Can Smoking Cause Body Wrinkles

Previous studies reported that smoking cigarettes cause facial wrinkles. A new study conducted at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor’s Dermatology Clinic reports that smoking can cause wrinkles on the other parts of the body too. Even it can cause wrinkles on areas usually covered with clothes. The researchers of the study conclude that smoking is the only factor that makes the skin age quickly which ultimately causes body wrinkles.

The study was conducted on 82 people aged between 22 to 91 years old. Half of the participants had a history of smoking nearly for 24 years. The number of packs they smoked ranged from quarter of a packet to four packs per day. The researchers observed the upper part of the inner arm of each participant and photographed upper part of their inner arms.

The study interviewed every participant about their smoking duration, no of years they smoked and other lifestyle factors like sun exposure, tanning etc.

The judges of the study used a nine-point scale developed by the research group to see the link between smoking and body wrinkles. The judges also judged other factors like participants age etc into consideration along with smoking. In the scale 0 score indicated no fine wrinkling and maximum of 8 score indicated severe wrinkling.

Result of the study:

• The result of the study showed two-thirds of the participants scored low wrinkle scores i.e. 0-2 points.
• Participants who smoked for a long time scored the highest scores.
• Participants above 65 years old showed 2 point difference in compare to non-smokers.
• Participants above 45 years old showed 1 point difference in compare to non-smokers.

The researchers concluded that:”We found that the number of packs of cigarettes smoked per day, total years of smoking and pack-years of smoking [an average of packs per day over the number of years of smoking] were correlated with the degree of skin aging. After controlling for age and other variables, we found that only packs of cigarettes smoked per day were a major predictor of the degree of photo-protected skin ageing.”

Amanda Sandford, of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said: “This study provides further evidence of the detrimental effects that smoking can have on the skin. No amount of anti-ageing cream will remove the wrinkles caused by cigarettes so the best way for smokers to avoid the wrinkled prune look is to stop smoking.”