5 Strategies for Preventing a Severe Asthma Attack
Are you worried about your asthma and flare-ups now that it’s allergy season? Keep reading to learn strategies for preventing a severe asthma attack from an allergy and asthma expert.
Will I Get Diabetes Later in Life If I Have Gestational Diabetes?
Gestational diabetes is a common complication that affects women during pregnancy. Though it usually resolves after delivery of the baby, many women wonder how gestational diabetes affects their future health, including their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
These concerns are valid and important.
At A&U Family Medicine in Sugar Land, Texas, our family medicine specialist, Dr. Hammad Zaidi, is a diabetes specialist. Here, he explains the connection between gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes and what you can do to protect your health.
About gestational diabetes
The sugar in your blood provides energy for your cells. If your blood sugar levels are too high, however, it can eventually lead to problems in your body, including causing damage to your tissues, organs, blood vessels, and nerves.
If you have higher than normal blood sugars while pregnant and have no history of diabetes, you have gestational diabetes. Though researchers are still learning about gestational diabetes and the underlying cause, they theorize that the hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy may affect how the body processes sugar.
Having high blood sugar during pregnancy can lead to complications that affect you and the baby, including preterm birth, breathing difficulties in the baby, and an increase in risk of developing type 2 diabetes for you as well as your baby.
Gestational diabetes to type 2 diabetes
The elevated blood sugar that comes with gestational diabetes resolves after birth. However, having this type of diabetes during pregnancy is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. According to research, women with gestational diabetes are 11 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than women without the pregnancy-related diabetes.
Studies suggest that women with gestational diabetes may have insulin resistance that leads to pancreatic beta cell dysfunction. This means their insulin-producing cells aren’t making and secreting enough insulin to keep blood sugar levels normal. Over time, the lack of insulin worsens, leading to type 2 diabetes.
Are you at risk?
If you had gestational diabetes during pregnancy, you may develop diabetes later in life. Some of the risk factors include:
- Having gestational diabetes during multiple pregnancies
- Having a family history of type 2 diabetes
- Being overweight or obese
- Delivering a baby that weighed 9 pounds or more
- Having polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
African American, Hispanic, and Native American women are also more likely to develop type 2 diabetes after having gestational diabetes.
How to protect your health
While gestational diabetes puts you at risk of diabetes later in life, it’s not inevitable. In fact, taking steps to lower your risk may prevent or delay diabetes and benefit overall health. We recommend lifestyle changes to lower your risk, such as:
- Eating a balanced diet
- Getting 30 to 60 minutes of exercise five days a week
- Losing extra weight and maintaining a healthy weight
- Breastfeeding for as long as possible
We also recommend getting an annual physical exam so we can run blood work to check for prediabetes, a reversible condition in which your blood sugars are higher than they should be but not high enough for a diabetes diagnosis.
Having gestational diabetes may motivate you to make lifestyle changes so you don’t get diabetes. If you have concerns about diabetes, we can help. Call A&U Family Medicine today, or book an appointment online.
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