Women with big babies stand risk of diabetes­­­­ – Endocrinologist

A consultant endocrinologist with the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Dr. Ekene Young, has said that women who had large babies above four kilogrammes stood the chance of developing diabetes.
Young stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Enugu.
The consultant said that women who have had large babies should be cautious because they could develop type II diabetes later in life.
According to her, when pregnant women go for antenatal care, they are often asked the weight of their previous baby or babies.
She said the weight of such babies was monitored because giving birth to such heavy weight babies reduced insulin in mothers.
Young said that sometimes, a mother could become diabetic after the delivery of one or two of such big babies, depending on the individual.
She advised people who had either type one or type two diabetes to live a healthy lifestyle and be more active and exercise regularly to lose weight if obese.
She said: “We encourage you to live a healthy lifestyle, be more active, exercise regularly and if you are obese, try to lose weight.
“This is because once you lose weight, the insulin in your body is able to act better.”
Young said there was less insulin resistance when one lost weight, adding that it does not mean that one should lose weight to look very slim.
“If you can lose between five and seven per cent of your body weight, it would make a lot of difference,” she said.
Young said that diabetics needed to avoid simple sugar like soft drinks, carbohydrates and anything that would make the blood sugar go up fast.
She described insulin as very important for the body because everything eaten was in one way or the other connected to insulin, especially sugar known as glucose.
She said that insulin helped to remove excess glucose in the blood.
Young said that not everyone that took a lot of sugar would have diabetes.
She, however, encouraged diabetic patients to always check their blood glucose level as often as possible to know when it was too high or too low.