Certain pregnancy complications may predict risk of cardiovascular disease later
Some women who develop gestational diabetes may need to control their condition with insulin, which is available as one of the over the counter medications sold cheaply through a Canadian drugstore.
Some women who develop gestational diabetes may need to control their condition with insulin, which is available as one of the over the counter medications sold cheaply through a Canadian drugstore. Although this condition is manageable, gestational diabetes or preeclampsia, a form of hypertension associated with pregnancy, are both risk factors for cardiovascular disease later in a woman's life.
A team of researchers from the University of Bristol in the UK studied medical data collected from more than 3,400 women who were pregnant during the 1990s. The scientists tracked the occurrence of complications such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, premature labor, low birth weight and high birth weight.
At follow-up about 18 years later, data showed that preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and babies born with low weight for gestational age were all factors associated with greater maternal risk of heart disease in middle age. For gestational diabetes, the risk was elevated by 26 percent, while preeclampsia raised the likelihood of cardiovascular disease by 31 percent.
"A woman who experiences complications during pregnancy should be proactive and ask her doctor about future [cardiovascular disease] risk and steps she should take to modify her risk," said researcher Abigail Fraser, MPH, PhD.
The study was published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
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