By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Although smoking increases the risk of diabetes and quitting has numerous health benefits, diabetics who quit may have temporary difficulty controlling their symptoms, a British study finds. Researchers reviewed medical records for 10,692 adult smokers with diabetes in the UK and found that smoking cessation led to an uptick in blood sugar levels that lasted three years and was not caused by weight gain. Worldwide, nearly one in 10 adults had diabetes in 2014, and the disease will be the seventh leading cause of death by 2030, according to the World Health Organization. Most of these people have type 2 diabetes, which is associated with obesity and aging and happens when the body can’t properly use or make enough of the hormone insulin to convert blood sugar into energy.

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Intensive medical management with supervised diet and exercise may work as well as weight-loss surgery to help diabetics get blood sugar levels under control, at least in the short term, a small study suggests. Researchers followed 40 people with diabetes and poorly controlled blood sugar for one year, giving half of them weight-loss surgery and offering the other half a non-surgical alternative, so-called intensive medical management. Both options produced similar reductions in blood sugar. “Individuals motivated to impact their health can have substantial diabetes and weight improvements,” said senior study author Dr. Allison Goldfine, a researcher at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.