CAPILLARY AGING CAUSED BY SMOKING

Abstract

Smoking causes changes in the skin, accelerating the chronological aging of life, in addition to bringing various harm to human beings. Nicotine, a substance found in tobacco, plays an important role in this process. It is responsible for vasoconstriction that generates decreased blood flow, accelerating skin aging in the dermis and epidermis layers. However, it decreases nutrition and acts on the morphological structure and composition of hair, which belongs to a group of proteins called α-keratin. The hair shaft has main components: the cuticle, the cortex and a cell membrane complex. In the cortex are melanin granules, whose type and size are responsible for hair color. It is known that there are several factors that contribute to the degradation of its properties in addition to solar radiation, considered as one of the external factors of aging. We have the internal ones such as nicotine that works by breaking down amino acids causing damage to the DNA of the hair follicle and with the sequence it unbalances other substances responsible for controlling the hair cycle, causing the loss of the natural properties of the wires and premature bleaching of the hair. The objective of this work is to clarify the smoking relationship and premature skin and capillary aging caused by smoking and its health risks, in order to guide society towards smoking cessation, promoting a better quality of life.