A latest study shows that gestational diabetes could increase the risk of cardiac-related diseases later in life.
Gestational diabetes is a disease that happens only during pregnancy and disappears after child-birth.
For the study that was conducted for 20 years, researchers examined the data of 898 women, aged between 18 and 30. The data was taken from the CARDIA study (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults).
In the initial phase, the researchers assessed the women's risk for heart disease, when they were not pregnant. During the study time frame the participants had at least one birth. The researchers tested them for diabetes and other metabolic conditions, from time to time. They specifically examined the carotid artery wall thickness an average of 12 years after pregnancy.
After controlling for number of births, age, race, pre-pregnancy body-mass-index (BMI), fasting blood glucose, insulin, lipids and blood pressure, the researchers found that a history of gestational diabetes might be linked to a thicker carotid artery or atherosclerosis. They stated that 13 percent of the women had gestational diabetes. These participants also had carotid artery intima-media thickness that was on average 0.023 mm larger than women without gestational diabetes.
The researchers explained that that the thickness was not due to obesity. In the end of the study 13 women suffered from some kind of cardiovascular event.
"Our research shows that just having a history of gestational diabetes elevates a woman's risk of developing early, sub-clinical atherosclerosis before she develops type 2 diabetes or the metabolic syndrome," said Erica P. Gunderson, Ph.D. in a news release.
"This finding indicates that a history of gestational diabetes may influence development of early atherosclerosis before the onset of diabetes and metabolic diseases that previously have been linked to heart disease," Gunderson said. "Gestational diabetes may be an early risk factor for heart disease in women."
The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
