Diabetes and Smoking can be a deadly mix

Ask anyone on the street, and they will likely agree that smoking is bad for you.  But combining diabetes and smoking?  It is a recipe for disaster.  Smokers are more prone to developing type 2 diabetes than the rest of the population.

Smoking raises your blood sugar and raises your body’s ability to produce insulin, making it more difficult to control your diabetes.  But is diabetes and smoking a direct link or does it have more to do with an unhealthful lifestyle of not getting enough exercises, or eating the wrong foods?  Or are those who have the propensity to smoke, more likely to develop diabetes as well?

Diabetics who smoke also tend to have circulation problems.  Oxygen doesn’t move through their bloodstream as quickly as that of a nonsmoker.  This increases your risk of stroke and heart attack.  In fact, with diabetes and smoking, the risks for heart disease increase up to three times that of their nonsmoking counterparts.

And because a diabetic’s healing abilities are hampered by the disease, ordinary wounds that are of no consequence to most of us, can cause severe and extended infections to a diabetic.  The consequences of these infections are serious.  Left untreated, these infections could increase the chance of amputation or in some cases, death.

Don’t have diabetes?  Think smoking only affects your lungs?  Think again.  Studies show diabetes and smoking are more closely linked together than previously thought.  In fact, smoking between a half to a whole pack of cigarettes a day increases your chance of developing diabetes by three times.  For a diabetic, smoking has been linked to increased risk of diseases affecting the kidneys.  Smoking also increases your risk of nerve damage, and permanent vision loss.

So do you smoke?  You know you should quit.  But do you have diabetes and smoke?  Knowledge is power and armed with this information, what are you waiting for?  Think you’ve smoked too long for quitting to make a difference?  Wrong again.  Go to your doctor today and ask for help!  Quitting smoking won’t make your diabetes go away, but quitting now could help you keep this disease in check and add extra years to your life.