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Will Quitting Smoking Make You Look Younger?

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Is your New Year’s resolution to quit smoking? It’s a popular and effective time to quit. Men are more likely to smoke than women, so it’s definitely a guy’s issue: About 21 percent of men and 16 percent of women smoke.

If you’re looking for extra motivation, here it is :

People who don’t smoke look younger than people who do. That’s the conclusion of researchers who studied 79 sets of identical twins, in which only one smoked, or one twin smoked at least 5 years more than the other.

After analyzing the twins’ facial features, a panel of judges noted that the twin who smoked had more excess skin over the upper eyelids, more pronounced bags under the eyes, more wrinkles around the mouth, and were more likely to have jowls. Among the sets of twins who were both smokers, those who had been smoking at least five years more had more wrinkles and signs of aging.

The good news is that within two weeks of quitting smoking, you can reverse the signs of premature aging in your face. It’s one more motivation to add to your list. You likely have others, such as preventing heart disease, chronic lung conditions, and many cancers; protecting those around you from second-hand smoke; even saving money.

Sure, quitting isn’t easy, but there is plenty of help out there. Here are some tips from the American Cancer Society (ACS):

1- Don’t Go It Alone

Sure, some people quit cold turkey and never look back but most smokers need support from family, self-help books or groups, counselors, and doctors so don’t be shy about enlisting their help.

2- Use the Phone

Talk to a trained counselor who can customize a cessation program for you. ACS says people who use a telephone-based service (every state has a free telephone-based cessation program) are twice as likely to quit as smokers who don’t use one.

3- Try Multiple Methods

There isn’t one way to quit smoking so if one method doesn’t work, try another or a combination. For example, use a nicotine patch and talk to a therapist, consider a prescription medication and join a self-help group, or try hypnosis plus behavior modification.

4- Know Your Resources

There are literally hundreds of organizations available to help you quit, among them: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Lung Association, which runs the site Freedom From Smoking; Nicotine Anonymous; and the American Cancer Society.

5- Keep on Trying

Many smokers take several tries before they finally quit. The key is to learn from each failed attempt and apply that to your next effort. There are too many benefits from quitting to ever quit trying to quit.

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