Save Some Face

Cigarettes, tanning beds, heart-breaking boys: You know they&#8217re bad for you, but you can&#8217t quite let them go. It would seem that you enjoy the physical and emotional abuse.

This year, wouldn&#8217t it be a step in the right direction to give up at least one of these bad habits? Because the combination of all three is just plain unhealthy.

As you enter your 20&#8217s, you are at your sexual and physical peak. Yep, your bodies can handle late night drinking fests and sleep deprivation far more efficiently than your older lady friends. You think, &#8217Nothing can bring me down.&#8217

Not yet anyway. All of your bad habits will catch up to you sooner than you think. Especially you cigarette smokers and tanning bed aficionadas.

Premature wrinkling comes from too much of a bad thing.

Smoking drains the skin of oxygen and nutrients, which give your face a pretty glow, by narrowing the blood vessels. According to the Health24 Web site, cigarette use may break down collagen, the essential protein in your skin that keeps it young and supple.

Tanning booths only intensify the damage. UVA rays from the artificial UVA light sources are two to three times more powerful than the sun&#8217s natural rays.

So, if you smoke and tan regularly and continue to do so, your skin will age much faster that you. Disturbing, but true.

Maybe 2006 can be the start of a beautiful relationship between you and your skin.

We&#8217ll see about the boys.