Natural ways to Prevent Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes, as the name suggests, is a kind of diabetes that only occurs during pregnancy. It usually goes away on its own soon after delivery. The good news, many pregnant women with the condition are still able to have healthy pregnancy and baby. However, it can also carry some health risks and pregnancy complications. Although currently there is no specific way known to definitely prevent the condition, some natural approaches may help lower your risk!

What you need to know about gestational diabetes?

Diabetes means the body cannot regulate its blood sugar (glucose) levels as well as it should. You need glucose for energy. Although the body can convert energy from other sources (such as fat and protein), glucose is the main fuel of your energy. But high amounts of glucose in the blood are not good. High blood sugar is linked to a number of health risks.

Women with diabetes who’re trying to get pregnant should pay more attention on their blood sugar, either prior to or during pregnancy. Poorly-controlled blood sugar poses some pregnancy complications that can hurt the mother and baby. So if you’re diabetic, it’s always important to follow your diabetic treatment plan as well.

Diabetes in pregnancy can also affect non-diabetic women. This is what we call as gestational diabetes, a type of diabetes that is only found during pregnancy. It doesn’t affect all pregnancies. Unfortunately it seems that the number of cases is increasing.

If you do concern about your risk of developing gestational diabetes, take a few minutes to read the following pieces of helpful information!

How do pregnant women get gestational diabetes?

It occurs when the mother’s body cannot make adequate insulin during pregnancy. On the other hand, the demand of insulin will increase significantly in pregnancy, especially in late pregnancy.

Insulin is a hormone made and released by the pancreas, an important organ located behind the stomach. This hormone is essential to help the body effectively use glucose (sugar) for energy and play a key role to control the blood sugar levels.

In pregnancy, the body is stimulated to produce more hormones and goes through lots of changes. And these changes carry some consequences. For instance, you can gain more pounds of weight. It’s normal to have weight gain during pregnancy. But it’s also important to make sure that it doesn’t go too far.

Insulin resistance in pregnant women, especially during late pregnancy, is a common condition. While some women are able to cope with it, others fail and develop gestational diabetes. Even some women already have insulin resistance before pregnancy – usually because they are obese or overweight before they get pregnant.

Experts don’t know the exact cause of gestational diabetes. But in general, your risk of developing the condition increases if you have some of the following risk factors:

1. Being obese or overweight before pregnant.
2. A personal history of gestational diabetes in the previous pregnancy. If you have had it before, the risk of developing the same problem in the next pregnancy is greater.
3. A family history of diabetes, especially such as having first relatives (mother, father, brother, or sister) with type-2 diabetes.
4. A personal history of delivering an overweight baby (greater than 9 pounds or 4 kg).
5. If you have pre-diabetes before pregnancy. Pre-diabetes means you have impaired glucose tolerance or you have abnormal high blood sugar level but it is not high enough to be categorized into diabetes. See also the ‘abnormal levels of blood sugar’ table to help diagnose diabetes in here!
6. Age matters, too! It’s thought that becoming pregnant at the ages older than 25 may increase the risk. The older you are when pregnant, the greater risk you have!
7. It seems that the condition is likely to occur in particular races. The risk is relatively higher in African American, Asian American, American Indian, Pacific Islander, or Latino /Hispanic.

In addition, having polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) may also have an effect on the risk. PCOS is a kind of hormonal disorder. It usually causes enlarged ovaries containing follicles (small collections of fluid). It is endocrine system disorder that’s quite common in women of reproductive age. Early diagnosis and treatment is necessary to prevent the complications such as gestational diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Are there any symptoms of gestational diabetes before pregnancy?

Typically, it doesn’t have early signs and symptoms. You cannot determine whether or not you have the condition before pregnancy.

Even in general, tests for gestational diabetes is recommended at weeks 24-28 of pregnancy (late in pregnancy). But if you’re at high risk (such as if you have many risk factors of the condition), you may be asked to take the test earlier.

Natural ways to prevent gestational diabetes

Can you prevent gestational diabetes? If so, can it be prevented naturally? Unfortunately, there is no specific way known that will definitely prevent it. In other words, there is no guarantee when it comes to preventing this diabetes!

