It's official: Do NOT Smoke!
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free skin care · Wed Apr 26, 2006 10:41 am

Ignoring all of the obvious health problems that come from smoking for the moment, and focusing instead on its effects on the skin...

Just ... DO NOT smoke!

My peers and I are all in the 25-27 range. I am starting to look around at other people's skin and noticing that some people are starting to age, and others looking the same way they did as teenagers. It's a weird sort of stage. (Unfortunately I am in the group that's starting to age, but I think my own issues are mostly due to sun and genes.)

But I just spent the past weekend with two old friends who have been LONG-time chain smokers. It was impossible not to notice that the smoking is definitely taking a toll on their skin at this point. A couple years ago, it was fine, but both of them (male and female) ow look years older than some of my other peers who have never touched cigarettes. Most noticeable, the lines around the eyes, crepiness, all DEFINITELY starting to creep in. It really is a marked contrast from some other people our age.

Can't say I'm really in much better shape than them myself, but this just gives me added incentive to stay the hell away from cigarettes. So hey, if you needed an extra scare to keep you away from cigs, here it is!

free skin care · Wed Apr 26, 2006 11:03 am

I've totally noticed the same thing!! It's got me so paranoid, I won't even go to bars/restaurants if there will be smoking there. Gotta protect the skin!

free skin care · Wed Apr 26, 2006 11:09 am

I smoked for awhile and am just 26. Quit a bit ago. I went to see my dermatologist about sun damage and he confirmed that smoking has added to the problem.

Now, I just order Obagi NuDerm hoping to help my skin, and I eat great, exercise and drink lots of water. I know you can't reverse everything, but I sure hope that by quitting now and taking care of myself that I'll see some good results! Confused

I also need to stay out of the sun!!!

free skin care · Wed Apr 26, 2006 11:37 am

Wow, that is quite scary to think about. I haven't really noticed it yet, but I don't have that many older friends. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 5-10 years though. That should really be anti-smoking campaign - take pictures of people and show how they progressively became old and haggard while their friends who didn't smoke maintained their youthful radiance.

free skin care · Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:28 pm

I need to quit so bad. Don't know why I can't now, I did twice when I got pregnant with both kids. Then started back up when they were about two months old. Stupid. I also tried the medicine from the doctors that they give you to help you quit smoking, but apparently its for depression too and the darn stuff made me like a zombie, didn't even laugh during my favorite show, so I quit that too. I definately think its worth it to quit just for health reasons but the aging thing is an added benefit. My mom smokes, shes 48, and my mother in law dosen't, shes 54, and I kid you not she dosen't hardly look any older than she did when she was 30. She looks younger than my mom. So you are definately right Janis. I notice it too and I don't want to be one of those people who look ten years older than their friends.

free skin care · Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:15 pm

You look older sooner and die sooner or at least have horrible health problems, smell horrible, sound horrible, pollute the air and affect anyone near you. I never understood the attraction to smoking. Except when I was a dumb teenager, but that was occasional social stuff of an immature mind, as was the drinking, sex and drugs. As soon as I turned 18 I stopped, I hope it didn't have too bad of an effect. Now I am so sensitive to smoke I can't be anywhere near it! I hold my breath if I walk past someone smoking on the street, and if I get an inhale from some source I didn't see I have a horrible reaction. My throat hurts and throbs and swells up and I feel all over like it depressed my immune system, like I just inhaled the most horrible toxin and free radical. I'm so glad it's been banned from indoors here, but I still have to keep my eye out on the sidewalks. When I went to Europe for 3 weeks I thought I was going to die! There was no way to avoid it as hard as I tried. I had chronic inflamation!

I know several people who's mom's had lung cancer, one died in her fifties and the other don't know the outcome yet, she just had surgery.

My mom and my sister smoked and they have HORRIBLE skin. I keep wishing that it's all from the smoking etc. and not as much genetic.

I can often tell if someone was a long time smoker. Their voice and their skin. Esp. around their lips. It gets all puckered with lines extending outward from their lips, and there's just something harsh about their skin. Very attractive. I never understood why so many models smoked when they have to rely on their looks and their very career depends on their skin!

