A Sweet Life » Gestational Diabetes

Gestational Diabetes Likely To Recur

A Sweet Life Staff — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:39:51 +0000

Gestational diabetes, or pregnancy-related diabetes, typically occurs around week 24 of pregnancy and is characterized by high blood sugar that results from the body’s impaired use of insulin. Researchers from the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Medical Group in Pasadena found that the risk of having gestational diabetes during a future pregnancy increases with each previously affected one.

While gestational diabetes rarely causes birth defects, complications can arise that threaten the health of both mom and baby. Gestational diabetes affects approximately 4% of the women during their first pregnancy, and the study found that the risk of a second occurrence is 41% after the first and 57% after two pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes.

Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders had approximately double the risk of gestational diabetes compared with white women.

The study was published in the the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Early Weight Gain Increases Risk of Gestational Diabetes

A Sweet Life Staff — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:57:25 +0000

Women who gain weight too quickly during the first three months of pregnancy are more prone to develop gestational diabetes, suggests a new study by researchers from Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Oakland, California.

Reuters reports the researchers compared 345 women who developed gestational diabetes to 800 women who did not, all of whom delivered their babies between 1996 and 1998 and had oral glucose tolerance tests at 24 to 28 weeks’ gestation. Women who gained weight the most slowly during their first trimester (less than a third of a kilogram per week, or just over half a pound) had the lowest risk of gestational diabetes.

According to the Institute of Medicine’s weight gain recommendations, normal-weight women should gain between 25 and 35 pounds total during pregnancy, at the rate of about a pound a week, according to the IOM; underweight women should gain more, and overweight and obese women should gain less. The researchers found that women who exceeded these recommendations were at 50 percent higher risk of gestational diabetes.

Gestational Diabetes Diagnosed at Lower Blood Glucose Levels

A Sweet Life Staff — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:10:49 +0000

A new international study involving 23,000 women in nine countries suggests that more than twice as many mothers to be as previously thought will develop gestational diabetes. This finding is based on new measurements for determining dangerous blood sugar levels for the mother and her unborn baby. Previous guidelines to diagnose gestational diabetes were based on blood sugar levels that identified women at high risk for developing diabetes in the future. The guidelines weren’t related to risks to the baby or other risks to the mother. According to the new study coordinated by investigators at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, a fasting blood sugar level of 92 or higher, a one-hour level of 180 or higher on a glucose tolerance test or a two-hour level of 153 or higher on a glucose tolerance test constitute serious risks to the mother and baby. Previously, these levels had been considered in the safe, normal range, and two elevated levels were required for a diagnosis of gestational diabetes.

Complications of gestational diabetes include overweight babies with high insulin levels, early deliveries, cesarean section deliveries and potentially life-threatening preeclampsia, a condition in which the mother has high blood pressure that affects her and the baby. Women with mild gestational diabetes, however, who are treated with lifestyle and diet changes as well as blood sugar monitoring, greatly reduce their risk of complications.

The study, which demonstrated more than 16 percent of the entire population of pregnant women qualified as having gestational diabetes, will be published in the March issue of Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association.

Source: ScienceBlog

Pregnancy Weight Gain May Increase a Woman’s Risk of Gestational Diabetes

A Sweet Life Staff — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:58:23 +0000

According to a new study published online in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and reported by EurekAlert, women who gain excessive weight during pregnancy, especially in the first trimester, may increase their risk of developing diabetes later in their pregnancy. The three-year study of 1,145 pregnant women from an ethnically diverse population found that women who gained more weight than is recommended by the Institute of Medicine had a 50 percent increased risk of developing gestational diabetes. The study also found that risk was more pronounced among overweight and non-white women. This study is among the first to support a direct link between pregnancy weight gain and gestational diabetes risk.

Breastfeeding May Lower a Woman’s Risk of Developing Metabolic Syndrome

A Sweet Life Staff — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:07:33 +0000

Breastfeeding her child may lower a woman’s risk of developing Metabolic Syndrome, a condition linked to heart disease and diabetes in women, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that was published online by PR Newswire, and will appear in the February issue of Diabetes.

Breastfeeding lowers Metabolic Syndrome risk by 39 to 56 percent (depending on the duration of breastfeeding) for women without gestational diabetes, and 44 to 86 percent (depending on the duration of breastfeeding) for women with gestational diabetes, researchers said. Previous studies have shown that post-birth, breastfeeding mothers have better blood glucose levels than non-breastfeeding mothers, but this 20-year prospective study is the first to measure all components of Metabolic Syndrome both before pregnancy and after weaning in women of childbearing age.

Gestational Diabetes Screening Inadequate in America

A Sweet Life Staff — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:21:17 +0000

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) is calling for all pregnant women to be tested for gestational diabetes with a one-step oral glucose tolerance test, according to a recent article from MedPage Today.

The group says the risk-based approach and two-step diagnosis process recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) is inadequate. In fact, the group notes that risk-based screening can leave a large number of women vulnerable. The IDF cited one study of risk-based screening in which half of the pregnant women with gestational diabetes went undiagnosed.

Gestational diabetes currently affects about 10% of pregnant women. The condition often resolves after pregnancy, but it can develop into type 2 diabetes.

News provided by Diabetes News Hound.