But you can lower your risk of developing the condition. In general, the more healthy habits you can achieve and adopt before pregnant and during pregnancy – the better!

The following are natural ways to help increase your chance of preventing gestational diabetes:

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If you’re obese or overweight, restore it!

As mentioned earlier, having more pounds of excessive weight before pregnancy increases the risk of developing gestational diabetes. So if you’re overweight or obese, it’s much better to restore your weight as normal as possible before you start to get pregnant since weight loss diet is usually not recommended during pregnancy.

In addition, gaining a few pounds of weight over the course of the pregnancy is expected. However it’s still important to make sure that your pregnancy weight gain is not too far! How much gain is normal during pregnancy? The answer is dependent on your weight scale before pregnancy (see the following ‘safe pregnancy weight gain’ table)!

* Source acog.org. It seems that the safe number of pregnancy weight gain is more limited for greater BMI. For more information, discuss with your doctor at your first prenatal visit!

How your diet should go?

Again, the body’s cells during pregnancy are likely to become more resistance to respond insulin. While it’s aimed to help provide extra sugar and more nutrients available to support the baby growth, this also can cause blood sugar to rise more easily (especially when the cells of your body become too resistant). And poor diet may worsen this insulin resistance. It is also to blame for your excessive weight gain before and during pregnancy.

How your diet should go? Actually, there are no specific instructions you need to follow. But just remember the following checklists:

1. Most suggestions in diet for diabetes are also helpful for non-diabetics who do concern to prevent diabetes, including gestational diabetes. For instance, foods with high-GI (glycemix index) are bad for you insulin sensitivity with or without diabetes. See more information of what to eat and what to avoid for diabetes in this section!
2. Get more fiber! Fiber is very essential to keep you full longer and control your weight. It may also have a significant effect to cut the risk of gestational diabetes. Research suggests that eating adequate fiber everyday may help reduce the risk by up to 26 percent.
3. Typically, sugar pays more attention when it comes to preventing and treating diabetes. But don’t forget to also restrict or avoid any foods that can ruin your fertility and pregnancy such as foods high in saturated fats, trans-fats, and mercury.
4. Eat everything in balance – make all that you eat fit into your daily caloric budget! Even fresh fruits and vegetables contain calories. If you eat them too much, you may also get weight gain.
5. Again if you want to lose weight, do it before pregnancy! Weight loss diet during pregnancy can be counterproductive and even dangerous for your pregnancy and baby. If you do need to lose a few pounds of your weight during pregnancy, work together with your doctor or dietitian to keep safe!

Can exercise help protect you from developing gestational diabetes?

Some studies are going to find the most effective ways to prevent this diabetes. Another thing that takes more attention is exercise. Although it’s not clear yet whether it can definitely prevent the condition, but it does provide some health benefits to help lower your risk. These include:

1. With a balanced diet, your exercise plays a key role to lose your excess weight and keep it off.
2. It’s thought that regular exercise may help improve your insulin sensitivity, keeping your blood glucose levels healthy in long term.
3. Getting regular exercise deliver lots of health benefits which some may indirectly contribute to help prevent gestational diabetes. For instance, keeping active can help promote your fat distribution. Having more excess fat in the abdomen may increase the risk of impaired glucose tolerance.

Try to have regular exercise, at least with 30-45 minutes of moderate activity on most days of the week! Brisk walking and swimming, for examples – are simple, practical choices to start.

According to one study, active women with ‘about 4 hours of moderate exercise a week’ before and during pregnancy may have decreased risk of gestational diabetes by up to 70 percent. To keep safe, talk with your doctor about how often & how much you should exercise!

These natural ways and approaches don’t guarantee that you will not develop gestational diabetes. But it’s always important to adopt healthy habits as much as you can before and during pregnant for your best chance of having healthy pregnancy.

How about herbs, supplements, or any alternative therapies?

Currently there is no information about whether or not particular vitamins, herbs, or therapies can help protect you from getting gestational diabetes. But if you do believe that some of them may help, it’s much better to check with your doctor first!