Smoking and Type 2 Diabetes - 7 Reasons to Quit

Are you a type 2 diabetic who smokes or who lives with a smoker or socialises with smokers? It's a known fact that smoking, including passive smoking, causes cancer but perhaps less well known that smoking and type 2 diabetes really do not mix.

Here are 7 reasons why smoking and type 2 diabetes are a really bad idea and why a diabetic should quit smoking.

Reason #1 - Neuropathy (Nerve Damage). Because smoking has an effect on the circulatory system, blood doesn't reach the nerve endings, particularly those in the feet, as readily as it otherwise might. Diabetics are already prone to circulatory problems and need to take great care of their feet to prevent infections and sores which in the worst case can lead to amputation.

Reason #2 - Joint Mobility. Smoking and type 2 diabetes increase the risk of joint mobility becoming limited. If joints are painful, movement and therefore exercise is limited too. This is particularly bad as exercise is the best thing to mitigate the effect of diabetes.

Reason # 3 - Kidney Disease. Smoking and type 2 diabetes both cause kidney disease and can ultimately cause kidney failure so a diabetic who smokes is at double the risk.

Reason # 4 - Raised Blood Pressure. Diabetics are already at risk of high blood pressure so once again, smoking doubles the risk.

Reason # 5 - Cardiovascular Disease. Because diabetes causes vascular abnormalities, heart disease is already a risk factor. Smoking is known to contribute to cardio vascular disease because it causes hardening of the arteries so the combination could be lethal.

Reason # 6 - High Blood Sugar. Smoking increases blood sugar levels. As a diabetic may already have trouble controlling glucose levels, smoking exacerbates this problem.

Reason # 7 - High Cholesterol. Smoking increases cholesterol levels which are another contributory factor in heart disease. Insulin can increase the amount of bad cholesterol and lower the amount of good in the blood stream.

From the above you can see that smoking and type 2 diabetes both have a detrimental affect on the cardiovascular system and that continuing to smoke will make controlling diabetes doubly difficult. So if you're a diabetic, do yourself a favour and quit smoking without delay. Even passive smoking can have a detrimental effect, so do your friends and family a god turn and get them to quit too. It's much easier to give up if a few of you do it together.

For more information on the effects of smoking and type 2 diabetes as well as dietary and lifestyle tips, visit Good Diabetic Diet.

Type 2 Diabetes - Weight Gain After Quitting Smoking And The Effect On Blood Sugar!

Thinking about quitting smoking can actually cause anxious feelings in some individuals. How will I cope if I can't smoke? How will I do it? What if I gain a lot of weight? What if I fail?

Although quitting smoking has many benefits, one unfortunate side effect is weight gain. In the month of October, 2011, the Journal of Epidemiology reported the results of a study on quitting smoking and blood sugar levels, performed by the Kanagawa Health Services Association in Japan.

Nine hundred and forty-six volunteers who had stopped smoking were included in the study. After 3 years, the people who had gained weight were found to have higher blood sugar levels than they had at the beginning of the study. Blood sugar levels went up at the same rate as their body weight, and were greatest for those who had smoked at least 20 cigarettes per day.

Smoking increases the levels of adrenalin, which can help to burn calories, but it is not a good way to maintain normal body weight. Individuals planning to quit smoking need to compensate by either cutting back on calories (or kilojoules), and/or by increasing their physical activity. Exercise has the advantage of:

getting smokers away from their frequently used environments, andhelps them to substitute another activity for the smoking.

Many smokers smoke to relieve stress... exercise is also a great way to relieve stress.

Studies have shown exercise decreases the cravings for tobacco. But to be effective, exercise must be frequent. In August 2011, the journal Addictive Behavior reported on a study from the Institute for Community Health Promotion at Brown University in Rhode Island, USA. Sixty female smokers completed an eight week program on smoking cessation that included counseling and a nicotine patch before being assigned either to:

three weeks of aerobic exercises, orno exercise at all.

Women in the exercise group, reported having not only decreased cravings but also higher energy levels and less tiredness.

The bad news is their cravings returned between exercise periods. It was therefore concluded exercise could be successfully used to help anyone quit smoking if exercise was participated in often.

Another study which was reported in the journal Pediatrics October, 2011, found teenagers, especially boys, were better able to quit smoking if they were given physical activity training along with other forms of therapy. Investigators at West Virginia University School of Medicine, in Morgantown, a city with a record for the least healthful habits in the USA, included 233 smokers ranging in age from 14 to 19 in this study. They were assigned to three groups and provided with either:

brief intervention,a teen cessation program called Not on Tobacco, orNot on Tobacco with physical activity.

At the end of six months, adolescents in the Not on Tobacco program along with exercise had the greatest rate of successfully quitting smoking. Boys in the exercise program had a higher rate of quitting than girls in the same program. It was concluded physical activity along with an effective adolescent smoking cessation program, could be a more effective way of treating nicotine addiction in adolescents.

To discover answers to questions you may be asking yourself about Type 2 Diabetes, click on this link... Natural Diabetes Treatments