Diabetes and women

Look at these alarming numbers. 35 million people in India are diabetics. India has the dubious distinction of having the largest population of diabetics in the world. There are nearly another 13 million who are undetected. The disquieting fact is that 30 percent of diabetics in the urban population and 50 percent in the rural population go undetected. Diabetes can occur at any age. Some people develop diabetes as children or teens. Indians develop diabetes much earlier than their Western counterparts.

What is diabetes?

Insulin is a hormone that helps balance the amount of glucose in the blood. Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not make enough insulin or does not use it as it should. Most Indian diabetics have the problem of high insulin levels which the body is resistant to. 

Normally, the body changes most of the food we eat into glucose. Glucose is then carried to the body’s cells with the help of insulin. If the body does not utilize the insulin as it should, the glucose cannot enter the body’s cells. Instead, it stays in the blood. This makes the blood glucose level too high.

Women and diabetes

In some cases, diabetes may first occur during pregnancy. This is called gestational diabetes. In most cases, the diabetes disappears after the baby is born. However, women who develop diabetes during pregnancy are at greater risk for diabetes later in life. Women are also at greater risk for developing diabetes if they have polycystic ovarian syndrome or have delivered a baby weighing 4.0 kilos or more.