Smoking affects your skin

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 17

Smoking affects your skin

“Bodywork”

by

PORTER SHIMER

Q: Is it true that smoking can cause facial wrinkles? A: An association between smoking and facial wrinkles was noted as long ago as 1856, according to Douglas Model, M.D., reporting in a recent issue of “The British Medical Journal.” Only two major studies have been done since then — one in Germany in 1965 and another in California in 1971 — but the findings of both were similar enough for there to be little doubt that, yes, “Cigarette smoking can cause readily recognisable wrinkling and other changes to the faces of many people,” Dr Model says. To test these findings, however, Dr Model deto conduct .his own dy and was apprised find how ’’ easily smokers could be Identi-

fied — based on facial features alone. Getting no closer than 1.5 metres, Dr Model was able, with a “highly significant” degree of accuracy, to distinguish smokers from non-smokers (most qf the people were in theBjsos) by one or more of the following facial character-

istics: • “lines or wrinkles on the face, typically running at right angles from the upper and lower lips or comers of the eyes (crow’s feet)” • “deep lines on the cheeks or numerous shallow lines on the cheeks or lower jaw” • “a subtle gauntness” • “a leathery, worn or rugged appearance” • “a slightly pigmented grey appearance” As for why smoking causes these changes, Dr Model could say only that they “suggest a toxic process” related probably to smoking’s known effect of depriving the skin of normal blood flow. (Smokers in Dr Model’s study were defined as anyone averaging 10 cigarettes or more per week — or 14 grams or more of tobacco in some other form — for a period of 10 years or longer.) —Copyright Universal Press Syndicate.