Does Nicotine Increase the Risk of Diabetes?

Diabetes is known as a disease that indicates high or low glucose levels in the body. It is no longer rare, and is known to affect all age groups. With the increasing number of people affected with this disease, there is a wide platform of factors that can trigger high blood sugar levels. Food and lifestyle form the major areas of concern as the causes. This makes it more crucial to tackle diabetes with not only medicines but with a good diet and healthy routine. Let us know a little about diabetes here, so as to understand its causes and how exactly does it get affected with food and other substances, which is nicotine in this case. So diabetes is a disease where the body does not produce enough amount of insulin. Insulin is secreted by the pancreas and is responsible for converting glucose in the blood and use it as energy in the body. In certain cases insulin is not produced at all, while in some cases the insulin does not work effectively. This results in storage of glucose in the blood, instead of being used as energy. This condition can be risky and can create complications like damaging the organs.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the causes of diabetes, the biggest one being heredity, which mainly leads to type 1 diabetes and then there is type 2 diabetes that is developed in the body, due to other factors obesity, diet and lifestyle. Since it comes to lifestyle we all know how important it is to follow a healthy routine with good diet to keep away from diseases. Most of us follow a good diet but exercise and healthy habits like avoiding alcohol and smoking is often neglected. Undoubtedly, smoking is one habit that has half the globe spreading health alarms. Did you know that smoking causes the risk of diabetes and complications in those already affected with diabetes. Know more about the effect of smoking on diabetes in the following...

Nicotine and Diabetes Complications

So there it is, we know and have often read, smoking is injurious to health. But this is not enough an eye opener, even though we see statistics and readings on the number of risks and deaths due to smoking. So let's face it again, smoking is injurious to health and it also contributes to the risk of diabetes. Nicotine, the major toxic substance in a cigarette, has been a cause to trigger the levels of blood glucose. Let us check some facts on nicotine and diabetes risk, based on studies and experiments.

• It is observed that people with diabetes and who smoke have more damage in store. There are experiments and studies that have proved that nicotine raises blood sugar levels. A lab experiment tested samples of human blood with sugar with varying amount of nicotine in each sample. The hemoglobin A1C was observed. This is the sample of hemoglobin that shows the amount in percentage, of the blood cells that have attached glucose molecules. It was observed that in the A1C test for diabetes nicotine had a positive effect on glucose and the HbA1C levels increased with increased amount of nicotine. Increase in amount of nicotine gradually showed increase in the blood cells with glucose molecules.
• It was observed that nicotine could lead to a condition called pre-diabetes, where the body develops resistance to insulin. Studies have proved that smokers were more prone to the risk of diabetes. The link here, could be narrowed down to a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is a feel-good hormone, that which may give you a lighter and airy feeling after a smoke. Higher levels of cortisol triggered insulin resistance.

So it is evident that nicotine and diabetes risk are deeply related and that nicotine increases the risk of diabetes in smokers. For people already affected with diabetes, smoking will worsen the complications. For diabetics, smoking is equally harmful like eating sugar and candy. So does nicotine increase diabetes risk? The answer is yes, it does. We hope this has stimulated your thoughts on how bad smoking can be, and that it has conquered the pinnacles of all possible health problems. So why risk? Slowly cut down the nicotine intake, it will not only help control diabetes, but will get you a much healthier life.