The Connection Between Smoking and Diabetes
- QuitSure Team
- Apr 29
- 4 min read
Everyone knows that smoking is such a dangerous thing for the lungs and heart. Did you know that lighting up can also dramatically increase your risk of developing diabetes? For years, research has shown smoking can play a role in developing type 2 diabetes and that if you smoke, you must quit to protect your health.
But here’s how not to give up on smoking causes risk to skyrocket and why quitting is one of the simplest and best decisions you can make, guided by the QuitSure app.
How Smoking Contributes to Diabetes?
The harmful chemicals in the cigarettes directly affect your body’s ability to process sugar (glucose) when you smoke. Here are a few of the crucial ways in which smoking can impact the development of diabetes.
1. Increased Insulin Resistance
One of the primary chemicals in cigarettes is nicotine, which makes your body more resistant to insulin. The hormone that plays a role in moving sugar from your bloodstream into your cells is called insulin.
A high blood glucose level is a defining feature of diabetes, and this results from sugar building up inside your blood when insulin resistance develops.
2. Chronic Inflammation
When you get into the habit of smoking, inflammation starts all over the place in your body. Inflammation damages cells, disrupts normal function, and significantly contributes to the onset of insulin resistance, leading to diabetes.
3. Abdominal Fat Accumulation
People who smoke tend to be packing more fat around their abdomen. The fat that surrounds our internal organs is particularly dangerous because it strongly correlates to insulin resistance and increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
4. Impaired Blood Flow
Smoking constricts and decreases blood vessels and circulation. Poor blood flow can worsen complications like nerve damage, kidney disease, and eye problems in people with diabetes. Smoking leads to diabetes, and then diabetes makes it even harder to control with smoking.
Why Is Smoking Cessation Hard?
Many people give up smoking even though they know the risks. Nicotine is highly addictive, and it becomes bound into daily routines, emotional triggers, and part of identity. But it is possible to quit with the right support.
Do not get discouraged if you have struggled before. Breaking through an addiction isn’t just about willpower; it’s about finding an approach that understands the psychology of addiction and treats it as a whole.
That’s where QuitSure comes in.
How to Get Started with the QuitSure App?
Getting started is simple. You just need to download the QuitSure app for iOS or Android, record a few things about how you smoke, and get started. Every day you will get your sessions that lead you on the path of zero pressure, zero judgment, and maximum empowerment.
QuitSure has already been successful with thousands of people. You can be next.
Smoking and Diabetes Complications
Smoking makes existing cases of diabetes more dangerous by increasing the chances of severe complications. There are several dangerous situations that smoking worsens for diabetes patients, as listed below:
Heart Disease and Stroke
Smoking worsens diabetic heart disease risks, which diabetes already increases. The combination of blood vessel damage with elevated blood pressure results in reduced blood oxygen levels. Heart disease and stroke become significantly more likely when diabetes occurs alongside these risk factors. The risk of heart-related issues decreases with smoking cessation while heart health improves simultaneously.
Kidney Disease
The smoking habit causes rapid deterioration of kidney function in diabetes patients. By disrupting blood circulation to the kidneys, the risk of chronic kidney disease rises, which leads to kidney failure. Preventing kidney disease and reducing its progression become possible by give up on smoking.
Nerve Damage (Diabetic Neuropathy)
Smoking makes diabetic neuropathy more severe because it creates pain as well as numbness and weakness in the extremities. Reduced blood circulation because of smoking promotes progressive nerve damage.
It also results in worsening symptoms. Give up on smoking practices reduces neuropathy intensity because it guards your nerves from additional harm.
Vision Loss
Smokers face an increased risk of developing diabetic retinopathy, which damages retinal blood vessels, leading to vision impairment. Diabetic individuals who smoke face an extremely elevated chance of losing their vision.
The decision to stop smoking would help control diabetic retinopathy progression while safeguarding your eye health.
Amputations
The combination of diabetes and smoking significantly raises the chances that you will require amputation surgery. When circulation remains poor and nerve damage occurs, it leads to infections.
It might prevent healing and result in toe, foot, or leg amputation. Avoiding cigarettes plays an essential role in reducing the chance of amputations while enhancing your systemic circulation.
Conclusion: Protect Your Health—Quit Today
There is no denying that smoking and diabetes are linked and dangerous. But every cigarette you smoke diminishes your body’s ability to regulate blood sugar and makes your chances of life-altering complications worse.
Giving up smoking is giving yourself a gift: better health, more energy, a longer life, and freedom from addiction.
Get the QuitSure app today and begin your path to a smoke-free life, and protect yourself from the hidden dangers of smoking. Thanks to your body and future self, you’ll thank you.
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