Researchers already knew that babies born to diabetic mothers were born fatter, and had an increased risk of becoming obese and developing diabetes themselves. Now, new research shows the problems can begin long before birth.
CATALANO: The question is when does it start? That's really the issue.
That's Patrick Catalano is an obstetrician at Metro Health medical center. He and his colleagues collected blood from newborn babies of women without diabetes, and asked whether there was any difference in the metabolism of babies whose mothers were obese compared to those who were not. . They found that babies born to obese women were already demonstrating pre-diabetic changes in their metabolism,- such as increased insulin, and insulin resistance - indicating that obesity has an impact on the developing fetus. Dr. Catalano says these results have huge implications for stemming the tide of the obesity epidemic.
CATALANO: We may be able to do more effective treatment - specifically prevention - with pregnant women. Because right now we don't do a whole lot with women who are overweight and obese when they are pregnant, we recognize their babies are bigger, but having to recognize their babies may have an increased risk of problems later we can maybe start doing things during the pregnancy to prevent some of these problems and that's really the next step of where this research will go.
Catalano says that the best thing for women to do is to lose weight before they become pregnant, but barring that - making an effort not to gain excessive weight during pregnancy is key. The Institute of Medicine has published recommendations for weight gain in pregnancy - but according to Catalano, 30-40 percent of women exceed these recommendations. In the next two months he says the Institute of Medicine will revise these guidelines in response to the obesity epidemic.
Gretchen Cuda, 90.3