thedailywhat:

Plastic Surgeon’s Warning of the Day: Dr. Anthony Youn, a plastic surgeon who operates out of Metro Detroit, warns readers in a post on CNN’s health blog The Chart that smoking “can make your nipples fall off.”

He recounts a story he first told in his memoir, In Stitches, about a patient of his who was undergoing a breast lift, when her nipples suddenly turned purple. “Purple is the precursor to black,” he writes. “Black is the precursor to falling off.”

Dr. Youn explains that the nicotine in cigarettes, combined with the carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke, diminish blood flow, acting together “as a virtual tourniquet.”

To combat this effect, the surgery staff was forced to go “medieval,” and reach for their jar of leeches.

As a result of the aforementioned side-effects of smoking, insufficient blood supply causes veins to fail, leading to a “backup of old (venous) blood” around the affected body part. “We use leeches,” he says, “to literally suck out the excess venous blood from the body part, acting as an attachable vein.”

So if you’re a smoker and you’re going in for a breast lift or reduction, what do? “quit smoking at least one month before surgery and…stay off cigarettes for at least a month afterward.”

Or, you know, forever. 

[cnnhealth.]