Some women are at greater risk than are others. Risk factors for gestational diabetes include:. Long-term complications of diabetes develop gradually. The longer you have diabetes — and the less controlled your blood sugar — the higher the risk of complications. Eventually, diabetes complications may be disabling or even life-threatening. Possible complications include:. Nerve damage neuropathy.
Excess sugar can injure the walls of the tiny blood vessels capillaries that nourish your nerves, especially in your legs. This can cause tingling, numbness, burning or pain that usually begins at the tips of the toes or fingers and gradually spreads upward. Left untreated, you could lose all sense of feeling in the affected limbs. Damage to the nerves related to digestion can cause problems with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation.
For men, it may lead to erectile dysfunction. Most women who have gestational diabetes deliver healthy babies. However, untreated or uncontrolled blood sugar levels can cause problems for you and your baby. Complications in your baby can occur as a result of gestational diabetes, including:.
Complications in the mother also can occur as a result of gestational diabetes, including:. Type 1 diabetes can't be prevented. However, the same healthy lifestyle choices that help treat prediabetes, type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes can also help prevent them:.
Lose excess pounds. Don't try to lose weight during pregnancy, however. Talk to your doctor about how much weight is healthy for you to gain during pregnancy. To keep your weight in a healthy range, focus on permanent changes to your eating and exercise habits. Motivate yourself by remembering the benefits of losing weight, such as a healthier heart, more energy and improved self-esteem. Sometimes medication is an option as well. Oral diabetes drugs such as metformin Glumetza, Fortamet, others may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes — but healthy lifestyle choices remain essential.
Have your blood sugar checked at least once a year to check that you haven't developed type 2 diabetes. Diabetes care at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission.
This content does not have an English version. This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Diabetes mellitus refers to a group of diseases that affect how your body uses blood sugar glucose.
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Share on: Facebook Twitter. Show references Ferri FF. Diabetes mellitus. In: Ferri's Clinical Advisor Philadelphia, Pa. It lets the glucose in. Then the glucose can move out of the blood and into the cells. But if someone has diabetes, either the body can't make insulin or the insulin doesn't work in the body like it should. The glucose can't get into the cells normally, so the blood sugar level gets too high.
Lots of sugar in the blood makes people sick if they don't get treatment. There are two major types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. Each type causes high blood sugar levels in a different way. In type 1 diabetes , the pancreas can't make insulin. The body can still get glucose from food, but the glucose can't get into the cells, where it's needed, and glucose stays in the blood. This makes the blood sugar level very high.
With type 2 diabetes, the body still makes insulin. But a person with type 2 diabetes doesn't respond normally to the insulin the body makes. So glucose is less able to enter the cells and do its job of supplying energy.
When glucose can't enter the cells in this way, doctors call it insulin resistance. Although there's plenty of insulin in the person's body, because it doesn't work properly, the pancreas still detects high blood sugar levels. This makes the pancreas produce even more insulin.
The pancreas may eventually wear out from working overtime to produce extra insulin. When this happens, it may no longer be able to produce enough insulin to keep blood sugar levels where they should be. In general, when someone's blood sugar levels are repeatedly high, it's a sign that he or she has diabetes.
What makes people more likely to develop type 2 diabetes? No one knows for sure. But experts have a few ideas about what puts a person at greater risk:. People who have type 2 diabetes may not know it because the symptoms aren't always obvious and they can take a long time to develop. Some people don't have any symptoms at all. Also, people whose bodies are having problems using insulin or who are overweight may notice something called acanthosis nigricans.
Type 2 diabetes —the most common form of diabetes—is caused by several factors, including lifestyle factors and genes. You are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes if you are not physically active and are overweight or obese.
Extra weight sometimes causes insulin resistance and is common in people with type 2 diabetes. The location of body fat also makes a difference. Extra belly fat is linked to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and heart and blood vessel disease. Type 2 diabetes usually begins with insulin resistance , a condition in which muscle, liver , and fat cells do not use insulin well. As a result, your body needs more insulin to help glucose enter cells.
At first, the pancreas makes more insulin to keep up with the added demand. As in type 1 diabetes, certain genes may make you more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Scientists believe gestational diabetes , a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy, is caused by the hormonal changes of pregnancy along with genetic and lifestyle factors. Hormones produced by the placenta contribute to insulin resistance, which occurs in all women during late pregnancy.
Most pregnant women can produce enough insulin to overcome insulin resistance, but some cannot. As with type 2 diabetes, extra weight is linked to gestational diabetes. Women who are overweight or obese may already have insulin resistance when they become pregnant.
Gaining too much weight during pregnancy may also be a factor. Having a family history of diabetes makes it more likely that a woman will develop gestational diabetes, which suggests that genes play a role.
Genetic mutations , other diseases, damage to the pancreas, and certain medicines may also cause diabetes. Some hormonal diseases cause the body to produce too much of certain hormones, which sometimes cause insulin resistance and diabetes.
Pancreatitis , pancreatic cancer, and trauma can all harm the beta cells or make them less able to produce insulin, resulting in diabetes.
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