I think we can all agree that smoking isn’t good for anyone’s wellbeing, but if you also have diabetes, man, are you in trouble. Smoking when diabetic raises your blood sugar levels, and increases your risks for kidney damage, stroke, heart disease, nerve damage, and foot problems as much as 10 times. Here are eight reasons why, if you have diabetes, smoking is a major health concern:
1. Diabetic neuropathy or nerve damage. Smoking adversely affects your blood circulation, and this deprives your nerve endings of essential nutrients. Nerve damage makes you more susceptible to sores and infections which could even lead to amputation. Sure, smoking’s cool, but is it worth losing a foot?
2. Heart attacks and stokes. As smoking wreaks havoc on your sugar levels, your blood vessels will become damaged and cause strokes and heart attacks. You’re also at an increased risk of heart damage because smoking lowers your levels of good cholesterol, causes more blood clots to form, raises your blood pressure and reduces the amount of oxygen that is supplied to your vital organs.
3. Kidney damage. Again, smoking raises your blood sugar levels, having a negative impact on your kidneys’ microcirculation. This damages cells which are intrinsic to kidney health, causing albuminuria (high levels of blood protein in your urine) and and kidney or renal failure.
4. Eye damage. Smoking doubles your risk of diabetic retinopathy and blindness in the future.
5. Oral damage. Smoking when you have diabetes increases your risk of mouth sores.
6. Worsening of your diabetes. Not only does smoking cause your blood glucose levels to fluctuate dramatically, but it also increases your resistance to insulin. In other words, smoking makes your diabetes worse.
7. Joint damage. If you have diabetes, smoking can seriously limit your mobility, and even cause extreme pain in your joints. This can obviously have a negative impact on your quality of life.
No one is saying that it’s easy to quit smoking, or that it’s only a health concern for people with diabetes. However, if one or more of the above health risks could affect you, wouldn’t you want to do everything you can to prevent it from happening? Contact your doctor or look online for help quitting smoking.