Do you have diabetes? Are you struggling to live with diabetes? Are you looking for information online about diabetes? Are you unsure as to what types of foods you should now be eating to help keep a check on your glucose levels? If you have answered yes to any of these questions this article may well be of interest and benefit to you.

Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. The cause of diabetes continues to be a mystery, although both genetics and environmental factors such as obesity and lack of exercise appear to play roles.

There are 20.8 million children and adults in the United States, or 7% of the population, who have diabetes. While an estimated 14.6 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, unfortunately, 6.2 million people (or nearly one-third) are unaware that they have the disease.

In order to determine whether or not a patient has pre-diabetes or diabetes, health care providers conduct a Fasting Plasma Glucose Test (FPG) or an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT). Either test can be used to diagnose pre-diabetes or diabetes.

With the FPG test, a fasting blood glucose level between 100 and 125 mg/dl signals pre-diabetes. A person with a fasting blood glucose level of 126 mg/dl or higher has diabetes.

In the OGTT test, a person’s blood glucose level is measured after a fast and two hours after drinking a glucose-rich beverage. If the two-hour blood glucose level is between 140 and 199 mg/dl, the person tested has pre-diabetes. If the two-hour blood glucose level is at 200 mg/dl or higher, the person tested has diabetes.

Major Types of Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes
Results from the body’s failure to produce insulin, the hormone that “unlocks” the cells of the body, allowing glucose to enter and fuel them. It is estimated that 5-10% of Americans who are diagnosed with diabetes have type 1 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes
Results from insulin resistance (a condition in which the body fails to properly use insulin), combined with relative insulin deficiency. Most Americans who are diagnosed with diabetes have type 2 diabetes.

Medications for Type 2 Diabetes

Sulfonylureas:
- GLUCOTROL XL (Glipizide)
- AMARYL (Glimepiride)

Meglitinides:
- PRANDIN (Repaglinide)
- STARLIX (Nateglinide)

Biguanides:
- GLUCOPHAGE (Metformin)

Thiazolidinediones:
- ACTOS (Pioglitazone)
- ACTOPLUS MET (Pioglitazone/Metformin)
- AVANDIA (Rosiglitazone)
- AVANDAMET (Rosiglitazone/Metformin)

Other medications:
- KARELA and DIABECON

Gestational diabetes
Gestational diabetes affects about 4% of all pregnant women – about 135,000 cases in the United States each year.

Pre-diabetes
Pre-diabetes is a condition that occurs when a person’s blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. There are 54 million Americans who have pre-diabetes, in addition to the 20.8 million with diabetes.

Additional Information

Recently Diagnosed
You or someone you love has just been diagnosed with diabetes — chances are you have a million questions running through your head. This area of our Web site can help ease your fears and teach you more about living with diabetes or caring for someone with diabetes, and connect you with others affected by diabetes who will listen and share their own experiences.

Diabetes Symptoms
Often diabetes goes undiagnosed because many of its symptoms seem so harmless. Learn what they are in this section.

Diabetes Risk Test
More than 20 million Americans have diabetes — nearly one in three does not know it! Take our diabetes risk test to see if you are at risk for having diabetes. Diabetes is more common in African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Diabetes Myths
Find the truth about some of the most common myths about diabetes.

The Genetics of Diabetes
You’ve probably wondered how you got diabetes. You may worry that your children will get it too. Unlike some traits, diabetes does not seem to be inherited in a simple pattern. Yet clearly, some people are born more likely to get diabetes than others.

(Ivanhoe Newswire) — We may finally know why five-percent of women develop diabetes while they are pregnant.

New research from the Stanford University School of Medicine shows a protein in the pancreas may cause gestational diabetes. The condition can lead to birth defects and predispose children to develop diabetes later in life.

The protein – called menin – is already known to help prevent cancer in the pancreas and other organs. When researchers looked at menin in mice, they found the pancreas produces less of it during pregnancy which causes the islet cells to divide and provide more insulin. Islets are cells of the hormone-producing part of the pancreas. They need to grow in pregnant women or when people gain weight to provide enough insulin for the increasing supply of cells.

The study shows within a week after the mice gave birth, their menin levels were back to normal and the pancreatic islets started shrinking to their original size.

When researchers created mice that produce too much menin the islets couldn’t grow enough during pregnancy and the mice developed gestational diabetes.

“This suggests that there is an internal code for controlling pancreatic islet growth, a code we intend to crack,” senior author Seung Kim, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University School of Medicine, was quoted as saying. It appears the code is partly regulated by the level of menin.

