For years, 45-year-old Chennai resident Ramesh (name changed) considered himself reasonably healthy. He had a desk job, long work hours and a smoking habit he had picked up in his late 20s — a pack every couple of days, sometimes more during stressful weeks. Like many smokers, he associated cigarettes with risks such as lung disease and heart problems, but never once considered that smoking could quietly be increasing his chances of developing diabetes. When he began feeling unusually tired, he blamed it on deadlines. The constant thirst and frequent trips to the restroom were dismissed as side effects of too much coffee and too little sleep. It was only during a routine health screening camp organised at his workplace that tests revealed the real problem: his blood sugar levels were dangerously high. He was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Further medical evaluation showed that years of smoking had likely accelerated insulin resistance, one of the key mechanisms behind Type 2 diabetes.…