| · Department of Health
· Work pressures (2)
· Homoeopathy (2)
· Controlled drugs
· Safety
· Oxygen service
· Compliance aids
· Needle exchange
· Paracetamol
· Smoking cessation
· The profession (2)
· Retention fees (4)
· The Society (2)
· Public image
Letters to the Editor
|
Smoking cessation
Because she’s worth it
From Dr R. Woodford, MRPharmS
Much continues to be written on the adverse effects of tobacco smoking
and the difficulties associated with smoking cessation. The strongest
cause-specific associations are with cancer, vascular, pulmonary and
oral diseases but, until recently, little attention was paid in the public
domain to smoking’s effect on the skin.
Reports continue to highlight the effect of tobacco-derived chemicals
on wound healing, dermatological conditions and skin ageing, while the
effects of smoking on dermal elastic fibres and levels of skin collagenases
are under investigation. More general contributions appear from Action
on Smoking and Health and the British Skin Foundation to promulgate more
widely the “anti-wrinkling” story. The relationship between
smoking and premature ageing of skin provides information to dissuade
young people from cigarette smoking.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends
that brief chats between health professionals and individuals are effective
in helping them to stop smoking. My experience is that an “anti-wrinkle” approach
for women aged under 40 years (including a brief discussion of the cost
of Botox, fillers and peels) seems the most useful, although my attempts
at a timely slogan (“Bin the cig, ditch the fag — or you’ll
become a raddled old hag”) remain unrecognised and unrewarded.
Nevertheless, perhaps it behoves all pharmacists to remind young British
women of the two avoidable assaults on their skin — smoking and
injudicious sun exposure. Perhaps more emphasis in this matter, with
possible “Smoking causes aging of the skin” warning images
on cigarette packets, is required.
The poet Thomas Campion’s 400-year-old observation that: “There
is a garden in her face, where roses and white lilies grow, a heav’nly
paradise is that place, wherein all pleasant fruits do flow” is
still apposite — provided that the cigarette-induced wrinkles do
not get there first.
Roger Woodford
Portsmouth
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal