Can Diet And Lifestyle Affect Control Of Blood Sugar In Pregnant Women Diagnosed With Gestational Diabetes?

Pregnant women with diabetes should avoid chaotic lifestyle and overeat otherwise it would be difficult for them to control their blood sugar levels, says a new study. The said study links poverty, chaotic lifestyle, and stressors to poor management of blood sugar level during pregnancy.

Dr. Laura Colicchia, lead author of the survey and presently in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, and her team studied 111 pregnant women who have gestational diabetes during clinical visits. The researchers asked the participants some questions intended to scale their social support, stability, organization, amount of "chaos" in their lives and their capability to prepare and plan for their future.

The researchers looked at the medical documents of the participants for blood sugar track and pregnancy results, including the baby size, baby health, cesarean delivery, and weight gain. After studying and evaluating all the data, they discovered that 86 out of 111 pregnant women have good blood sugar control. These women showed lesser scores on the scale of the chaotic lifestyle than those with poor control of blood sugar.

Expectant mothers achieved good control of blood sugar either by insulin treatment or diet changes. These pregnant women are married, working out three times a week, have higher income, have no history of anxiety or depression and don't own public insurance.

Pregnant women with poor glycemic control however obtained high scores on the measurement of a chaotic lifestyle. These women, according to Nancy Ross from McGill University in Montreal, lack material resources, live among hubbub and chaos caused by working and looking after their children and don't have partners who cause them more trouble tracking their blood sugar levels.

"Many social factors have a significant impact on overall pregnancy health," NDTV quoted Dr. Colicchia as saying. One example is gestational diabetes which affects each aspect of a pregnant woman's life like scheduling blood sugar level checks, cooking and eating with her family, where she gets the foodstuffs to adhere to her diet and how she manages time for daily routine.

Dr. Colicchia also noted that women are not always able to change many things that make life chaotic such as unstable housing, unpredictable work schedules, poverty and family stressors. However, she said that diabetes regimen could be adjusted in several cases to put up few of these factors like improving medication times or meal times to the new schedule of the woman and providing suggestions for healthy meals which can be cooked ahead or eaten on the go.