Читать книгу Good Skin - Ingrid Wood - Страница 27

If you cannot give up smoking for all the sound health reasons, at least consider what it does to your face. The skin of a smoker is, on average, 40% thinner than a non-smoker’s. Smokers have far more wrinkles than non-smokers – in fact, a 40-year-old smoker is likely to have as many as a 60-year-old non-smoker. Particularly noticeable are the lines around the mouth (from puckering) and eyes (from squinting through the smoke). Furthermore, nicotine and tar slow down the blood circulation and thus reduce blood flow to the skin, depriving it of vital nutrients and oxygen, and leading to an unattractive grey-tinged, dull complexion. The two harm ful substances also promote the formation of free radicals and weaken the collagen and elastin fibres, resulting in skin that is prematurely wrinkled. If that’s not enough to put you off, consider that smokers have much higher rates of skin cancers, they are less able to utilize antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin C and their wounds heal slower. When your skin is cut, it needs more oxygen and nutrients than normal for the healing process. Smoking causes the little blood vessels in the skin to constrict, resulting in less blood flowing to the skin and therefore slower healing.

Remember to be moderate in your consumption of alcohol. A glass of wine per day is perfectly permissible, but don’t be tempted to overdo it – your skin will pay the price.

Skin, the body’s largest organ, makes up about 15% of your body weight.