Get Off Cigarettes and Reduce Your Risk for Diabetes & Complications

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Get Off Cigarettes and Reduce Your Risk for Diabetes & Complications

Diabetes is a serious metabolic disease that results from the body's inability to make insulin or its inability to utilize the insulin that is made. Certain lifestyle habits can help or hinder your ability to manage diabetes. Smoking in particular can have a seriously negative effect on your health when you have diabetes.

The Link Between Smoking and Diabetes

A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that smoking 16 to 25 cigarettes a day increased the risk of developing type-2 diabetes threefold. If you have other risk factors for diabetes such as family history, obesity or being part of a group known to have a higher risk, find smoking cessation help immediately to maintain good health and avoid this life-threatening disease.

Damage From Smoking

The chief reason smoking is a health hazard is its effect on blood vessels. Years of smoking cause blood vessel walls to weaken, making the heart work harder to pump blood to the farthest points of the body. This weakness in the vessel walls can lead to a number of problems within the circulatory system. In addition, the nicotine itself causes an increase in a type of hemoglobin that is associated with higher blood sugar.

Diabetic Health Issues Related to Smoking


  • Heart disease

  • Stroke

  • Circulatory problems

  • Problems with wound healing

  • High blood pressure

  • Cancers of the mouth and throat

  • Impotence

  • Pregnancy complications, such as miscarriage and stillbirth

Group support programs to help stop smoking, nicotine replacement products and medications can help people to stop smoking and reduce the number of complications that smoking causes to those with diabetes.

   

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