A Few Things That Accelerate Aging

     Some of the worst habits of people include smoking and drinking. They’re not just bad for your health, but they’re bad for your appearance too. Smoking, of course, has been scientifically proven to destroy the skin. It dehydrates the skin, depriving it of the oxygen it needs to nourish itself. This is especially obvious around the mouth and in the faces of smokers. It also causes discoloration due to nicotine and wrinkles around the mouth from the repeated motions of smoking. And, most importantly, the nicotine absorbed by the body prevents nutrients from getting absorbed into the skin. It reduces the intake of vitamins (especially the super-antioxidant vitamins A and C), which are vital for the skin’s health. Smoking makes a person look older than their years. This makes the skin dull and youthful glow disappear. Cigarette smoke contains thousands of various carcinogens, toxins and other chemicals. Each time you take a puff, you introduce all of these compounds into your bloodstream. The arteries and veins throughout your body carry them (though your blood) directly to your skin. When the blood is rich in oxygen and in plentiful supply, your skin will generally look healthy. This is due to the oxygen replenishing your skin while removing waste product through the bloodstream. 

Smoking reduces the blood supply to your skin. It can also cause your skin’s blood vessels to contract. When combined, a reduced blood supply and the contraction of blood vessels inhibit the amount of healthy blood available for skin regeneration and removal of waste product. Eventually, the skin begins to sustain damage from lack of oxygen and collagen.Each time a person inhales cigarette smoke, they’re essentially consuming a cocktail of deadly compounds. These include hydrogen cyanide, cadmium, arsenic, tar and prussic acid. Many of these chemicals hit your bloodstream immediately. This has 2 effects that can cause premature aging in your skin. First, the chemicals are distributed to your skin’s blood vessels. There, they replace the oxygen that your skin requires. Second, these compounds can begin to impede the absorption of vitamin C. Vitamin C preserves collagen, the fibrous protein that’s responsible for making your skin appear youthful. If your body is unable to absorb vitamin C, the collagen begins to deteriorate. When that happens, your skin begins to look worn and aged. When the blood vessels throughout your skin don’t receive the blood supply they need, they begin to constrict. As a result, the blood vessels don’t receive the oxygen they need to replenish the skin’s cells. As a result, your skin begins to thin. Wrinkles emerge. Some people begin to develop a “leathery” appearance. All of these are symptoms of premature aging of the skin.

 Alcohol, on the other hand, dilates the blood vessels on the skin’s surface. It creates discoloration in the skin. The broken vessels also make the skin look older. The worse effect of alcohol is apparent in the face, so it becomes an even more obvious sign of aging.Alcohol dehydrates your body generally, including the skin – your body's largest organ. This happens every time you drink. Drinking too much is also thought to deprive the skin of vital vitamins and nutrients. Over time, drinking heavily can have other, more permanent, detrimental effects on your skin. Rosacea, a skin disorder that starts with a tendency to blush and flush easily and can eventually lead to facial disfigurement, is linked to alcohol. Skin hydration is extremely important to the health and appearance of the skin. Just as alcohol dehydrates the body internally and causes an intense "hangover" thirst, alcohol also dehydrates the skin, causing it to lose its dewy appearance, and magnifying any pre-existing skin irregularities, such as fine lines and wrinkles. Alcohol is a diuretic, which means that it draws water from the body, thereby lowering the body's water level and causing dehydration. Certain drinks have an even greater power to dehydrate the skin, since the alcohol inhibits the release of an antidiuretic hormone. Dehydrated skin looks dry and unhealthy, both in color and texture. People with naturally dry skin suffer more intense effects of alcohol dehydration. 

The natural aging process entails a slow-down of elastin and collagen production, which are the necessary proteins for keeping the skin thick, firm, strong and youthful-looking. Vitamin A boosts collagen production in the skin. The natural aging process' slow-down of collagen and elastin leads to wrinkles and other natural skin conditions of old age, such as thinning skin. Drinking alcohol greatly intensifies and speeds up this natural aging process, causing premature aging, which can add aging effects that might not have otherwise occurred. The deficiency of oxygen and vitamin A supply in the skin also inhibit collagen and elastin production, depleting firmness and plumpness of the skin. Premature aging means that wrinkles and skin discoloration occur long before they're due. Add the dehydration side effect and the visibility of premature aging is even worse. This is important information to have and to learn from if you are going to give yourself better odds in slowing down

your aging process.
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