Where there is smoke, there’s fire. That is especially true with type 1 diabetics who smoke cigarettes. Adults with the disease who smoke may have more dysfunctional HbA1c levels and metabolic outcomes than non-smokers, note scientists at Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria. They also suggest that smoking could also increase the risk of vascular complication for individuals suffering from the disease.

For people with diabetes the higher the HbA1c, the greater the risk of developing diabetes.

The team determined that individuals who smoked one or more cigarettes a day were found to have high HbA1c levels than non-smokers.

When Sabine E. Hofer, MD, Ph.D. and her colleagues studied data from 20,405 adults from the T1D Exchange Registry in the United States and the Prospective Diabetes Follow-up Registry in Germany and Austria.  Attempting to determine the association between smoking and metabolic outcomes,  the study also concluded that smokers were dealing with higher levels of triglycerides and LDL cholesterol.

The researchers recommend that diabetics should quit smoking to lower their risk of developing long-term complications that include heart disease. So don’t get burned… quit smoking!