5 Ways Quitting Smoking Improves Your Appearance
Quitting smoking is tough for anyone.
Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that if you do, you’ll gain so many health benefits, and it will reduce your chance of suffering from:
- Cancer
- Heart attacks
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Cataracts
In addition to that, you’ll breathe more easily and cough less; your blood pressure will decrease, your skin will look healthier, you will look younger, and both your teeth and nails will look less yellow.
Quitting smoking will definitely improve your health and your physical appearance, while also improving your own quality of life and that of those who surround you and love you.
How quitting smoking improves your appearance
1. Premature aging
Smoking narrows your blood vessels, particularly in the skin’s outermost layers. This damages your blood flow much more quickly than it should.
Without its necessary blood supply, your skin won’t receive enough oxygen or other important nutrients.
Along with the thousands of chemicals that are found in cigarettes, this causes the skin to lose collagen and as a result, elasticity.
If you don’t stop smoking, it means you’ll wind up with more of those unsightly wrinkles than you should.
Do not forget to read:
Dietary Habits to Fight Premature Aging
2. The health and appearance of your teeth
Whether or not you agree, a healthy smile is important for your health and your physical appearance. Smiling plays an important role in your daily interactions.
Good dental care is something you should never take lightly, but smoking can ruin it.
The tar and nicotine in tobacco cause your teeth to turn yellow. Smoking speeds up the yellowing process that keeps you from showing your brightest, white smile.
Why not consider reducing your consumption of products containing nicotine with electronic cigarettes? With time this will reduce that yellow tone of your teeth while helping you stop smoking.
3. Finer hair
For people who have been smokers for a long period of time, studies have shown that the chemicals and toxins in cigarettes eventually damage the DNA inside your hair follicles.
This means that your hair will not only be thinner, but it will become more fragile and unwanted hairs will appear before you realize it. Hair care is not just a problem for women.
If you’re a man, imagine yourself in the future looking much older, with bad teeth and thinning hair.
Quitting smoking doesn’t seem like such a bad idea now, does it?
4. The appearance of your skin
If you’re a heavy smoker, no matter how old you are, you will likely notice that the quality of your skin tone starts to deteriorate.
When you smoke, you get dark spots and pigmentation on your skin. This can cause the dark circles under your eyes to become even darker and more pronounced.
When you stop smoking, your skin receives more blood supply. This means that you’ll retain fewer toxins in your pores and those spots will gradually go away as your skin regenerates itself.
This will also decrease the look of those bags under your eyes.
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5. Your ability to heal is impaired
As your blood vessels shrink in size, it becomes more difficult to deliver oxygen to the tissues that need them the most.
All of this means that it’s harder for smokers to heal on their own.
If you’re thinking about having any type of surgery, either due to a medical condition or for aesthetic reasons, it’s a good idea to reconsider your smoking habits.
Odds are that your surgeon will tell you to stop smoking before the procedure takes place.
Quitting smoking is no easy task. But thanks to advances in technology and medicine, there are plenty of aids that can support you as you start the process and leave this dangerous vice behind.
With help and advice from your general practitioner and the support of things like nicotine patches and electronic cigarettes, we’re sure that you will be able to quit smoking and do both your health and your appearance a favor.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Steffens, G. L. (2018). Tobacco. In Plant Growth Regulating Chemicals: Volume II. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781351075756
- Morita, A. (2007). Tobacco smoke causes premature skin aging. Journal of Dermatological Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdermsci.2007.06.015
- Bullen, C., Howe, C., & Laugesen, M. (2014). Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation: A randomised controlled trial. Journal of Vascular Surgery. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvs.2014.01.028
