Advice if you smoke

Smoking increases the risk of developing the well-known complications of diabetes. Smoking also raises your blood glucose levels and increases your body’s resistance to insulin (due to nicotine). 

Smoking significantly increases the risk of a heart attack or a stroke. As people with diabetes are already at higher risk of this due to diabetes, the total risk increases about four-fold. 

Furthermore, experts agree that smoking (tobacco) is the single biggest avoidable cause of cancer in the world.

If you smoke, this might be the perfect time to try cutting down or quitting completely. NHS Stop Smoking website has lots of great information about how to go about this, as well as letting you know what local services are in place to help you. 

For more information around the science and evidence behind quitting smoking, feel free to watch the DocMikeEvans video below.