If you are a smoker, not only are you probably going to die ealier due to lung cancer, but you will look and become older than you actually are. This is caused by a variety of reasons such as shutting off oxygen to your cells. The main factor however is the formation of a protein called P9.

this protein breaks down a critical fiber in your body called elastin, which provides all the elasticity in your body. What makes it even more critically important is that your body's total supply is developed before you are one year old, and there is nothing you can do to get more late in life.

There are two major things which break down this elastin.

• Radiation: like the ultraviolet rays from the sun
• P9: protein in cigarette smoke.

The reason elastin is so critical to the body, is that it is really what holds it together. Jowls, hanging skin under the arms, bags under the eyes, and wrinkles are all perfect examples of a breakdown of elastin in the body.

These are all superficial and can be taken care of with cosmetic surgery. But elastic fibers aren't only in your skin. They also provide the elasticity of your heart and blood vessel system. The body depends on the elasticity of these vessels in order to vunction, expand, and pump correctly. When elasticity is gone you get hardening of the arteries, blood pressure goes up, heart disease is set in, and your youth is truly robbed.

If you smoke, the greatest enemy to your youth is your cigarettes, and it's never too late to quit.