Heavy drinkers and smokers show visible signs of aging

Heavy drinking and smoking make you look visibly older, sooner, according to new findings of a study that has followed more than 11,500 people over 40 years.  

Men and women who drank 28 or more drinks each week and smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for more than 15 years were far more likely to develop four physical signs of aging earlier in life than normal.

Only those that smoked or drank heavily showed significant early signs of aging.

Those that abstained from drinking and smoking or did either only lightly or in moderation all aged at about the same rate.

Men and women who drink and smoke are more likely to develop visible signs of aging, according to a new study

The Danish researchers chose four signs of aging – earlobe creases, grey rings or arcs around the corneas, yellow-orange skin tags and male pattern baldness – that have been linked to increased risks of heart disease and even death.

In the US, heavy and risky drinking has been on the rise in recent years. 

High-risk drinking – consisting of four or more drinks a day for women and five or more a day each week – rose by nearly 30 percent between 2002 and 2013, according to an article published earlier this year in JAMA.

Smoking has become less and less popular, but about 17 percent of adults still smoked in 2014, according to the latest data from the CDC.

The purely cosmetic effects of smoking and drinking are well documented. 

Drinking dehydrates and inflames your skin, making wrinkles and inconsistencies in skin tone more obvious.

The tell-tale signs of smoking are in the lips, which develop fine lines, but the habit is tied to reduced collagen production, which damages the elasticity of the skin throughout the body, leading to sagging and wrinkly skin.

But, as the Danish researchers set out to demonstrate, some signs of the aging effects of smoking and drinking go further than skin deep.

Both cigarette smoking and alcohol use elevate the risk of a wide array of potentially fatal diseases. 

The researchers from the National Institute of health in Copenhagen, Denmark chose to measure physical signs linked to some of the most common alcohol and tobacco-related diseases, heart disease.

THE FOUR SIGNS OF AGING 

The Danish researchers chose four signs of aging – earlobe creases, grey rings or arcs around the corneas, yellow-orange skin tags and male pattern baldness – that have been linked to increased risks of heart disease and even death. 

 Corneal arcus

Corneal arcus describes grey rings or arcs around the cornea. They are partly genetic. In people under 40, they are sometimes early indicators of artery disease

Corneal arcus describes grey rings or arcs around the cornea. They are partly genetic. In people under 40, they are sometimes early indicators of artery disease

Male pattern baldness 

Male pattern baldness is more common in younger men with unhealthy habits, and has been linked to an elevated risk of heart disease

Male pattern baldness is more common in younger men with unhealthy habits, and has been linked to an elevated risk of heart disease

 Xanthelasmata

These yellow-orange skin tags or 'plaques' are caused by cholesterol that has collected just beneath the thin skin of the eyelids, and may indicate high overall cholesterol levels 

These yellow-orange skin tags or ‘plaques’ are caused by cholesterol that has collected just beneath the thin skin of the eyelids, and may indicate high overall cholesterol levels 

 Earlobe folds

Though no causal relationship has been established, people with earlobe folds are statistically more likely to develop heart disease, according to research

Though no causal relationship has been established, people with earlobe folds are statistically more likely to develop heart disease, according to research

The long-running study began in 1976 and has since add to and followed a group of more than 11,500 people. 

Now, their ages range between 21 and 86, with an average age of 51.

More than half of the women and two thirds of the men in the study reported that they are currently smokers. 

The women, on the whole, drank an average of 2.6 drinks each week, while the men drank 11.4 drinks on average.

Women that drank 28 or more drinks a week – four times the average number – were 33 percent more likely to develop the aging rings, while women who had 35 or more drinks a week were 35 percent more likely to develop the same trait.

The smokers that lit up a pack or more each day for between 15 and 30 years were 41 percent more likely to developed the tell-tale sign of aging.

Overall, the people that fell into the ‘heavy’ categories for drinking or smoking were more likely to develop any or all of the four signs of aging earlier in life.

The study authors note that they simply made the connections between these signs of visible aging related to heart disease, and their subjects’ drinking and smoking vices. 

But, ‘this is the first prospective study to show that alcohol and smoking are associated with the development of visible age-related signs and thus generally looking older than one’s actual age,’ the authors write.

‘This may reflect that heavy drinking and smoking increases general ageing of the body.’  

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk