Smokers with diabetes more prone to complications
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by Aimee Keenan-Greene
For the first time new evidence now names nicotine as the reason for persistently elevated blood sugar levels in diabetic smokers
Doctors have known for years that smoking increases the risk of developing complications from diabetes.
The gold standard for monitoring long-term blood sugar levels in diabetics is the hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) blood test.
Daily home blood sugar monitoring plus the HbA1c test can reveal the average amount of sugar in the blood in the last several weeks. High results mean diabetes is not well controlled and there is an increased risk of complications.
Previous studies show smokers with diabetes have higher levels of HbA1c than nonsmokers with diabetes.
“Nicotine caused levels of HbA1c to rise by as much as 34 percent,” said researcher Xiao-Chuan Liu, Ph.D, of the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, Calif. “No one knew this before. The higher the nicotine levels, the more HbA1c is produced.”
Nearly 26 million people in the United States and 260 million more worldwide have diabetes.
Complications include heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure, and nerve damage.
Treating those complications takes $1 out of every $10 spent on health care each year.
Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and the third leading cause in some minority groups, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The report was presented at the 241st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
The ACS says this discovery may also have implications for diabetics using nicotine-replacement therapies, like the patch or gum, for extended periods.
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