A viral social media post could be putting Australians’ health at risk with claims that a lack of nicotine can cause diabetes.

Conversely, research has found nicotine can inhibit the body’s ability to produce insulin, and smoking is a known risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

The claim appears in a Facebook video that has been viewed more than a million times.

“Did you know that every beta cell in the pancreas that produces insulin needs nicotine to activate those cells to release the insulin,” a man in the video says.

“And if you don’t have nicotine in your body to do that, you’ll be insulin dependent, which is what type 1 diabetics are.”

Beta cells in the pancreas produce and release the hormone insulin, which helps the body absorb sugar from the bloodstream.

But while beta cells have receptors that respond to nicotine, research has found the drug impairs insulin secretion, and experts told AAP FactCheck the claim is wrong.

Type 1 diabetes, once called insulin-dependent diabetes, occurs when the immune system attacks beta cells, resulting in little or no insulin production.

The condition requires daily insulin treatment.

Research examining nicotine’s effect on beta cells has mostly found the drug has a negative rather than a positive effect on insulin secretion.

Bernie Tuch, a diabetes researcher and founding director of the Australian Foundation for Diabetes Research, said nicotine binds to certain beta cell receptors but does not stimulate insulin secretion.

“Indeed, nicotine disrupts the intracellular signalling that triggers insulin release,” Tuch said.

He said nicotine was instead a risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin, leading to insufficient insulin production.

“Chronic nicotine exposure tends to blunt glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, resulting in increased insulin resistance and the development of type 2 diabetes,” Tuch said.

Tuch referred to a 2025 paper published in the journal Diabetes, which examined nicotine’s effects on pancreatic cells and found the drug did not stimulate insulin secretion.

Christopher Nolan, a diabetes expert at Australian National University, described the online video’s claim as “seriously disturbing misinformation”.

He cited a 2020 laboratory study, published in the journal Toxicology, that found nicotine could negatively affect beta cells, causing them to age more rapidly.

“[That’s] the absolute opposite to that suggested in the video,” he said.

Smoking also increased the risk of diabetes and was a major factor exacerbating diabetes complications, Nolan said.

A 2023 World Health Organisation briefing on tobacco and diabetes also said nicotine impaired the function of beta cells, which affected insulin production and played “an important role in the onset of type 2 diabetes”.

Isabella Artner, who studies pancreatic cells at Lund University in Sweden and co-authored a 2016 study examining how nicotine affects beta cells, also said beta cells do not depend on nicotine.

“Because the human body does not produce nicotine, it is neither required nor beneficial for normal physiological function,” Dr Artner said.

The viral video also falsely claims tobacco has been called a “cure for all diseases” for 400 years.

-AAP