Teens who smoke and lay in the sun damage their skin and show signs of aging in their 20's.
Everybody eventually gets wrinkles. Recent research has shown that smoking, like excess sun exposure, greatly accelerates this aging process.  As a result young smokers who lay out in the sun for long periods of time are doubly at risk for wrinkles and skin damage. Here's why.

Smoking reduces blood flow and oxygen to the skin, resulting in marked decreases in the amount of vitamin A, which is essential for healthy skin. But researchers discovered that the combination of smoking and sun exposure cause an essential protein called MMP-1 to be produced in high quantities under the skin's surface. This is not good because too much MMP-...