Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: smoking + hair + brain  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/5/2008)

You?re Checked Out, but Your Brain Is Tuned In New York Times, United States - Much of the research on the topic has focused on the bad company it tends to keep, from depression and overeating to smoking and drug use. ... Lollapalooza 08 Sunday: Nine Inch Nails bring us closer to God ... Entertainment Weekly - Aug 4, 2008 Slash lit up a smoke (despite the pink and purple "No Smoking" signs posted everywhere in Kidzapalooza) and stood almost completely still during his ... Today's Mad Men: Tie not required Globe and Mail, Canada - Aug 4, 2008 In many ways, it presents an intriguing time warp, from the excessive smoking to the lack of diversity in the workplace. Even viewers who are less concerned ... Debunking the Stop-Smoking Myths FOXNews - Jul 16, 2008 Eight percent didn?t know that smoking has been proven to cause blindness. ? Ten percent didn?t know that smoking has been proven to cause hair loss. ... Gather.com 8 Dangerous 'Un'Healthy Excuses You Don't Want to Make Gather.com, MA - Aug 3, 2008 Tip: Those who exercise or play sports tend to naturally move away from smoking as more oxygen is needed by the body and brain. However, this usually works ... New York Magazine (Photo: Darren Michaels/Courtesy of Columbia Pictures) New York Magazine,  USA - Aug 3, 2008 We see drugs with paraphernalia, a blissful Rogen driving while smoking pot, a midwestern woman dropping the F-bomb, and, most memorably, Franco comparing ... Posted | Comment | Recommend USA Today - Jul 30, 2008 "Would you tell me if you're smoking pot?" "Oh God, Aunt Marie. I hate getting high! But this is, like, basic civil rights!" This time I count to ten and ... How your behaviour can change your children?s DNA Times Online, UK - Jul 19, 2008 A liver cell, for example, has no need for the genes that govern sperm production, while a brain cell that started generating, say, hair or nails could be ... Long Hair Drama, by Zhang Lijia Danwei, Hong Kong - Jul 22, 2008 Most of the day, my colleagues would sit smoking, sipping tea from enamel mugs blackened by tea leaves, and ?chuiniu? ? bragging or ?blowing bull?. ... You must remember this: how the mind works guardian.co.uk, UK - Jul 26, 2008 Our reporter did, so he flew to California to be assessed by the world's top brain scientists and then to the 'memory Olympics' in New York. ...

Smoking: Hair, brain and skin

 Starting with the head and face, we highlight what smoking really does to your body...

Hair
Smokers may notice that the top layers of their hair are quite brittle. This causes them to break off before they are fully grown and is most likely because they are malnourished.

Gay Sutherland, director of the Maudsley Hospital Smokers Clinic in London, says, "Cigarettes contain 4,000 different chemicals and gases, some of them deadly. When you smoke, your blood carries around poisonous carbon monoxide gas which hijacks the red blood cells.

"This prevents the cells from carrying the right amounts of oxygen around your body. Ultimately, this will affect things like your hair as it is not being supplied with enough nutrients or fresh oxygen from the blood stream."

Brain
Smoking is a significant risk factor for strokes- around 11 per cent of all strokes are linked to smoking.

If you smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day, your risk of having a stroke is two to four times higher than non-smokers. Passive smoking also increases the risk.

A stroke occurs when a blood clot forms in the brain, blocking the blood supply, or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts.

This deprives the brain cells of oxygen and other nutrients causing them permanent damage or killing them off. The effects of a stroke can leave sufferers permanently disabled and one third of all stroke victims die within a year of the attack.

Smoking increases your risk of stroke as the chemicals found in cigarettes can lead to a narrowing and furring of the arteries. This increases the chances of a blood clot becoming lodged in an artery in the brain.

This deprives the skin of oxygen and essential nutrients making it drier and can give it a grey, wasted appearance.

Studies also show that smoking may lead to an increased production of an enzyme that breaks down collagen in the skin. Collagen is the main structural protein of the skin which helps it stay firm. So the more you smoke, the greater your risk of developing wrinkles.

The study found that smokers in their 40s had as many wrinkles as non-smokers in their 60s. Smokers were also more likely to develop hollow cheeks through repeated sucking on the cigarettes.

Smokers are also two to three times more likely to develop psoriasis, a skin condition that causes the skin cells to constantly renew themselves leaving scaly pink patches on the body. Studies say smoking appears to be more strongly associated with psoriasis in women than men.