Everyone knows that smoking isn’t good for you, but how does it affect someone with diabetes? Maybe you’re a smoker and you have just been diagnosed with Diabetes. Or perhaps just a smoker looking for life insurance for diabetics. Regardless it’s important to know how smoking relates to diabetes.
Diabetes is a disease where blood sugar levels are higher than normal. Most of foods people eat gets turned into glucose (sugar) for the body to use for energy. The pancreas, an organ around the stomach, produces the hormone called insulin that helps glucose get to the body’s cells for use as energy. When you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin in Type 1 diabetics, or doesn’t use the insulin very well like type 2 Diabetics. This glucose instead will build up in the bloodstream causing high blood sugar levels and a high A1C reading. Type 2 is by far most common in the US for adults and accounts for almost 90% of all new diabetes cases. Fewer people are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, more often developing in children , or Juvenile diabetes.
Is Smoking Related To Diabetes?
The CDC claims that smoking is one cause of type 2 diabetes. The CDC says, smokers are 30–40% more likely to get type 2 diabetes than nonsmokers. It’s also important to note that diabetic smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to have issues with insulin dosing and controlling their diabetes. The more you smoke, the higher your risk for type 2 diabetes, and no matter what type of diabetes you have, smoking makes your diabetes harder to control. Bad diabetic control leads to all kinds of diabetic related complications.
Why Life Insurance Companies Don’t Like To Insure Diabetic Smokers
If you have diabetes and you smoke, you are more likely to have serious health problems from diabetes. Smokers with diabetes have higher risks for serious complications, these complications make getting life insurance for diabetics harder, more expensive or even denied insurance coverage. Most life insurance companies will add two table ratings for a smoker on top of the smoker rates that are twice as expensive as non-smokers. As a result finding affordable life insurance for diabetics that smoke is almost impossible but we can help.
Life Insurance For Diabetic Smokers
Since we specialize in working with only people with diabetes this was a big problem we had to solve. It was important that we find companies that do have affordable life insurance options for our clients that smoke or use tobacco. The best option is to use companies that do not distinguish between smokers and nonsmokers. Some life insurance applications do not ask if you use tobacco or not. If the application does not ask then they will not be able to hold this information against you when applying for your life insurance plan. We can also get life insurance for diabetics that smoke by applying for a traditional fully underwritten policy. Provided that you have your diabetes under control and a clean medical record you could easily qualify for a great rate even if you smoke.
Smokeless Tobacco
For Smokeless tobacco users we have a few great options that do not consider you a smoker. In fact you can qualify for a nonsmoker rate even if you use chewing tobacco, or smoke the occasional cigar.
Stop Smoking! Save Money, And Your Health
Ultimately if you are a smoker with diabetes, quit smoking now it will benefit your health right away. People with diabetes who quit have better control of their blood sugar levels. Quitting smoking will not only save you money on your life insurance but you will feel the health benefits immediately. Provided that you can stay tobacco free for at least a year you could qualify for nonsmoker rates.
For free help to quit, call 1-800-QUIT NOW (1-800-784-8669) or visit CDC.gov/tips. Spanish-speakers can call 1-855-DÉJELO-YA (1-855-335-3569) or visit CDC.gov/consejos.