Over the past couple of years, electronic cigarettes have gained significant popularity. Many people view them as a healthier alternative to smoking. While quitting nicotine consumption altogether would benefit your health the most, avoiding smoking helps limit your exposure to cancer-causing carcinogens. Electronic cigarettes don’t contain the same toxins as tobacco-filled ones, but the nicotine content of e-cigs is still present and does affect the health of your skin.
Nicotine’s Effect on Skin
Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor, meaning it causes the narrowing of blood vessels. Prolonged use of nicotine constricts the blood vessels that transport blood to the outermost layer of skin. This loss of blood flow prevents skin tissue from receiving the oxygen and vitamins it needs to maintain a healthy appearance. The use of any nicotine product can cause wrinkles, deep creases, and a rougher skin texture. The harmful effects of ultraviolet rays from the sun are worse when the skin is being damaged from nicotine. The loss of vitamin delivery to the skin is especially damaging.
How Vitamins Contribute to Healthy Skin
- Vitamin A is used to regulate cell growth. A lack of it can cause deep wrinkles, dull skin, and acne.
- Vitamin E is an antioxidant that fights free radicals. It reduces the appearance of age spots and wrinkles caused by sun exposure and pollution.
- Vitamin C stimulates the production of collagen. Collagen is necessary for smooth and supple skin.
Reversing Nicotine’s Effects on Skin
You don’t have to suffer from wrinkles or dull skin that result from nicotine exposure. Many plastic surgeons and GPs in aesthetics offer a range of treatments to help with the appearance of ageing skin:
- Skin care treatments – mesotherapy, needling, microdermabrasion, chemical peels, high quality at-home skin products
- Laser treatments – laser resurfacing treatments (for example Fraxel), skin tightening and contouring (Thermage, VelaShape, BTL Exilis, Venus Swan plus many more)
- Non-surgical anti-wrinkle injectables to correct wrinkles and dermal fillers to soften and “fill” facial lines and creases
- Minimally invasive thread lifts
- Full facelift surgery (performed by plastic surgeons only) – this of course needs to be assessed by your doctor and is more applicable to faces with excessive sagging skin.
However, all treatments and procedures used to provide healthier skin are more effective when smoking cigarettes or the electronic form are stopped.
Original article written by Robert Spies www.azplasticsurgerycenter.com
Rochelle is the founder and driving force behind Aesthetic Appointment. With a passion for the aesthetics and pro-ageing industry in South Africa, she has been in the aesthetic publishing industry since 2012, dedicated to creating a valuable platform for insights and knowledge, bridging the gap between patients and doctors - delivering reliable, medical-based information. Rochelle firmly believes in the power of a good skincare regimen, especially when started at home, and is committed to educating consumers about the myriad of treatments, procedures, and products available to them.
- Rochelle Friedmanhttps://www.aestheticappointment.co.za/author/rochelle
- Rochelle Friedmanhttps://www.aestheticappointment.co.za/author/rochelle
- Rochelle Friedmanhttps://www.aestheticappointment.co.za/author/rochelle
- Rochelle Friedmanhttps://www.aestheticappointment.co.za/author/rochelle
