It shouldn’t come as any news to you that giving up smoking is a good idea for health reasons. Not only is smoking a huge factor in the vast majority of lung cancer cases, but it also ups your chances of suffering a heart attack by six times. Some insurance companies also choose not to insure smokers. Smoking is directly linked to nearly half a million deaths in the UK every year so there are a lot of reasons to give up smoking.
Health issues aren’t the only factors that can motivate you to give up smoking. They’re surely the most important, but there are other advantages to quitting as well. Smoking takes a toll on your personal appearance, specifically on your skin, your teeth, and your eyes. When you quit smoking by using an electronic cigarette, or just going cold turkey, you’ll not only get healthier and feel better, but you’ll start looking better, too. Here are six improvements in your appearance that stem from giving up the habit.
6 Ways to Get Smoking Hot by Giving Up Smoking
Clearing Up Your Eyes
Skin damage is one of the biggest outward signs of a smoking habit, and that damage is often most obvious around your eyes. Nurse Pat Folan, who heads up Great Neck, NY’s North Shore-LIJ Center for Tobacco Control, says that smoking does severe damage to the very delicate skin tissue around (and especially under) your eyes. Quitting smoking can help reverse those signs of damage.
Giving Up Smoking: Slow Down Wrinkles
You probably already know that smoking can cause facial wrinkles, but were you aware that it actually affects all of your skin? According to Jenny Van Amburgh, Northeastern University Bouve College of Health Sciences’ associate clinical professor, all of the many toxic chemicals contained in cigarettes work to break down both elastin and collagen, vital structural materials in your skin. When they get damaged, you lose elasticity, strength, and firmness at an accelerated rate.
Smoking also causes wrinkles because the nicotine you’re taking in acts to constrict your blood vessels. This has a measurable impact on the delicate capillaries that feed your skin cells the nutrients and oxygen they need to heal and grow.
Brighter Teeth
On its way to your lungs, all of that smoke has to pass through your mouth. That means it has a huge impact on your teeth, staining them and turning them yellow. This is another effect that can be reversed by giving up the habit. Doctor Abinash Achrekar, an assistant cardiology professor at Albuquerque’s University of New Mexico, says that this staining – along with most of the other negative changes smoking causes in the mouth – is reversible, so don’t fret your teeth can be pearly white again!
Giving Up Smoking: Make Your Lips And Gums Healthier
While you’re considering your mouth, take a moment to think about your lips and gums, too. The oral health risks associated with smoking include oral cancer, tooth loss, gum recession, mouth sores, gum discolouration, and bad breath. The sooner you quit, the faster these issues start to resolve themselves. You’ll even find your senses of taste and smell improving after you give up smoking.
No Stains On Your Nails
Some smokers don’t even notice the fact that their habit leaves behind detectable signs on their hands. The fingers and nails that you habitually use to smoke will start to get healthier when you stop. If you’re a particularly heavy smoker, you may even see a line appear in your fingernails between the new, stain-free nail that’s growing out of your cuticle and the older, stained nail closer to the tip. Over time, the cleaner, healthier nail will replace the old one entirely.
Shinier, Healthier Hair
There are up to 7,000 different active chemicals in cigarette smoke, and they have an impact on every cell in your body. This includes your hair follicles. By giving up smoking, you’ll start to grow healthier hair that has a more attractive shine and lustre. That hair should be easier to style, and it’ll also smell better without the lingering odour of smoke trapped in the strands.
Are you a smoker? If so, what are some of the things that you wish you could rectify from years of smoking?
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