THE EFFECT OF SMOKING ON SERUM SOMATOTROPIN, IMMUNOREACTIVE INSULIN AND BLOOD GLUCOSE LEVELS OF YOUNG ADULT MALES

¹ Division of Cardiology, Philadelphia General Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The effect of cigarette smoking on serum growth hormone, immunoreactive insulin and blood glucose levels of 10 healthy, young adult males was determined after an overnight fast. An additional 10 nonsmoking young males served as a control group. Thirty minutes after tine onset of smoking, somatotropin levels had risen from a zero time level of < 1 to 11.8 ng/ml. The levels then started to drop but remained well above control levels for the following hour. Blood glucose levels rose from a mean zero time value of 75.8 mg/l00 ml to a mean value of 88.8 mg/100 ml (P < .02) 30 minutes from time onset of smoking, but the effect was transient. Immunoreactive insulin levels did not differ from zero time values until 60 minutes from the onset of smoking. Even at this time, the rise was only slightly above zero time values (P < .05). The nonsmoking controls displayed no such changes in serum growth hormone, immunoreactive insulin or blood glucose concentration. The somatotropin elevations described above were believed to result from central stimulation of growth hormone secretion by nicotine.