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Excerpts from: Why smokers' skin 'ages' quicker
 

By  BBC News | HEALTH |   [03/23/01]
 

              Smokers skins' loses elasticity
              Scientists think they may have discovered why
              smokers look older than people who do not
              smoke.

              They claim that simply looking at a person's
              face could show whether he or she is a
              smoker.

              A study by dermatologists, published in The
              Lancet, shows that smoking activates the
              genes responsible for a skin enzyme that
              breaks down collagen in the skin.

              Collagen is the main structural protein of the
              skin and keeps it elasticated.

              When this starts to disintegrate, skin begins
              to sag and wrinkle.

              Professor Antony Young and his colleagues from
              Guys, Kings and St Thomas' School of
              Medicine, in London, measured concentrations of the
              gene MMP-1, which breaks down collagen.
 
              They studied the buttock skin of 14 smokers
              and 14 non-smokers and found significantly
              more MMP-1 genetic material in the skin of
              smokers.

              Professor Young said: "Smoking exerts such a
              noticeable effect on the skin that it's often
              possible to detect whether or not a person is a
              smoker simply by looking at his or her face.

              "Smokers have more wrinkles and their skin
              tends to have a greyish pallor compared to
              non-smokers.

              "Smoking tobacco activates this enzyme that
              breaks down the skin collagen.

              "We did not know that before, we suspected it
              from studies done in the test-tube, but this is
              the first proof."

              Amanda Sandford,  research manager for
             Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said she
              hoped this would act as a warning, particularly to young
              smokers.
 
              "It's ironic that teenagers often start
              smoking in the hope of appearing more mature
               but it probably never occurs to them by
               middle-age they will really start to look older than their age.
 

              "For smokers, middle-age starts in their early
              30s as the tell-tale wrinkles around the mouth
              and eyes begin to appear.

              "Young female smokers are likely to be wasting
              money on anti-ageing face creams if they
              continue to smoke.

              "The best beauty treatment by far is to quit
              smoking."