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THE EFFECTS OF SMOKING TO DIABETICS

The Effects of Smoking to Diabetics

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THE EFFECTS OF SMOKING TO DIABETICS

Abstract

Cigarette smoking contributes a huge amount of risk for diabetics to acquire cardiovascular

diseases. With this in mind, it is advisable for the government and/or its health agencies to

provide diabetics with smoking cessation programs. Though the bad effects of cigarette

smoking do not only affect diabetics but the whole smoking population in general, diabetics

are in greater danger of further complicating the status of their health if the habit is not

stopped. Links between atherosclerosis and smoking is established by scientific studies.

Studies regarding the correlation between smoking and insulin production and absorption are

also conducted. The dangers of diabetes include the much dreaded amputation, and even

worse, death. Regulating diabetics from smoking will save people from a totally unnecessary

and avoidable early death.

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THE EFFECTS OF SMOKING TO DIABETICS

Patients diagnosed with diabetes are in serious risk of complicating their

conditions; when not treated properly diabetes oftentimes leads to acquiring other

cardiovascular diseases, amputation and even death. Twenty-five per cent of all diabetics

smoke cigarettes, disappointingly not very different from the non-diabetic population

smoking prevalence. It is documented by the American Diabetes Association that there is a

causal link between cigarette smoking and health risks that might arise from patients with

diabetes, this includes stroke, heart disease and other circulation problems.

Prohibiting people who are diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, often referred to simply

as diabetes, from smoking cigarettes is highly beneficial, not only to the patient himself and

everyone in general. It is no secret that smoking cigarettes is bad to the health, but diabetics

who are also smokers have multiplied their likelihood to contract diseases of the heart and the

blood vessels with continued smoking. Cardiovascular disease is a serious complication that

might arise from lack of proper treatment of diabetes, and cigarette smoking can and will

negate any effect of treatment if it is practiced by the patient, making diabetes more difficult

to manage. Smoking alone is enough to contract cardiovascular diseases, but diabetes paired

with the unhealthy lifestyle of smoking is catastrophic.

Diabetes is a type of metabolic disease in which a person has great amounts of sugar

in the blood because of the pancreas’ failure to produce insulin, or because of the body’s

inability to use insulin properly (or the body’s insulin itself is not functioning properly),

which leads to the inability to break down sugars into simpler forms that can be absorbed by

the body. This is a disease is incurable, often referred to as a chronic disease by the health

communities. Insulin is a hormone whose primary purpose is to take these simple sugars

(glucose) from the blood stream and store it as glycogen in the liver and muscles. People
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THE EFFECTS OF SMOKING TO DIABETICS

afflicted with diabetes often experience excessive urination, and increased thirst and hunger.

Diabetes is also characterized by sweet urine, a result of the excess sugars in the urine.

There are three main types of diabetes, (1) type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas

does not produce enough insulin to properly control blood sugar levels, (2) type 2 diabetes is

marked by high levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood it is the most common form of diabetes,

and (3) gestational diabetes is high blood sugar that starts or is first diagnosed during

pregnancy. Diabetes is labeled an “epidemic” by the World Health Organization (WHO), with

at least 171 million people worldwide afflicted with the disease, that is 2.8% of the world

population, back in 2000. It also causes 5% of deaths annually worldwide. More cases are

being recorded each year, and this figures are expected to double in twenty years.

Cigarette smoking is one of the leading causes of mortality in the world that is totally

preventable and avoidable. It causes 5.4 million deaths a year around the world according to

the World Health Organization (WHO). Many of the studies regarding the impact of cigarette

smoking on health failed to explain separately the results on subsets of individuals afflicted

with diabetes, suggesting the identified risks are at least equivalent to those found in the

general population. Other studies of individuals with diabetes consistently found a heightened

risk of morbidity and early death associated with the development of complications among

smokers. The burden of diabetes to the heart and the blood vessels, especially in combination

with cigarette smoking, has not been effectively communicated to people with diabetes or to

health care providers, and there is little evidence that this risk factor is being addressed as

consistently and comprehensively as its importance requires. Several studies suggest that

diabetics are twice more likely to acquire a coronary heart disease than a non-diabetic person,

and diabetics who smoke are twice or thrice more likely to acquire coronary heart disease
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THE EFFECTS OF SMOKING TO DIABETICS

than those who are nonsmoking diabetics. Smoking may even have a role in the development

of type 2 diabetes.

The smoking population decreased remarkably up until about 1990 because of

widespread public health efforts, which included making the population aware of the health

dangers of active and passive smoking, implementation of smoking cessation interventions,

and policy changes. However, since then there has been very little further decline among the

smoking population, and about 25% of adults continue to smoke cigarettes. These figures

mirror the prevalence of tobacco use among individuals with diabetes. It appears that

teenagers may start smoking after being diagnosed with diabetes and that the prevalence of

tobacco use decreases with disease duration.

It is greatly beneficial to diabetics if they receive a smoking cessation program to

lower the chances that they might acquire cardiovascular diseases like coronary heart attack

and high blood pressure that might be caused by cigarette smoking. Smoking cessation

programs are the most effective of the few intervention programs that can safely and cost-

effectively be recommended for all patients, and it has been identified as a universal standard

against which other preventive behaviors should be evaluated. A number of large randomized

clinical trials have demonstrated the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of certain forms of

provider and behavioral counseling in changing smoking behavior of primary care and

hospitalized patients. This work, combined with the more limited studies specific to

individuals with diabetes, suggests that smoking cessation counseling is effective in reducing

tobacco use in this high-risk group.

Several treatment characteristics have been identified as critical to achieve cessation.

These characteristics include brief counseling by multiple health care providers, use of

individual or group counseling strategies, and administration of drugs. Effective

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THE EFFECTS OF SMOKING TO DIABETICS

administration of drugs now include nicotine replacement therapy in a variety of forms (gum,

patch, inhaler, spray) and antidepressants. Although many large-scale well-controlled

outcome studies have included patients with diabetes, few have reported results separately for

patients with diabetes versus other participants. Special issues that affect successful

abstinence have been identified in these studies and include weight management and

depression. Post-cessation weight gain may be an impediment to smoking cessation,

especially among women or other people concerned with weight management. The presence

of a coexisting unrelated pathological psychiatric conditions such as depression is associated

with a greater frequency of smoking and an increased risk of relapse after quitting. Though

not reported separately, these issues are expected to be at least equally relevant for diabetic

patients as for general patients. Substantial evidence supports inclusion of the prevention and

cessation of tobacco use as an important component of state-of-the-art clinical diabetes care.

Most diabetics who smoke wish to quit but are usually unsuccessful because of their

inability to cope with the already restrictive diet imposed by diabetes. Withdrawal from

nicotine usually induces a person to eat sweets and this leads to weight gain. Nicotine is

proven to reduce the consumption of sweet carbohydrates foods. This may be a huge factor

why those who attempt quitting cigarette smoking experience relapses and turn back to

smoking again. Most people who are diagnosed with diabetes greatly increases their cigarette

consumption, the reason for this might be to help them maintain low consumption of sugary

foods.

In January of 2010 BBC News broke news that giving up smoking raises risk of

diabetes. They did agree with smoking's notoriety for being a very well known risk factor for

type 2 diabetes and it being a cause of many cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The reason

they proclaimed giving up smoking raises risk of diabetes because of the aforementioned
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point that withdrawal from smoking causes larger consumption of sweet carbohydrates and

weight gain.

Despite demonstrated efficacy and cost-effectiveness, smoking cessation has not

received the priority it deserves from health care providers. Only about half of smokers with

diabetes have been advised to quit smoking by their health care providers. One important

means of assuring systematic advice regarding the prevention and cessation of tobacco use is

through the implementation of smoking cessation delivery systems in office practices and

hospitals. These systems require organizational changes in clinics and hospitals to

systematically identify all tobacco users at every visit, so that evaluation of smoking status

becomes a routine vital sign. After tobacco users have been identified by staff, clinicians

should provide a brief assessment of interest in quitting, advise those without current interest

how important it is to quit, and connect those prepared to quit with those who can provide

further information, assistance, and follow-up.

Advocacy for tobacco control through public policy initiatives is also an appropriate

and potentially effective way to reduce the burden of excess morbidity and mortality that

tobacco use confers on those with diabetes. It must be assumed that quitting cigarette

smoking is specifically beneficial to diabetes patients and more studies should be done on

how to make patients quit smoking.

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References

MacFarlane, Ian A. (1991). The Smoker With Diabetes: A Difficult Challenge. The

Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine.