Study Looks Into The Relationship Between Vaping And Diabetes

A study of over 600,000 U.S. adults suggested that both smoking vaping may increase the risk for prediabetes.

October 21, 2022

Heavy smokers were more likely to have higher abdominal fat than light or non-smokers, which also increased their risk for diabetes.

Titled, “The Association Between E-Cigarette Use and Prediabetes: Results From the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2016–2018” the current study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Lead study author Shyam Biswal, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore and his team, analyzed data from 600,000 U.S. adults looking for a relationship between smoking, vaping and prediabetes.

The compiled data suggests such a link, indicating elevated blood sugar levels even among e-cigarette users who reported never smoking traditional cigarettes. However, highlighted Biswal, the findings do not prove that vaping directly raises the odds of prediabetes. However, he added, given that smoking is known to be linked to higher diabetes risk, it is “certainly plausible,” that vaping could influence diabetes risk, too.

In fact, a 2018 study published in the journal The Lancet Public Health had indicated that in China the prevalence of diabetes has increased by almost ten times, since the 80’s. Interestingly, other studies have shown that only about 50% of this increase in diabetes can be attributed to unhealthy eating habits, suggesting that the other 50% is caused by other lifestyle factors, such as smoking.

For the purpose of this research, the study authors recruited 512,891 adults 59% of which were women aged between 30 and 79. The participants were selected over a period of 4 years from ten diverse areas (five urban and five rural) across China, and subsequently were interviewed, and had physical measurements and blood samples taken.

The relationship between smoking cessation and mental health

Meanwhile, new findings presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2021, examined whether depressed patients who quit smoking after a heart attack experienced an improvement in their mental health if they quit.

The study enrolled 1,822 acute coronary syndrome patients from the Swiss SPUM-ACS cohort, and assessed their smoking status via questionnaire at the time of hospitalization and one year later. The research team analyzed the associations between smoking and depression after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, education, marital status, physical activity, alcohol use, diabetes, history of cardiovascular disease, cardiac rehabilitation attendance, and high-dose statins at discharge.

The compiled data indicated that in the 411 smokers who were depressed at the time of hospitalization, depressive symptoms were more likely to improve amongst those who quit in the following year in comparison to those who continued smoking.