Smoking and the Effects of Type-2 Diabetes

Type-2 Diabetes now affects around 422 million of people worldwide.The World Health Organization points out smoking as one of the main factors causing diabetes. At the same time, the American Diabetes Association and the International Diabetes Foundation do not include smoking in the list of preventable factors or as a factor which should prompt diabetes screening.

So why are these two well-respected institutions opposing each other on this subject? To shed some light on this question, scientists from the School of Medicine in Indianapolis have made a comprehensive overview of population-based studies that have linked smoking with increasing risk of Type-2 Diabetes. There is plenty of research covering tens of thousands people encompassing the impact of cigarette smoking on metabolic health and glucose blood levels. Groups that had been researched are various – mid-aged Caucasian men, postmenopausal American females, Chinese, Korean, Bangladesh and Canadian men, etc. Every study has been conducted minimum for five years with each group. The overview of the studies’ results demonstrates a relation between smoking and developing Type-2 Diabetes. Smokers, especially those who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, are at significantly increased risk of diabetes. The longest studies observe not only the risk for smokers but the decreasing risk levels for those people who have quit smoking. After 10 years of cessation, risk decrease to non-smoking levels.

Smoking worsens glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, which are the basic causes of diabetes. Authors of the scientific review claim, that it is clear that epidemiologic studies show that cigarette smoking can notably increase the risk of diabetes type 2 and because of this smoking should be considered as a recognizable risk factor and should be treated as such. If you are a smoker you may try to find a health program which can give you further information about health risks for smokers and help you quit smoking.

Source: Smoking and the risk of type 2 diabetes, Authors: Judith Maddatua, Emily Anderson-Baucumb, Carmella Evans-Molina.