Pregnancy at risk during Diabetes
What is gestational diabetes?

It’s a type of diabetes that occurs only during pregnancy. Like other forms of diabetes, it affects the way your body uses sugar (glucose). Our bodies need glucose for energy to keep us going. But glucose can’t enter our cells without the help of insulin which is produced in the pancreas.
During pregnancy, the placenta produces hormones to sustain your pregnancy. These hormones make your cells more resistant to insulin. As your placenta grows larger in the second and third trimesters, it secretes more of these hormones — making it even harder for insulin to do its job. Normally, your pancreas responds by producing extra insulin.
Eat right
But sometimes your pancreas can’t keep up. The result may be dangerously high blood sugar levels.
Gestational diabetes usually develops during the second trimester, sometimes as early as the 20th week, but often not until later in the pregnancy. Thankfully, gestational diabetes is short-lived. Blood sugar levels generally return to normal soon after delivery.
Signs and symptoms
Most women with gestational diabetes have no noticeable signs or symptoms, but in rare cases, there’s excessive thirst or increased urination.
Who is at risk?
Pregnant women above 25, pre-diabetic, or overweight women and those with a family history of diabetes.
What you should do?

A fasting sugar level of 60 to 100 mg/dl and a post-prandial (two hours after taking 75 gms of glucose) of 60 to 140 mg/dl is generally considered normal.
What to do, what not to do? When to seek medical advice
To make sure that your blood sugar level has returned to normal after your baby is born, get your blood tested after delivery and again after six weeks.
Know your risk
Untreated or uncontrolled blood sugar levels can cause problems for you and your baby. Gestational diabetes increases the risk of pre-eclampsia, a condition characterized by high blood pressure and excess protein in the urine. Left untreated, pre-eclampsia can lead to serious, even life-threatening complications for both mother and baby. It could cause macrosomia (excess growth of the fetus), hypoglycemia or jaundice shortly after birth. Babies of mothers who have gestational diabetes have a higher risk of developing obesity and type 2 diabetes later in life.
Treatment
Controlling your blood sugar level is essential for keeping the baby healthy and avoiding complications during delivery. Your treatment should include blood sugar monitoring (four to five times a day); diet control (eating foods that are high in nutrition and low in fat and calories); exercise (walking, cycling, and swimming, gardening, in addition to normal housework) and medication (if diet and exercise aren’t enough).
Prevention
There are no guarantees when it comes to preventing gestational diabetes — but the more healthy habits you adopt before pregnancy, the better. Eat healthy, get more physical activity, and lose extra kilos. Weight loss during pregnancy isn’t usually recommended. But if you’re planning to have a baby, losing weight before, may help you have a healthier pregnancy.
Cinnamon extract
Cinnamon cassia is the dried bark of evergreen trees cultivated throughout Asia, though we know it best as a spice that flavors our sweets and other goodies. As early as 2700 BC, Chinese herbalists treated diarrhea and kidney disorders with cinnamon. Later, Greek healers and practitioners of Indian Ayurvedic medicine valued it as a remedy for digestive problems.
New research shows that cinnamon can help rein in blood sugar. German researchers collected blood from 65 adults with type 2diabetes who then took a capsule containing the equivalent of 1g of cinnamon powder or a placebo, three times a day for 4 months. By the end, cinnamon reduced blood sugar by about 10%; the placebo users improved by only 4%. Compounds in cinnamon may activate enzymes that stimulate insulin receptors.
Cigarettes raise diabetes risk
A new Yale University study suggests that a pack-a-day habit ups the ante for type 2 diabetes, even if you’re young and healthy. When researchers measured how well blood sugar—the body’s fuel—was absorbed in the muscle cells of 18 volunteers, smokers’ muscles malfunctioned.
It's dangerous
After exercise, the smokers replenished

74% less of their fuel stores than non-smokers because their cells couldn’t obey signals from the hormone insulin. Chronic nicotine exposure is the bad guy, raising odds for diabetes and its life-threatening complications, including heart disease and stroke, the researchers warn.
Steer clear of soda to prevent diabetes
It’s about time to you kicked the can for good. Not only do the extra calories and sugar in soda contribute to weight gain and heart disease, but according to a new study, it can lead to diabetes. People who consumed more than one soft drink of any kind (even the sugar-free diet variety) a day were 44 % more likely to develop metabolic syndrome (a cluster of risk factors: high blood pressure, elevated levels of triglycerides, low levels of the artery-protecting HDL cholesterol) a precursor to diabetes, than those who didn’t drink a soda a day.