Diabetes during pregnancy ups heart disease risk

Washington: Women who have diabetes during pregnancy are at a higher risk of developing type-2 diabetes, hypertension and ischemic heart disease in the future, warns a recent study.

The findings indicated that women diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) were over 20 times more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes later in life, over two and a half times more likely to develop ischemic heart disease and almost twice as likely to develop hypertension.

The research was a collaboration between the Universities of Birmingham, Auckland and Warwick, as well as University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.

The team examined more than 9,000 women diagnosed with GDM between 1990 and 2016.

Dr Krish Nirantharakumar from the University of Birmingham's Institute of applied health research said: "Results showed women diagnosed with GDM were significantly more likely to develop hypertension and ischemic heart disease at a relatively young age compared with women without a previous diagnosis of GDM in addition to the established risk of developing diabetes.”