A team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland have gathered an interesting new take on tobacco and cigarettes by comparing pairs of twins in which one of them smokes. They attended the Twins Days festival in Twins-burg, Ohio and met 79 pairs of twins in which either only one twin smoked or where one of the twins had started smoking at least 5 years before the other did. Professional photographers then took their portraits and a panel of judges were asked to evaluate the twins’ faces and rate their signs of aging.
The judges gave the twins scores, but you can see the results for yourself. The smoking twins, in comparison to their siblings that did not smoke or had smoked for a shorter period of time, received worse scores for wrinkled and baggy eyes, baggy cheeks, nose wrinkles, jowls and lip discolouration.
Smoking can be a controversial issue. On the one hand you've got the tobacco lobby and enthusiastic fans of smoking who defend their habit, and on the other you've got plenty of public and private institutions amassing a growing pile of evidence that smoking tobacco is bad for your health.
Smoking is a personal decision. Some people enjoy it enough that they don’t mind the numerous health risks, while others are simply too addicted to quit. But if you haven’t started smoking, think twice before you do!
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| The twin on the right is a smoker; the twin on the left is a nonsmoker. Notice differences in nasolabial creases. |
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| The twin on the left has smoked 17 years longer than the twin on the right. Note the differences in lower lid bags and upper and lower lip wrinkles. |
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| The twin on the right smoked 14 years longer than his brother. |
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| The twin on the left is a nonsmoker and the twin on the right smoked for 29 years. Note the differences in periorbital aging. |
