Diabetes during pregnancy is known as gestational diabetes. It is interesting to note that the chances of getting gestational diabetes, is one of the most common complication of pregnancy. It has increased by almost 40%. Also, gestational diabetes not only affects the health of the mother, but also the health of the baby. What usually happens with gestational diabetes is that the blood sugar level, of both the mother and the baby go above the normal level. Ayurveda can help treat this disease. Here are the most common Ayurveda remedies for gestational diabetes.

1. Gurmaar
Gurmaar, called "The Sugar Killer" is also known as Gymnema sylvestre in medical jargon. Gurmaar also contains gymnemic acid molecules, which are crucial because they have an anti-diabetic effect. They work by combining with glucose molecules, which are in the blood stream. These stop the glucose from entering the bloodstream. 

2. Karela
Karela is commonly known as bitter gourd and its biological name is Momordica charantia. It has anti-diabetic properties and also contains many other micronutrients, which are crucial in preventing the complications which arise from gestational diabetes.

3. Vizaysaar
Vizaysaar comes from the bark of a tree whose biological name is Pterocarpus marsupium. It is very useful for diabetes. If you immerse the wood of Vizaysaar in water overnight and then drink it, your blood sugar levels are expected to fall.

4. Saptrangi
Saptrangi is biologically known as Salacia oblonga. Just like Vizaysaar, it is a tree whose bark is immersed in water and then drunk by the patient suffering from diabetes. You will know that the water is ready for drinking when it turns brown, which usually happens overnight. It is also being studied in Western herbal schools in addition to Ayurveda nowadays.

5. Tulsi
Tulsi is a holy plant in Hindu mythology and is known as Ocimum sanctum in biological terms. It is worshiped as a holy plant because it has tremendous medicinal properties including treating many types of cancers, cough, cold, sore throat as well as reducing blood sugar.

6. Ashwagandha
The medical name for ashwagandha is Withania somnifera. It is another great remedy for diabetes.

Ayurveda and Gestational Diabetes

Insulin is the most common treatment prescribed for people affected with diabetes. Diabetes is condition where high amounts of glucose prevail in the blood for an extended period of time. However, there are some drugs that offer an alternative to insulin in treating diabetes, which are:

1. Liraglutide: Liraglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drug that causes the body to release greater amounts of insulin so as to facilitate the movement of glucose from the blood to the cells. People with type 2 diabetes generally use this treatment. It slows the digestion process and can cause symptoms of headache and nausea. 

2. Pramlintide: It's an artificially produced version of amylin. It is taken by both type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients, facilitates slower digestion of food and therefore, controls release of sugar in the blood. It can cause tiredness and nausea.

3. Dulaglutide:This treatment is for people affected with type 2 diabetes and it is administered once a week. It causes more insulin to be released and pass the glucose to the cells. It can cause loss of appetite, nausea and abdominal cramps as side effects.

4. Albiglutide: This treatment facilitates pancreas to release insulin and limits the glucagon hormone production. It is used by type 2 diabetes patients who have not taken well to other treatments. The side effects are skin reaction, respiratory tract infection and nausea.

5. Exenatide: It is a drug that causes pancreas to release insulin that facilitates movement of glucose to cells. It is a treatment for type 2 diabetes and it restricts release of glucagon in the body. The possible side effects are acidity, constipation and vomiting.

Common Insulin Alternatives

Diabetes is also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic diseases, which raises the glucose level in the blood. If suffering from diabetes, parts of your body might get affected with other diseases as well, like bad eyesight, etc. 

Diabetes is of 3 types:

1. Type 1 Diabetes: where your body stops insulin production.

2. Type 2 Diabetes: where your body does not produce enough insulin to function on or where the cells of your body do not react toward the insulin produced

3. Gestational Diabetes: This is the diabetes you or your partner may suffer from during pregnancy.

Suffering from diabetes can make your lifestyle extremely difficult as you will have to go through a lot of restrictions. In order to avoid diabetes and its various outcomes, here are some tips you can follow:

1. Keep your weight in control: Make sure you are of the right weight according to your height. If you are more than what you should weigh, and you are creeping towards obesity, you have a high chance of succumbing to diabetes. If you are already obese, start working towards losing weight. Even if you lose 5% of your weight, you will slash the risk of having diabetes by 70%. 

2. Walk: No exercise is better and easier than walking. Try walking as much as you can. Walking will help you reduce the risk of getting affected with diabetes. If you walk for around 35 minutes every day, you are cutting down the risk of diabetes by almost 30%. Walking, being an exercise, helps your body use the insulin produced in your body more efficiently. 

3. Drink coffee: Coffee, unlike common belief of being harmful, is actually very beneficial when it comes to keeping diabetes at bay. Coffee contains caffeine, which is believed to improve metabolism. Coffee also has potassium, magnesium and various antioxidants which enable the cells to absorb glucose. Drinking coffee regularly might lower the risk of diabetes by 29%.

4. Get proper rest at night: If you sleep for less than 6 hours every night, then the risk of you suffering from diabetes is doubled. But that doesn't mean you are supposed to oversleep. If you sleep more than 8 hours, the risk of being affected with it rises to almost 75%. Hence sleep at least for 6 to 8 hours each night for a healthy life sans diabetes.

4 Tips to Keep Diabetes at Bay

There s a lot that nutritionists around the world don t agree on, but most of them advise you to have more vegetables than fruits and more water- based vegetables like bottle gourd in summers.

Let s take a look at why this is so.

Bottle gourd keeps you hydrated and cool in summers: Bottle guard has always been regarded as one of the healthiest vegetables, and for a reason. This versatile vegetable is full of about 92 % water and minerals and is the best that nature can offer to keep your body hydrated and cool. It s a good idea to have bottle gourd or  lauki  as a juice because cooking deactivates the minerals and vitamins found in it. The juice keeps your stomach cool and reduces body heat or  pitta . You can also eat boiled lauki with curd to get its cooling benefits. This vegetable helps replenish the water lost due to sweating during summers and is also a great remedy for any kind of heat-related ailment like nose bleeding, pimples or ulcers according to Ayurveda.
Helps control weight: It helps control weight as Bottle gourd is excellent for you if you are trying to lose weight. The vegetable is packed with fibre which helps in keeping you full for longer, thus reducing food cravings that make you pile on the kilos. It is also a low-calorie vegetable with no fat and thus helps you lose weight too. Bottle gourd is prescribed by Ayurvedic medicine to reduce flab as fibre is the key to weight -loss.
 Storehouse of essential vitamins and minerals: Bottle gourd contains essential vitamins and minerals like Vitamin C, B, K, A, E, Iron, Folate, Potassium and Manganese. These play a critical role in metabolism and body functions.
Treats urinary tract infections: Freshly made bottle guard juice mixed with lime juice is one of the best natural remedies for treating pesky UTIs.
Cure for stomach problems: Bottle gourd helps in curing constipation and also treats diarrhea. This is due to the fact that the vegetable contains a lot of water and fibre which helps in cleaning your digestive track and allows easy bowel movement. One of the best home remedies for treating diarrhea is to drink bottle gourd juice with a pinch of salt. This helps in maintaining the electrolyte balance of your body, as well.
Bottle gourd helps in controlling diabetes: Bottle gourd juice is also beneficial for diabetic patients as it stabilizes blood sugar levels and maintains optimum blood pressure. The best time to have it is in morning before breakfast to reap this benefit. Also, take care to consume the juice immediately as it oxidizes quite fast.

Bottle Gourd (Lauki) - 6 Amazing Health Benefits You Never Thought Of!

With sedentary lifestyle, refined and processed food habits, obesity and diabetes is the new age epidemic. India, in fact, is being termed as the diabetes capital of the world given the huge rise in the number of cases over the last couple of decades.
There are well established risk factors for diabetes and if these can be managed, then the chance of delaying onset, controlling progress and containing complications are highly possible. Read on to know how simple things can be effective in preventing and managing diabetes.


