How smoking impacts the body

It's well established that smoking is bad for our health in so many ways. Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable deaths and every year it kills almost 76,000 people in the UK.

How smoking increases risk of type 2

Nicotine is one of the many chemicals that is contained within cigarettes and is what makes smoking so addictive. Nicotine changes the the chemical processes in the cells inside your body, so they do not respond to insulin. This is known as insulin resistance.

Insulin is the hormone that allows your body to turn the sugar from the food we eat into energy. It stops your blood glucose levels from getting too high by pushing the sugar into the body’s cells.

If your body starts to become resistant to insulin, then your blood glucose levels will rise and put you at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Reducing your risk of type 2

Stopping smoking before you develop serious diseases such as type 2 diabetes is extremely important for your health in the future.

Research studies have shown that insulin becomes more effective at lowering your blood glucose levels after only 8 weeks of quitting smoking.

Smoking also significantly increase the risk of heart disease and stroke in people at risk of diabetes.

Health benefits of quitting

Stopping smoking has immediate benefits on your health:

Stop smoking support

There is lots of support available to help you stop smoking. Visiting your GP or local pharmacy is a good first step as they will be able to signpost you to local services. There are also lots of digital support tools such as the smokefree app - have a look at the NHS website for more information about what tools are available.