How does smoking raise my risk of complications if I have diabetes?

How does smoking raise my risk of complications if I have diabetes?

Anne Peters, MD, FACP, CDE (Professor and Director of Clinical Diabetes Programs, USC Keck School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: Does taking additional insulin correct a high blood sugar level?; Why is my blood pressure important if I have diabetes?; What are the most common causes of death for people with diabetes? and more...

Smoking is really, really bad for you if you have diabetes or even prediabetes because what it does is, it makes insulin resistance worse. It increases your bodies reaction it makes your body less reactive to insulin and it also causes constriction of things like the coronary artery, so it makes the risk for heart disease worse. It makes the blood surgers higher so in addition to the risk of cancer smoking actually markedly both worsens insulin resistance and coronary heart disease which is the primary reason people with diabetes die. Smoking is just not something to do if you have diabetes. It also can affect the blood flow to the feet and legs and diabetes can affect that as well and smoking makes that worse. It's just people don't usually realize the effect of smoking and diabetes but it's bad and people really should try whatever they can to stop smoking.