Here's another good reason to quit smoking. Researchers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor's dermatology clinic found that smoking may increase wrinkles at parts of the body other than the face - even on areas that are covered with clothes!

Yolanda Helfrich and her team who studied 82 people aged 22 - 91 years old, found that the risk of developing wrinkles was strong in those who smoked heavily for years. The wrinkles were identified by three judges - two dermatologists and a medical student - who examined photographs of the participants' upper inner arms.

"The judges used a nine-point scale developed by Helfrich's team. A rating of 0 indicated no fine wrinkling; severe fine wrinkling yielded the maximum score of 8," reported Miranda Hitti in WebMD Medical News.

Forty of the participants had a history of smoking but this was not disclosed to the judges who identified the severity of wrinkling based solely on the photographs they were shown. Two-thirds of the participants had low wrinkle scores but the highest - indicating deeper wrinkles - belonged to the smokers.

"We examined non-facial skin that was protected from the sun, and found that the total number of packs of cigarettes smoked per day and the total years a person has smoked were linked with the amount of skin damage a person experienced," Helfrich said in a University of Michigan news release.

Earlier, Bipen Patel of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at Cambridge University in England linked heavy facial wrinkling to an increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in current and former middle-aged smokers.

COPD is an incurable chronic lung disease that includes emphysema and bronchitis. It is the fourth leading cause of death in America that has killed more women than men. Patients with COPD find it hard to breathe and smoking is a leading risk factor for the disease.

"In 2004, 11.4 million American adults (aged 18 and over) were estimated to have COPD. However, close to 24 million adults have evidence of impaired lung function, indicating an under diagnosis of COPD," according to the American Lung Association.

The subjects in Bipen's study were 149 current and former smokers in their mid- to late 50s. After being photographed, the subjects' photos were examined by a pair of dermatologists who rated their facial wrinkles.

"Most participants had little or no facial wrinkling, but 25 (nearly 17 percent) were wrinkled, write Patel and colleagues. Of the 25 wrinkled participants, 21 had COPD, the researchers found. Overall, 68 of the 149 participants had COPD," said Hitti.

"Compared with unwrinkled participants, those with wrinkles were more than eight times as likely to have COPD, the study shows," Hitti added.

Based on these studies, it makes perfect sense to quit smoking now if you seriously want to avoid wrinkles and a host of diseases associated with this habit. To reduce whatever wrinkles you have now, use Dermaxin, the anti-wrinkle cream that contains four special ingredients, namely Matrxyl 3000, collagen, Argireline, and hyaluronic acid to help reduce fine lines and wrinkles, restore skin elasticity and smoothness, moisturize the skin, and reduce the signs of aging. For details, visit http://www.dermaxin.com.