Cigarettes Smoking Exposure Can Lead to Diabetes

A new study from Charles Drew University found that adults exposed to environmental tobacco smoke had a higher measure of insulin resistance than nonsmokers without the smoke exposure. With insulin resistance, the body produces insulin but does not use it properly. It can eventually lead to type 2 diabetes. "Passive cigarette smoking" Researchers measured "passive cigarette smoking" by how much cotinine they found in the blood of participants. Cotinine is a substance related to nicotine that measures a person's exposure to tobacco smoke. While 75 percent of the 6,300 participants said they didn't smoke cigarettes, 34 percent had a high enough level of cotinine in their blood to be considered secondhand "smokers." Current smokers made up 25 percent of the participants, while 41 percent were nonsmokers with low cotinine levels. What is secondhand smoke? Secondhand smoke is a mixture of two forms of smoke that come from burning tobacco, according to the American Cancer Society. The first form is sidestream smoke, the smoke that comes from the end of a lighted cigarette, pipe or cigar. The second form is mainstream smoke, the smoke that is exhaled by the smoker. Compared to mainstream smoke, sidestream smoke has higher concentrations of carcinogens that can cause cancer. It also contains smaller particles than mainstream smoke; these particles can make their way into the body's cells more easily. More than 250 of the 7,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke are known to be harmful, and at least 69 are known to cause cancer, says The American Cancer Society. Secondhand smoke means higher blood glucose With regard to diabetes, secondhand smokers had higher levels of fasting blood glucose than nonsmokers, the researchers found. A test of fasting plasma glucose measures blood glucose when a person hasn't eaten for at least eight hours. A high level can detect diabetes and prediabetes.