Can I smoke a cigarette before my blood test?

Who doesn’t know that? One is called to the doctor and gets the order to come with an empty stomach. When asked what an empty stomach is, the doctor answers: “Please do not eat or drink at least 12 hours before taking the blood sample”.

Can I smoke?

The answer is as so often a bit unclear: It depends! It depends on the type of blood test.

What does sober actually mean?

In order to understand whether a cigarette is harmful before taking a blood sample, we must first understand what “an empty stomach” exactly means.

For the analysis the doctors need a blood sample as pure as possible. Therefore you should not eat anything to avoid sugar or other falsifying substances in the blood. To put it simply, an empty stomach is an empty stomach.

So what can we eat and drink?

You may drink water without any problems. Under no circumstances are sugar-containing drinks or milk allowed. Under certain circumstances coffee should not be consumed.

You should not have a cigarette in these tests:

Smoking has an influence on your heart rate and blood pressure. If your doctor checks these parameters as part of a health check, you should refrain from smoking a cigarette. The doctor draws conclusions from his results that can have serious effects on your health.

If you are about to have a surgery, you should read our article on “Smoking before surgery“. Our article on “Smoking after a tooth extraction” is also interesting. Click to learn more.

Have you ever felt nauseous during a blood draw?

Many people get nauseous or dizzy when they see blood. It can happen that people faint. You can probably imagine that smoking has a negative influence here. If you are sensitive to the appearance of blood, you should refrain from smoking a cigarette.