15 ways smoking can ruin your looks
Lauren King
| 2 min read
Despite the fact that smoking is a dangerous habit to pick up, many people choose to do it. For some people, it might just be something they want to try out and they might be thinking, “I won’t get addicted – I’m just going to do it a few times.”
Tobacco is highly addictive, and it takes only smoking a few times for the body to begin craving it. Here are some Michigan smoking statistics as provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
- 20.5% of the adult population – over 1,557,000 individuals – are current smokers.
- Over 14,500 adults aged 35+ years died as a result of tobacco use per year between 2000-2004.
It is widely understood that smoking is extremely detrimental to health in many ways. For instance, it has been linked to heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases.
However, something that is often not considered when the choice is made to smoke is how it’s going to affect appearance. Smoking does not only cause health issues; it can change the way you look in ways that might not make you very happy. Worried that smoking has put you on the fast track to bad health and an unsightly appearance? Check out these 15 ways that smoking can worsen your looks:
- Bags under your eyes
- Psoriasis
- Stained teeth
- Wrinkles
- Yellow fingers
- Thinner hair
- Scarring
- Loss of teeth
- Gauntness/gray appearance of skin
- Slower wound healing process
- Warts
- Skin cancer
- Stretch marks
- Stomach flab
- Cataracts
Smoking presents a constant struggle. The act itself causes numerous health issues and changes in appearance that smokers are forced to deal with, but quitting is also difficult to handle. I think that smokers are often deterred from quitting because the cravings are too strong and it feels easier to remain in your comfort zone than to venture out into the quitting process. If you or someone that you know is having trouble finding the strength or support to quit, you’re not alone: there are lots of helpful resources for those hoping to kick the smoking habit once and for all.
If you’re someone who smokes, have you experienced any of these effects on your looks? What other effects have you noticed?
Photo credit: Sudipto_Sarkar
