Learn About the Causes of Gestational Diabetes

When thinking about the causes of gestational diabetes, you should know that this is a special kind of diabetes that appears during pregnancy.

Just like any other kind of diabetes, this also affects the way that the cells use the sugar. As a result you could have high blood sugar.

Gestational diabetes causes

The truth is that the doctors can’t tell you why some women develop the condition while others don’t. In order to understand what happens inside your body, it might be useful to understand how pregnancy affects the way that your body uses sugar.

The process

In case you are interested in the sources of gestational diabetes it is good to know that the food that you eat is turned into sugar that later enters the bloodstream. Because of this the pancreas produces insulin. This is a hormone that makes sure that glucose will enter the cells of the body and there it will be turned into energy.

The women wondering about causes of gestational diabetes should know that during those 9 months the placenta that connects the baby to the body of the mother produces different kinds of hormones. Almost all of them prevent the actions of insulin and as a result the blood sugar level increases.

Remember about the gestational diabetes sources that it is normal to have a slightly elevated blood sugar level after meals. As the pregnancy develops the placenta produces more and more hormones that block the effects of insulin. In case of gestational diabetes the pregnancy hormones make the blood sugar level rise to levels that endanger the well-being of the baby.

If you are thinking about the causes of gestational diabetes it seems natural that in the majority of the cases the problem arises during the last half of the pregnancy. It is possible to be affected starting with the 20th week, but normally it only appears later.

Risk factors

The truth about the origins of gestational diabetes is that while any women could be affected by the condition, some women are more likely to have this problem because of the risk factors. One of the risk factors is the mother being over 25. As women get older, their chances of being affected increase.

Personal and family health history

When it comes to the causes of gestational diabetes it is good to know that a woman has higher chances of having high blood sugar levels if she has a direct relative (parent or sibling) who is affected by type 2 diabetes. Also the chances increase if you have pre-diabetes.

If you are thinking about the gestational diabetes origins you should know that you have higher chances of being affected again if you had the problem during a previous pregnancy. The chances increase if you had a stillbirth as well or if you had delivered a large baby.

As you can see the doctors don’t really know the causes of gestational diabetes but still there is a lot of available information that can help you understand the condition.

Learn About the Causes of Gestational Diabetes was last modified: October 22nd, 2012 by admin4
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