Researchers say understanding how to regulate menin should lead to new ways of growing islets to transplant into patients with type-1 diabetes. It could also lead to new ways to treat gestational diabetes and diabetes in obese adults.

SOURCE: Science, 2007;

The short answer: yes. Good care means a lot for your health and your baby’s health.

What is gestational diabetes?

Pregnant women who have never had diabetes before but who have high blood sugar (glucose) levels during pregnancy are said to have gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes affects about 4% of all pregnant women – about 135,000 cases of gestational diabetes in the United States each year.

We don’t know what causes gestational diabetes, but we have some clues. The placenta supports the baby as it grows. Hormones from the placenta help the baby develop. But these hormones also block the action of the mother’s insulin in her body. This problem is called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance makes it hard for the mother’s body to use insulin. She may need up to three times as much insulin.

Gestational diabetes starts when your body is not able to make and use all the insulin it needs for pregnancy. Without enough insulin, glucose cannot leave the blood and be changed to energy. Glucose builds up in the blood to high levels. This is called hyperglycemia.

How gestational diabetes can affect your baby

Gestational diabetes affects the mother in late pregnancy, after the baby’s body has been formed, but while the baby is busy growing. Because of this, gestational diabetes does not cause the kinds of birth defects sometimes seen in babies whose mothers had diabetes before pregnancy.

However, untreated or poorly controlled gestational diabetes can hurt your baby. When you have gestational diabetes, your pancreas works overtime to produce insulin, but the insulin does not lower your blood glucose levels. Although insulin does not cross the placenta, glucose and other nutrients do. So extra blood glucose goes through the placenta, giving the baby high blood glucose levels. This causes the baby’s pancreas to make extra insulin to get rid of the blood glucose. Since the baby is getting more energy than it needs to grow and develop, the extra energy is stored as fat.

This can lead to macrosomia, or a “fat” baby. Babies with macrosomia face health problems of their own, including damage to their shoulders during birth. Because of the extra insulin made by the baby’s pancreas, newborns may have very low blood glucose levels at birth and are also at higher risk for breathing problems. Babies with excess insulin become children who are at risk for obesity and adults who are at risk for type 2 diabetes.

Treating gestational diabetes

Because gestational diabetes can hurt you and your baby, you need to start treatment quickly. Treatment for gestational diabetes aims to keep blood glucose levels equal to those of pregnant women who don’t have gestational diabetes. Treatment for gestational diabetes always includes special meal plans and scheduled physical activity. It may also include daily blood glucose testing and insulin injections. You will need help from your doctor, nurse educator, and other members of your health care team so that your treatment for gestational diabetes can be changed as needed.

For you as the mother-to-be, treatment for gestational diabetes helps lower the risk of a cesarean section birth that very large babies may require. Sticking with your treatment for gestational diabetes will give you a healthy pregnancy and birth, and may help your baby avoid future poor health.

Gestational diabetes — Looking ahead

Gestational diabetes usually goes away after pregnancy. But once you’ve had gestational diabetes, your chances are 2 in 3 that it will return in future pregnancies. In a few women, however, pregnancy uncovers type 1 or type 2 diabetes. It is hard to tell whether these women have gestational diabetes or have just started showing their diabetes during pregnancy. These women will need to continue diabetes treatment after pregnancy.

Many women who have gestational diabetes go on to develop type 2 diabetes years later. There seems to be a link between the tendency to have gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes both involve insulin resistance. Certain basic lifestyle changes may help prevent diabetes after gestational diabetes.

Losing weight Are you more than 20% over your ideal body weight? Losing even a few pounds can help you avoid developing type 2 diabetes.

Making healthy food choices Follow simple daily guidelines, like eating a variety of foods including fresh fruits and vegetables, limiting fat intake to 30% or less of daily calories, and watching your portion size. Healthy eating habits can go a long way in preventing diabetes and other health problems.

Exercising Regular exercise allows your body to use glucose without extra insulin. This helps combat insulin resistance and is what makes exercise helpful to people with diabetes. Never start an exercise program without checking with your doctor first.

Keeping worry in perspective

While gestational diabetes is a cause for concern, the good news is that you and your health care team – your doctor, obstetrician, nurse educator, and dietitian – work together to lower your high blood glucose levels. And with this help, you can turn your concern into a healthy pregnancy for you, and a healthy start for your baby.