As a result of a comprehensive and long-term study, it is thought that even if the blood sugar levels of women who develop diabetes due to pregnancy return to normal at the end of pregnancy, the fact that they have diabetes during pregnancy is associated with heart health problems later in life. This means that doctors who monitor the heart health of women who have had diabetes during pregnancy should be more careful.
The data used in the research published in the journal Circulation, It was convened as part of the CARDIA Study project, designed to monitor the heart health of young adults in the United States. In the project, which started in 1985, data belonging to equal numbers of white and black people between the ages of 18-30 were obtained from four cities. After 25 years of monitoring of the participants, the researchers focused on a form of hardening of the arteries known as coronary artery calcification (CAC), a sign of future heart disease.
More than a thousand the participants gave birth during the CARDIA project. 139 of these women had gestational diabetes, which is usually temporary during pregnancy. About a quarter of women who had gestational diabetes (34 women) had CAC later in the period, even if their blood glucose levels returned to normal at the end of pregnancy. In women who did not have gestational diabetes, the incidence of CAC (in 149 of 994 people, ie about 15%) was lower.
Rather than show a causal relationship between gestational diabetes and CAC, the results suggest that the two are related. However, researchers have found that some changes in blood vessels during pregnancy diabetes have an impact on heart health later on.
He states that it is possible to be. Although a direct cause and effect relationship is not shown, the results of the research highlight the importance of keeping blood sugar under control.
Source: Circulation Magazine