And I Don't Even Smoke!

Sad, but true.

Health.com went out of its way this week to enumerate for its readership fifteen ways that smoking was terrible for one's appearance. Note: the article was not about how smoking impacted one's life expectancy (that's a given, I suspect), but it merely detailed quite graphically what could happen to the various aspects that people consider when choosing a match on eHarmony.com and in dimly-lit bars ( I guess).
I was horrified to read about the lesser-know liabilities of smoking...but then, I began to notice something of a trend: most everything mentioned in the article was related to what I see every day in the mirror. To wit:

1. Smoking causes a breakdown in the stuff that keeps one's skin firm, leading to bags under the eyes (and in other places as well, I suspect). I checked my picture...there are definite bags under my eyes.

2. As a result of this loss of tissue firmness, wrinkles begin to appear prematurely...and, sure enough, I have more wrinkles than an English bulldog.

3. Smoking is widely known to discolor teeth, taking away that superhero whiteness and replacing it with a dingy, yellow film and necessitating many hundreds of dollars in teeth whitening (probably at the expense of the enamel...heck, just drink a Coke if that's all you want.) And, yes, my teeth,too, are not Dudley Doorite white, that's for sure.

4.This I found strange: smokers have a much higher incidence of warts, specifically genital warts. Huh? I thought that came from sex...but apparently, while it does come from having sex with an infected person, one's resistance to the virus that causes warts is much reduced as a smoker. Right now, I have one wart on an index finger. Hmmm.

5. The hair of smokers is noticeably thinner. Note that the top of my head is not part of that picture...for a reason.

6. A smoker's appearance loses its natural, healthy glow...to be replaced by a gaunt, gray appearance. Wow! even I can't look at my photo any more, no matter how much I try to PhotoShop it.

7. Smokers have more pronounced scar tissue since it takes longer for them to heal due to a lack of oxygen. While you cannot see them in the picture, my SCARS have scars...worse and worse.

8. Smoker's have a 22% increase in the occurrence of cataracts. Since statistically more than half of us have cataracts by age 80 anyway, this number is a scary one. So far, I can still see more or less clearly with glasses/contacts...but I'm not betting the farm on my chances here.

9. You've heard of all the types of cancer that one can get as a result of smoking, but did you know that smokers are three times as likely to develop skin cancer than people who choose not to smoke? Wow!

While I do not smoke, I lived in a household for the first 15 or so years of my life surrounded by clouds of cigarette smoke. Smoking eventually took the lives of both my parents.
I don't look so good, and I'm suddenly not feeling so hot, either.
Too much knowledge CAN be a dangerous thing, it seems.
Back to PhotoShop just to make myself feel better.