Vaping, smoking, and drinking can significantly affect the skin, primarily due to their impact on hydration, blood flow, and oxidative stress. Here’s how each habit contributes to skin damage:
1. Vaping
Vaping exposes the skin to chemicals and nicotine, which can have both short-term and long-term effects.
• Dehydration: Vaping can reduce moisture levels, leading to chronic dryness, increased flakiness and a dull complexion.
• Free radicals: The chemicals in vape aerosols can promote the production of free radicals and oxidative stress. These volatile molecules cause havoc on collagen proteins, causing accelerated damage and premature ageing.
• Inflammation: Some studies suggest vaping may trigger skin inflammation, increasing discolouration, broken capillaries and increasing the risk of conditions like acne or rosacea.
• Delayed Wound Healing: Nicotine reduces blood flow, impairing the skin’s ability to repair itself.
2. Smoking
Smoking has more pronounced and well-documented effects on the skin:
• Premature Ageing: Tobacco smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, many of which cause oxidative stress in skin fibroblasts, impairing collagen formation and increasing the expression of an enzyme which degrades collagen. This leads to sagging skin, wrinkles, and “smoker’s lines” around the mouth.
• Reduced Blood Flow: Smoking constricts blood vessels, depriving the skin of oxygen and nutrients, resulting in a pale or uneven complexion.
• Loss of Elasticity: Smoking accelerates the breakdown of collagen, causing the skin to lose its firmness and elasticity. It also increases transepidermal water loss causing further sagging due to dehydration.
• Skin tone and pigmentation: Tar and other toxins can make the skin look dull. Smoking also promotes melanocyte formation leading to an increase in age spots and uneven skin pigmentation.
• Wound Healing: Like vaping, smoking delays wound healing, increasing the risk of infections and scars.
• Skin Disorders: Smoking inhibits the body’s adaptive and innate immunity, causing dysregulation, tissue damage and excessive inflammation. Thus there is an increased risk of skin cancers, psoriasis, eczema, vasculitis etc.
3. Alcohol
Alcohol affects the skin through dehydration, inflammation, and its impact on the liver:
• Dehydration: Alcohol is a diuretic, which depletes skin hydration, leading to dryness, flakiness, and a lack of elasticity.
• Inflammation: Excessive drinking can dilate blood vessels, causing redness and broken capillaries, especially on the face.
• Oxidative Stress: Alcohol can increase free radical production, contributing to premature ageing, fine lines, and wrinkles.
• Liver Function: Alcohol overburdens the liver, reducing its ability to detoxify the body, which may lead to dull and blemished skin.
• Puffiness and Swelling: Alcohol can cause fluid retention, resulting in puffy eyes and a bloated appearance.
Tips for Mitigating Damage
If quitting entirely isn’t an immediate option, you can minimise skin damage with the following:
• Hydrate: Drink plenty of water to counteract dehydration.
• Antioxidants: Include foods rich in vitamins C and E, and consider topical antioxidants.
• Skincare Routine: Use moisturisers and sunscreen to protect and hydrate the skin.
• Exercise: Improves circulation and helps counteract some of the effects of reduced blood flow.
• Cut Back: Reducing the frequency of these habits can lessen their impact over time.
If you want healthy, beautiful skin, avoid these damaging skin behaviours and glow up!
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