When something is going wrong in your body, there will be signs. They may be subtle, but they are visible in close observation. If you are a smoker, you may be worried about the smell of smoke emanating from your mouth or clothes. However, there are other signs that tell whether you smoke or not and these signs are difficult to get rid of!

Smoking is the harmful act of inhaling tobacco infused smoke and is a common activity all over the world. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 480,000 deaths happen each year due to smoking or smoke inhalation. The organization explained that smoking causes harm to nearly all organs and quitting lowers the risk of early death and other smoking related diseases.

Like many other substances, there are clear tell-tale signs when someone is smoking. This is especially important for finding lung problems like Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is a lung disease that makes it hard to breathe, sooner so people can get help.

Why Does Smoking Affect Your Physical Appearance?

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) explains that tobacco smoke has more than 7,000 harmful chemicals like nicotine, carbon monoxide, and various metals like arsenic, cadmium, and lead, quickly reach your lungs and then travel through your blood to all your organs, including your skin. Smoking damages your skin's ability to heal because it increases an enzyme metalloproteinase (MMPs) that breaks down collagen. Collagen is what keeps your skin smooth and elastic. As you lose collagen, your skin sags. Squinting from the smoke and puckering your mouth when smoking also cause wrinkles around your eyes and mouth.

Smoking also reduces blood flow to your skin, which means it gets less oxygen and nutrients. All these things together lead to what doctors call a "smoker's face." Quitting smoking can help prevent or slow down these skin problems."

Visible Signs Of Smoking

Here are some visible signs of smoking in people, according to 2013, Lung India

Fingers and Nails

When people smoke, the tar and other chemicals in the smoke stick to their fingers and nails. This repeated contact causes a yellow stain that's hard to wash off. It's a very common sign that someone regularly handles cigarettes or biris.

Moustaches

Especially in older people with white moustaches, smoking causes a yellowing effect. This is most noticeable in the center of the moustache, where the smoke from the nose directly hits the hair. The consistent exposure to smoke colors the hair over time.

Lips

Heavy smokers often have a bluish-black tint to their lips. This discoloration happens because the chemicals in tobacco smoke affect the blood flow and the color of the skin on the lips. The constant exposure changes the lip's natural color.

Teeth

Smoking causes teeth to stain both inside and out. The outside of the teeth turns yellow from the tar, while the inside develops a brownish-black stain. This happens because the smoke seeps into the enamel and discolors the teeth over time.

Premature Wrinkling

Smoking makes the skin age faster. This leads to wrinkles like "crow's feet" around the eyes and "cobblestone wrinkles" on the neck. This happens because smoking reduces blood flow, limiting oxygen to the skin, and damages collagen, which keeps skin elastic.

Nodular Elastosis

This condition, also known as "Favre–Racouchot syndrome," causes blackheads and wrinkles, especially around the eyes and temples. It is made worse by both sun exposure and heavy smoking. The skin becomes discolored with visible nodules and wrinkles.

Facial Wrinkling and COPD

A study published in Thorax 2006 found a connection between wrinkles on the face and COPD, a lung disease. It's thought that smoking affects both the skin and lungs through similar processes. If doctors notice signs like "crow's feet" on a smoker's face, they might recommend tests for COPD. This early detection can help people get treatment sooner and improve their lung health.

Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan recently opened up about the diagnosis of his 2-year-old daughter with Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip.

Varun, who welcomed his daughter Lara in 2024 along with his wife, Natasha Dalal, shared that the condition affected her ability to walk and run normally.

In a recent episode of Be A Man, Yaar!, Varun noted that the toddler’s condition was diagnosed when she was around one-and-a-half years old.

"My daughter was diagnosed with DDH, in which the hip slips out of the hip socket. Ek pair lamba chota hojaata hai jiski wajah se walk tedi hojaati hai (One leg becomes shorter than the other, which causes an uneven limp while walking). You can't walk or run properly," he said.

The Badrinath Ki Dulhania actor noted that Lara did not need surgery, but underwent a procedure that put her hip back.

“But she had to be in a spica cast. That means she had to be in a cast for 2.5 months. Which is extremely difficult. To put her under anesthesia, and then she woke up in a cast. Now the cast is out,” he said, adding that the baby is now in recovery.

The Border 2 actor said he chose to speak about Lara’s diagnosis to raise awareness among parents. He urged them to closely observe their children’s movements and consult a paediatrician if they notice anything unusual.

Also read: US FDA Approves Drug To Treat Rare Childhood Syndrome

What Is DDH? How Can It Be Diagnosed?

The UK NHS explains that Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is a condition where the "ball and socket" joint of the hip does not properly form in babies and young children.

The congenital multifactoral disease has about a 30 per cent increased risk if a family member is affected.

The hip joint typically connects the thigh bone (femur) to the pelvis. Its upper end, called the femoral head, is shaped like a ball and fits into a cup-like socket in the hip.

However, in children born with DDH, this socket is not deep enough to securely hold the femoral head, resulting in an unstable joint.

Also read: Child Deaths Fall In India Since 2000 But Progress Slows, Says UN Report

In more severe cases, the ball can slip out of the socket completely, leading to dislocation.

DDH may affect 1 or both hips, and is more common in:

• girls
• firstborn children
• families where there have been childhood hip problems
• babies born in the breech position

While some babies born with a dislocated hip will show no outward signs, common signs to look includes:

• Legs of different lengths
• Uneven skin folds on the thigh
• Less mobility or flexibility on one side
• Limping, toe walking, or a waddling gait

DDH: Is The Condition Treatable

Early detection is helpful and boosts treatment. When detected at birth, DDH can usually be corrected with the use of a harness or brace.

