Of all the hazardous effects that smoking traditional cigarettes can have your body, by far and away the most undeniable are those it has on your skin, especially the skin of your face. Can switching from cigarettes to E-cigs really help you here? Yes; and here’s how…
How smoking ages the face
Don’t doubt it; the most obvious harm smoking does to the skin will always occur to the face where the skin is thinner than anywhere else on the body. In fact, research proves that it tends to result in more advanced premature ageing than does over-exposure to the sun’s UV rays. Moreover, smoking will impact on the face’s skin whatever your age – if you’re older it’ll help hasten the development of ‘crow’s feet’ around the eyes and vertical lines around the mouth; if you’re younger, it’ll likely mean acne scars take longer to heal and your skin might even begin to look greyer and rather sallow.
In fact, the gradual drainage of colour from the face is caused by the carbon monoxide content in tobacco, the result of which is a reduction in the blood’s natural oxygen levels – which can also reduce collagen in skin. Plus, it ought to be pointed out that, while it’s the numerous other ingredients in cigarettes that are so harmful to the skin, their nicotine content contributes to decreased blood flow a little too – the upside with vaping here being that you can deliberately and methodically reduce your nicotine intake by making specific E-liquid choices (of decreasing nicotine amounts), something that’s pretty much impossible with conventional cigarettes.
And, talking of acne, it’s also worth noting that if you unfortunately suffer from skin conditions like of eczema and psoriasis (whose severity is worsened by chemical irritants introduced into the body), then smoking will do nothing but make them worse. But there’s a very good chance that stopping smoking will see an instant improvement in such a skin condition.
Collagen can’t – thanks to smoking
Collagen’s mighty useful to the skin, being a protein that replaces dead blood cells and playing a pivotal role in keeping it strong and nicely elastic and stretchy. In short, without effective levels of collagen, your skin simply won’t be capable of looking at its best. And in depleting – all over your body – the skin’s collagen supply as well as Vitamin C levels (which are critical in collagen synthesis), smoking dramatically combats collagen’s efforts to keep your outward appearance looking youthful and healthy. Quite honestly, who would actually want that?
What vaping can do for your skin
Just to be clear, what will rescue the health of your skin won’t be vaping in itself then, but the act of switching from smoking to vaping. It’s smoking that’s so dramatically bad for your skin that simply stopping will, relatively speaking, do your skin untold good. And making the switch from smoking, with all its carcinogenic ingredients, to vaping with so few harmful chemicals, but with a level of nicotine that ensures you get your ‘kick’ and can reduce this effectively over time (as well as all those delicious vape flavours, of course), will only help you to properly quit smoking.
To be clear, aside from nicotine, the main chemicals that E-liquids contain are vegetable glycerine and propylene glycol; whichever way you paint it, two safe and popular ingredients that crop up in the likes of skin creams and cleansers for that very reason. And, happily, dropping the ciggies for E-cigs should see you skin’s collagen start to rebuild itself – if you’re lucky enough to be under 35 years of age; indeed, in most cases, complexions tend to improve pretty dramatically in just a few short months. But what if you’re unlucky enough to be over 35? Well, quit smoking for sure, but book a visit to the doctor or a professional dermatologist to seek quality advice about what you might be able to do try and reverse the longstanding skin-harming effects of smoking.
And remember, as noted, it could well be that all this is helped by not instantly quitting cigarettes (and thus potentially relapsing), but by switching to E-cigs – a way of achieving that true divorce from the clutches of smoking.