Diabetes Basics

 

How gestational diabetes symptoms build up?

Gestational diabetes is a persistent illness that occurs in pregnancy due to metabolic disorder. When a woman gets pregnant, she is at a high risk of this kind of diabetes, but, not all pregnant women suffer from it. In gestational diabetes, the cells in your body break down sugar in order to provide energy to the body.

Excessive glucose in the blood can harm the blood vessels of the body. There are about 4 percent of expectant mothers, who have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes and suffer various symptoms of this disease.
There are many causes of this disorder including obesity during pregnancy, getting pregnant at an age of more than 35 years, having a family history of gestational diabetes, and the mother being classified as multiple gestations. A past family history is considered as the primary cause in triggering the human placental lactogen, a hormone that counteracts the production of insulin needed by expectant mothers.
In gestational diabetes, the blood circulation is flooded with increased supply of glucose. This excessive increase of glucose causes gestational diabetes symptoms, which are very similar to that of a patient suffering from diabetes mellitus. If diabetes is left untreated, then the mother as well the fetus will experience severe complications. This would result in the newborn baby having a large body and heavier as compared to the normal weight of a newborn baby. This is known as macrosomia, which occurs due to the large amount of glucose being consumed by the fetus. Below are some of the various gestational diabetes symptoms.
A pregnant woman may suffer from blurred vision which is a common gestational diabetes symptom. A process known as osmosis is activated due to viscosity of blood. As a result, the blood volume enhances the blood circulation. This increase of the blood volume swells up the cells, including the lens of the eye which in turn causes blurred vision.
As the level of energy decreases in gestational diabetes, the pregnant woman gets tired more often. This is because the body cells need glucose to produce energy, but HPL prevents the absorption of glucose in the body cells of the mother. As no energy is being produced, mothers are likely to get tired.
Gestational diabetes may result in frequent infection including the vagina and skin. In diabetes, urine becomes less concentrated, which would mean alkalinity that helps bacteria to grow and divide. The mothers are at high risk for bacterial infection during this illness.
It has been observed that as the glucose in the blood increases, the blood volume also shoots up. The kidneys are responsible for maintaining the blood volume balance in the body. Since the amount of blood volume in the body increases, the kidney tries to get rid of excessive fluid in the form of increased urination.

As a lot of fluid is lost, the body compensates this loss by increasing thirst to relieve fatigability. Therefore increased thirst and hunger are other major symptoms.