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Newbie with type2 and a smoker

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M

mojorising

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi All,

Im a 40 yr old man. My parents are both diabetic and on insulin. I was recently diagnosed with diabetes - 7.4 and 7.8 hba1c over a period of 1 year. I am trying to control through diet and lifestyle changes before going on meds. After a couple of months of regulating food and exercise, my fasting sugar came down to 110-125 mg/dl on an average (home testing). My post prandial is around 120 in the morning and night and goes up to a max of 160 post lunch(I eat more carbs for lunch ). I run/walk every day. I have been feeling much better, more active and more fit. I am not overweight. I weigh 76 kgs and am 6 ft tall and pretty fit overall. Cutting a long story short , I was a smoker, I quit smoking 10 days back and since then my fasting sugar has shot up and is hovering around 135. Can this be due to stress and nicotine withdrawal. I have been extremely irritable but havent been eating more or exercising less. I am unable to check my hba1c due to the lockdown. Not sure if i should stay quit or restart smoking and concentrate on the sugar levels.
Will be greatful for any experiences/ advice.
Thanks
 
Quit smoking cos it will be doing you more harm than the high blood sugar, no question. The blood glucose levels are in the diabetic range but not excessively so which means that once you have got shot of the weed for good you can focus on your blood glucose levels and get them into remission. No brainer to me.
 
Thanks Docb. Are you aware of any studies that show the immediate effects of quitting smoking on blood sugar? I see only long term studies that talk about an increase due to weight gain/increased appetite. It would be reassuring to know if this is normal.
 
No. All I know about smoking is that it can do immense damage to your system and it killed my father in law. What it might or might not do to blood glucose pales into insignificance in comparison.
 
I tried to find something on smoking & BG back when I was quitting a couple of years and found nothing useful.

I went immediately from smoking to vaping so no nicotine withdrawal & I don't have a personal experiment to relate, sorry. But wouldn't be surprised if withdrawal stress had a big BG impact.

I do think it would be a really bad idea to take it up again because you think it might improve yr BG. At the levels you indicate your BG is very unlikely to be causing any complications, even if it doesn't come down again, which it probably will, all else being equal.
 
Now youve done 10 days definitely don't go back to the cigs as a smoker myself i applaud you for getting over the worst bit and wish you well on your quitting journey.
Adam
 
Docb said:
No. All I know about smoking is that it can do immense damage to your system and it killed my father in law. What it might or might not do to blood glucose pales into insignificance in comparison.
Click to expand...
Agreed - it killed my first husband at the age of 43. Quit smoking, don't go back to it.
 
Welcome to the forum @mojorising. Glad that you have found us.

Stress definitely can impact our glucose levels so if you are finding it difficult stopping smoking, that could be a reason for the changes in your levels. As others have said it does not make sense to give in and return to smoking, even if it is very tempting to do so.

I know that you are not able to get an HbA1c done at present but your regular BG checks in a day to day basis will give you a good idea of how well you are doing. I am not sure whether you are testing at home, but if not this would certainly help you to make changes. If you are able to test before your meals and again 2 hours after, you can identify what impact the meal has had on your levels. If your record this data along with a food diary, specifically the amounts of carbs in each, you can then use this to help you make decisions about appropriate changes to what you eat and the portion sizes.

Many members on here who successfully control their condition using just diet and exercise have found that testing has helped them to achieve this.
 
As one who's packed it up 'quite a few times' sometimes for even years - it has never had any effect whatsoever on my BG, one way or the other.

Zero.
Zilch.
Nada.

So - can't use it as a crutch!
 
Thanks everyone for your reply(and encouragement). I guess it is the stress that could be causing the elevated levels. Will focus on staying quit for now and worry about sugar probably a month or so later. @SB2015 I have been testing at home everyday but mostly my fasting sugar. It used to be in the 115-125 range but is now up at 135 mg/dl. Will start doing a post once in a while too. Surprisingly my post whenever i've checked is not alarming except if i had a high carb meal. My post after dinner after 3 hrs (around 120) seems to be better than my fasting sugar in the morning (135!). I figured it could be dawn phenomenon but I am now tired of analyzing.
 
Well done on giving up @mojorising

Hope your BG wobbles settle soon, and you begin to feel the benefits of stopping smoking. 🙂
 
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