smokers.

Why does smoking cause facial skin to age?

The ingestion of nicotine leads to a narrowing of blood vessels and arterioles, which provide nutrition and respiration to the skin. Spasms caused by periodic constriction of blood vessels provoke oxygen starvation and poor supply of nutrients to the skin, which impairs regeneration abilities . And this is very important, since the epidermis is regularly renewed, due to which wounds and abrasions heal, and the elasticity and freshness of the skin is also maintained.

The toxic substances contained in cigarette smoke, together with nicotine, contribute to the destruction of collagen fibers in the skin. As a result, its firmness and elasticity are lost, the skin becomes thinner, noticeable dryness appears, and wrinkles form.

As a result of the fact that oxygen, which should enter the blood, is replaced by carbon monoxide and spreads through the circulatory system, the body develops oxygen starvation. The skin and organs do not receive the required amount of oxygen, which worsens their condition and function.

Toxins entering the body turn into free radicals, which cause cell mutation and accelerate the aging process . The development of consequences such as destruction of elastin and collagen, lack of vitamins A and E occurs over several years of regular cigarette smoking.

Meet Alena. And she hasn't smoked for over a year! Alena quit smoking four times, but without success. Then she bought Monastery tea and never returned to the bad habit.

Photo of the face of a smoker and a healthy person

Most smokers do not think about how much smoking spoils their facial skin and appearance. In order to understand this, it is worth comparing photos of the faces of a smoker and a non-smoker of the same age.

This is a photo of twin women: one is a smoker, the other is a non-smoker.

The twin brothers both smoke, but one has 14 years more smoking experience and it’s hard not to notice it from his face.

Another proof of how smoking affects the facial skin of girls and women can be seen by looking at the photos before and after they gave up nicotine addiction.

Much has been written above about the effect of smoking on the elasticity of facial skin, here are pictures of smoker’s wrinkles.

How to restore the skin?

In order to help the epidermis recover faster, do cosmetic procedures and follow the rules:

• Peeling . The procedure, which removes the outer stratum corneum of the skin, improves blood circulation, can be performed several times a week.
• Face massage . You can do it yourself at home or visit a beauty salon.
• Washing . It is useful to wash your face with a cool liquid - it can be green tea, water, both plain and mineral (you can add citrus juice). The procedure will increase skin elasticity and improve its color.
• Nutrition . A properly balanced diet helps eliminate carcinogens deposited in the body during the period of smoking.
• Drinking regime . It is important to maintain water balance from the middle of the body, drink water half an hour before meals and an hour or two after.
• Physical activity . Sport helps improve blood circulation, that is, faster removal of toxins from the body.
• Fresh air . Walking and regular ventilation of the room have a beneficial effect on the body.

If a person, having quit smoking, does not see any changes in his condition, there are no improvements in his skin, then he should consult a doctor.

Cosmetics and folk recipes

To restore a healthy appearance to your skin, when choosing skincare products, pay attention to:

• skin nourishing creams containing vitamins A, E and F;
• cosmetics with coenzyme Q10;
• foundations with UV filters.

Here are several folk recipes for nourishing and restoring facial skin.

Above we advised scrubbing your face. You can purchase a ready-made product in a store, pharmacy, or find the ingredients for it in your refrigerator and kitchen cabinet.

Suitable for home scrub:

• cereals;
• ground coffee;
• sugar, salt or soda;
• crushed eggshells (they need to be thoroughly washed and dried).

any fermented milk product, honey or fruit pulp is good for smokers - they will provide additional nutrition to the skin.

It is useful to make ice from sage leaves ; to do this, chop them, fill them with water and put them in the freezer. twice a day, morning and evening , the procedure improves blood circulation, thereby restoring complexion.

It is recommended to use various types of homemade masks that nourish and restore the epithelium:

• Brew oatmeal (1 tbsp) with boiling water, let cool and add the yolk, stir;
• grate raw potatoes and mix with rich sour cream;
• Dilute blue clay in kefir (2.5 tbsp) and add a few drops of lemon essential oil.

Prepare all masks immediately before use. Masks are applied to a cleansed face for 30-40 minutes. Then wash off with warm water and moisturize the skin with cream.

