14 DAY TRIAL // Many people know about the passive effects of passive smoking on the lungs but, according to a recent study, it seems that this also increases the risk of diabetes.
A 15 years study of more than 4,500 American men and women proved that the incidence of glucose intolerance, a sign for diabetes, in which the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to handle blood sugar, was directly related to passive smoking. This discovery stated that 22% of smokers developed the condition, 17% of people who did not smoke but were exposed to passive smoking got the disease and 12% of people who never smoked developed glucose intolerance.
It was also shown that white people are more exposed to the risk than afro-American. According to the report, secondhand smoke was measured in 2 ways, "one was self reports of being around secondhand smoke, while the second was measurements of blood levels of cotinine, a breakdown product of nicotine."
"For every increase of 10 pack years of smoking, the risk of developing glucose intolerance increased by 18 percent," the report said. Researchers warned that passive smoking can be more dangerous for the pancreas, the place where insulin is produced, than the smoke inhaled by smokers directly. The substances produced in secondhand smoking are produced at different temperatures and under different chemical conditions, some of them being more powerful in secondhand smoking.
"We identified passive tobacco exposure in never smokers as a new risk factor for glucose intolerance. If confirmed by further research, these findings provide further documentation of the deleterious effects of tobacco smoking, and policy makers may use them as additional justification to reduce exposure to passive smoking," researchers concluded.