By Kirsten Whittaker
As if you need one more reason to not smoke... or to avoid the effects of secondhand smoke, a groundbreaking study finds that cigarette smoke brings an increased risk of type II diabetes risk factors, for the smoker and for the non smokers around them. The risk goes up with the amount of secondhand smoke you're exposed to.
Researchers tell us that the risks of developing diabetes from secondhand smoke weren't known before, but that these findings reinforce the lesson that you need to limit your exposure.
Tobacco smoke has over 4,000 chemicals, and more than 60% of them are known to cause cancer.
Secondhand smoke is a combination of two forms of smoke that come from burning tobacco - sidestream smoke (from the end of the lighted cigarette, pipe or cigar) and mainstream smoke (exhaled from the smoker's mouth).
It's the sidestream smoke that has higher concentrations of the cancer causing substances than the smoke that comes from the smoker.
For the research experts examined the responses of over one hundred thousand women to questionnaires answered back in 1982.
The subjects were all female, all nurses taking part in a nationwide study known as the Nurses' Health Study that lasted several decades, supplied information on how much exposure they had to cigarette smoke.
Over the following two decades around one in 18 subjects was diagnosed with type II diabetes.
The team discovered that women smokers who smoked over two packets a day were most at risk of developing diabetes. This meant that for each 10,000 subjects in the study, around 30 of the women classed as heavy smokers were diagnosed with diabetes each year, in comparison with around 25 women who didn't smoke, and hadn't been exposed to others cigarette smoke.
The risks were increased for ex-smokers as well as women who were exposed to secondhand smoke. In both groups, around 40 out of 10,000 women were diagnosed with diabetes each year. Once the research team took factors like weight, age and family medical history into account, the women who used to smoke had a 12% increased risk of diabetes in comparison to those who were exposed to secondhand smoke on a regular basis.
No one is sure why secondhand smoke and type II diabetes might be connected, though inflammation might be a part of the picture.
Type 2 diabetes is the form that normally develops in adults, affecting both men and women equally, and is a chronic condition where the body can't process sugar properly. Sometimes patients can control their condition with diet and exercise, while more advanced disease calls for insulin. Diabetes that goes unmanaged, or poorly managed, brings the risks of many dangerous, life-altering complications.
The researchers believe there's no reason to think the findings would not apply to men because the diabetes risk factors are similar for men and women. Today the danger of the effects of secondhand smoke is well recognized, and federal, state and local authorities are enacting clean indoor air ordinances to protect nonsmokers from health problems, like type 2 diabetes, that may come from exposure to secondhand smoke.
As if you need one more reason to not smoke... or to avoid the effects of secondhand smoke, a groundbreaking study finds that cigarette smoke brings an increased risk of type II diabetes risk factors, for the smoker and for the non smokers around them. The risk goes up with the amount of secondhand smoke you're exposed to.
Researchers tell us that the risks of developing diabetes from secondhand smoke weren't known before, but that these findings reinforce the lesson that you need to limit your exposure.
Tobacco smoke has over 4,000 chemicals, and more than 60% of them are known to cause cancer.
Secondhand smoke is a combination of two forms of smoke that come from burning tobacco - sidestream smoke (from the end of the lighted cigarette, pipe or cigar) and mainstream smoke (exhaled from the smoker's mouth).
It's the sidestream smoke that has higher concentrations of the cancer causing substances than the smoke that comes from the smoker.
For the research experts examined the responses of over one hundred thousand women to questionnaires answered back in 1982.
The subjects were all female, all nurses taking part in a nationwide study known as the Nurses' Health Study that lasted several decades, supplied information on how much exposure they had to cigarette smoke.
Over the following two decades around one in 18 subjects was diagnosed with type II diabetes.
The team discovered that women smokers who smoked over two packets a day were most at risk of developing diabetes. This meant that for each 10,000 subjects in the study, around 30 of the women classed as heavy smokers were diagnosed with diabetes each year, in comparison with around 25 women who didn't smoke, and hadn't been exposed to others cigarette smoke.
The risks were increased for ex-smokers as well as women who were exposed to secondhand smoke. In both groups, around 40 out of 10,000 women were diagnosed with diabetes each year. Once the research team took factors like weight, age and family medical history into account, the women who used to smoke had a 12% increased risk of diabetes in comparison to those who were exposed to secondhand smoke on a regular basis.
No one is sure why secondhand smoke and type II diabetes might be connected, though inflammation might be a part of the picture.
Type 2 diabetes is the form that normally develops in adults, affecting both men and women equally, and is a chronic condition where the body can't process sugar properly. Sometimes patients can control their condition with diet and exercise, while more advanced disease calls for insulin. Diabetes that goes unmanaged, or poorly managed, brings the risks of many dangerous, life-altering complications.
The researchers believe there's no reason to think the findings would not apply to men because the diabetes risk factors are similar for men and women. Today the danger of the effects of secondhand smoke is well recognized, and federal, state and local authorities are enacting clean indoor air ordinances to protect nonsmokers from health problems, like type 2 diabetes, that may come from exposure to secondhand smoke.
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