In cases where the hip is not dislocated at birth, the condition may not be noticed until the child begins walking. In such cases, treatment may be more complicated, with less predictable results.

Many women silently accept certain health issues as a normal part of life. However, many of these symptoms, such as painful menses and fatigue, can indicate underlying medical conditions that need attention. So, women shouldn’t neglect their health and seek timely help. Dr Payal Narang, Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Motherhood Hospital, Pune, in an interview with Health and Me, spoke about the health problems that women often normalise, but that can become catastrophic in the long run.

Read more: Three Health Checks Every Woman Should Do Each Month, According To Experts

Women often juggle multiple responsibilities that include work, family, and household duties and neglect their own health. They are busy due to professional and personal life commitments and often fail to go for regular health check-ups. Moreover, they also experience menstrual problems and ignore symptoms such as painful periods, constant fatigue, heavy menstrual bleeding, and urinary leakage after childbirth. Women should consult a doctor instead of normalising these symptoms, which can delay diagnosis and treatment of important health issues. Paying attention to these signs and seeking medical advice can help women maintain better health and quality of life.

Concerning symptoms that women shouldn’t ignore at all

1. Painful menses that can interfere with the daily routine: Many women believe that severe menstrual pain is a natural part of having periods. Period pain is unavoidable. While mild cramps can be common, intense pain that interferes with daily activities may indicate conditions such as endometriosis, fibroids, or hormonal imbalance that need prompt treatment. Persistent pain should be evaluated by a doctor.
2. Fatigue: Feeling tired sometimes is normal, especially due to hectic schedules or traveling. However, constant fatigue that does not improve with rest may raise the chances of anemia, thyroid problems, nutritional deficiencies, or even stress. So, beware and pay attention to the symptoms.
3. Heavy menstrual bleeding: So, if bleeding lasts more than 7-8 days, requires frequent pad changes, or causes weakness and dizziness, it can be due to hormonal imbalance or fibroids. Heavy bleeding can also increase the risk of anemia if left untreated. So, address this problem with the help of an expert.
4. Urinary leakage after childbirth: Urinary leakage after childbirth is a concerning problem quietly accepted by women due to fear of being ridiculed, embarrassment, judgment, or shame. This can take a toll on the woman’s emotional well-being. She will avoid socializing due to the fear of leakage. It is commonly seen in a large number of women because of weakened pelvic floor muscles after childbirth. Various options, such as pelvic floor exercises, physiotherapy, and medical guidance, can help women to manage this condition and improve their quality of life.

Women, listening to the body, don’t just Google and try any remedies on your own. It is necessary to follow expert-recommended guidelines for tackling these problems.

Long considered a standard tool for assessing body weight, Body Mass Index (BMI) may not be as reliable as once believed. A new study shows that relying on BMI can incorrectly classify people as overweight or obese.

When a team of Italian researchers used the gold standard technique of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to measure body fat in the general population, they found that the traditional WHO-approved BMI classification system misidentified a significant number of people as having overweight or obesity.

How Is The BMI Wrong?

A total of 1,351 adults of mixed gender aged between 18 and 98 years were checked for their body weight using the DXA system.

The results, published in the journal Nutrients, revealed that more than one-third (34 percent) of those with obesity defined by BMI had been misclassified and should be in the overweight category.

For those with an overweight BMI, DXA showed that more than half – 53 percent – had been misclassified – three quarters of those misclassified fall into the normal weight category, while the other quarter should have been classified as having obesity.

The DXA analysis found that the prevalence of overweight and obesity across the cohort was around 37 percent overall (23.4 percent overweight, and 13.2 percent obesity, compared to 26.2 percent and 14.1 percent with BMI).

“In the past few years, there has been a lot of criticism of the BMI system due to its inability to accurately capture body fat percentage or distribution, to correctly categorise weight status based on adiposity,” said Professor Marwan El Ghoch, of the Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.

Also read: Your BMI Does Not Reflect Your Health: New Study Warns How It Misses A Key Health Aspect

Despite these concerns, BMI as a weight classification system continues to be used in the general population in primary healthcare (i.e., general practitioners) and non-clinical (i.e., policy and health insurance) settings, he added.

The researchers urged revising public health guidelines to consider combining direct body composition or their surrogate measures, such as skinfold measurement or body circumference, with the waist-to-height ratio, with BMI, while assessing weight status in the general population.

Waist-to-Height Ratio May Be More Accurate: The India Story

In January 2025, India revamped its obesity guidelines, and the new approach focused on abdominal obesity and comorbid diseases, rather than just BMI.

According to the redefining team, it was essential to move beyond BMI-only approaches to tackle the ever-growing number of people related to other major health risks. They stated that while BMI can be a screening tool, obesity must be defined by body fat.

“BMI should be used for screening purposes, but obesity should be confirmed ideally by a measure of body fat wherever feasible, or another measure such as waist circumference, WHR, or Waist-to-height ratio,” Dr. Naval Vikram, Professor of Medicine, at AIIMS, New Delhi, was quoted as saying to IANS at the time.

Also read: 41 million children aged 5-19 living with high BMI in India: Study

What Do The New Guidelines Say

It recognizes abdominal fat — closely linked to insulin resistance — as a key factor in the diagnosis. It integrates the presence of comorbidities — such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease — into the diagnostic process.

The revised guidelines also introduce a two-stage classification system, addressing both generalized and abdominal obesity.

Stage 1 Obesity: Increased adiposity (BMI > 23 kg/m²) without apparent effects on organ functions or routine daily activities.

Stage 2 Obesity: Advanced state of obesity with increased BMI more than 23 kg/2, and abdominal adiposity; excess Waist Circumference or Waist-to-Height Ratio.