There are many reasons why to quit smoking; smoking cessation improves metal and physical health and wellness. As all smokers are very likely aware of, tobacco smoke creates long-term, systemic physical problems such as cancer, emphysema, diabetes, and heart disease. But the damage is not only done in the inside—smoking damage is visible on the outside of the body too.
Many anti-smoking campaigns focus solely on the diseases engendered by tobacco smoke, but it is important to also address the way smoking effects physical appearance. Here are some of the ways that smoking damages the looks:
- Hair loss: Tobacco smoke inhalation leads to hair loss and hair thinning. This is because of poor circulation and a lack of nutrients in the skin.
- Rapid aging: Smoking increases the speed with which the physical body ages. Crow’s feet, forehead lines and wrinkled mouths appear much faster and in greater numbers. Smoking also causes poor circulation and inhibits good skin nutrients from being absorbed by the body and thus the skin can take on a gray, sallow look or have blotches and spots.
- Yellowing: Smoking causes yellowing of the skin on the smoking fingers and yellowing of the teeth.
- Bad breath: Smoking causes chronic bad breath. This may not exactly be a part of the physical appearance, but bad breath sure makes a bad physical impression on others.
- Flab: Smoking inhibits the body’s ability to build and strengthen muscles. Thus, fat can build easier and the body can have a flabbier look.
- Hanging skin: Smoking can cause the skin around the throat, eyes, legs and arms to hang due to the fact that it inhibits the body to properly process elastin and other skin tightening nutrients.
As evidenced above, smoking does great damage to the physical appearance and in a society that places such high value on looks, this can at least be a motivator, albeit a shallow one, for people to give up cigarettes.
The physical reasons why to quit smoking are pretty clear, but how to quit smoking is not always so easy to do. The good news is that there are many healthy, natural ways to give up the psychosocial habit, such as hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy helps smokers build new thought patterns and belief systems so they can get rid of their cigarette psychological dependency. Even though quitting smoking seems like a great challenge, the rewards far outweigh the difficulties—from the minute people stop smoking the body begins to heal.