Diabetes and Smoking: Why Quitting Matters So Much

Key points

• Smoking raises your risk of type 2 diabetes.
• If you have diabetes, smoking makes it worse and causes more complications.
• Quitting is one of the best things you can do for your health.

A higher risk of type 2 diabetes

People who smoke have a 30% to 40% higher risk of type 2 diabetes than nonsmokers — and the more you smoke, the higher it goes.

• Nicotine raises blood sugar.
• Tobacco's chemicals damage the body and cause inflammation, and both make blood sugar harder to regulate.
• Smokers tend to carry more belly fat, which raises the risk too — even without overweight.

Smoking with diabetes

• Because nicotine raises blood sugar, smokers with diabetes often need larger insulin doses.
• Diabetes can cause heart disease, kidney disease, vision loss and amputation of a toe, foot or leg — and people with diabetes who smoke get more, and worse, complications.

What quitting does

However long or much you've smoked, quitting helps — your body starts healing:

Blood sugar also becomes easier to manage — you may need to check it more often at first, since levels may drop as your body adjusts.

Help to quit

• Nicotine replacement — gum, patches, lozenges — can double your chance of quitting. Because they contain nicotine, which raises blood sugar, talk to your doctor first if you have diabetes.
• Don't give up: many people need several tries, so don't be hard on yourself after a slip.
• Ask friends and family for support, and get free, confidential coaching at 1-800-QUIT-NOW (also in Spanish and several Asian languages) or CDC's quit resources.

Sources

Based on "Diabetes and Smoking," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.