Gestational diabetes is a disorder in which women that previously did not carry diabetes test positive for high blood glucose levels during their pregnancy. Though not uncommon, it is thought that anywhere between three and ten percent of pregnant women are diagnosed with gestational diabetes sometime during their pregnancy. But just what does this diagnosis mean to the health and welfare of the mother and her unborn child?
Since no specific cause has been identified for gestational diabetes, scientists don’t know how to prevent it. The closest they have come to understanding is that it is believed that hormones produced during pregnancy reduce a woman’s sensitivity to insulin and the result is high blood sugar levels. Every pregnant woman is tested for gestational diabetes during her prenatal care visits because generally there are very few symptoms.
If the mother has gestational diabetes, babies are at a higher risk for complications. These are typically growth abnormalities and low blood sugar. The good thing is that gestational diabetes is completely reversible and women who otherwise have good control over their glucose levels can decrease the risk of these birth problems. In fact, women who can keep their gestational diabetes under complete control are known to give birth to perfectly healthy babies.
The down side is women who develop gestational diabetes during their pregnancy now run a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes post-pregnancy. Some children are prone to develop childhood obesity and develop type 2 diabetes later in life.
Pregnant women who develop gestational diabetes are generally treated with diet modification and exercise, but in some extreme cases they are administered an anti-diabetic drug, such as insulin. The goal of treatment is to reduce the risks for both mother and child without endangering either.
Diabetes is a growing problem in this country. With our population at an all time high in weight gain and a low in health care, the problem is only growing. Diabetes is a disease of the metabolism. Our metabolism is what the way our bodies use digested food for energy and growth. Most food that is processed through our bodies is broken down by digestive juices into a sugar called glucose. Glucose is the fuel our bodies run on.
When we eat, and our food is processed, the pancreas is supposed to produce the right amount of glucose from our blood automatically and release the right amount of insulin into our blood. In people with diabetes, little to no insulin is produced or the body’s cells don’t respond correctly to the insulin that is produced. Therefore the glucose builds up and overflows into the urine and passes out of the body. This is how the body loses its main source of fuel even though the bloodstream contains good amounts of the natural glucose.
There are three types of diabetes, type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. People who have type 1 are known as insulin-dependent. This is an autoimmune disease where the body’s natural system is fighting against another part of the body. In the case of type 1 diabetes, the system attacks the insulin producing cells and destroys them.
Therefore the pancreas can produce little to no insulin. These people are in need of daily injections of insulin to live. Five to ten percent of diabetes cases are type 1 in the US.
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