If you want yellow nails, there are more than a few pretty pastel polishes to choose from but, unfortunately, the permanent yellowing of smokers' nails is one of the side effects of the habit.
The oxygen deprivation that we covered earlier with relation to skin and hair damage, is also the culprit here. Your nails are alive and they need air just like the rest of you.
Additionally, the simple act of holding the cigarette between your fingers is an external cause that can result in the yellowing of both the nails and the skin on your fingers. This "yellow finger syndrome" is caused by the staining effects of the tar and nicotine, which also penetrate the skin to impart a perma-odor of smoke.
Paging all women: This just in from the department of "tell me something I don't know" -- smoking is bad for you. It causes cancer, emphysema and heart disease and kills an estimated 2.5 million people each year. It's also getting outrageously expensive (in New York City a single pack of cigarettes costs nearly $13!) And, just in case all that isn't enough to prompt you to slap on a nicotine patch and quit smoking this minute, perhaps appealing to your vanity will. Smoking makes women ugly (Blunt? Yes. True? You bet -- and backed up by medical research).
We're not just talking about how you look while you're actually smoking, we're talking about the residual toll that smoking takes on a woman's overall beauty -- how it ravages many parts of your body on the outside in addition to doing a major number to those parts that are hidden on the inside.
There are many ways that you can spot a smoker -- aside from that cigarette dangling from their lips and the ever-present aroma of smoke. A smoker's skin is sallow, her teeth are typically yellow and there are telltale wrinkles around her mouth. But, hey, we won't not ruin all the fun by revealing the ravages here, let's get visual and down to the nitty gritty because, let's face it, if those commercials featuring that woman with the hole in her throat haven't scared you straight into smoking cessation, maybe your vanity will -- looking good has been known to be quite the motivator.
So, what do you say? Want to see if these seven unsightly side effects can serve as an incentive to get you to kick the habit, to quit smoking right here and now? These may not come as a complete shock, but sometimes it helps to look at things in good old black and white�
