On the occasion of the anniversary, this year dedicated in particular to therapies that can be used in women with impaired glycemia during pregnancy, the expert shows the way to prevent many newborns from early exposure to high glycemic values present in the mother, which can increase risk of developing diabetes in the unborn child over the years
Rome, 13 November 2017 - "Il diabetesaffecting disease 4 million Italians, having a expenditure for the NHS between 10 and 12 billion euros a year – or 10 percent of healthcare costs in our country – va faced since the conception of the child”. He affirms it, on the occasion of the annual World Diabetes Day, teacher Paolo Pozzilli, Professor of Endocrinology and Diabetology at theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma. This year, in fact, the Day is dedicated in a special way to expectant mothers with impaired blood sugar, to the early diagnosis of diabetes, as well as to therapy of the same during pregnancy. "The goals – explains Pozzilli – must be to protect the unborn child from the risk to develop diabetes in his lifetime, because he has seen that if he is exposed to high maternal blood sugar levels, his insulin-producing beta-cells will be affected later in life itself, exposing him more to contracting diabetes".
The expert's recommendation is therefore that "when mom knows she's diabetic or discovers that you are at risk of diabetes during pregnancymust be undertaken measures to strictly control blood glucose, to prevent the unborn child from being able – already in the uterus being exposed to the mother's high blood sugar levels: a condition that determines an increased production of insulin in the unborn child. We know, in fact, that the cells that produce insulin in the conceptus, if excessively stimulated by maternal blood sugar, predispose it over the years to an increased risk of diabetes".
In the world they are calculated to be 199 million women with diabetes. But their number is projected to reach 313 million in 2040. Role differences and power inequalities inherent in gender dynamics make women even more vulnerable to diabetes affect their access to health services and their ability to adopt healthy lifestyle habits. And the Diabetes is the ninth leading cause of death for women, accounting for 2,1 million deaths each year (source: Diabetes Italy).
