Smoking and Skin Wrinkles
How smoking causes aging of the skin, wrinkles, and "crow's feet".

It takes two things to happen to keep skin young, healthy, and wrinkle free. The two step process is: 1. the process of break down of old skin cells; 2. the process of making new skin cells.

The body breaks down old skin cells using special enzymes. These enzymes chop up the fibers that form collagen--the connective tissue that makes up about 80% of normal skin. These special enzymes that the skin cells make are increased by smoking which means they break down skin faster than skin cells not exposed to smoking.

It has been shown that smoking can cause the reduction in the production of fresh collagen in the skin by as much as much as 40%. The combination of breaking down collagen faster than the skin can produce new collagen probably is the cause for the premature aging of the skin (wrinkles and "crow's feet").