Smoking ages the skin of the face – proven on gemini
Doctors have long argued that smoking can accelerate the aging process of the body. A study conducted by scientists at Western Reserve University and University Clinics of Cleveland, Ohio, provided new evidence for this claim. Observation of the aging of identical twins showed that the facial skin of smoking twins shows more signs of premature aging than the skin of their identical siblings who do not have this bad habit or whose smoking experience is at least 5 years less.
The authors came to these conclusions after working with 79 pairs of identical twins who took part in the gemini festival held in Twinsburg, Ohio. 57 of the couples who took part in the study were female, and the average age of all participants was 48 years.
One of the members of each pair smoked at the time of the study, while the second one either did not smoke at all, or smoked at least five years less. The average difference in the length of smoking experience for couples, both members of which have ever smoked, was 13 years.
All participants filled out a questionnaire containing questions about their medical history and lifestyle, and provided professional close-up photos of their faces.
To ensure the adequacy of the identification of areas of aging of the skin of the face potentially affected by smoking, experts specializing in monitoring signs of aging analyzed photographs without having information about the smoking history of the people depicted on them. The analysis compared the depth of wrinkles and other visual characteristics of the face, which could be affected by aging, including the presence of bags under the eyes, as well as discoloration of the skin of the lower eyelids. Each type of wrinkles and age-related feature was assigned a number of points reflecting its severity.
As a result of the analysis, smoking twins consistently received much higher scores for most of the considered indicators of facial aging. Smokers had more pronounced sagging of the upper eyelid skin and the presence of bags under the eyes. They also had deeper wrinkles, especially in the lip area, flabbier cheeks and more pronounced nasolabial folds. The authors of the study noted that smoking has the most pronounced effect on the middle and lower parts of the face.
The photo on the left shows a non–smoking woman, on the right – her smoking twin.When experts were asked to choose from a couple a photo of a twin they thought looked older, they chose an image of a smoking twin in 57% of cases.
If both twins smoked, experts in 63.7% of cases chose a smoker with a lot of experience.
According to the authors, despite the fact that the data obtained demonstrate the ability of smoking to accelerate the aging process of the face, it is especially interesting that the difference is noticeable even in cases when both twins smoke, but for different periods of time. They also note that the observations made, according to which smoking affects the aging of individual facial features in different ways, can help to understand the mechanisms of the harmful effects of smoking at the molecular level.
Article by Haruko C. Okada et al. Facial Changes Caused by Smoking is published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to Medical News Today:
Twin study 'proves' smoking causes premature aging.
31.10.2013