It is also possible to remove expression lines and make smoker’s wrinkles less noticeable at home; we tell you how to make masks with a tightening effect:

• with cottage cheese - take 2 tbsp. l. full-fat cottage cheese (preferably homemade) and one kiwi, mix until mushy;
• with olive oil - 1 tbsp. l. Heat the oil in a water bath and mix with 1 tbsp. l. fruit puree (apple or kiwi);
• with bodyaga and hydrogen peroxide – 1 tbsp. l. mix bodyaga powder with 1 tbsp. l. peroxide and apply to the face, avoiding the area around the eyes (otherwise there will be irritation), keep the mask on for only 10 minutes;
• with aloe juice - you need 2 tbsp. l. fresh aloe juice, 1 tablespoon each of cream and olive oil;
• with egg yolk – mix 1 yolk with 2 tbsp. l. softened bran and heated olive oil.

It is recommended to keep these masks on for longer than half an hour, and it is useful to apply them before bed.

There are many cosmetics and folk methods, but if the wrinkles are deep, then complete smoothing can only be achieved by resorting to the help of specialist cosmetologists and surgeons .

Quick cleansing methods

Many people are concerned about the question of how to cleanse the body of nicotine. First of all, experts advise improving the functioning of the respiratory system. To do this, you need to follow these recommendations:

To normalize lung function, it is necessary to frequently ventilate the room.

It is also worth paying attention to air humidification. From time to time you should do wet cleaning and wipe off dust. Go to the sauna every week

Under the influence of steam, you can open your pores and quickly remove toxins. Take a bath daily. The duration of the procedure should be at least 20 minutes. Adding medicinal herbs and sea salt to the water will help speed up the cleansing. To cleanse the respiratory organs of toxic secretions, systematically do inhalations. For this you can use lavender, wormwood, chamomile. Pine needle essential oils are also useful. Increase fluid intake. Using ordinary clean water you can significantly speed up the cleansing process. You need to drink at least 2 liters per day. To walk outside. It is best to do this in a coniferous forest, because it is there that the air is filled with oxygen and contains many phytoncides.

These methods help improve your condition when quitting more serious drugs - hashish, marijuana, spice. They can also be used by passive smokers and people who prefer hookah.

Physical exercise

To cleanse your body of harmful elements, it is recommended to exercise. It is best to give preference to running and swimming. Yoga and fitness are no less successful options. All these loads will improve the functioning of the respiratory system. During classes, restoration of all systems and organs is observed.

Nutrition correction

Good nutrition is considered an important condition for restoring health. The daily menu should contain many vitamins and microelements

Doctors advise paying attention to the diet, which was invented for the treatment of systemic pathologies

The diet should be based on the consumption of vegetables and fruits. Cereals are also very beneficial. To eat properly, food should be prepared in gentle ways.

It is very useful to eat the following foods:

1. Orange. The fruit is rich in vitamin C. It helps cope with stress that appears after quitting smoking.
2. Spinach. The substance includes a lot of vitamin B9, which helps improve the functions of the immune system and the circulatory system. The product removes nicotine residues and improves mood.
3. Ginger. Very important for the functioning of the heart, which has suffered due to long-term smoking.
4. Carrot. The product supplies the body with valuable vitamins and improves brain function. It also has a good effect on the functions of the nervous system and immunity.

Medications

To speed up the removal of toxins from the body and improve its functioning, you can use the following drugs:

1. Sorbents – provide binding and removal of harmful elements. Activated carbon is considered the simplest remedy. From modern medicines, you can choose Polyphepan or Smecta.
2. Vitamin components. It is best to choose combination products that contain a whole range of useful substances.
3. Cough medications. These include Ambroxol, Gedelix. However, such substances should be used as prescribed by a doctor.

Folk recipes

At home after quitting smoking, you can use effective folk recipes:

1. Wash 6 bay leaves, place in a thermos, add 250 ml of boiling water and leave. Take a third of a glass of the finished home remedy. This should be done before meals.
2. Make a potato decoction and drink it 2 times a day. Single dose – 100 ml. You need to add 1 small spoon of flax oil to it. You should be treated in this way for 15 days.
3. Grind the lemon, add the same amount of honey and put it in the refrigerator. Eat 1 large spoon before meals. This needs to be done for 1 month. Then stop for 10 days and carry out therapy again.

During pregnancy

If a woman decides to give up a bad habit, it is better to do this even before conception. This will help cleanse the body before pregnancy. Cigarettes should be removed quickly and immediately.

Following these rules for a pregnant woman will help alleviate the condition:

• eat plenty of fruits and vegetables;
• drink herbal infusions;
• if you want to smoke, try to distract yourself with a walk or household chores;
• avoid stress;
• drink enough liquid.

Smoking is a very bad habit that causes significant damage to the body. Therefore, you need to quit it as early as possible. To speed up the cleansing process, you can use medications and folk remedies.