Research
Adherence
The combination of smoking cessation and exercise initiation after a new diabetes diagnosis yields the greatest reduction in cardiovascular disease risk (46% reduction) and all-cause mortality (22% reduction) compared to continuing both bad habits.
For the best heart and life protection after a diabetes diagnosis, quit smoking and start exercising. Doing both together cuts your risk of heart disease by nearly half and death by over 20% compared to staying a smoker and sedentary. If you can only do one, start with exercise, but quitting smoking is also critical.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Those who quit smoking and started exercising had a 46% reduced risk of CVD (HR 0.54; 95% CI 0.41–0.71) and a 22% reduced risk in all‑cause mortality (HR 0.78; 95% CI 0.63–0.96).
Why this rating
Large observational study.
Source
Effects of exercise initiation and smoking cessation after new-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus on risk of mortality and cardiovascular outcomes
Mee Kyoung Kim et al. · Scientific Reports · 2022
DOI 10.1038/s41598-022-14603-1
cohort · n=181591Cited 16×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Initiating moderate-to-vigorous exercise after a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes significantly reduces the risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, and all-cause mortality compared to remaining sedentary.Good
- Quitting smoking after a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality, although the risk remains higher than in those who never smoked.Good
Related findings · Adherence
- Regular physical activity (at least 150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity) reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality by 20-30% and lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes by 25-35%.Strong
- Increasing physical activity from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one in middle adulthood significantly reduces the risk of coronary events compared to remaining sedentary.Strong
- Resistance exercise is the only intervention capable of consistently restoring muscle function and strength in sarcopenia, partially overcoming age-related anabolic resistance.Strong
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