Support for teens
Smoking
Tobacco and diabetes
Une des meilleures choses que tu peux faire pour ta santé et en particulier ton diabète c’est de ne pas commencer à fumer ou d’arrêter rapidement.
Effet du tabac en général
- Yellow fingertips and bad breath. What’s worse: sharing your second-hand smoke with friends.
- Increases risk for several kinds of cancers. And cancer is bad news.
- Boosts chance of heart disease or stroke — the quickest killers.
- Increases risk of lung disease — and of quickly becoming short of breath.
General effect of smoking
- Toxins in the smoke damage the circulatory system and increase the risk of diabetic complications, particularly involving the eyes, kidneys and blood vessels, much like high blood sugar. This also increases the risk of impotency in men.
- Smoking reduces the body’s sensitivity to insulin.
- Using the pill is riskier for a diabetic who smokes.
Smoking only makes diabetes worse.
If you're a smoker and want to quit, here are a few tips:
- Prepare yourself mentally. Your level of commitment depends on your motivation.
- If you can find a family member or friend who wants to quit as well, provide mutual support to each other.
- Plan lots of activities, to keep yourself busy when you quit. The less you have to do, the more you’ll think about smoking.
- Stopping cold turkey will probably work better than tapering off.
- Get rid of all smoking products, like lighters, ashtrays … and your emergency pack.
- Quit the habits that tempt you. For example, if you used to have a cigarette after a meal, do something else instead—like play video games, go jogging or swimming, watch TV or do housework.
- Drink water, which cuts your desire to smoke.
- If you start thinking about smoking, go do something else. The need to smoke only lasts a few minutes.
- Be realistic: Nicorette lozenges, nicotine patches and e-cigarettes are not miracle cures. You have make an effort, too. Such substances may help if you have a strong physical dependence on nicotine. Talk it over with your doctor, to determine which techniques will work best for you.
Tips
If you don’t smoke, now is not the time to start!It may seem “cool,” but you’ll pay a big price…
Finally, don’t give up! It sometimes takes a few tries before you succeed—and you’ll take great pride in having quit for good!
Source
Diabetes Section Team
Ste-Justine UHC
University of Montreal