Weight control: Obesity is the most important risk factor for developing diabetes. A person with normal BMI is 20 to 40 times less likely to develop diabetes than an overweight person. Losing about 10% of the excess weight can help prevent diabetes by more than 50%. Check with your doctor what should be the ideal recommended weight for you and draw up a routine (diet, exercise, etc.) that will help you achieve and stay around that weight range.
Exercise: All methods of exercise help in moving the muscles, which is drastically reduced given our sedentary lifestyle. Moving the muscle (as much and as often as possible) ensures they absorb more glucose and reduce the stress on insulin production. Something as simple as brisk walking for 30 minutes is good enough to reduce the chances of developing diabetes by 50%.
Don t be a couch potato: If watching television is your favourite pastime, it is time to change it. This puts people at risk of developing obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Also, watching television is usually associated with overeating, further adding to the risk of diabetes.
Fibrous foods: Eating fibrous fruits and vegetables as compared to refined and fried foods helps prevent diabetes. 
Whole grains vs processed foods: When you have to choose between a pizza and a bowl of brown rice, go for the latter.
Good fats vs bad fats: Polyunsaturated fatty acids are found in vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds and help control diabetes. Trans fats present in margarine and baked foods are best avoided.
Non-vegetarian foods: If you have a choice, pick fish and poultry versus red meat (processed or otherwise). The fish is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and helps control inflammation.
Leave the whites: Get off white rice, white refined sugar and white flours. Include brown rice, brown or demerara sugar and wheat flour instead. 
Smoking: Quit smoking and you will note how beneficial it is in preventing diabetes. 
Alcohol: Moderate amount helps in effective functioning of the insulin.
If you have a family history or have risk factors, follow the above to prevent diabetes.

Diabetes - 10 Easy Steps To Help You Prevent it 

Pregnancy brings with it the need to be extra careful about the overall well-being of the mother-to-be. Extreme caution has to be taken in managing health, as antibiotics and a lot of other treatment modalities are best avoided during pregnancy. With diabetes becoming common in the younger ages and women choosing to delay pregnancy, there are multiple women who are diabetic and choose to get pregnant later in life.

With diabetes being a chronic and a lifestyle condition, it definitely has its effects on pregnancy. However, the key is to manage diabetes cautiously in such a way that its effects on pregnancy, both the mother and the developing baby, are minimal. The increased blood sugar levels from the mother pass on to the baby, so keeping a close watch on the blood sugar levels is very important.

The maximum effect of diabetes on the baby is during the first few weeks of pregnancy. It is when the vital organs (brain, heart, lungs and kidneys) are forming, and high blood sugar levels can be harmful. This is slightly tricky as most women realise they could be pregnant only after about 6 weeks. If pregnancy is planned, it is best advisable to keep a check on sugar levels much ahead of the pregnancy.
The baby could be used to high levels of sugar while in the womb, and once delivered, it could have too low sugar levels. This needs to be monitored.
Preeclampsia, which is increased protein in the urine and high blood pressure, can happen during the second trimester. This may require the baby to be delivered prematurely.
Babies born to diabetic mothers are often bigger. The baby s pancreas is used to higher sugar levels and so the extra sugar gets converted to fat, which is the reason for the bigger babies. This may also necessitate C-sections.
Pregnancy can induce the development of diabetic retinopathy, which may prevent vaginal delivery, as the woman may not be able to exert the required pressure.
Abnormal calcium and magnesium levels, which need to be monitored for a while after birth
Most diabetic women reach full term if the sugar levels have been under good control.
Diabetic pregnant women are high at risk. However, with advanced medical care, these risks and complications are managed very well producing healthy babies from normal deliveries with effectively no harm to the mother s health. Once a diabetic woman tests positive, it is advisable to seek medical help to plan diet/meal plan, physical activities, exercise regimen, lifestyle changes, and medication dose adjustments. This is not a one-time activity, but needs to be closely monitored with daily blood sugar levels throughout the pregnancy. 

How Can High Diabetes Affect Your Pregnancy?

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