Overview

• Karolinska Institutet researchers reported at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting that smoking raises the likelihood of every recognized type 2 diabetes subtype, with results still preliminary pending peer-reviewed publication.
• The analysis included 3,325 people with type 2 diabetes and 3,897 controls drawn from cohorts in Norway and Sweden.
• Compared with never-smokers, ever-smokers were more than twice as likely to develop severe insulin-resistant diabetes and had 20% to 29% higher risks for the insulin-deficient, obesity-related, and age-related subtypes.
• Heavy smoking—about 20 cigarettes a day for 15 years—pushed risks higher, to nearly 2.4 times for the insulin-resistant subtype and 45% to 57% for the other subtypes.
• Genetic risk for impaired insulin secretion amplified vulnerability, with SIRD odds more than tripling, while health authorities reiterate that quitting smoking reduces diabetes risk and improves management.