"Smoking can harm the skin...of the mouth, eyes and fingernails," says Dr. Kimberly Bazar, MD, Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatologists. Collagen is one of the most important proteins in your skin. Smoking damages it and slows its healing. Just don't light up--you can turn the clock back toward those more youthful years. But some damage can be much more than skin deep.
What's Happening?
Tobacco smoke delivers hundreds of toxic chemicals through a smoker's mouth and lungs. Your skin's collagen, and the biochemistry that creates it, bathe in those substances with every cigarette, cigar or pipe-full. Collagen repair can't always keep up with regular smoking. The best known tobacco chemical, nicotine, constricts blood vessels and starves your skin of the oxygen and nutrients it needs for healing. Women are at greater risk because the male hormone, androgen, gives men thicker skin structure and extra protection against wrinkling.
More Than Skin
Collagen is also responsible for much of your lungs' elasticity and structure. Researchers in the Department of Pathology at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, in Scotland, have discovered that tobacco smoke causes accumulation of too much collagen, as in scarring, along with destruction of delicate air spaces, within the lungs of some emphysema patients. This makes their lungs stiffer. Breathing becomes more difficult and exercise almost intolerable.
Baby at Risk
Researchers at the Oregon Health Sciences University, in Portland, say inhaled nicotine crosses from a mother's blood to her unborn baby. As a result, the baby's lungs develop excess collagen, causing abnormal lung function after birth. Dr. S. Harmanjatinder, M.D., Ph.D., leader of the research team, says these findings confirm that "...adverse effects of nicotine on the developing fetus further support the need for aggressive campaigns against smoking during pregnancy."
What is it?
Collagen is the name for a group of similar, long, fibrous proteins. About one-quarter of all the proteins in your body is collagen. Along with other proteins, including elastin and keratin, it provides flexibility, strength and structure to tendons, skin, muscles and organs. Aging and environmental factors like tobacco smoke degrade collagen, sometimes faster than it can be replaced. Because collagen is so important everywhere in your body, smoking damage can occur everywhere, too.
Winning Formula
The best way to begin repair of smoking induced collagen damage is to stop smoking. Dermatologists can provide a measure of healing for collagen damaged skin. But in emphysema, lung tissue has disintegrated. Collagen repair alone will be insufficient, though damage can be slowed by stopping smoking. Use of nutritional supplements for systemic collagen rejuvenation should include smoking cessation, and discussion with your physician or nutritionist.
