Gen Z’s vaping habits could be making them look older: docs

The rapidly aging faces of Gen Z can also blame e-cigarettes for their abnormally sallow skin.

Those born between 1997 and 2012 came of age during the rise of nicotine vaporizers, which were touted by manufacturers as a safe and stench-free alternative to smoking.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that people aged 18 to 24 were most likely to use e-cigarettes among all adults, and adults 18 to 44 — Gen Z and millennials — were more likely to be dual users of e-cigarettes and cigarettes compared with adults aged 45 and over.

Alongside the potentially lethal effects of long-term cigarette use, including several types of cancer, it’s also known that the combustion and inhalation of tobacco smoke can cause bad breath, yellowing of the mouth and teeth and premature wrinkles.

But vaporizing devices sold to consumers as a tool to help them kick their nicotine addictions have lately revealed potentially killer cocktails of chemicals and pathogens in their flavor cartridges — in some cases leading to mysterious cases of respiratory illness.

Now, vapes could be behind why Gen Z say they’re “aging like milk,” according to dermatologists who spoke to the Daily Mail.

The appeal of vaping is in its smoke-free design — but Dr. Bav Shergill, member of the British Association of Dermatologists, says the nicotine can break down the elasticity that gives skin its “lift.”

“Yes, there are certain things in cigarette smoke that can damage your skin, but nicotine is a big problem, it is an addictive drug that does have adverse skin affect,” Shergill told the Daily Mail.

“Nicotine is the active ingredient, and it is associated with all kinds of skin problems. It is associated with acne, psoriasis and breakouts,” Shergill continued.

When skin is repeatedly damaged by toxic chemicals, it triggers the immune system causing chronic inflammation and exacerbates certain skin conditions including psoriasis. “As your body starts to get inflamed it starts to increase the blood supply, so you get blotchy and red,” said Shergill.

Skin cells are “degraded by people who have a lot of nicotine usage,” Sherbill explained, “If you get two people, twins for example, and you had one who is a smoker and likes a bit of sunshine, and you look at them at the age of 25 and you can see the difference between them. The aging starts quite early with smoking and sun exposure.”

The combination of sunlight and a chemical environment caused by smoking and vaping can restrict blood flow to the skin over time which is needed to repair and regeneate healthy skin cells.

“That is how you get extra blood flow to all the right cells to fix you,” Shergill explained.

The heat generated by these devices can also lead to “thermal damage” — leading to dehydrated skin with a dulled appearance, and more wrinkles as disappearing collagen in the skin allows gravity to do its dirty work.

“You lose your collagen, which is basically like the stuffing in the mattress, if you get rid of that, the mattress goes saggy and your skin goes saggy,” said Shergill.