Does smoking really worsen diabetes complications or is it just a preconception? Chinese researchers have found that smoking addicts with type 2 diabetes have a greater chance of developing heart disease, strokes, heart failures, clogged arteries, as well as premature death.
The risk can be reduced by quitting smoking. Un a study, researchers at Hazhong University found that diabetics who stopped smoking were less likely to develop complications than diabetics who continued smoking. An Pan, study author and professor at the Huazhong University, stated that the majority of type 2 diabetes patients continue to smoke even after their condition was identified. The Chinese professor wanted to know whether the act of smoking was directly related to cardiovascular incidents and higher mortality rates among diabetes patients, and if quitting would reduce those risks.
Centers for Disease Control researchers confirmed that indeed, smoking still represents a well-known issue among type 2 diabetes patients. Because a lot of them refuse to quit smoking, their kidneys and the heart will be more vulnerable to diseases, while their nerves will be damaged at considerably faster rates.
To complete the study, the Chinese team of experts collected and examined statistics featured in 89 articles and studies. The results were surprising. Smokers who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were 1.5 times more predisposed to suffering from strokes, heart disease, heart failure, clogged arteries, nerve damage, compare to non-smokers who suffer from type 2 diabetes. Even more striking is that they were two times more prone to suffering from peripheral artery disease (characterized by a reduction in blood flow in their limbs). Diabetics who stopped smoking were 1.1-1.2 times more vulnerable to suffering from heart disease as non-smokers.
Professor Pan analyzed all these values, as well as the global rates of death attributed to diabetes, and linked smoking to nearly 15% of mortality among diabetics.
Dr. Wael Al-Delaimy of University of California claimed that the problem is that physicians caring for the diabetic patients could possibly focus so much on their patients’ cardiovascular complications and weight control that they may forget to tell them that smoking is also a risk.
The doctor also says that type 2 diabetes patients tend to ignore the warnings when it comes to smoking because they are afraid that quitting the vice will make them gain even more weight that they may fail to lose. Al-Delaimy stresses that physicians need to remind patients that in the long term quitting smoking will outweigh the side effects of diabetes.
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