Image from Journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons,
It can’t be a surprise that smoking bombards your entire body with a long list of harmful, toxic chemicals that affect the skin. Skin becomes grey, saggy, dry, and flaky.
However, just a couple of days after quitting, changes in your skin can be quite profound. Your pallor changes as your circulation improves.
Carbon monoxide levels in your blood drop to normal and within weeks, your skin will be visibly benefiting from increased oxygen and antioxidant levels
Smoking causes smaller blood vessels to shut down (which is why smokers’ skin has a grey complexion).
As your circulation recovers and the level of nutrients and oxygen being delivered to your skin return to normal , you soon recover that healthy glow that you’ve been missing. The body’s ability to repair itself from the skin damage caused by smoking is remarkable – eventually you can end up looking ten years younger than you would as a smoker!
The picture above is one of a series from a study on facial changes caused by smoking – a comparison between smoking and non-smoking identical twins.
