A recent study has discovered a link between gestational diabetes and obesity. Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (CHR) in Portland, Oregon found the onset of gestational diabetes during pregnancy significantly increases the child's risk of becoming obese if the diabetes isn't treated.

"Hillier and colleagues analyzed the medical records of 9,439 women who gave birth between 1995 and 2000 in Portland, Ore., Washington State and Hawaii. They discovered that tots of pregnant women with untreated high blood sugar levels were 89 percent more likely to be overweight and 82 percent more likely to be obese by the ages of five to seven years... than were children of moms without gestational diabetes."

Teresa Hillier, the study's lead author, advises pregnant women to make sure their ob-gyn is screening for blood sugar levels and that women diagnosed with gestational diabetes stick to their treatment program. Read more at SCIAM.com.

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Labels: diabetes, health_risks, research