Doctors long have known that lighting up a cigarette doesn’t lead to just lung cancer and emphysema, but that it plays a role in other illnesses as well, including diabetes.
But new research may have pinpointed the precise cause of smoking’s ill effects on diabetics: nicotine.
As Time reports, a new study from chemistry professor Xiao-Chuan Liu of the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, suggests that the nicotine in cigarettes can raise blood sugar levels by up to 34 percent.
Liu conducted his tests using blood from diabetic subjects, and lacing the samples with nicotine, which triggered the spike in blood sugar. The increase appears to indicate that nicotine is the key problem for diabetics — rather than, as WebMD said, one of the other more than 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke.
The finding suggests that lighting up is a dangerous practice not just for diabetics, but also for those who may be at risk of diabetes. The study “implies that if you are a smoker, and not diabetic, that your chances of developing diabetes [are] higher,” said Liu, who presented his findings at an annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.
The increased blood sugar can cause protein problems, circulation problems and other disorders in the eyes, heart and blood vessels, Liu added.
The study also suggests that many common remedies for quitting smoking, especially patches and gum laced with nicotine, could be dangerous for diabetics, because they don’t reduce the intake of the hazardous chemical.