Heavy drinking is horrible for the skin too. Stay healthy and hydrated!

free skin care · Wed Apr 26, 2006 4:28 pm

I can always tell when someone is a long time smoker too....they are lying in bed on the cancer unit, with some oxygen in their noses, dying of lung cancer. Its so very sad!!!

free skin care · Wed Apr 26, 2006 5:08 pm

I smoked for about 4 years from late teens/early 20s and then again for 3 years or so when I first came to Japan (late 20s), but hvae been 100% "clean" Laughing

for 9 years (quit cold turkey). I think I have been very lucky that smoking did not have a long term affect on my skin (my eye lines are from squinting since childhood because of bad eyesight and sun-sensitive baby blues)

But ya know, for all the the horrible things we hear about smoking... my dad is 78 has been smoking a pack a day since he was about 16 and has no breathing or lung issues at all. Drives my mum crazy. I remember about 15 years ago he had to have a chest x-ray and she was hoping the dr. would tell him what terrible lungs he had (so he would quit) but she said NOTHING and when my mum mentioned the smoking she actually said to my dad "oh, are you a smoker?". He does not even have the horrible cough that every other smoker I know does. Mind you the last 5 years or so he is down to about 1.5 pack a week (60cigs) - mostly because at the prices in OZ he cannot afford to smoke more. Laughing

free skin care · Wed Apr 26, 2006 11:10 pm

tiger_tim, does your dad take anything that has possibly been counteracting the nicotine effects?

free skin care · Wed Apr 26, 2006 11:33 pm

nope, he takes no meds at all.. he does not even take any heart medication. In his entire life he only had 3 major health problems (well, they were enough actually...) Polio as a child, a duodenal (?) ulcer in his 50s from work stress, and a level 5 malignant melanoma (worst level)on his head which should hae seen him 6 feet under within 12 months - but that was 13 years ago!)

I remember seeing a study once about people having a genetic susceptibility to lung (maybe) cancer.. maybe he lucked out with some kind of genetic ability to fight off cancer (if so, sure hope he passed it on to me!)

free skin care · Wed Apr 26, 2006 11:50 pm

What I really meant was his eating habits, does he have a tendency to eat (or avoid) a particular food item, like fish maybe?

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:46 am

Hmm.. my dad eat fish? um, I cannot remember the last time I saw him consume any fish (other than tinned salmon in a salad perhaps)... oh, wait, sometimes they go out for luch and then he might have some fish (my mother wont cook fish at home because of the smell Laughing

)

My dad is a true creature of habit.. for his entire working life he consumed for breakfast: 2 pieces of white toast with a couple slices of cheddar cheese in between. Lunch: Corned beef and pickle sandwich Rolling Eyes

Even now, he ALWAYS has a sandwich for lunch (ham, lettuce, tomato and cheese being the standard). he drinks probably 2 cups of coffee and 3 or so cups of tea a day.. black.. but with 2 heaped tsp of white sugar. However, he does not each much sweets (but LIVES for his biscuits with morning and afternoon tea).

Him and my mum eat quite a few salads I guess... not a lot of pre-prepared foods and certainly very little, if any, takeaway/junk food. (though he does have a weak spot for a cheeseburger and fries from Macs if they have driving up to Brisbane for the day.)

He does have a shot of whiskey every evening (but that is only in the last 10 years or so)... Maybe it really is something to do with processed and junk foods - that is the only thing I can think of that might have had an effect. That and not doing anything to excess. (he is one of those people who buys a chocolate and eats it one piece a day... when I was teenager it would all get too much for me and I would gobble up what he had left and then had to run out to the shop and buy another and eat it down to the same place he left it. Laughing

)

I dunno, maybe he is just a miracle man.. you know those blokes that at strong as an ox and have done everything in life we try to avoid?

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 2:58 am

I have 2 brothers both younger than me I'm 37 my brothers are 35 and 30 both of them have smoked since their teens Sad

they both har far far more lines than me, we were at a family wedding a while back and someone whi didnt know said to my youngest brother what does your younger sister do for a living Laughing

I hate smoking I think its vile I have never smoked thankfully only passively as a child as both my Mum and Dad smoke Mad

I will never go into a smokey atmosphere now I believe its years of passive smoking that has given me astma later in life! thankfully they are banning smoking over in the UK in public places next summer I believe about time! Mad

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 4:32 am

I can't wait for the smoking ban to come into force, it'll be great to go out to restaurants and bars without that awful smoky fug. My parents smoked really heavily all through my childhood and I'm sure it's the main reason I have allergies. Yeucchhh...

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 7:27 am

I'm in Maine and we have a smoking ban, at bars and restaurants, public beaches, etc. and I don't mind it. I hated going into the restaurants when they ask you smoking or non smoking, yeah right. For one, you can smell it in either section, and even though I smoke I don't want my kids breathing it in. So I am glad they did that, and I don't go to bars, they were always so smokey your eyes watered.

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 7:38 am

what's strange is how many doctors you see who smoke. my aunt is a doctor and a heavy smoker, and she actually said that there is no connection between lung cancer and smoking Shock

. apparently the percentage of people who smoke and get cancer is the exact same percentage as people who would get cancer and don't smoke.

oli

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 8:13 am

My Mom smoked for 51 years and quit cold turkey 8 years ago and is now somewhat of a health nut. She just turned 74 and is healthy as a horse - go figure. I guit years ago (thank God) but my girlfriend who is turning 50 in Sept. is a smoker, but what is really strange is, she has practically no wrinkles, and NO wrinkles around her mouth!!?? She has never had anything "done" so I believe genetics does play some part in the way we age.

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 8:32 am

sportygirl wrote:

She has never had anything "done" so I believe genetics does play some part in the way we age.

This is definitely true. I have a friend who BAKED in tanning salons (I think she even worked at one at one point) for years, and I keep looking at her skin expecting to see some major damage, but she's got soft white baby skin. It's confusing. A lot of this is so out of our hands, whether we want to believe that or not.

As far as "beating the odds" with smoking... my grandmother is 94 years old and has smoked a pack daily since her late teens. Even if she died of lung cancer today, I'd still say she beat the system. Some people just luck out in that sense. A doctor once encouraged her to quit, and she said that it gives her pleasure and she had no intention of quitting.

I do understand the appeal of smoking, I smoked off and on a couple years (never hardcore, never more than a cig a day). It just feels good! Gives you a little buzz, gives you something to do with your hands/mouth, great stress relief. I totally get it. An adult pacifier. Too bad it's so bad for you, otherwise I'd be puffing away.

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 9:37 am

Lung Cancer and COPD (the most common disease you get from smoking) both have a genetic component.

I am NOT condoning smoking. However, lines around the eyes and mouth can both be avoided even if you smoke. Myself and others have done it. Smoking will hurt your skin in subtle (sp?)ways.

Please don't mis-read what I've posted. I am in no way condoning smoking. Simply don't like mis-information.

Thu Apr 27, 2006 10:06 am

donnababe wrote:

However, lines around the eyes and mouth can both be avoided even if you smoke. Myself and others have done it.

I'm interested in this quote above. How can they be avoided, exactly?

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 10:23 am

oli_d wrote:

apparently the percentage of people who smoke and get cancer is the exact same percentage as people who would get cancer and don't smoke.

oli

While I don't know what those figures are exactly, I would almost bet my life on it that the majority (if not all) of those that got cancer who didn't smoke were around smoke at some point in their life. There is plenty of data out there to show that second-hand smoke is a major culprit of lung cancer, so I don't buy it that smoke and lung cancer aren't related. For pete's sake even the Surgeon General recognizes that smoking causes lung cancer...it's on the freakin box! No offense to you or your aunt, but that sounds like a poor excuse to me.

And besides, even if you could truly believe that the two aren't related, smoking causes WAY too many other health problems to just dismiss them. Especially by a doctor!

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 11:01 am

Well, I haven't smoked since last Friday night (this is the latest of many attempts to quit). I've chewed a lot of Nicorette gum instead of using the patches daily, which disrupt my sleep even more than it's already disrupted, plus cause trippy, epic and exhausting dreams.

But Janis, I wish you wouldn't have told us about your 94 yr. old grammy!!! Anecdotes like that help us weak-willed to rationalize our destructive habit.

BTW, I've smoked since late adolescence and I'm 54. No one would ever look at my skin and guess I'm a smoker. When I've quit for months at a time in the past, I can't say I noticed any improvement in my skin. What's motivating me to quit is the fear of lung disease -- I don't want to end up dragging an oxygen tank around, and I certainly don't want to get lung cancer.

Ideally, I wish there were tasty cigarettes that weren't addictive, so that we could enjoy one now and then without the risk of it becoming a habit. I've been thinking obsessively about cigs since I quit, but as always, I know that if I started again the first several would make me feel sick and dizzy until I got used to them again. What does this tell us about the toxicity of these little devils?

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 11:39 am

Well, if it gives you more incentive to quit, I will say that my grandma has the deepest, raspiest voice ever and it used to scare the hell out of me when I was little!! Laughing

Plus, her houses have always reeked (she smokes indoors).

I do think my grandma is anomaly.

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 1:35 pm

Thanks Janis -- that helps!!!

free skin care · Thu Apr 27, 2006 1:38 pm

I saw an episode of 'honey we're killing the kids' on TLC and both parents smoked. They sent the mom in for an accupuncture treatment and she didn't want to smoke at all after that. Dad got sent for the treatment too but was too afraid of the needles to actually have it done.

I also know one or two people who've had success with hypnosis.

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