Dissertation: smoking causes skin to age more quickly

Long-term smoking causes skin to appear up to four years older

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The skin of long-term smokers will start appearing older than that of their non-smoking peers, asserts a new dissertation accepted at the University of Oulu on Friday. Smokers also have clearly less of the types of collagen responsible for providing strength and resilience to the skin.
     
The study compared 98 Finnish men, whose average age was 52. Forty-seven of the test subjects were smokers, while 51 were non-smokers. Skin biopsies were taken from the target group, and their skin was photographed to be analysed by experts.
      According to the findings, the skin of a smoker is not more wrinkled than the skin of a non-smoker. Nevertheless, the expert panel recognised 68 percent of the smokers judging by the photographs of their skin alone.
      "This finding is statistically significant", doctoral candidate Anina Raitio argued.
      "It proves that smoking causes skin to age visibly."
     
All the test subjects were men of over 40 years of age. According to Raitio, the target group was selected based on a previous study, which had suggested that the possible effects of smoking might only become visible after several years. On average, the subjects had smoked for 33 years.
      Middle-aged women were excluded from the study as the researcher thought the cosmetics they use, plus possible hormonal treatments such as HRT, might have distorted the findings.
     
According to Raitio the study's most significant finding related to the biosynthesis of the type I and type III collagen responsible for providing firmness and resilience to the skin.
      In Raitio's opinion, her dissertation, which was presented to the University of Oulu's Faculty of Medicine, Department of Dermatology and Venereology, proved clearly that long-term smoking had caused the formation of these collagen types to be reduced by up to a fifth.


Links:
  Anina Raitio: Smoking and skin

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