About Gestational Diabetes

What is Gestational Diabetes?

This common condition refers to an inability to “handle” food properly as a result of the hormones of pregnancy working against the normal effect of insulin, and allowing the sugar in the blood to rise to dangerous levels. It occurs more commonly in women with a family history of diabetes as well as women from certain ethnic groups and is worsened by obesity. Gestational diabetes is also a strong predictor of type 2 diabetes later in life. This gives a woman a “heads-up” to engage in healthy eating, regular exercise and keeping her weight in the normal range, since all of these things have been shown to actually prevent or delay the onset of diabetes and all of its complications.

Treatment

Often it can be treated by careful diet alone; but, in many cases, treatment with insulin injections will be necessary to protect the baby from the bad effects of the mom’s high blood sugar. These include high birth weights and the need for Cesarian sections as well as low blood sugar in the baby at birth (hypoglycemia), which can cause seizures. Expectant mothers may be asked to check their own blood sugars after meals with a finger-prick to make sure that therapy is working correctly. hide

Complications

What problems does a high blood sugar cause?

High sugar passes through the kidneys and causes an increased volume of urine. This can lead to increased thirst. Although the sugar is high in the blood, it cannot be used for energy by the body and people with out of control diabetes may lose weight ("starvation in the midst of plenty"). The high sugar can also damage parts of the body, either directly by combining with tissues in the body or indirectly by changing the chemistry of the body. By causing tissue damage, high sugar can lead to nerve damage, heart attacks, strokes, peripheral vascular disease (causing pain in the legs and ulcers in the feet), cataracts, loss of vision, and kidney damage. hide

Related Conditions

Type 2 diabetics are often (but not always) overweight, and they can have other conditions such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. These conditions can also lead to strokes and heart attacks as well as peripheral vascular disease. The combination of uncontrolled diabetes, along with poorly controlled hypertension and high cholesterol, greatly increases the risk of vascular damage and the complications just mentioned. Cigarette smoking, which is also associated with vascular damage is bad for everyone and even more so for diabetics.
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