Articles Search Engine

One of the best reasons to reverse Type 2 diabetes if you’re a female in your childbearing years, is that diabetes is a teratogen. The term teratogen means something that causes harm to the unborn fetus. One of the most famous teratogens is thalidomide, a drug given to many women in the late 1950s for its sedative properties. By 1961, thalidomide was removed from the market after causing medical tragedies.

Like most drugs, thalidomide was proclaimed as a wonder drug when it first came out. Doctors used it for insomnia, colds, coughs, morning sickness and headaches. And like other teratogens, thalidomide crossed the placenta and the developing fetus took a hefty dose of the drug. What happened was more than a tragedy; it was frightening. Babies were born with deformities, without hands, feet, arms and even legs sometimes. Extra appendages such as fingers and toes were seen as well. Many of these babies died. And there were thousands of them.

When a pregnant mother has diabetes, the diabetes acts as a teratogen. Having diabetes, or more specifically unstable blood sugar levels, changes many physiological pathways in the human body and increases the risk of the baby developing birth defects. In June 2010, scientists at the Laboratory of Regulation of Gene Expression in Baton Rouge, Louisiana reported that diabetes causes neural tube defects in the unborn baby. The neural tube is the structure that exists in the developing fetus that becomes the brain and spinal cord. In humans, a neural tube defect can show up as an opening in the spinal cord or brain from the 3rd or 4th week of pregnancy… even before you know you are pregnant. Spina bifida is one example of what can occur when a teratogen capable of causing neural tube defects is in the same environment as the developing fetus.

Anencephaly is another example; in this, the baby is born without a major portion of the brain, skull and scalp. This occurs when the head end of the neural tube does not close. This occurs between the 23rd and 26th day from conception… the result is the baby is born without a forebrain which is the largest part of the brain. The remaining brain tissue is often exposed, not being covered by any skull. The baby is usually deaf, blind and unconscious (often dies soon after birth), or is stillborn.

Many factors can cause neural tube defects; diabetes is not the only one. For example, a folic acid deficiency is another reason, and this is why most prenatal supplements contain 800 mcg folic acid, not the usual 400 mcg. Obesity, arsenic exposure, drugs like methotrexate and even mold found in cornmeal can also cause these neural tube defects.

So if you’re female trying to get pregnant and have Type 2 diabetes, please do everything you can to eliminate it by losing weight and maintaining lower blood sugar levels. Many gynecologist advise diabetics, both Type 1 and Type 2 to make sure their blood sugar levels are in a healthy range 3 to 4 months before conception.