20 Sep Cigarette Smoking Related to Diabetes Mellitus Type 2

Cigarette smoking  has been known to increase risk of cancer like lung cancer and other types of cancer.  But a study released in Diabetes Care suggests that it may also increase risk of developing diabetes mellitus type 2 although the risk was restricted to overweight men.

Bahareh Rasouli, MSC at Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden and colleagues conducted the study and found cigarette smoking was associated with 33 percent increased risk of diabetes mellitus type 2 in overweight men.

Researchers found the association after analysing data from 90,819 Norwegian men and women aged 20 or older who were enrolled in the Nord Trøndelag Health Study from 1984 through 2008.  Participants self-reported diagnosed diabetes by completing questionnaires and 1860 were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and 140 with autoimmune diabetes.

The risk of autoimmune diabetes was 48 percent reduced among those current cigarette smokers and 58 percent reduced among heavy smokers.

However, cigarette smoking was associated with 33 percent increased risk of diabetes mellitus type 2 in men who were overweight.

Modifiable risk factors for diabetes mellitus type 2 include overweight, physical inactivity, high blood pressure, low levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol or high levels of blood fat triglycerides, gastational diabetes, giving birth to a baby that weighs more than 9 pounds, disease of blood vessels, history of impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance.