About 3 percent to 5 percent of pregnant women who have never had elevated blood glucose levels may develop gestational diabetes, a form of diabetes that occurs only during their pregnancy. As a part of prenatal care, pregnant women should be screened for gestational diabetes between he 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy. Many women who had gestational diabetes also eventually develop type 2 diabetes. Babies born to mothers who had gestational diabetes during their pregnancy have a condition called macrosomia, which risks damage to their shoulders during birth. Such newborns may have very low blood glucose levels at birth. They are also at higher risk of developing breathing problems, obesity, and type II diabetes as adults.
Here are the risk factors on developing gestational diabetes:
- History of diabetes in a first-degree relative. The risk is more than 1.5 times greater than in women without a history.
- Weight gain in early adulthood. A high BMI at age 18 greatly increases the risk.
- High body mass index (BMI) before pregnancy. A pre-pregnancy BMI of 25 to 29.9 doubles the risk. The risk triplets with BMI of 30 or more.
- Advancing age. Women older than 40 are more than twice as likely to develop it as women ages 25 to 29.
- Nonwhite ethnicity. The risk is 1.45 times greater for Hispanics, 1.75 times greater for African Americans and 2.32 times greater for Asians
- Previously having a stillbirth of unknown cause.
- Previously bearing a child who weighed more than nine pounds.
- Cigarette smoking.
Image via WikipediaDiabetes mellitus, or the sugar and sweets disease. Every time we eat or drink, glucose ( a form of sugar in foods) levels in the blood rise. This in itself, isn't bad since your pancreas, produces hormone called insulin, Insulin enables glucose to enter the body's cells which, in turn use the sugar as an energy source. Without the insulin your elevated blood sugar level (hyperglycemia) will persist and cause serious health complications. Diabetes mellitus has two types, The insulin dependent type (Type 1) is the less common but more severe form. It usually appears in young people under the age of 35 and most commonly between the ages 10 and 16. The insulin producing cells of the pancreas are destroyed, probably as a result of an immune response to a viral infection and insulin production ceases almost completely. Without regular injections of insulin, the sufferer lapses into a comma and dies. The more common non insulin dependent type of diabetes or (Type 2), on the other hand, starts slowly and develops mainly on people over 40 and who are overweight. Nine out of ten diabetics suffer from non insulin dependent type. It is a silent disease and is always discovered accidentally during a routine medical examination or only after complications develop. Insulin is produced but not enough to meet the body's needs. Often the body develop resistance to insulin.
Ask yourself these questions to know if you have sugar problems:
- Do you pee a lot?
- Are you always thirsty and always hungry?
- Are you losing weight?
- Do you have vaginal itchiness?
- Is a member of your family diabetic?
- Are you overweight?
- Do your children have large birth weight?
Here's what to do, have a healthy diet. Lower your intake of saturated fats or fat from animal sources. Eat more fiber. Type 2 diabetes is a preventable disease, and can be avoided by eating and living healthy.
Exercise, Do so for for at least 30 minutes, five to seven times a week, If you're on the heavy side, lose weight. Studies have shown that losing five to 10 percent of your weight and eating healthy can swing the probability of you not developing diabetes by as much as 58 percent.
